Las Vegas, NV

Las Vegas, NV  The area was named Las Vegas, which is Spanish for "the meadows," as it featured abundant wild grasses, as well as desert spring waters for westward travelers.

 
Established in 1905, Las Vegas was incorporated as a city in 1911. At the close of the 20th century, Las Vegas was the most populous American city founded in that century (a similar distinction earned by Chicago in the 19th century). The city's tolerance for numerous forms of adult entertainment earned it the title of Sin City, and has made Las Vegas a popular setting for films, television programs, and music videos.

 1931 was a pivotal year for Las Vegas. At that time, Nevada legalized casino gambling and reduced residency requirements for divorce to six weeks. This year also witnessed the beginning of construction on nearby Hoover Dam. The influx of construction workers and their families helped Las Vegas avoid economic calamity during the Great Depression. The construction work was completed in 1935.

 Well what can be said about today's Las Vegas,
it reminds me of the ugly chick in the bar, she needs lots of sparkles and glitz to take the attention off her face and she only really looks sorta decent in dim lighting.

Not to mention that the entire town smells like a huge ashtray, come for the Dam, leave for the fresh air.











 The Border of the two states.

Hoover Dam, once known as Boulder Dam, is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado river, on the border between the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on September 30, 1935, by President Franklin D Roosevelt. Its construction was the result of a massive effort involving thousands of workers, and cost over one hundred lives. The dam was controversially named after President Herbert Hoover.

The Hoover Dam was a massive project, you can tell that no expense was spared, from the expensive terrazzo flooring, the winged statues and golden stair cased bathrooms it is a testament to 1930's design and beauty.

    It's pretty "Dam" big!
even in a panoramic view it couldn't get all of it.

 The river curls around and keeps going as far as the eye can see.
there's a line to keep boaters from coming all the way up.

The highway bridge that runs over the Dam area, a big Dam Bridge!

Inside of the Dam, 500ft. underground, huge pipes carry water from the river to the intake valves and generators. 90 gallons a second.
It shook the room we were standing in.

These are some of the generators, it takes a combination of two massive cranes to lift the parts out to work on or change them, they get maintenance every 4 years. 







This was a interesting trip but not one I would repeat.

Williams/Sedona, AZ

Williams was the last town to have its section of Route 66 bypassed, due to lawsuits that kept the last section of Interstate 40 in Arizona from being built around the town. After settlements called for the state to build three Williams exits, the suits were dropped and I-40 was completed. On October 13, 1984, Interstate 40 was opened around the town and newspapers the next day reported the essential end of US 66.

Williams is a small town its population was 3,023 at the 2010 census, though it boasts the only railway to the Grand Canyon, The Grand Canyon Railway sits right in the center of town, complete with pre-boarding side show.

The locals in Williams also claim that they are famous for pie, though they've never tried mine, I didn't have the heart to tell them that mine was better.

 The Grand Canyon, it is 277 miles long, up to 18 miles wide and attains a depth of over a mile.
A local said that if you look straight down the south rim wall you can see what looks like a mountain of blue and red blurs, that's all the hats that get blown off as people look down, a park ranger has to go down and collect them once a years and they say that they bring back hundreds.

There are so many beautiful views here that pictures cannot describe.

                                                                              So many colors, its like looking at Gods paint brush,

                                                                        the Colorado River runs the length of the Canyon.  

It amazes me that they send burrows down this place everyday, I would rather walk than get thrown by an ass. Pretty sure that deserves to be a T-shirt.

This is an example of a large Indian house, its now a gift shop.

Williams is also where you can find Bearizona, one of the only drive through animal parks, though there are a few short fences in places most of the animals roam free.

Mule Deer walking around the park.

A Grey Arctic Wolf taking a nap on the side of the road, he didn't even look at me.

 The American Bison, these guys were having lunch and getting a drink off the side of the road.

 This is a Rocky Mountain Big Horned Sheep
he was trying to figure out whether or not he cared that we were there, he decided not but then walked in front of our jeep and blocked traffic for a moment.

Black Bear whom was walking towards her napping place but took her time to get there.

This is her giving us a go home I'm trying to nap look, don't worry we had the windows rolled.....

White Bison these guys were just rambling along the road.













This is a Rocky Mountain Goat, apparently he's really into Goodyear, he was licking this SUV's tires.

 This photo was so perfectly timed, its the entrance to the park, there is an arch and a howling wolf statue on top, I caught a Raven just after he landed on the wolfs mouth.













Sedona was named after Sedona Arabella Miller Schnebly (1877–1950), the wife of Theodore Carlton Schnebly, the city's first postmaster, who was celebrated for her hospitality and industriousness. The first documented human presence in Sedona area dates to between 11,500 to 9000 B.C. It was not until 1995 that a Clovis Projectile Point discovered in Honanki revealed the presence of the Paleo-Indians and they've been ruining peoples eating habits ever since.
 The first Anglo settler, John J. Thompson, moved to Oak Creek Canyon in 1876. The early settlers were farmers and ranchers. Oak Creek Canyon was well known for its peach and apple orchards. In 1902, when the Sedona post office was established, there were 55 residents. In the mid-1950s, the first telephone directory listed 155 names. Some parts of the Sedona area were not electrified until the 1960s.

With its Bright Azure sky's and its Red Rock mountains it is one of the most beautiful places in our country, it also come with no shortage of Hippies and Artist's, so if hippies are your thing than this is the place for you.

A few of views of Bell Rock, this one and Cathedral Rock were my favorites on my site seeing journey.

