Southwest Roadtrip

In early December I took advantage of Martha’s 3 weeks in India to take Starr on a 2 week trip to southern Arizona and western New Mexico. My itinerary was a long list of candidate locations and a desire to "go with the flow." After a wonderful family Thanksgiving stop in San Francisco, I continued south and ended up visiting the following locations:

• Joshua Tree Nat'l Park
• Kofa Mountains
• Tucson's Saguaro Nat'l Park & Mountain Park
• Dragoon Mountains
• Chiricahua Nat'l Monument
• Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks Nat'l Monument
• White Sands Nat'l Monument
• Bisti Badlands area (King of Wings, Valley of Dreams, & Bisti)
• Shiprock
• Valley of the Gods

For the most part, the weather was conducive for photography — lots of cloudy to stormy skies. I did experience two days of rain between the Dragoons and White Sands stops, and this later became an issue when driving & hiking on NW New Mexico's slippery-when-wet clay. And, in the end, the trip was cut short a few days when a large cold & wet storm moved into the western U.S.

Full trip details, with pictures, can be found in the galleries below, with some of my favorite images from the trip gathered together in the first, "Favorites" gallery.