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Tammy and I took a short walk today. I thought I'd take my camera along. Here are a few things.

Enjoy

During my recent trip to the Valley of Fire Nevada State Park I got a chance to use a new camera backpack that I just recently bought. A few weeks ago, I purchased a Clik Elite Probody Sport Camera Backpack. I bought it from Amazon for a good bit less than the suggested retail on Clik Elite's site. I really wanted the gray bag. Sadly, Amazon didn't have it available and was estimating shipment in a couple of months!

I decided to go to Valley of Fire Nevada State Park today. You really can't call it hiking, it's more sightseeing as the longest trail is half a mile round trip. Still, the area is very much worth seeing and the prehistoric petroglyphs make the trip very much worth making. It is quite easy to hit all the spots this park has to offer in a single, enjoyable day. April is a fantastic time to visit. Not only is it not yet too hot (it was around 86 degrees today), but the vegetation is nice and colorful.

Tammy and I decided to take a trip to Pensacola Beach after I flew home last month. I took the opportunity to take some pictures of Tammy, Kaela, and the beautiful beach. Because I had spent the majority of the day flying, we where late getting into Pensacola and we where fast loosing daylight. I believe I was still able to get some good pictures. I hope you enjoy them.

I got a new Samsung NX1000 compact system camera. I am really very happy with this camera. Not that I dislike my Canon G12, but there are quite a few capabilities that this camera gives me, not least of which is more lens options. Despite the fact that I'd never thought of Samsung for good cameras, the reviews on this camera where quite good and the price was right. I went to the store and looked at it a bit.

I have previously blogged about the cliffside native American dwellings in Back to Basics and the pueblo ruins in Back to Basics - Part 2. I am happy, however, that I was able to go back today and show Tammy and Kaela all that I had seen. I think they both enjoyed seeing these remarkable ruins and learning about how historic peoples survived here up till about 800 years ago. I really enjoyed my return trip.

I just want to start out by saying it was fantastic to finally have my wife along for one of my western US adventures. I've had Nathan and Kaela with me before, but having Tammy along was something I've waited a long time for. The fact that Kaela was along sweetened the deal. We missed Nathan, but that's how life goes. He's busy working and being a responsible adult. I am proud of him for that.

For the past two days, Kaela, Tammy and I have been making a mad dash across south-central US on the first leg of our vacation. We where delayed crossing Louisiana yesterday due to a bad wreck on I10 and some horrible traffic. However, we where able to make up some time today crossing Texas and moving on into Carlsbad NM. Tomorrow we intend to go to Carlsbad caverns and see what we can see there.

In the meantime, here are some pictures I took of an awe inspiring sunset taken just before the Texas/New Mexico border.

I finally got a filter adaptor for my Canon Powershot G12. I was pretty excited as I could finally use a UV filter since I take a lot of landscape and outdoors pictures. Today, I went hiking on the Cathedral Rock Trail at Mount Charleston, NV. The hike is moderate with a distance of about 3 miles round trip and an ascent of 1000 feet. At the summit of the trail you get an amazing view of the valley. This view as especially nice as some of the trees had already begun turning.

In addition to going to see the cliff dwellings at Walnut Canyon National Monument, I went to Wupatki National Monument to look at the pueblo ruins there. Again, I am amazed at how these people lived. At this site, there is no ready water source at any time of year. They gathered water as it poured off their roofs into a central hole that served as rain spout, entrance, and chimney. They used rocks and mortar similar to the cliff dwellers to create walls. Their roofs where made by layering small branches over larger logs and layering mud on that.