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  #21  
Old Posted Feb 5, 2015, 4:24 AM
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Thanks for the comments again! The Grand Canyon is truly a wondrous place. I really want to go back, as soon as possible. If I were to get a job in Arizona, I would be going to the Grand Canyon, or one of the other National Monuments, as much as I could.

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Originally Posted by Buckeye Native 001 View Post
Good stuff. I live in Flagstaff and try to get up to the Canyon at least once a year (was last there on a bitterly cold and windy day the Saturday after New Years a few weeks back)

The ranch community about seven miles north of Flagstaff is called Baderville. Looks like you were in town the weekend of homecoming.
Thanks for the info. After looking up Baderville, it is obvious that's the place. Strange that I didn't find anything on this place, though. I guess that shows how little I know about the West.
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  #22  
Old Posted Feb 5, 2015, 4:30 AM
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I woke up on Day 3 in another state. My friend and I stayed as the SLS. It was previously the Sahara, one of the last Old Vegas casinos on the Strip. The hotel builings are still the same. Interestingly enough, every time I've stayed in Las Vegas, I stayed in the Sahara buildings. The first two times were in 2004 and 2005. I knew the Sahara was gone this time around, and my friend said that we were going to a place a few steps up from the Sahara. I laughed when we had pulled up the night before and saw we were staying where I had stayed before. My friend learned that fancy interiors, trendy names, and smooth rebranding can make an old building new again.

Las Vegas has always seemed like the most "open" city that I've ever been to. It's hard to explain. By open, I mean that you just see out for miles and miles into the desert (from your hotel room), and into the wild. I experienced it the first two times I was in Las Vegas, but those were my first two times out west, with my third time ever being in 2009 to San Diego, so I had nothing to gauge what I was feeling. Having been in San Diego, San Francisco, and especially Phoenix now, I had something to compare Las Vegas to. Las Vegas still felt the same way when I woke up. Waking up with a view that stretches uninterrupted for miles until the mountains is still abnormally open to me. It's like Las Vegas is at the bottom of a huge earthly bowl, or something. Then, when viewing it from a hotel room on a clear, warm morning, it's like you're looking out onto the entire world. I've been high up on the East Coast before: the Empire State Building, the CN Tower, Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, etc, and when high up in these places, you have hundreds of things to look out at: looking for other states, looking for skylines of other cities, water features, hills and mountains, and so on. These features make the distances that you're seeing seem smaller, or put things in perspective. In Las Vegas, there's almost nothing to look out at. It's flat, there's only one city in the valley, and there are relatively few buildings above the tree line to see, much less want to look for. So, you just end up looking straight out at the mountains miles and miles away.


As I did in 2004 and 2005, I took some pictures from out the window of Downtown Las Vegas and elsewhere, looking north and east.

I woke up to this view.



Downtown Las Vegas. Let's compare it to April, 2005.



Residential areas north of Sahara Avenue in Las Vegas. The Las Vegas city limits are at Sahara Avenue, at the bottom of the picture. I believe that neighborhood is Beverly Green.



The Stratosphere, on Las Vegas Boulevard north of Sahara Avenue. The original hotel building, at the very right, was built in 1979 as Vegas World. The tower and main hotel building were added in 1996 when Vegas World became the Stratosphere.



Neon signs and roadside architecture line Las Vegas Boulevard north of Sahara Avenue. These signs date back to the 1950s; the Chapel of the Bells opened in 1957, for instance.



Let's look at Downtown one more time. Have any of you that have ever been to Las Vegas gone Downtown? (I have.) There's a few historic buildings there.



The Stratosphere Tower dominates the Las Vegas skyline. At 1,149 feet tall, it is the tallest freestanding observation tower in the United States, and the second-tallest in North America, after the CN Tower in Toronto. It is also the tallest building in the United States west of the Mississippi River.



Frenchman Mountain is east of Las Vegas, and is 4,056 feet (1,236 m) high, with a topographic prominence of 1,972 feet (601 m). Frenchman Mountain is the first real mountain that I've ever seen. I woke up the morning after arriving in Las Vegas the night of my first trip, and this was standing out at the edge of the metro area from the hotel window. This was a lot different from the mountains that I had seen in Pennsylvania and New York.



Off in the distance, to the northeast, is Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and part of Nellis Air Force Base. Las Vegas Speedway, about 12 miles away from the SLS, opened in 1996.



