One of the many panoramic images captured during the recent vacation. Taken from the rim walk near Mather point, this view pans left to right from the cliffs near the Grand Canyon Village to Damsel strolling the rim walk looking for her next photographic target.

Click for the big panoramic image.

We both decided that next time we visit the Grand Canyon, we want to go there by rail. We went from Anchorage to Fairbanks and enjoyed ourselves very much. We think that this trip, although not so great a distance, would also be a lot of fun. I’m willing to spring for the extra fare to sit in the top of this domed scenic car so Damsel can take more great pictures of the events and scenery.

Thanks Damsel for this nice shot taken at the Grand Canyon Railroad Terminal. Click for bigger.

And roll they did:

A moderate earthquake occurred at 11:42:15 AM (PDT) on Tuesday, July 29, 2008.
The magnitude 5.4 event occurred 4 km (3 miles) WSW of Chino Hills, CA.
The hypocentral depth is 14 km ( 8 miles).

Damsel and I were at home and at work, respectively, as shown by the two red spots in the shake map below. We both felt a jolt and then about 90 seconds of light rolling with another jolt sometime in the middle of the rolling. I needed to get my sea legs when I stood up to look out of the window. Neither of us had any damage or anything tip over. Bear, our Shepard/Lab mix dog hid under Damsel’s desk for a long time after the shaking stopped.

This week, I’m going through some of the photos we took on our recent vacation. This one, taken at Canyon de Chelly, is of an ancient Native American settlement built into the sandstone walls of this picturesque canyon. This one is referred to as Yucca Cave Ruin. The early settlers built these dwellings around nine to seven hundred years ago. The canyons have been occupied by natives for over two-thousand years. These canyons are in the Navajo Nation near Chinle, AZ. Click for full-sized panorama.

One of the first orders of business after a lengthy road trip is to get the truck washed - at least to get most of the bug carcasses off of the CAPN BOB tags.

We had a great trip! Thanks for riding along with us.

This morning we awakened in Lake Havasu City, AZ, home to the reconstructed London Bridge. Robert McCulloch, of McCulloch Motors, Inc., imported the famous bridge and reconstructed it, block by block, to render the bridge as it is seen today. The bridge spans a canal cut between two inlets on Lake Havasu, created by the construction of Parker Dam, located 30 miles downstream.

As usual, you can click on the picture for the full sizification.

Today, we drove from Prescott, AZ, Northward to pick up Historic Old Route 66. Then, we drove from Ash Fork along the old highway through Seligman and on down to Kingman. When in Kingman, we stopped at the Harley Davidson dealership to look at the nice hardware and buy a souvenir tank top with the “Mother Road” and Kingman, AZ art on it.

You’ve seen pictures of the highway before, but I wanted to share this beautiful “Red Bird of Paradise” or “Pride of Barbados” blooming outside the Harley building. People often mistakenly call this the Mexican Bird of Paradise, but either of the two names I mentioned are correct. This is one of my very favorite shrubs - sadly, it doesn’t do well in our garden - too cool and not sunny enough, so I’ll just have to keep coming to visit them. Better yet, maybe I’ll live somewhere soon where they thrive.

Click the image to humongify . . .

This is not a castle and nobody named Montezuma ever lived there. Regardless, this ruin built and inhabited by the ancient Sinagua, is an interesting place to visit near Camp Verde, AZ

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Click to enlarge Damsel’s photo.

Taken from Mather Point on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, this picture typifies the gorgeous and magnificent vistas that we saw today. Click on the image to magnificafize.

This colorful rock formation is in Canyonlands National Park in Southern Utah. Along the ridge, the “wooden shoe” arch is seen. Click for the full-sized panorama.

Today, we woke up in Moab, Utah. Our first stop for the day was at the Arches National Park. The Double Arch is a formation in the park that you can hike through to the other side of the two arches. Very pretty.

We went to Canyonlands National Park after this and eventually found our way to Chinle, AZ, where we will visit Canyon de Chelly tomorrow.

Today, we saw some of the most breathtaking scenery in the world. Not all of it was in Bryce Canyon, either. This scene taken from Sunset Point was pretty hard to beat, though. Click to bignify.