An October Exploration of the American West I have been making trips out west for most of my life, and part of that experience has been to photograph the oddities, sights, skies and landscapes on the way to and from my destinations. For decades I have used Interstate 40, but as the picturesque history of…
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A weekend road trip to The Natural State “I stood where no man goesabove the din I roseLife is amusing, though we are losingDrowned in tears of awe…” ~The Pinnacle by Kansas, from the album Masque Fellow journalist Dan Marsh invited me to take a road trip to his corner of the world, Little Rock,…
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David Martin and Richard R. Barron take a day to explore some of northwestern Oklahoma’s best attractions My long-time friend David Martin recently told me his wife was out of town and asked if I wanted to take a one-day road trip somewhere in Oklahoma. The weather was grippingly cold, including an ice storm during…
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A Photography Day Trip on a Bright Autumn Wednesday In the middle of an October staycation, I decided that my around-the-house activities weren’t going to be enough. I asked my long-time friend Robert if he wanted to make a photographic day trip, and, after we both pored over our maps, we tentatively decided to drive…
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A Week of Travel, Poetry, Sunshine and Rain in the High Desert As I edited the images from this trip, I often decided to render in black-and-white, which emphasizes texture and tone, and helps express my ideas about New Mexico and the southwest in general. I drove to Santa Fe at my own pace. At…
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The Great North American Solar Eclipse My late wife Abby and I witnessed the August 2017 total eclipse in Park Hills, Missouri, and I was able to see the October 2023 annular eclipse in Newcomb, New Mexico. For the April 8, 2024 total eclipse, Tulsa photographer Robert Stinson and I had long planned to be…
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A Spring Break Hiking Trip to New Mexico and Arizona I decided to drive west using a different route than the usual Interstate 40, which lead me on a slightly more direct path to my first night’s stop, Las Cruces, New Mexico, but which also meant driving through less-populated, less-maintained areas. I drove west, then…
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A Short Photo Excursion to Eureka Springs, Arkansas I recently had the opportunity to visit northwest Arkansas, both to attend a dinner in honor of someone who had died recently, and to see and photograph Eureka Springs. I shot these images with my Lumix GH2 with the 14mm f/2.5 and the 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 lenses.
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A Day in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge I met fellow photographer and lifelong friend Robert Stinson for a New Year’s hike in the Wichita Mountains of southwest Oklahoma, a destination I have been visiting since 1971, and which my sister recently described as a “gem” or “jewel.” All the photos of me are by…
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A Hiking and Photography Road Trip Featuring the October 14, 2023 Annular Eclipse You can see companion pieces to this entry, The Dark Road (link) and Somewhere in the Night (link). I asked my neighbors to look after my dogs Hawken and Summer. I left Byng, Oklahoma at around 8:30 a.m., intending to drive to Gallup,…
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A Road Trip to Las Vegas Don’t forget to visit the companion pieces to this report, The Dark Road (link), and The Ring of Fire (link). Plans for this trip began in February when my sister Nicole suggested that she and her husband Tracey, and our cousin Lori and her husband Bill, meet me in…
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Black Coffee and the Sound of My Own Wheels: an Exploration of the Road West This is a companion piece to The Ring of Fire (link), my fall vacation through New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada, and Somewhere in the Night (link), a Las Vegas getaway, so if you haven’t already, take a look at those….