Here's a closer look at the Beverly Green neighborhood.



I used the 80x digital zoom on my camera to see what details I could see on the Stratosphere from my room at the SLS.



From the parking lot at SLS, the incomplete Fontainebleau Resort is visible. The Fontainebleau was begun in 2007, and topped out in 2008, before construction halted due to the recession. Here's a similar view from the parking garage of the then-Sahara in 2005.



Down Las Vegas Boulevard, the Echelon Place casino is another resort that was never completed. This casino was started in 2007, and construction stopped in 2008, amid declining profits from the recession.



An office building sits at Sahara Avenue and Rancho Drive in a largely residential area.



Palace Station, located on Sahara Avenue west of I-15, is on the left here. Palace Station opened in 1976 as The Casino, was renamed the Bingo Palace in 1977, renamed the Palace Station in 1984, and had the tower built in 1990. Palace Station is a locals casino, and has a large Asian customer base due to its baccarat tables and proximity to Chinatown.



The Spring Mountains to the west of the Las Vegas valley provide a great backdrop to the city. La Madre Mountain is the tallest mountain viewable from the valley floor, and is 8,154 feet (2,485 m) high.



We then took a drive down the Strip for a bit.

We first passed the Encore at the Wynn, which was built in 2008 after the Wynn opened in 2005.



Then we passed the Palazzo, which opened in 2007. At 642 feet (196 m), the Palazzo is tallest completed building in Nevada, and the largest hotel in the world.



One of the older casino buldings is the former Imperial Palace. It opened in 1959 as the Capri Motel, and the tower was built in 1977. Imperial Palace was renamed the Quad in 2012, and was renamed again a few days after this picture as the LINQ. The detailing on the highrise clearly points back to its days as the Imperial Palace, though.



Flamingo is the oldest resort casino operating on the Strip. Opened in 1946, it was run by Bugsy Siegel, who skimmed money from the construction and was eventually killed for it. Highrises were added beginning in 1967, with the current ones built between 1976 and 1993. The famous marquee sign was installed in 1976.



New York New York is located on Las Vegas Boulevard at Tropicana Avenue. The casino was completed in 1997, and features cartoon-like replicas of many famous New York City landmarks in the highrise, facade, and interior. The Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, and Lever House are notable skyscrapers replicated with the casino's highrise.



The Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign is considered the southern end of the Las Vegas Strip. It sits across from the site of the Klondike Casino, and is south of Mandalay Bay. The sign was erected in 1959, and is the only entrance sign on the National Register of Historic Places.



The Little Church of the West is across the street from Manadalay Bay Casino. The church was built in 1942, and is the first known structure in Las Vegas to be built as a wedding chapel. The church was originally located at the Last Frontier Casino.



After a little drive on the Strip, it was time to leave Las Vegas and head to Phoenix. The views of the mountains to the east are great as you drive down Tropicana Avenue.



This mountain, along I-515 in Henderson, is striking to me because it is so bare. Las Vegas is clearly in the drier Mojave Desert.



As you round a bend in U.S. Route 93/95 after passing through Henderson, you can see south out into the desert.



You can then see U.S. Route 95, which goes south towards the Laughlin area and then into California at I-40.



You can also see Boulder City Municipal Airport, behind a golf club.



After driving through Boulder City, you begin to see Lake Mead.









In the distance you can see the Hacienda Casino. This is a different casino than the Hacienda that was once located on the Strip in Las Vegas. This casino opened in 1958 as the Gold Strike, and then reopened in 199 as the Hacienda after a fire. It has actually changed its name since my trip in October, to the Hoover Dam Lodge. The casino mainly caters to locals and truckers.



With the future I-11 corridor built over the Colorado River, you now have to exit the expressway in order to see Hoover Dam.



"Winged Figures of the Republic" sits next to the dam on the Nevada side. The sculpture was dedicated in 1935 to those who envisioned the dam bringing prosperity to the desert.



Hoover Dam is huge!



Hoover Dam is 726.4 feet (221.4 m) tall, and has a crest length of 1,244 feet (379 m). It was built between 1931 and 1935.



Equally as impressive is Black Canyon. Some would argue that a great natural wonder was lost when Hoover Dam was built.







The U-shaped power plant can be seen if you look down the wall of the dam.