I don't know what the name of this one is but it makes me think of the sphinx.

Until next blog, enjoy your year and be good to each other.

Albuquerque, NM

The growing village soon to become Albuquerque was named by the provincial governor Francisco Cuervo y Valdes in honor of Francisco, Duke of Albuquerque who was viceroy of New Spain from 1653 to 1660. The name of which derived from the Latin albus quercus meaning "white oak".
 This name was probably in reference to the prevalence of cork oaks in the region, which have a white wood when the bark is removed.
Albuquerque was founded in 1706 as the Spanish colonial outpost of Villa de Alburquerque Present-day Albuquerque retains much of its historical Spanish cultural heritage.
 Albuquerque was incorporated as a town in 1885, with Henry N Jaffa its first mayor, and it was incorporated as a city in 1891.

The Sandia Mountains
Sandía means watermelon in Spanish and is popularly believed to be a reference to the reddish color of the mountains at sunset.

We enjoyed riding the tramway up the mountain,

 Beautiful painted desert in San Felipe,  with colors of red, purple, yellow and green.

 These are all taken at what use to be the Ball Ranch, of the ball canning company, now owned and run by a land management.


The red rock jutting out of the mountain looks like a work of art.

 Wild horses on the property were brought in by the Spanish in the Mid to Late 1500's, they are still the same family of horses, living and surviving in the desert still.

 There was a mare that had recently given birth to a fowl, it was in the trench, not seen here but she was watching us and guarding it, making sure we wouldn't hurt it.










 Amazing rock formations that had so many levels of rock and stone, a science dream.

Shell fossils from the ancient sea beds that use to be here, the land here was amazing, old sea beds, old volcanic lava seams, rock, petrified wood from ancient trees and minerals everywhere.  

Some of the petroglyphs that are on the land, they ranged from extremely old all the way to ones from 1913, I really enjoyed our trip here, so many things living in a land where it would seem no life should, how many uses all the plants, trees and minerals have, this area truly shows you how wondrous our planet really is.  

Carlsbad/Roswell, NM

Carlsbad was originally christened the town of Eddy on September 15, 1888 and organized as a municipal corporation in 1893; the settlement bore the name of Charles B. Eddy, co-owner of the Eddy-Bissell Livestock Company. With the commercial development of local mineral springs near the flume for medicinal qualities, the town later voted to change its name to Carlsbad after the famous European spa Carlsbad, Bohemia (now Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic). On March 25, 1918, the growing town surpassed a population of 2,000, allowing then-governor of New Mexico Washington Ellsworth Lindsey to proclaim Carlsbad a city.

Carlsbad Caverns National State Park, these were some of the pueblos above the caves.

The cave was the largest I've ever seen, it is 850 ft.
down by way of carved out steps and walkways and what goes down must come up.

 There were pools and springs throughout the cave, places where the stalactites looked like chandeliers.

 The workout that you get from this cave would challenge even Jillian Michaels but the views are worth it. 

This is some of the mountainside in the national park, most of New Mexico is flat and treeless but there are areas like this where there's mountain's.

 

 Sitting Bull Falls is a series of waterfalls located in a canyon in the Lincoln National Forest southwest of the city of Carlsbad, New Mexico. The falls are fed by springs located in the canyon above. The water flows through a series of streams and pools until reaching the falls where it drops 150 feet into the canyon below. Most of the water disappears into the gravel or cracks in the rocks and either reappears in springs further down the canyon or joins the Pecos Valley underground water supply.

There are cougars that live in this area and often kill any cows or other wildlife that's in the park after hours, the park closes early for this reason.




The man in this photo was not eaten by a cougar, yet........

Panoramic View of the mountains from the top of the hike.

  Roswell is a city in New Mexico. it is the fifth-largest city in New Mexico. It is a center for irrigated farming, dairying, ranching, manufacturing, distribution, and petroleum production.

 John Chisum had his famous Jingle Bob Ranch about 5 miles (8 km) from the center of Roswell, at South Spring Acres. At the time, it was the largest ranch in the United States.

 If you recognize the name it is because John Wayne played him in the movie "Chisum".
In the 1930s, Roswell was a site for much of Robert H. Goddard's early rocketry work. His work alongside people like Oppenheimer helped to create the Atomic Bomb and future rocket fuels, his work with rockets is still used today.

The town is also noted for being the home of Pat Garrett, the Sheriff famous for killing Billy the Kid. Pat and Billy were childhood friends but after Pat became the sheriff that all changed.
It is also home to a man named Brazel who not only shot and killed Pat Garret but got off of the conviction claiming it was self defense. Even in that day and time that was unbelievable, meaning someone knew a judge, but that brings us to Roswell's claim to fame 1947 when a rancher named Brazel, the nephew of the earlier rancher saw what he thought was a falling aircraft. 

The story continues from there with intrigue, crime, conspiracy and cover up but I am pleased to inform everyone that aside from the museum exhibits, the only Aliens I saw were of the illegal immigrant variety. Sad that a town with so much history and important people is always foreshadowed by little green men, even the paper covering the story in 1947 highlighted this silly event and at the bottom in very small print was the murder of a women by strangulation that didn't even get a second look, I think as humans we often miss what is really important and only want to see the gossip page, and maybe we aren't alone in this galaxy, it would be naive to think this is all just for us but we are here to take care of this planet and its inhabitants, we are here to find love, understanding and forgiveness and you don't have to leave Earth to do so.

Be kind to one another, until next time.