Trip Photos -- Second Post

Over the next several days I will continue to include photos taken during the out-west trip -- interspersed with some Grand Marais area photos from my adventures. I must admit, though, that yesterday (my first full day home) I did not even go outside. I worked on reviewing and cropping the photos from the trip all day. Today it is still cold in Grand Marais, but not as cold as other U.P. communities. My thermometer read around zero while towns along the Wisconsin border had temperatures approaching -30 degrees! Today it is supposed to get into the 20s, plus the sun is out. I do plan on heading out for a long snow shoe.

When we left Ann Arbor, the streets were a little icy to begin with. By the time we finished breakfast with friend, Marsha, the ice melted. We decided to take two-lane roads southwest to avoid the I94 construction. Along the way we saw this Americana art on the side of the road. I'm not sure if someone carved a branch, or made the arm and placed it over the stub of a branch.



I didn't take many photos as we drove across the country. Our focus was driving and trying to avoid the snow storms. We stayed the first night west of St. Louis and the second night west of Oklahoma City -- both times making sure that we also avoided morning rush hour traffic. After the third day of driving we arrived in the Santa Fe area. This moon greeting us when Wendy and I went out for an after dinner walk.



I was supposed to meet up with one of my Denver friends who couldn't make it due to a snowstorm. Instead I was able to hang out at Wendy's house for a couple of days. She and I went on a hike the next day to look at petroglyphs. These rock engravings are images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, and abrading. Petroglyphs are found world-wide, and are often (but not always) associated with prehistoric peoples. The word comes from the Greek words petros meaning "stone" and glyphein meaning "to carve", and was originally coined in French as pétroglyphe.The term petroglyph should not be confused with pictograph, which is an image drawn or painted on a rock face. The first photo shows Wendy walking up to the mound where the petroglyphs are located.









We also visited one of Wendy's friends. When we passed a line of utility poles, I was surprised to still see the blue insulators.



Finally, after a few days of relaxing we began driving toward the Grand Canyon. We took I25 south to Socorro and then headed down highway 60 to Phoenix. Somewhere down the road there were these massive radio telescopes.




We stayed in Globe, AZ where there are several active mining operations -- mostly copper. Here is a photo of one of those mines.