Arizona & New Mexico - Sept 8 - 16, 2007

Sometimes it takes me awhile to get these pictures up, but it's worth the wait!!!

This is a September trip to southern Arizona and New Mexico with my friend Harvey Jr

Here we are at a stop between Phoenix and Tucson at Casa Grande National Park. We got a National Park Passport and now have to visit all the national parks to get a stamp. Can you say road trip?

A doorway in Casa Grande National Park

We started day 2 at Karthner Cavern. No purses, cameras or gnomes were allowed in the caves - bummer

We stopped in Tombstone and started our tour at boot hill - luckily they did not leave me

While in Tombstone, we had a downpour - it went from dry to very wet in the blink of an eye.

More rain - I kept dry but it was not easy

We visited Silver City on our way up the mountain. Stopped at the cabin where Billy the kid spent time

Went to Gila Cliffs National Forest and Cliff dwellings - very pretty view of a long way into the valley

On our way out of Gila Cliffs, we stopped at City of Rocks north of Deming, NM; we almost got ourselves a set of deer antlers when a buck almost hit the side of our car - luckily both of us escaped without injury

We stopped at White Sands National Monument; we also stopped at White Sands missile range and museum but I did not have my passport so I had to stay in the car - plus they had rules about which direction to face when taking a picture so we decided to just take memories. Not wanting to be a national threat.

More of White Sands National Monument

I got to play in the sand - it sure is white

We got our own stealth display. We were driving by Alamogordo which is the home of the Stealth Fighters and one was practicing take-offs. Way cool.

More Stealth

Went to Carlsbad Caverns - Huge and Incredible; it was very interesting to see the difference between Karthner and Carlsbad and how they are controlled.

I was hanging out in the parking lot looking over the valley

It was very windy!

We went to Capitan, NM to visit Smokey Bear State Park and Gravesite - the real purpose of our trip

At the gravesite

Stopped at Salinas Pueblo Missions Natl Monument on our way to Albuquerque. Not a lot of visitors but well worth the stop. There are three separate locations that make up the park

Outside of Albuquerque there is the Petroglyph Nat'l Monument -don't worry this is the one rock they said we could touch.

Finished off the trip with a stay in Sedona

More Sedona

Special thanks to Annora, Scott & Harvey Jr. for letting me tag along. I had a great time and I can't wait for our next trip!