Wrapping Up Texas and Reversing Direction

Central Texas, particularly the Hill Country, is really beautiful.  Rolling hills and abundant wild flowers are all around you.  I'm not sure about the rest of the year, but while we were there the Bluebonnets were in bloom and gave the roadways a splash of color that was stunning. 

Bluebonnets off Highway 71

We spent a few days in the Austin area to allow time for the frequent storms to pass over the area.  During that time we visited the Capitol building as well as several parks in Travis County.  One of the parks was Hamilton Pool which is a popular swimming area during the warmer months of the year.  The day we went there were not a lot of people due to the cooler temps giving it a tranquil, almost deserted isle feel. 

Hamilton Pool Falls

Hamilton Pool

Touring the capitol in Austin is mostly a lesson in Texas history.  Very little is discussed about the day to day goings on, but much is said about how Texas was settled and how it was under the control of several countries as well as its own sovereign nation for a brief period.  If you are interested in learning about the states history it is definitely something to do since the architecture is not overly awe inspiring.

Texas Capitol Dome

Capitol Building as seen through the atrium

Our final stay in Texas was at a State park in San Angelo.  The droughts that have assaulted Texas are more evident here than anywhere else we have seen.  This parks main attraction is a lake that is no longer.  What used to be home to many fish, birds and other wildlife is now nothing more than dirt and rock with a few plants here and there.  Make-shift anchors, beer cans and fish carcasses, reminders of what was, are scattered along the former lake bed.

Janet and I have revised our plans for traveling this year in order to take care of more important family issues.  We have turned around and are headed toward the Northwest.

Texas Sunset

San Antonio, Texas

Waking up in San Antonio this time of year reminds me of my childhood in Indiana.  The humid air and birds singing makes it feel exactly like a summer morning in the Hoosier state.  Of course this is not Indiana, and it is not the summer.  It is spring break in Texas, something we did not know when we decided to visit one of the most iconic places in Texas, The Alamo.  There was a sea of people surrounding the outside and throngs waiting in line to squeeze into the main building and look at the shrine that symbolizes the Texas spirit.  This makes for a tough time looking at the sparse exhibits and soaking up the lore of this historic place.  Needless to say, we did not stay long.

The Alamo

At The Alamo

    Afterwards we walked to the River Walk, which is a commercial district below street level with restaurants, retail shops and other businesses that skirt the San Antonio river.  It could be a very nice place to spend a couple of hours if it weren't for the masses of people vying for a seat or place to stand.

River Walk, San Antonio

River Walk, San Antonio

OK,  lesson learned.  We will have to start looking at local events and schedules a bit more closely in the future.  We decided to get away from the crowds and visit one of the missions in the area, the San Jose Mission.  Beautiful in its rustic state, this mission is part of the National Park system and there is no fee to visit.

Mission San Jose, San Antonio Texas

Mission San Jose

Mission San Jose Bell Tower

Mission San Jose

Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico

We arrived in the morning to plants covered in hoar frost.  It was really strange seeing cactus and yucca covered in ice crystals.  The winds were extremely cold, but there was some humidity in the air so it wasn't as bitter cold as it could have been.

Ice Cactus

The caverns are a balmy 56 degrees F, giving us a respite from the cold outside.  We toured the big room and spent about 3 hours in there.  The nice thing about this tour is that it is self-guided and we were able to spend as much time as we wanted.  This is especially important when taking photographs.  There is not much available light down in the cavern, so composition and focusing are a challenge.  The environment is so surreal and the formations seem so alien that I decided to use the different lighting to my advantage when post processing my shots.  The lighting is not quite this dramatic, but the landscape certainly is.

Chandelier

 

 

Doll's Room

Painted Grotto

Pillar

Alamogordo, New Mexico

Located a few miles outside of Alamogordo is White Sands National Monument.  White Sands is an amazing landscape of glistening white dunes formed from gypsum crystals that spans about 300 square miles.  Walking over the dunes gives one a feeling of walking through a snowfield (minus the frigid temps).  After cresting over a dune and getting into an area that has been less trodden, I was taken with the quiet serenity of the area.  Not a sound can be heard except for the wind rustling in the sparse vegetation that is sprinkled in the lower lying areas.  Any other sounds are muffled by the densely packed sand.  It is very surreal.

 

White Sands National Monument

In the outlying areas of the park there are cottonwood trees that dot the landscape.  The trees look dead, but are dormant this time of year.  Tiny buds on the end of the limbs hint at the life that is waiting to unfold in a few weeks.

Cottonwood Tree in White Sands National Monument

Alamo (Spanish for Cottonwood)

No other signs of life in the vast sea of sand, except for a few yucca, the occasional slithering tracks of snakes and the paw prints of the nocturnal hunters in the area...

A Yucca lies buried by the drifting sands

...and the occasional reminder of the human element that can't seem to refrain from making their mark on this otherwise pristine setting.

Coke Bottle - -White Sands National Monument

Tucson, AZ

Janet and I just spent a few days in the great city of Tucson.  We were able to visit with family members that we had not seen in years and take in the desert panoramas.  The deserts surrounding Tucson are one of the few places on earth where Saguaro Cacti grow.  These amazing plants can live up to 200 years and do not grow arms until they are at least 75 years old.  This is probably the first image that comes into my head when I think of Arizona.

 

Sunset in Saguaro National Park

While in the Tucson area, Janet and I visited the Biosphere2 research facility.  As many of you may know this was used for an experiment in the 90's to see if a team could live independently using only the resources in the various environments in the closed domes.  The plants were to supply food and to maintain the oxygen levels for the inhabitants.  Inside the biodomes are various environments including rainforest, desert and ocean.  If you are ever in the area, I would highly recommend touring the facility.  For those of you wondering where Biosphere1 is just look around you, it's the Earth.

Desert Environment

Ocean Environment

The tunnel to the lung

Biosphere2

 

 

 

 Another place we visited was the San Xavier del Bac Mission.  Being from California we have seen many missions and this one does not disappoint.  It is actually one of the prettier missions that we have seen.

San Xavier del Bac Mission church interior

San Xavier del Bac Mission

San Xavier del Bac Mission

Stations of the Cross

One last place to talk about was the Asarco open pit copper mine.  Love it or hate it, they invite you to visit and learn more about how the process works.  It is hard to see the way the land is destroyed, but while we still use copper in our everyday lives, it needs to be mined somewhere.  

Asarco Copper Mine

Asarco Copper Mine

We also visited the University of AZ in order to view a photography exhibit of some Ansel Adams prints. Tucson has so much to offer visitors and we plan on coming back in order to see many of the other sites that we missed and to take in the famous Tucson Gem and Mineral show.