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A day of hiking and contemplation in Oklahoma’s Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge I’ve been hiking and exploring the Wichita Mountains for more than 50 years. I spent much of my time practicing route finding, poking around old routes and finding new ones. I also thought a lot about all those years exploring and photographing this…
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On Saturday, August 12, I attended the annual Fire Lake Balloon Festival in Shawnee, Oklahoma. This event is always very popular, and features more than just hot air balloons, like live music, a midway with vendors, various hunting and fishing seminars, inflatables, kid’s games, and, of course, food. My goal, however, was to photograph the…
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A Memorial Day 2022 Trip to Northeast Oklahoma with Fellow Photographers Robert Stinson and Scott AndersEn For some years I’ve had my eye on a trip to northeast Oklahoma, mainly because I had heard and read some very interesting articles about Picher, the once-thriving town that was major national center of lead and zinc mining for more than 100 years…
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A March 2022 visit to one of my oldest hiking venues, the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Oklahoma I hadn’t been on a hiking trip to my old stomping grounds in several years, so I invited fellow photographer Dan Marsh to drive from his home in Arkansas to join me for a day in…
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A New Mexico Getaway for Abby and Richard My wife Abby and I hadn’t traveled at all since before the coronavirus pandemic of 2020. The last time we went anywhere significant together was Pagosa Springs in October 2019 for our 15th anniversary trip, The Winding Road. The Road to Taos We were eager to get…
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A 15th Anniversary Vacation for Abby and Richard Driving to New Mexico My wife Abby and I haven’t had an anniversary vacation since 2016, and were excited as this one approached. Our plan was to find and drive roads that we’d never seen before, particularly winding mountain roads, and our plan worked exactly as we…
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An Astronomical Adventure for Abby and Richard In 2012, I challenged all interested parties to Assignment: Team Blackout, to join my wife Abby and me on a journey to photograph the August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse at or near my mother’s hometown of Flat River (changed to Park Hills in 1994), Missouri. As the…
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A Twelfth Anniversary Adventure for Abby and Richard “Running towards the setting sun Wading through the time and tide We don’t have to turn around Under an endless sky…” ~Balligomingo The Road West Among our adventures on the road west was dinner in Albuquerque with friends Greg and Terry Smith. I hiked and made pictures with…
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A June 2016 New Mexico road trip for Abby and Richard As my wife Abby and I planned this vacation, we kept saying, “Santa Fe getaway.” It is one of our favorite places for both local attractions and as a base camp to adventure. Rain and Shine Abby and were in a great mood and happy to…
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A Christmas Adventure in Baltimore Abby and I flew to Baltimore to spend Christmas with Abby’s daughter Chele, her husband Tom, our grandson Paul Thomas, and Tom’s extended family. Items on our to-do list included a Christmas Eve gathering, a traditional Christmas morning, eating at Baltimore’s famous Bel-Loc Diner, seeing Star Wars: The Force Awakens,…
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Visiting a New Trail at an Old Haunt I have visited the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge since I was a young teenager. Over the years I checked off one area after another, but on this occasion, I explored the one area I never visited, the Charon’s Garden Wilderness Area. Charon in Greek mythology is the ferryman of Hades who carries souls of…
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A Road Trip West Walnut Canyon at Midday, Grand Canyon at Sunset Without a concrete itinerary, I kept my eyes and mind open to possible hiking and photography opportunities. When I saw signs for Walnut Canyon National Monument near Flagstaff, I recalled all the times I told myself I would visit it the next time…
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A Tenth Anniversary Vacation for Abby and Richard The Drive West: Haboob, Hat and Hoodie Abby and I packed our Chihuahuas, Max and Sierra, and the rest of our travel gear in her truck and headed west toward our first destination, Santa Fe, New Mexico, on a trip to Moab, Utah, where we got married…
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A Hiking Trip to the Desert Driving to Moriarty, New Mexico via West Texas A&M University Early in my drive I spotted a “peace park” sculpture garden near the rest stops at mile marker 87 on I-40 in the Texas panhandle. There were no signs explaining what it was or who created it, but it…
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A Bold Day in Southwestern Oklahoma Dan Marsh became editor at my newspaper, The Ada News, in the spring of 2013, and he and I have become good friends, and he has grown powerfully as a photographer. Last fall he bought a Nikon D3200 digital camera and two lenses, and took up my invitation to sit through…
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A Day on the Rocks for Hiking and Photography With a couple of extra days off this week, and spectacular weather, I was aware that my longtime friend Michael recently mentioned that it had been 18 months since he and I got together to make pictures. I called him and asked if he could swing…
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A Summer Visit to the East Coast for Abby and Richard Flying to Baltimore My wife Abby and I flew to Baltimore to spend a week with Abby’s daughter Chele, her husband Tom, and our grandson Paul. In addition to visiting the family, we saw many of the excellent attractions in the Baltimore and Washington…
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Photographers Find and Photograph the American West The Road West Up early, my wife Abby and I shared our traditional send-off breakfast. I drove to Midwest City, Oklahoma, where I picked up Daily Oklahoman photographer Jim Beckel. Despite being ten minutes early, I found him with his bags, camping gear, food and cameras already on…
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A Hiking Trip to One of America’s Most Remote Locations “There’s a place That’s far beyond this time and space When each of us comes face to face with something more…” ~Alan Parsons Project For many years I have been photographing Canyonlands National Park in southern Utah. On many of those occasions I visited The…
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A Day in the Mountains for Abby and Richard In the aviation community, when you need an excuse to fly, much of the time you pick a place to fly for lunch. It became known as the “hundred dollar hamburger,” since with the cost of fuel, such a trip seemed to cost a hundred dollars….
