“Epic” is probably the best description of this 12 day / 6 State / 3k miles road trip. When I started planning this adventure, I was originally going to just visit three States. It seemed way too ambitious to try and do any more. After all, this isn’t New England, these States are far bigger and distances much, much longer, and I was on the road alone with no one to share the driving with. Turns out though, this wasn’t a problem at all, and in the end I actually ended up packing in more than I had planned.
After a quick stop over in Las Vegas (which I fully expected to hate, but actually it wasn’t all that bad), I hit the obvious sights in Eastern Nevada, Hoover Dam and Lake Mead, before leaving the State behind and criss-crossing between Arizona and Utah for a few days. This was hands down the highlight of this trip. Utah’s National Parks are incredible and beautiful, and the landscape in this State is nothing short of epic. Arizona also as its charm, as well as the most incredible slot canyons such as Antelope, though in comparison with Utah, the general landscape was less inspiring.
Week two then saw me pretty much following the trail of the Ancient Pueblo people, the native Indians, who, so the saga goes, emerged from the Navel of the Earth in the North, and made their homes steadily heading South from Mesa Verde (CO), via Aztech, and Chaco (NM). It was so interesting visiting the old village ruins, and spotting some Indian graffiti along the way (also known as Petroglyphs). I spent some time in Albuquerque, taking in the view from Sandia Peak, visited the beautiful chocolate box town of Santa Fe, and experienced the pearly white vastness and intense heat of White Sands National Monument.
With few major airports in the vicinity, I picked El Paso for my return flight to New York City, and also used this as an excuse to experience a tiny bit of Texas as well. Although, driving and walking around the city, I could have sworn I had left US soil and was actually in Mexico.
Follow in my footsteps of this fantastic journey and head over to the North America galleries on the website.
Framing Places Photography: The World through my Lens 