New Mexico - May 2005

At the last minute, I had the chance to travel to southern New Mexico to meet up with my sister and her family on their vacation, spending five days of it with them.

I flew into El Paso and drove north the next day, meeting them at White Sands National Monument, a spectacular area of pure white sand dunes in the middle of nowhere. It proved to be a great opportunity for my nephew and niece to have a grand old time coasting and running around.

From there, we drove east to Carlsbad and stayed for four nights at the not-so-lovely Days Inn. Each morning, it was an easy drive down to either Carlsbad Caverns or the Guadalupe Mountains NP just over the border in Texas. We toured the caves the first day and returned to watch the bats fly out of the cave at dusk, an amazing experience to behold.

The next two days, we went on hiking adventures in the Guadalupe Mountains, hiking the McKittrick Canyon, Smith Spring and Devil's Hall trails, the latter being 11 miles in total which my five year old nephew completed on his own two feet!

From there, my sister's family headed south towards Big Bend NP while I drove back towards Las Cruces and headed up to Gila National Monument to see the cliff dwellings, a long expedition to reach them but worth it nonetheless. The next morning, I headed back to El Paso to fly back home.

Yosemite - May 2005

Due to the tremendous snowfall in the Sierras last winter, the waterfalls at Yosemite this spring were reported to be gushing. Since my previous trips to Yosemite had all been in the fall or winter, when the waterfalls are barely a trickle, if anything, I felt the pull to make a quick visit before heading off on other travel adventures. It proved to be an excellent decision as the water was speeding down every cliff and across every rock pile it could find. The pictures say it all: