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Posts from the ‘USA’ category

The Pi(e) in Pie Town

Above/featured: Welcome to Pie Town. The 2018 Pie Festival was held on 8 September.

The two words reach your eyes and enter your brain.

Pie Town.

The questions are immediate.

What? Who? Why? How do I get there? Is there really pie?

A sense of calm eventually prevails, and that’s when planning begins. Because there’s firm promise: “oh there will be pie.”

Fast forward to our drive through the American Southwest over three weeks in October 2018, and our adventure is drawing to a close.

With morning sun and excellent conditions, we’ve departed Tucson for a long drive for which there are three goals. One, we must arrive in Santa Fe by tonight to catch our flights out the next day. Two, we have to stop in Albuquerque for a return visit and chomp on a spicy stuffed sopapilla at Mary & Tito’s Cafe before they close at 8pm. Three, we’re desperate to visit Pie Town which by design is on the way to Santa Fe. We’re on the road for over 300 miles (480 kilometres) through Arizona, into New Mexico, and to Pie Town, and that’ll be followed by another 220 miles (350 kilometres) to Santa Fe.

The car continues to roll along the paved undivided two-lane highway on a stretch of lonesome landscape with short stubby hills and tall grassy fields for company. US-60 is nowhere as famous as its northerly US-66 counterpart; both are historic national highways. As some have noted, driving present-day US-60 comes very close to similar conditions on US-66 in the latter’s bygone heyday.

The miles add up, and the hours tick by. Isolation is punctuated by farms, ranches, and small towns. We’ve made notes about the towns, because there’s always a need for fuel: gas for the car, snacks and drinks for the occupants. Small towns may not look like much on first approach, but I know the welcome greeting and warm atmosphere are in store as soon as we step inside a shop or restaurant.

Our destination in New Mexico isn’t “nowhere.”

Because there, pie awaits.

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Grand Canyon National Park: over the edge for 100 years

Above/featured: West-northwest from Mohave Point – 15 October 2018 (HL).

26 February 2019 marks the 100th birthday of the Grand Canyon National Park.

On 26 February 1919, U.S. Congress passed legislation “An Act to Establish the Grand Canyon National Park in the State of Arizona” which was signed by President Woodrow Wilson. With official designation, the national park encompasses over 1-million acres (almost 405-thousand hectares) and several thousand years of history of habitation in the area by indigenous peoples including the Havasupai, Hualapai, Hopi, Navajo, Paiute, and the Zuni who consider the Grand Canyon as their ancestral birthplace. UNESCO inscribed the Grand Canyon National Park as World Heritage Site in 1979.

There is both “young” and “old” geology at the Grand Canyon. By geologic standards, the Grand Canyon itself is relatively “young” with the Colorado River carving into the rock about 5 to 6 million years ago. However, the Vishnu basement rock in the Grand Canyon is over 1.7 billion years old; “only” 38 percent as old as Earth’s oldest rocks at 4.5 billion years old. For a rough comparison, if a person celebrated their 50th birthday today for a total age of 18262.5 days, the equivalence of the basement rock forming occurred about 19 years ago, and erosion by the Colorado River taking shape only 24 days prior to the 50th birthday.

In October 2018 we spent three days exploring parts of the Grand Canyon National Park. After our drive from Flagstaff to Cliff Dwellers (via Cameron), we pushed forward to the North Rim and the winding scenic drive took us to Point Imperial and Cape Royal in time for the day’s final illumination. With a night spent at the beautifully serene Cliff Dwellers Lodge, we retraced our drive back to Cameron, then turning west to Desert View and parts of the eastern end of the South Rim. With our new ‘base’ established in Flagstaff, we drove the following day to the main entrance of the Grand Canyon National Park (via Valle and Tusayan), and we spent the day in the western and central parts of the South Rim. The 1126 km (700 mi)# we covered over the three days was 22 percent of the entire 5049 km (3138 mi) we accumulated through parts of New Mexico and Arizona.

Locations

  • North Rim: Point Imperial, Cape Royal
  • South Rim: Desert View
  • South Rim: Navajo Point, Lipan Point
  • South Rim: Hermit’s Rest, Mohave Point
  • South Rim: Village along Rim Trail

Four of Mary Colter’s buildings on the South Rim (Desert View Watchtower, Hermit’s Rest, Hopi House, and Lookout Studio) have been listed as U.S. National Historic Landmark properties in the National Register of Historic Places since 1987.

(Click the upper-left arrow-window icon in the map below for the legend.)

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Continental divide, US-60, US route 60, Pie Town, New Mexico, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: East on US-60 at the continental divide

I begin 2019 with glimpses from the road over two weeks this past autumn in the American Southwest.

Driving east on US route 60, a sign appears two miles outside of Pie Town, NM. The sign reveals the highest elevation reached over the entire length of the highway. Here at an elevation of 7796 feet (2376 metres), we pass by the geographic feature known as the “continental divide” which separates rivers flowing east to the Atlantic from rivers flowing west to the Pacific. The coordinates of the highway-sign are 34.291 North, 108.101 West; this location is about 72 miles east from Springerville, AZ, and 81 miles west from Socorro, NM.

This picture complements one taken at the town of Continental Divide, NM as we drove west on I-40 from Albuquerque to Flagstaff.

I made the picture above on 19 October 2018 with a Fujifilm X70 fixed-lens prime and the settings: 1/1000-sec, f/11, ISO1000, and 18.5mm focal length (28mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins.com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-cBH.

Springerville Volcano Field, Springerville, Arizona, US-60, US Route 60, United States, USA, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: US-60 in the Springerville volcano field

I begin 2019 with glimpses from the road over two weeks this past autumn in the American Southwest.

Driving east on US route 60, extinct cinder cones begin to pop up on the landscape in an area known as the Springerville Volcano Field containing over 400 cones and volcanic activity with ages between 3 million years and about 300-thousand years ago. The volcano field is situated between Show Low, AZ and Springerville, AZ; is one of the largest volcanic fields on the Colorado Plateau; and is the youngest volcanic fields in the United States. The cinder cone shown above at right is Cerro Quemado.

I made the picture above on 19 October 2018 with a Fujifilm X70 fixed-lens prime and the settings: 1/1000-sec, f/11, ISO1000, and 18.5mm focal length (28mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins.com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-cBQ.

Dreamcatchers, Vermilion Cliffs, Marble Canyon, AZ, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: Dreamcatchers (US-89A)

I begin 2019 with glimpses from the road over two weeks this past autumn in the American Southwest.

On US route 89A just east of Navajo Bridge are market stands along the side of the highway. Some were occupied with wares for sale; others were empty and abandoned (for the season). An “ageless superposition” against the backdrop of the towering Vermilion Cliffs seemed like a good idea at the time. But time itself seems unimportant because we’re standing on lands of the Navajo Nation.

I made the picture above on 13 October 2018 with a Fujifilm X70 fixed-lens prime and the settings: 1/1000-sec, f/13, ISO1000, and 18.5mm focal length (28mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins.com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-cC3.

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