A bathtub ring on Lake Mead shows how high the water level has been, as well as how low the water level is now.



Hoover Dam was originally named Boulder Dam, until being renamed for President Herbert Hoover in 1947.



Four intake towers use gravity to channel water to penstocks, which sets the turbines in motion.



In addition to the bathtub ring, you can see how low the water level has gotten with the dynamited and drilled canyon walls on the side.



Walking along Hoover Dam takes you into Arizona.



This is the view of Hoover Dam from Arizona.



An exhibit center provides museum space at the dam.



Back on U.S. Route 93, we prepared to cross the new bridge over Black Canyon. Nevada is in the foreground, and Arizona is in the background.



Back into Arizona again!



The mountains west of U.S. 93 north of Kingman are the Black Mountains.





We pulled off of U.S. Route 93 to see the ghost town of Chloride. One thing I learned on my trip is that ghost towns have varying definitions. Someone like me, from the East Coast, imagines a town that was completely abandoned, and no one lives there any more (such as Bodie, CA, or Rhyolite, NV). In reality, almost all ghost towns have residents, and the major ghost towns have maintained a base population to some degree.

If you drive through Chloride, you can enter the hills and get a look at the ghost town.



The Cerbat Mountains above Chloride are where the mining was done.



Chloride has a few commercial buildings, although they clearly date back to the town's heyday.



This was Chloride's bank back in the day!



This gas station has some old pumps.



Continuing on, we got onto I-40 in Kingman. Here's a view of the Cerbat Cliffs Golf Course and central Kingman.



East of Kingman, along I-40, you see the desert slowly beginning to change its characteristics.







We exited I-40 and continued on U.S. Route 93 towards Phoenix.



Construction of the upgrades for U.S. 93 to turn it into I-11. Even though I mentioned it a few pictures ago, looking back at my pictures this week, it was actually around here when I noticed that the desert was changing, and we were leaving the Mojave Desert and entering the Sonoran Desert. The vegetation increased, and scrubland was in the countryside.



The Aquarius Mountains, to the east of the road, were a sight to see. I actually took a lot of wider pictures of this area to use as the background on my laptop. I caught a dustdevil in one of those pictures.





There were a few places where the road cut through mountains. It was around here that we drove over Burro Creek Gorge, which reminded me a little bit of the Zoar Valley/Zoar Creek Gorge in Springville, New York, south of Buffalo, but I did not get a chance to take a picture of Burro Creek.



Here's a nice picture of saguaros in their natural habitat, which I was really happy to see in person.



There were some spectacular views of a valley floor east of Arizona Route 97, in western Yavapai County.









As we were driving through the desert with the afternoon sun to our right, we listened to my friend's collection of live U2 music. Between the songs from the Joshua Tree album, inspired by the American West, and the atmospheric sounds of a live stadium concert from that same era, it made for a great soundtrack for the great wide open.



Some more pictures of the desert. Even though some of my pictures didn't turn out too well, it's still interesting to me because deserts are so foreign to my concept of wildlife and vegetation. To see desert plants "in the desert" is an interesting experience.







Joshua Trees are considered part of the Mojave Desert flora, at least according to what I'm finding online, so the brush surrounding the Joshua trees indicates that the lower Sonoran Desert is transitioning with an extension of the higher-elevation Mojave Desert in this part of Yavapai County, way down in central Arizona.



Here's US 93 through the Joshua tree forest. On top of showing what the road and typical traffic are like, this gives a good idea of how tall Joshua trees get.







Approaching Wickenburg, you see a couple signs of human life.



A statue in a traffic circle in Wickenburg showcases the town's rodeo history. The town was gearing up for a rodeo as we drove through. The traffic circle dates back to 2009, when a bypass around the town was completed.



We took Arizona Route 74 to go around the Phoenix metro area and get onto I-17 to get to Scottsdale. The great scenery continued, with saguaros all around. I did not get a chance to take a picture, but you can see University of Phoenix Stadium from the road. The stadium looks like a big spaceship that landed in the valley.



That night, we went into Downtown Scottsdale for an Eagles pep rally, and a party held by the Green Legion, which we tailgate with on these Eagles road trips. The Green Legion had Rockbar, on Craftsman Court, rented out for the night.



We had Craftsman Court blocked off for drinking in the street, to accommodate the overflow crowd.







