Month: February 2017

Craters of the Moon

Posted on by Annie

You might never have heard of Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve in south-central Idaho. I hadn’t, even though I’m kind of a space nerd and the Apoll0 14 astronauts trained here to learn the basics of volcanic geology. As I was driving across Idaho anyways, I figured I’d stop in and check it out. Good decision. It was wild, truly wild. Not many people, as barren as the moon in some corners, and almost as unearthly. If you ever wanted to walk on a lava field, this is the place to go (and save yourself the airfare…

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Sunday Serenity: Sunset Silence

Posted on by Annie

Sunday, the day of rest. The day to relax, to recharge. The day to appreciate the moments as we’re in them, instead of thinking ahead to what tomorrow might bring. I offer these images to relax you, to recharge you, and to remind you that everything is fine just the way it is. A sunset …. is what our lives should be: quiet, noble and unhurried. C. L. Rawlins

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Travel Tuesday: Death Valley National Park

Posted on by Annie

Death Valley. When I was growing up, I had zero desire to see what this place was all about. I knew it was desert, hot and dry, and those were two words that never had encouraged me to go. I was a water girl, beaches and surf. More than two decades in California growing up and I never went to Death Valley. Never wanted to. And then my friend sent me a message that she was going to be in Death Valley and why not come down in November? I thought about it overnight, checked the November weather averages, and…

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Sunday Serenity: Persistence

Posted on by Annie

Rocks might seem like a weird topic for Sunday Serenity, but it makes sense if you think about it a bit more. Rocks are persistent things; they were here before you and me and they will be here long after we’re gone. The wind and rain lash them mercilessly for millennium, and still they persist. They get uplifted by earthquakes, twisted by tectonic plate movements and still they persist. And, surviving all that, they are beautiful. So are you. We are made to persist… that’s how we find out who we are. Tobias Wolff

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White Sands National Monument

Posted on by Annie

Of all the places in New Mexico, this has to be the most interesting and most fragile. It’s a massive area of gypsum sand, in the middle of a windy basin between two mountain ranges, the Sacramento Mountains 30 miles to the east, and the San Andres Mountains 20 miles to the west. Because it’s sand and there’s wind, it moves, very slowly, changing all the time. There is an eight-mile road that takes you to the heart of these pure white dunes, and that short drive definitely takes you on a fantastic ride. Here’s the road about 2 miles…

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