Christmas-time Trip through the Southwest: Days 1 & 2

We decided pretty much last minute to take a Christmas road trip. Whee! Off to New Mexico for a whirlwind tour! 

Day 1, Saturday, we set off bright and early (for me, anyway: 8:30) and . . . drove. That's pretty much all we did, besides stop for gas and (yeah) a couple of geocaches. Here are a few photos I took:

Site of a geocache in Tehachapi, CA

Somewhere near Boron, CA: a long line of creeping traffic,
such that I had ample opportunity to memorize
every detail of this XTRA truck

Another geocache brought us here, and gave Milo a chance
to anoint a palm tree

After a long day in the car, all he wanted was water . . .

A nice late-hours sushi spot in Flagstaff, AZ: Karma

A Christmas roll, complete with red and green tobiko,
and a few nigiri including blue fin tuna, a special treat

Today, Sunday, we decided to head down to Sedona—only 30 miles away, but through the very slow, if spectacularly beautiful, Oak Creek Canyon—for a hike. The trail we chose was the Brin Mesa Trail, which took us through juniper-pine forests speckled with beavertail cactus and agave, opening at the top onto amazing views of distant redrock canyons. We were delighted to spot a couple of pinyon jays and one deer, but otherwise not much else in the way of wildlife. Milo soaked up a lot of love along the way, and got to run run run, a fine antidote to yesterday's entrapment in the car. After the hike, we had a beer on the main drag, enjoying the warmth and the tourist bustle. Sedona is a busy little town! (Oh, and we found a couple of geocaches as well.) Here are some photos from the day:

First stop was in town for a geocache.

It was in this palm tree.
What's that you say, enough with the geocaches,
show us some scenery? Okay

Milo, soooooo happy to be running about!

At the wilderness boundary, looking into the Red Rock–
Secret Mountain Wilderness. (The bicycle tracks should not
be there: no bikes allowed. But do they care?)

This one and the preceding one could be a pano, with this
one to the left. There's a lotta rock in Sedona. A lot of it red.

My two guys on top of Brin Lookout

But it's not all big beautiful vistas. Here are some closer-up views.

The beavertail is all senescent, but senescence brings beauty
as well: so many colors

Sandstone: texture, line, color

Après-hike:

One of the 2006–7 "Javelinas on Parade" sculptures,
a few of which are still in place in Uptown Sedona

I would love to have seen this giant Christmas ornament
lit up, but alas: we had to get back to Flagstaff

More parading javelinas

The last couple: I love their punk hairstyle and purple noses

Finished the afternoon with a beer

And a little abstractifying