Two more days left! Come back in after I update it again!
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  #23  
Old Posted Feb 5, 2015, 3:42 PM
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So you did get to see LV to Kingman and the Hoover Dam area during the day. Great pics. Your eye for the change in desert is spot on. The Sonoran is much more lush and diverse than the Mohave.
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  #24  
Old Posted Feb 5, 2015, 4:50 PM
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This has been the best AZ/NV road trip tour posted on SSP. Thanks again.

I've hiked the Bright Angel trail twice. It can be 30+ degrees warmer inside the canyon than along the rim. Did you notice the sea shell fossils in the rocks along the rim of the Grand Canyon? At one point the rim was the bottom of a sea!
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  #25  
Old Posted Feb 6, 2015, 4:23 AM
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Originally Posted by xzmattzx View Post
Thanks for the info. After looking up Baderville, it is obvious that's the place. Strange that I didn't find anything on this place, though. I guess that shows how little I know about the West.
No worries, its one of many tiny communities out in the sticks that have a "blink and you'll miss it" kind of vibe. I only know of it because I had a coworker who lived out there. As you probably saw in your travels, rural Arizona has no shortage of those kinds of places. God knows I live in a small town, but those communities are too rural for me

I had to fly to Vegas on my way to Ohio the weekend you were in Phoenix for the Eagles-Cards game and we approached McCarran from the east over Lake Mead. It's worrisome how low the water level has gotten there.

Oddly enough, Lake Powell's water levels were at right about where they should be thanks in part to a wet monsoon season this year.
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  #26  
Old Posted Feb 7, 2015, 2:41 AM
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Love the pictures! I used to live in Vegas and I have done a lot of the same drive shown on here, it is cool to see what a lot of people think about it. I am a big fan of the desert, especially the Sonoran desert. The Mojave Desert is definitely drier than the Sonoran Desert but there is still a really cool variety of plant and animal life. I also loved the aerials of Phoenix, can't wait to see the next set! I have to say though if you really want to see how some tall mountains look from a metro area, visit the Wasatch Front
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Old Posted Feb 7, 2015, 2:56 AM
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Great pics. One year a bunch of us went there in March. We saw a week of spring training then spent a week seeing the Petrified Forest, meteor crater, then up to the Canyon. Pretty memorable.
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  #28  
Old Posted Feb 11, 2015, 5:02 AM
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So you did get to see LV to Kingman and the Hoover Dam area during the day. Great pics. Your eye for the change in desert is spot on. The Sonoran is much more lush and diverse than the Mohave.
I did. I didn't want to say anything, though, because I knew you'd be back for the rest of my pictures, and I wanted it to be a little surprise.

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Originally Posted by Leo the Dog View Post
This has been the best AZ/NV road trip tour posted on SSP. Thanks again.

I've hiked the Bright Angel trail twice. It can be 30+ degrees warmer inside the canyon than along the rim. Did you notice the sea shell fossils in the rocks along the rim of the Grand Canyon? At one point the rim was the bottom of a sea!
I did not see any sea shell fossils. I actually did not look at the canyon walls at all, since I literally ran down and ran up most of what I covered on the trail. I was trying to see as much of the park as I could in just a matter of hours, so Bright Angel Trail will have to be explored further another time.

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Originally Posted by Highrise_Mike View Post
Love the pictures! I used to live in Vegas and I have done a lot of the same drive shown on here, it is cool to see what a lot of people think about it. I am a big fan of the desert, especially the Sonoran desert. The Mojave Desert is definitely drier than the Sonoran Desert but there is still a really cool variety of plant and animal life. I also loved the aerials of Phoenix, can't wait to see the next set! I have to say though if you really want to see how some tall mountains look from a metro area, visit the Wasatch Front
Stay tuned for more pictures, and you'll see real mountains.
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  #29  
Old Posted Feb 11, 2015, 5:03 AM
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After a night out in Scottsdale, which actually came to an end early due to not exactly being college-aged anymore, and being in Las Vegas and up until 5 AM the night before, and enduring a 5-hour drive to Phoenix that afternoon with the sun beating down on us, we woke up on Sunday with the Eagles game to go to. This was the real reason I had gone out to the game, but I actually enjoyed the sightseeing more. One nice thing about staying in Scottsdale and having the game in Glendale is that I got to drive across much of the metro area, and see more of what regular Arizona looks like. But, there's relatively little urbanity and scenery in this update.