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Nicole and Tracey Get Married Abby and I flew to New Orleans on December 3 to participate in the wedding of my sister Nicole Barron to Tracey Hammill at the New Orleans Athletic Club on the French Quarter. Our flight left Oklahoma City at 6 am, so we left Ada at 2:30 am, which meant…
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A Seventh Anniversary Adventure for Abby and Richard “Singing on the famous street I want your love above and under me Am I just in Heaven or Las Vegas But you’re much brighter than the sun is to me…” ~Heaven or Las Vegas by The Cocteau Twins Driving to Santa Fe, New Mexico Abby and…
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Our Grandson Gets Christened Abby and I travelled to Baltimore, where we spent four days with Abby’s daughter Chele, her husband Tom, and their new baby, our new grandson Paul Thomas Reeves. The occasion was Paul’s Christening into the Roman Catholic Church, at the same church where Chele and Tom got married two years earlier,…
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Photographers Explore the West Drive to Farmington, New Mexico Unending, excellent conversation with my guest on this trip, fellow photographer Robert “R. E.” Stinson, who was so excited to be on the road shooting that his camera was in his hands more or less the whole time. We also made stops at the famous leaning…
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An Exploration of a Winter Day in Northern Oklahoma Having delivered my wife Abby to the airport in the morning for her flight to Baltimore to see her newborn grandson, and having the entire day off, I decided to invite my longest-time friend Michael, who I have known since 1975, to grab his new Nikon…
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A Late Autumn Exploration of Southern New Mexico On the Road from Byng, Oklahoma to Alamogordo, New Mexico I had my customary send-off breakfast with Abby. Fair weather and good roads but a late start put me in the loneliest part of New Mexico after sunset. I saw a jackrabbit and a dozen or more…
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A Sixth Anniversary Vacation for Abby and Richard Driving to New Mexico, and the long route to Moab Abby and I drove to Santa Fe, New Mexico at a leisurely pace with our Chihuahuas, Max and Sierra, in our new Nissan Frontier 4WD pickup, which travels well and comfortably. We drove from Santa Fe to Moab,…
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Slipping into the Backcountry in Search of Surprises Driving 14 Hours from Byng, Oklahoma to Monticello, Utah I had a nice breakfast with Abby, a tradition of ours, then hit the road. I only stopped to shoot a few items. I talked to some good friends on the phone, listened to satellite radio, and called…
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A Late-Autumn Exploration of Northern New Mexico Driving to Albuquerque As always, the long ribbon of interstate 40 asphalt west proved an interesting drive. My first stop was at Amarillo, where I spotted the fact that the Cadillacs at Stanley Marsh’s Cadillac Ranch were yellow. I’ve stopped plenty of times at the Cadillac Ranch over…
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A Fifth Anniversary Vacation for Abby and Richard Driving from home in Ada to Farmington, New Mexico My wife Abby and I find that this drive, which we have made many times both alone and together, is never boring. Among other things, it represents the path to adventure. The road itself is mostly interstate highway,…
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Tom and Chele Get Married Tom Reeves and Abby’s daughter Dawna Michele Milligan were married at Sacred Heart Church of Glyndon, Maryland March 21, 2009. Abby, Dorothy and I traveled from Oklahoma to spend a week in the Baltimore area with Chele and Tom, and to meet Tom’s family. We were joined by my sister…
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The Farther You Get from the Trail Head, the Fewer People Will Shatter Your Silence Arches National Park and Castle Valley I drove a tiring but trouble-free route from our home in Oklahoma to Monticello, Utah, and was up before dawn the next morning. Michael was good enough to lend me his Honda Element all-wheel-drive,…
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A Fourth Anniversary Trip for Richard and Abby With Abby unable to get enough vacation time for a longer trip like our traditional adventures out west, we decided to spend our anniversary in the Oklahoma City metro area, including the elegant memorial for the victims of the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building downtown….
