US Southwest: Arizona and New Mexcio

It started out with a cousin in Phoenix... After September 11 travelling the United States was not such an obvious thing to do but out of season and away from the crowds it was a pleasant, somewhat less expensive trip. The first trip where I made panos like mad.

Paradise Valley - North side of Camelback Moutain

File size 88 kB. Choose JPEG or Java Viewer. That's where we stayed in Phoenix.

View from Camelback Moutain

File size 207 kB. Choose JPEG or Java Viewer. This is my only real spherical pano, shot after a hike along the eastern ridge to the top of Camelback Mountain. Pretty spooky to see my shadow, but no other evidence of myself.

Biosphere 2

File size JPEG 76 kB. The largest fully controllable ocean in the world, a chemist's delight...

Saguaro West National Park

File size 80 kB. Choose JPEG or Java Viewer. The classic cactus in masses.

San Xavier del Bac Mission

File size 78 kB. Choose JPEG or Java Viewer. The nicest non-Native American church we came across.

Tombstone

File size 53 kB. Choose JPEG or Java Viewer. Mildly Wild West, but fairly pre-WW I.

Bisbee

File size 91 kB, only JPEG. Bisbee, perched in a narrow valley close to the Mexican border, started like all towns in the region as a mining town back in the 1870's.

Bisbee

File size 58 kB. Choose JPEG or Java Viewer. Taking over its rival Tombstone in the early 20th century, Bisbee is a pre-WW II architectural treasure chest. I particularly like the predecessor of the modern mall - the brownish-red building in the center - dating back to 1939.

House of the Governors, Santa Fe

File size 59 kB. Choose JPEG or Java Viewer. The oldest continously used public building in the United States, that's impressive. Even more impressive is the striking architectural unity of Santa Fe, which was (re-)modelled according to the "Santa Fe" style.

San José Mission, Laguna Pueblo

File size 46 kB. Choose JPEG or Java Viewer. Very beautiful church in an otherwise quiet reservation town.

Acoma Pueblo from the distance

File size 89 kB, only JPEG. Acoma Pueblo's fromidable setting on a mesa (slighlty off the center to the right) is already evident from the distance. You better have a foto-permit for taking pictures from this spot...

Acoma Pueblo

File size 60 kB. Choose JPEG or Java Viewer. Truly what came closest to how Pueblo Indians must have lived.

View from Acoma Pueblo eastwards

File size 41 kB, only JPEG. I should have rather taken a pano inside the Pueblo.

El Malpais - Sandstone Bluffs Overlook

File size 57 kB. Choose JPEG or Java Viewer. A sea of lava at your feet. The only natural site on our trip where we drove almost approx. an hour to and from just to have it seen for say 15 minutes. There's much more you could do.

Canyon del Muerto - close to Ledge Ruins

File size 56 kB. Choose JPEG or Java Viewer. That's were Edda started to get uneasy with her fear of heights. Not much could have happened with David on the horsetrail, however...

Into the Canyon del Muerto...

File size 36 kB, only JPEG. ... but even at the moderate terrain ten minutes later the lightness had gone...

... to the riverbed

File size 61 kB. Choose JPEG or Java Viewer. ... until we arrived at the very bottom. The sand shows the signs of the occasional Navajo driving to their land in pick-ups.

Junction of Canyon del Muerto and Canyon de Chelly

File size 52 kB. Choose JPEG or Java Viewer. The river bed is essentially sand, which get can tire you quit a bit after some hours.

Canyon de Chelly - Spider Rock Overlook

File size 55 kB. Choose JPEG or Java Viewer. As soon as a nice spot - like Spider Rock Overlook in Canyon de Chelly - is readily accessible by car you're no longer on your own.

Sliding House Overlook

File size 37 kB, only JPEG. Yet another place in the Canyon de Chelly National Park where the masses can pligh by car.

Oak Creek Canyon

File size 46 kB, only JPEG. Oak Creek Canyon had the only real forest we came across. It is "Redland Country", though it is hard to tell from the picture...

Jerome

File size 51 kB. Choose JPEG or Java Viewer. Jerome was - guess what - another mining town which somehow managed to survive into present times. There was definitely less life than in Bisbee and less business than in Tombstone.