I started off the day of the game with some time exploring the neighborhoods of Downtown Scottsdale, including Old Town, and whatever neighborhood is just east of Old Town.

I had a nice view of Camelback Mountain from certain spots.





Our Lady of Perpetual Help Roman Catholic Church is the present-day parish church for the Old Adobe Mission in Old Town. The church was built in 1978. The parish hall was the original church on the site, and was built in 1956.







Then I explored Old Town, and a little bit of the modern Downtown.







After eating breakfast, my friend and I drove to Glendale. We were able to park right by the hockey arena for $10. Our parking spots were within a few feet of our tailgate area with the Green Legion, which was located in between the Renaissance Hotel and the Gila River Arena.





Our tailgate with the Green Legion was catered by McFadden's, which was across the street in the Westgate Entertainment Complex.







After the tailgate, Eagles fans marched to the stadium. It was a steady stream of Eagles fans through the entire parking lot. Of course, this usually happens at games where the Green Legion has a large presence.





The owner of the Green Legion will occasionally lead Eagles chants at points along the march.



The back of the hockey arena is pretty bland.



The march to University of Phoenix Stadium continued.





The Gila River Arena backs up against the parking lots for University of Phoenix Stadium.



We walked around a little bit outside and inside in order to see the stadium a little bit.





We then went to our seats.



From our seats, we had a direct view of the place where the grass is wheeled out to get natural sunlight. This is obviously one of the most unique things in sports stadiums in North America.







There were thousands and thousands of Eagles fans at the game! (An estimated 20,000 to 30,000 Eagles fans were in attendance.)

















We were sitting near one of the big concrete pillars that held the roof up.



Those concrete pillars lead to obstructed views, which means that there's no seats back behind them. Apparently those "seats" are still sold for big events. The friend that I was with went to the Fiesta Bowl with another friend of mine in town for work, and they were excited to see the game, until they found out that they were sitting on a cement floor with a pillar in front of them.



Retired numbers form a ring around the stadium.





I took a couple pictures of the game action.





I took a couple last looks at the stadium before leaving with my friend. I wouldn't mind coming back for a game if the Eagles played here again. I'd love to go to a Flyers game nearby.





The Westgate Entertainment District is a 3-block neighborhood of bars, restaurants, and other entertainment options like a movie theater. It was opened in 2006, and has slowly been expanding since. Satellite imagery and aerial imagery shows that just over 5 years ago, this "neighborhood", and the sports stadiums around it, were surrounded by desert and irrigated crops. The land is beginning to fill up, in a suburban style, with retail and apartment complexes.



Gila River Arena is the hockey arena in Glendale's Westgate Entertainment District. The arena was built in 2003, and anchors the complex. The NHL's Arizona Coyotes play in the arena.



As we got ready to leave the entertainment complex, I got to see a wonderful desert sunset.









We had dinner at Filiberto's. For what is essentially a fast food place, it was good, pretty authentic Mexican food. We had breakfast at another Filiberto's in Camelback East Village/the Camelback Corridor in Phoenix (not sure of the neighborhood's name), and it seems like they cater to Mexicans and Hispanics, with a lot of Spanish language advertisements and menus in the store.



I took another picture of the Talking Stick Resort. (See my first day in Arizona for the other picture.) The hotel/casino was built in 2010.



Scottsdale Presbyterian Church, at Hayden and Obsorn Roads, was built in 1960 and is a good example of post-war architecture found in Scottsdale.



I finished the night exploring Old Town and Downtown for a little bit.














One day left! Don't forget about this thread now!
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Old Posted Feb 11, 2015, 9:40 PM
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This has been great.
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Old Posted Feb 12, 2015, 3:28 AM
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nice. i've never been to vegas...new orleans many times but never vegas. i have been to reno, en route to san francisco via camping my way west of denver.

that nevada desert is something. if you ever get a chance to camp in great basin national park or anywhere else in the more pristine desert/ mountain areas of the great basin...i highly recommend it. they say god speaks to you in the desert...i don't know about that but that desert night sky is something to behold away from light pollution.
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Old Posted Mar 6, 2015, 12:01 AM
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This has been great.
Thanks!

