• bettinadownunder
  • bettinadownunder

Fisch on Tour 2025

Back to the US and Canada for a final BIG TRIP to fill gaps of my last 2 years: South-Central US in the spring, summer in Canada with my family and then up to Yukon and Alaska... Leggi altro
  • Capitol Reef - Glen Canyon

    22 aprile 2025, Stati Uniti ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    I hike to Hickman Natural Bridge in the morning, then - arrgh - clouds again, making the scenic drive in the park less enjoyable. I decide I need to outrun the clouds and drive towards Hanksville, then turning South into the desert towards Glen Canyon, the beginning of Lake Powell. Or so it was… the lake hasn’t been that high in decades. Great scenery!Leggi altro

  • Ancient Pueblo Culture

    24 aprile 2025, Stati Uniti ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    I visit three locations of Cliff Dwellings or other structures from the Ancient Pueblo culture today. I didn’t realize that I missed calculated the time needed to hike in the Canyonlands National Park Needles District, and decided to spend the afternoon in Monticello’s library to do some admin work - and upload these picturesLeggi altro

  • Sedona Day 1

    8 maggio 2025, Stati Uniti ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    Red Rock Heaven! Be prepared to see a lot of it. The wonderful landscape has attracted a lot of rich and artsy people who live in big villas amongst the rocks. And a fair share of, well, you would’ve called them hippies in the 60s, spiritual people who believe in vortexes in the area. A very RV and camper unfriendly town, but it’s so beautiful we still keep coming. On day one I visit to highlights: in the morning I hike via 7 Sacred Pools to Soldiers Pass, and then do the long hike up Boynton Canyon. Subway Cave is the big draw here. And it’s finally warm, even hot!Leggi altro

  • Sedona Day 2

    9 maggio 2025, Stati Uniti ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    It’s Cathedral Rock Day! The famous landmark in Sedona is really spectacular. I hike up the steep Slickrock to the saddle in the morning, and admire the reflection of it in Oak Creek at Crescent Moon Ranch Rec Area in the evening. In between, I visit the Chapel of the Holy Cross, more red Rock vistas, and Crane Petroglyph Site, where knowledgeable ranger explained us how the solar calendar worked, and that the many symbols on the rock are not a jumbo but depending on the solar calendar mark events and give instructions. It was very insightful!Leggi altro

  • Sedona Day 3

    10 maggio 2025, Stati Uniti ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    Today I crisscrossed the surrounds of Sedona for a variety of destinations. After a bird walk in Red Rock State Park, I visit the Palatki ancestral pueblo ruins and petroglyphs. After a stop at Amitabha Stupa Park, a Buddhist garden, I hike to Devil’s Bridge, a famous arch. Sunset at Surprise free campsite rounds of a beautiful day!Leggi altro

  • Flagstaff

    11 maggio 2025, Stati Uniti ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    A major town in Route 66 / railroad / gateway to the Grand Canyon, I greatly enjoy Flagstaff’s down to earth vibe compared to rich-people-golfing-bitching-about-tourists Sedona the days before. I visit the historical Riordan Mansion of the lumber barons greatly benefiting this town, and downtown / Route 66Leggi altro

  • Take it eeeeeasy… Winslow, Arizona

    12 maggio 2025, Stati Uniti ⋅ 🌬 30 °C

    I’m leaving Flagstaff to continue on Route 66, stopping in Two Guns, once a thriving little town that died when Route 66 was replaced by the interstate. Very few remains, I’m shocked how quickly buildings turn into ruins. My next stop is Winslow, Arizona, a very nice little town that is famous for The Eagles song. And yes, I stood on the corner! The afternoon I spent in Petrified Forest National Park, as I will tomorrow, so photos tomorrow.Leggi altro

  • Canyon de Chelly

    14 maggio 2025, Stati Uniti ⋅ 🌬 11 °C

    Canyon de Chelly is of remarkable beauty, and full of cliff dwellings and petroglyphs, testimony to human occupation for millennia. It is at the heart of the Navajo Nation and a place of tragedy, as American military killed hundreds of Navajo, burnt their houses and fields and killed their sheep in order to force them on the Long Walk to a tiny reservation after the Civil War, in the middle of winter. Thousands died…
    I visit the South and North Rim lookouts twice each between yesterday evening, this morning and afternoon. In the morning I take a guided tour into the canyon
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  • Navajo Nation

    15 maggio 2025, Stati Uniti ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    The Navajo Nation is the largest reservation and indigenous people in the US, spending a large part of Arizona and parts of Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. I’ve spent a lot of time driving through over the last couple of weeks, but the area around Canyon de Chelly is the heart of it. I’ve learned a lot about the history and life of the Navajo. I visited the Capital Window Rock, the museum there, Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site. At trading posts, Indians traded their craft and produce for Western goods in the past. Then onward to Gallup, main trading center in Indian Arts and Crafts on Route 66 / I-40.Leggi altro

  • Acoma Pueblo

    16 maggio 2025, Stati Uniti ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    Acoma is one of the 19 Indian Pueblos in New Mexico. The pueblo Indians are descendants of the ancestral pueblo cultures who built all the cliff dwellings, great cities like Chaco etc. After being enslaved by the Spanish, they suffered again under the Americans - to this day. Poverty, infertile land, no jobs on the reservations… they fight to retain their culture and language.
    Acoma offers tours to their spiritual center, Sky City built on a mesa. No water, sewage or electricity… very few people live there today but many families have a house that is maintained for feast days and spiritual reasons. Buildings date from 1600 to today
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  • Albuquerque

    17 maggio 2025, Stati Uniti ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    I’ve made it back to civilization, to New Mexico’ biggest city. I explore Old Town with its adobe buildings in the morning. Most of the day I spent in the Indian Pueblo cultural center, watching dances, taking part of the gator tour and learning a ton about the history and beliefs of the Pueblo Indians. In the afternoon I take a bike tour along the banks of the Rio Grande, through the bordering forest called Bosque. And I pre-celebrate my birthday at Starr Brothers Brewery in whose parking lot I am allowed to sleep tonight!Leggi altro

  • Santa Fe Town

    20 maggio 2025, Stati Uniti ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Santa Fe decided in the 1930s to adopt the Adobe style all over the city. Even building buildings made out of brick are painted in Adobe color. It works! The images can’t convey it, but driving on the outskirts and in the countryside most buildings are made in Adobe style. Add to that the narrow streets and very European flair, Santa Fe is a great place to hang out.Leggi altro

  • Bandelier National Monument

    21 maggio 2025, Stati Uniti ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    More Ancestral Pueblo Ruins / Cliff Dwellings, but these will be the last ones on my trip. People used natural cavities in the volcanic rock and enlarged them, using them as back walls and storage areas. In another part of the Monument, no ruins remain but the >1000 year old paths worn into the soft rock is still the hiking trail today. It was narrow!Leggi altro

  • Los Alamos / Valle Caldera / Rio Grande

    22 maggio 2025, Stati Uniti ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    I visit Los Alamos in the morning - now a normal town but still with the National Laboratories and a lot of restricted areas. The division of the surrounding landscape into Technical Areas dating from the Manhattan Project is still in place. Veep Bradbury Science Museum educate about the atomic bomb project and work going on in the laboratories today. But in town, there is not much left.

    Later, I drive to Valles Caldera, a huge volcanic area, then used for ranching and now a National Monument, before continuing up the Rio Grande to the Lower Gorge.
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