Why I Love The Desert Southwest In Pictures

Here are some images from different areas of the American Southwest with which I am familiar and have come to enjoy. A good deal of the enjoyment of these places comes from exploring them with family!

Grand Canyon

These are all images from the south side of Grand Canyon park. What a remarkable place that deserves to be seen by everyone.

Top of Bright Angel Trail.

Partway down the trail looking into the canyon. Whoah!

Partway down the trail looking back up the trail which the old man had to ascend back up! Amazingly well maintained trail BTW.

A pair of images looking into the canyon from the rim. Note the Colorado River carving some more canyon.

And then a few more images showing the spectacular nature of the Grand Canyon.

How is this for a fiery end to a great visit!

Death Valley

What a fabulously different place Death Valley is. Looking to the west across the valley floor. We visited in November so heat was not an issue.

Looking to the northwest up the valley and at my favorite daughter.

Looking to the north along the ridge line and at tourists gazing away.

Looking west again across the valley floor in a panorama.

A reference marker making a strong reference to hell, i.e. Dante's View!

Found Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes that needed exploration in bare feet!

All kinds of mini canyons to explore when driving through the valley floor. The visitors dressed perfectly to match all of the very nice chemically induced pastels seeping from the rock formations at Artist's Drive and Palette.

Escaping the valley floor at sunset resulted in a very colorful and fiery experience.

Pahrump Valley

Exploring the mud flats outside of Pahrump at sunset resulted in an entertaining light show, with the mountains defining the California border. While Pahrump Valley is a happy place, the sweatshirt my son is wearing is a reference to another happy valley.

This panorama illustrates a good part of the mountains that define the dust bowl that is Pahrump Valley.

Spring Mountain (Mt. Charleston Access)

The Spring Mountains National Recreation Area was a fun place to explore with my son on a pretty windy, chilly but sunny day. This is also the means to access Mt. Charleston which figures into several of the images. The complete lack of people must have been due to it being pretty chilly and no snow to ski on.

Red Rock Canyon

My brother, my daughter and I decided to explore Red Rock Canyon. The colors are utterly spectacular.

Looking north at the primary reason the area is named Red Rock canyon.

Standing in front of and above the canyon.

The sandstone has some absolutely amazing patterns and striations revealing the real truth to their formation. One can also see the spectacular effect powerful water runs had in forming cool resting spots and chimney effects as well. Small specs of people reveal the scale of the formations (and the gutsiness of goat people).

Spectacular

I love this image from the Grand Canyon as it speaks to the spectacular nature of the region.

These Images

These images are much lower in resolution than the originals they are derived from. Feel free to cop them. But please do not claim to have created them yourself ;-)

About

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