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Gazebo in city park

Gazebo in city park

We met a young mother and her child in the otherwise empty park. She and her husband had moved up from Phoenix to get away from the sprawl. She pointed to a line of new and huge houses on a ridge and said that that was where other people from Phoenix also lived.


City park picnic with Louie Bouie and Rita

City park picnic with Louie Bouie and Rita

A very pretty little town climbing into the mountains in Arizona after a rather ugly drive through desolate desert littered with the skeletons of industrial plants and shopping centers and freeways.


View from Jerome

View from Jerome

Jerome is a small, dense town clinging to a mountain ridge. This is a view out from the main street.


Jerome-Perkinsville Road Sign

Jerome-Perkinsville Road Sign

Road starts right behind the fire department in Jerome and very quickly climbs.


Perkinsville Road

Perkinsville Road

This old road bears a sign saying that it's a primitive road and you drive at your own risk. We poo-pooed it having driven on plenty of primitive roads in Mexico. But this was the real thing. It went on for about fifty miles in the back country of Arizona. Towards the end, we met an old couple barrelling down it in their van, happy and eager to see what lay ahead.


Hoover Dam

Hoover Dam


Hoover Dam

Hoover Dam


A store along the highway

A store along the highway


Desert Mountains

Desert Mountains

Stark. No relief from it. It has a majesty, but it also makes me want to take care of the green places.


Death Valley

Death Valley

It was verrrry hot. In the park newspaper there was a cautionary tale about a healthy young man who set off with a liter of water on what was supposed to be a half mile hike and never made it.
It was also awesome and silent. There were Indians who lived in Death Valley who considered it fruitful and beautiful. It is beautiful. They must have been really skillful and patient and in tune with their world to find it fruitful.
This is where a lot of Borax comes (or came) from. Remember Death Valley Days?


Main Street

Main Street

On I 395 north of Lone Pine, the first town after you get out of Death Valley. Bishop is on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountains. It has a mix of hardened westerners, a small Mexican neighborhood and arty people with yearning expressions.


Sierra Nevadas

Sierra Nevadas

North of Bishop


Eastern side of Yosemite National Park

Eastern side of Yosemite National Park


Yosemite Park

Yosemite Park


Yosemite Park

Yosemite Park


From pretty high up looking into California

From pretty high up looking into California

Drive through Siskyou mountains on back road betwee Medford and Ashland, Oregon


Rita, the intrepid traveller

Rita, the intrepid traveller

We were skirting the top of I think the Siskyous in southern Oregon near the farm.


West of Salt Lake City

West of Salt Lake City

The drive from the Nevada border to Salt Lake City crosses endless salt flats. Salt Lake City is at the foot of these mountains. You can see why Brigham Young decided he'd found the place he was looking for.


Rocks like people

Rocks like people


Rock Formation,

Rock Formation,

It was very, very, very hot. Many European and Asian tourists seemed not to notice


Arch

Arch

NOte the scale from people standing underneath.


Shiprock

Shiprock

The rock that was the bird that found the home of the Navajo. Town and gigantic rock formation made famous in Tony Hillerman novels.