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Finding Peace in the High Country Driving West, then Waiting for a Repair Due to a broken heater hose, I spent an extra day in Moriarty, New Mexico, waiting for a part to come from Albuquerque. By the end of my second day, I was in Page, Arizona late for the night. Glen Canyon Dam,…
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Every Journey Starts with the First Step Driving from Byng, Oklahoma to Blanding, Utah I spent the day on the road. I stopped and shot lots of fun stuff, but I didn’t do any hiking, since my plan was to drive straight through to Blanding, Utah, which took about 15 hours. Blanding to the San…
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A Third Anniversary Vacation for Abby and Richard Driving to Farmington, New Mexico We loaded the car with me, Abby and the Chihuahuas Max and Sierra, and all our stuff, and headed west to Farmington, New Mexico. It was a fairly routine drive, with a couple of thunderstorms on our route, and a wildly windy…
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Colorado Sunshine and Perfect Sand High Dune and Zapata Falls I spent the morning hiking the dunes, including high-pointing the park at High Dune. I had a hot lunch at my camp site, then napped in my tent through a thunderstorm. I drove a few miles south of the park to Zapata Falls for a…
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This Is No Country for Old Men David Martin and I had been looking at the Big Bend National Park area of southwest Texas for a long time, and finally made ourselves go. The park service cautions that the week of spring break is the most crowded at Big Bend, but our plan was to…
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A Phoenix Rises in New Orleans My sister Nicole was one of the victims of the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina. Her home in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, which she had purchased in April 2005, was very seriously damaged by floodwaters in what has become one of the most iconic and recognizable catastrophes of…
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I’ve Been Hiking Here for Most of My Life Decades before I discovered the adventure playgrounds of the American southwest, I learned to enjoy wild places by hiking and exploring the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in southwest Oklahoma. For ten years, 1971-1981, I lived in nearby Lawton, Oklahoma. In 1977, the father of our good…
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Late Autumn in the Mountains One key motivation for this trip was to see for myself Rattlesnake Canyon at Carlsbad Caverns National Park, scene of the story of two college students who supposedly got lost there, leading to the death of one of them, in the summer of 1999. Abby and I had both eagerly…
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These Are Some of the Oldest Mountains in North America The Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in southern Oklahoma, has been a favorite hiking location since I was a young teenager. With calm winds, cool temperatures, and perfect blue skies, I set out with a couple of acquaintances to hike in the Charon’s Garden Wilderness, and…
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A Second Anniversary Vacation for Abby and Richard Driving to Monticello, Utah For our second anniversary, Abby and I gathered our dogs, Chihuahuas Sierra and Max, for a trip to Utah. Our driving day, straight through to Monticello, Utah, was about 16 hours, but we had fun, and the dogs did just fine in our…
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A Summertime Hiking Trip Driving from Ada, Oklahoma to Monticello, Utah I’ve made this drive on a few other occasions, but never in June during maximum daylight. This allowed me to shoot more along my route. Chesler Park Trail at Canyonlands National Park and Butler Wash I started at the Elephant Hill trail head in…
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Sometimes You Have to Lose Yourself to Find Yourself Driving to Farmington, New Mexico I drove to my usual first night stop, Farmington, New Mexico. Generally speaking, this 11-hour drive is beautiful and interesting, but uses divided highways, so it is more of a utility drive. With radio and CDs, plus frequent phone calls to…
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Hiking and Camping in Texas On this occasion, I wanted somewhere to hike that was less than a day away from home. I decided to revisit Caprock Canyons State Park and Palo Duro State Park in northwest Texas, camp a couple of nights, and see what developed. I shot well on my drive, then set…
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A First Anniversary Vacation for Abby and Richard The Road to Santa Fe We drove from Ada, Oklahoma to Santa Fe, New Mexico, making a stop at our favorite rest area in the Texas panhandle, which we visited on our first vacation together, The High Road, in 2003. We usually refer to it as “our” rest area….
