Day 1 of American Southwest - Red rocks, Sedona

I flew to Phoenix from San Diego on Sept. 30, rented a car and drove towards Flagstaff which is around 150 miles north of Phoenix. In stead of going by Interstate 17 North, I took a scenic road which goes through Sedona. Reached Flagstaff in the evening and then to Chinle, AZ at night which is further 225 miles North-east of Flagstaff. These two maps - map 1 and map 2 show how I drove. The green part that you see in the map close to Chinle is Canyon De Chelly National Monument.

Red Rocks of Sedona


View from the Holy Cross Chapel, Sedona


Scenic drive


Delicately balanced rocks in Oak Canyon


Lonely road on lonely planet (From Flagstaff, AZ to Chinle, AZ)

A beautiful journey

When I went to AAA to get more information about a trip which I had in my mind, an old lady who was helping me there, suggested a scenic train ride from Durango to Silverton (both in Colorado state). I came home and researched on internet and thought it would be a pretty good ride. How wrong I was! It was amazing. Here are some of the snaps:

Starting from Durango:

Mere hum-safar (People travelling with me - mostly co-eval):

Anasazi river in the lower right corner :

A perfect wallpaper :

Is mod se..(Turning a corner) :
Fall colors just starting come out

Dinky

Thought would start this blog with one of my favorite photos. It is of my dearest younger sister Pradnya - Dinky being just one of the many names by which I call her. I guess, it was taken at least 10 - 12 years ago. Its resolution is not too good and while storing and copying from Yahoo photos, it has reduced further, but still it's a special snap.

Why?

Why create one more blog, when I do not regulary post on the other two? Well, why not? I like taking pictures. That does not mean I am very good at that. Cataracts in my eyes prevent me seeing the camera display clearly when I am in open or in broad daylight, which of course does not help. (Ironically, I felt most helpless due to it while taking pictures of Niagara Falls from the boat ride - at the sight of the greatest Cataracts. It will be digression from the topic, but one more irony struck me when I saw drinking water at an exorbitant price there - at a place where 20% of the world's fresh water flows. Enough of ironies for now!).

Having said that, in last few days I visited some wonderful places - places you have to experience. Their photos is the closest I can get to describe; trying to describe them in words is beyond me.(How can you describe indescribable?). The other reason for starting this blog is a way of storing them.(I wish I had posted all the pictures that I took at my native place. I lost them forever when my laptop was stolen.)Of course there are hundreds of sites that offer this facility, but somehow I would prefer to have them along with my other blogs. After all, blogs are for narrating one's experiences and thoughts - in words or otherwise.