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A July 2005 Adventure for Abby and Richard Many years ago, Abby and her family traveled to the open rangeland of Wyoming to hunt and camp. She wanted to return and see the sites as an adult, so we decided this would be a good time to go. Driving to Nebraska via Cawker City, Kansas and…
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A March 2005 Hiking and Camping Adventure My time on the road was uneventful. I made a few nice images. I stopped for night in Farmington, New Mexico. I was up early in Farmington after the long drive from Oklahoma the day before. I was at Shiprock by 8 a.m. I tried several rutted, rough…
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Abby and Richard Get Married Abby and I discussed many options for when and where to get married, and we finally decided on a very special and beautiful place, Delicate Arch in Arches National Park, near Moab, Utah. Abby’s parents got married on October 12, and since early autumn seemed like a perfect time for…
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Chasing the Light of Summer Through Stone and Sand Driving to Raton, New Mexico via a Texas Wind Farm and Capulin Volcano I made a point to find the location of a wind farm I saw growing over the years, at White Deer, Texas. I was able to enter and photograph the wind farm. By 4:30…
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Two Old Friends Find the Road West Driving to Farmington, New Mexico Up early, I drove to Norman, Oklahoma, to pick up my guest for this trip, my long-time friend Michael Zeiler. We made two or three good images, and, except for worthless restaurant service, had a pretty decent travel day. Michael’s Honda Element was well-suited to…
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Exploring the Mysterious Home of Ancient People The Road from Oklahoma to Chaco Canyon I drove to Norman, Oklahoma and loaded in David Martin‘s Saturn. We got an early start. As usual, we drove through gloomy weather until we hit the New Mexico border, where the clouds parted. Forecasts for our destination indicated a slight chance…
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A July 2003 Road Trip for Abby and Richard This was my first vacation with Abby Milligan, who was destined to become my wife. We got the name for this trip from the Third Eye Blind song Crystal Baller. We had a tape of Third Eye hits and listened to it over and over, singing…
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Searching High and Low for the Elusive Light Driving to Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas, and Photographing the Gypsum Dunes I left very early to make the nine-hour drive to Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas. I arrived early enough to get the key to the gate that allowed me to photograph the gypsum dunes on…
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Three Friends Take a Road Trip to the Desert This was my first trip to southern Utah, one I wanted to make for years. With David Martin, who hiked with me at Chaco a year earlier, and Jamie Harrel, who had never been hiking in the desert, we set out on November 2, 2002. Driving…
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Beautiful Sun and Sky in West Texas With my success at Palo Duro in May, I decided to explore another nearby Texas State Park, Caprock Canyons. It’s only about 85 miles southeast of Palo Duro, and though smaller has the same kind of wilderness look and feel. My hiking partner for this trip was long-time…
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Camping and Hiking on a Cool Spring Weekend For years I heard about Palo Duro Canyon, and on every trip out west since the first ski trips in the early 1980s I saw the big brown signs along the interstate around Amarillo pointing the way. It only takes about six hours to drive from my home…
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This Wild Place Calls Us Home Since my visit to Chaco Canyon in 2000, I have been drawn to that place, and the mystery that it holds. Something about its remote, elegant, lonely beauty calls to me, but I cannot explain what or why. From almost the day I left in 2000, I had wondered about…
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Best Friends Take a Road Trip Driving from Ada, Oklahoma to New Orleans, Louisiana One of my best friends, Ann Kelley, loved New Orleans, and had been asking me to take her with me the next time I went to visit my sister Nicole. We departed around 10 am from Ada for the 12 hour drive to…
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Stars and Planets Align I chose the date for this trip partially based on the Very Large Array’s configuration schedule. I saw on their web site that the radio telescope dishes would be in their closest configuration. When I visited during the Villanueva trip in 1999, the dishes were far apart, and I wanted to…
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A Summer Visit to The Land of Enchantment In the summer of 1998, my newspaper made the transition from conventional cut-and-paste production to desktop publishing, which meant instead of printing, I would be scanning my images. I happily began using my new Nikon LS-2000 scanner, and abruptly stopped making photographic prints. It happened that I still…
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A Summer Backpacking Trip to Colorado Portions of the Mount Evans Wilderness Area of central Colorado burned in the 1960s, leaving an eery landscape and fascinating weathering patterns on the trunks of the trees in the burned areas. I stayed in Idaho Springs, Colorado for a couple of days to acclimate, then drove to the…
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A Spring Break College Road Trip This trip was planned in about five minutes in a dorm room at Oklahoma University. My friend Scott said, “You know what we ought to do. We ought to drive to New York for spring break.” We set out on a Friday afternoon in my 1973 Volkswagen Beetle. Some months…
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