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nice. i've never been to vegas...new orleans many times but never vegas. i have been to reno, en route to san francisco via camping my way west of denver.

that nevada desert is something. if you ever get a chance to camp in great basin national park or anywhere else in the more pristine desert/ mountain areas of the great basin...i highly recommend it. they say god speaks to you in the desert...i don't know about that but that desert night sky is something to behold away from light pollution.
I would love to see the stars for a long time without any light pollution. I tried to do that after leaving the Grand Canyon (see day 2 in here), but didn't have time to stop and let my eyes adjust at all.
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Old Posted Mar 6, 2015, 12:01 AM
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I'm finally on my last day in Arizona. I had originally planned, the night before, to hike Camelback Mountain to watch the sunrise, before heading to my morning flight. I must've been insane! Eventually, my plan was to wake up early enough to get breaskfast and take a long way to the airport and get a few pictures. Instead, I accidentally slept in until 6:45 for an 8 AM flight, and still had to pack, check out of my hotel, and drop off the rental car, all before getting to the gate by 7:30. Needless to say, I was screwed. I got to the airport doors at 7:55 AM, and was told I'd never make the flight, and that the gate was closed. Since I was flying Southwest, they switched me to stand-by on another flight - one that wasn't direct to BWI, but was leaving early. Southwest really is hassle-free, like they advertise. I got no fees for getting on another flight, and I've had to switch flights with Southwest before, for family reasons, and had no hassles then, either.

I ended up getting on that flight that I was on stand-by for. It was connecting to BWI through Salt Lake City, so I would get to see another part of the West. I had flown over Utah before, on a direct flight from San Francisco to Dulles International, so the territory wasn't completely new. On that flight, Utah was one of the most amazing places I had ever seen. Every color of the rainbow was visible from the plane. The big highlights were flying over the northern edge of Canyonlands National Park (untouched and auto-corrected), Moab, Castle Valley along Utah Route 128 and the Colorado River, northeast of Moab, and The Convent, a butte in Castle Valley that I zoomed in on.

As we left Phoenix, the flight attendant said over the speaker that electronic devices weren't allowed yet, and I was sitting in the front row in full view of the one sitting up front. So, I regrettably missed chances to take pictures of Sun Devil Stadium and the fountain in Fountain Hills as we ascended. But I started using my camera over the Phoenix suburbs, so we'll start there.


The first picture I took was of the northeast fringes of Scottsdale, with Rio Verde in the background.



Then we flew over the very northern tip of Scottsdale, east of Carefree. Deseert Mountain Parkway, in the Desert Mountain section of Scottsdale, winds through this suburban area.



We then started flying over some of the mountains of eastern Yavapai County.



The camera was picking up a lot of blue, which is normal from so high up.



If I auto-correct the colors, you can see a lot more detail.



Here's another group of untouched and auto-corrected pictures. I went ahead and auto-corrected most of the pictures to bring out brighter colors and more detail. I probably could've done better manually, but it would've taken forever.







We flew over Camp Verde, along I-17. Montezuma Castle National Monument, an ancient cliff dwelling, just just out of frame to the top.





We then passed Sedona. I wanted to see the red rocks of Sedona up close by driving to the area, but that is for another time.



See the difference in color between untouched and auto-corrected? Who wouldn't want those reds and oranges brought out?









The Sedona Airport can be seen atop a mesa.







The rocks are amazing, even from a plane!







We then flew past Flagstaff. It was farther off in the distance, as the plane's path was almost directly over Williams.



I could still see the landscape of Oak Creek Canyon as be began to go past Flagstaff.



I zoomed in to get as good of a shot of Flagstaff as possible. By the way, I am working on the information for my Flagstaff photothread right now.



Remember when I explained how big Mount Elden was to an Easterner like me? Now you can really see the vertical elevation.



The San Francisco Peaks are very clear from here. Humphrey's Peak, the highest point in Arizona, is on the left. Agassiz Peak, pictured earlier in the thread, is in the center.



There's Flagstaff to the right of the Peaks.



One last picture of Flagstaff is appropriate. Hopefully I make it back there some time!



A couple more pictures of the Peaks is good.





The edge of the Kaibab Plateau can be seen when way high up.





There's U.S. 180 as it enters Kaibab National Forest, east of Valle.



The Little Grand Canyon, which carries the Little Colorado River, is seen above the edge of a plateau. Arizona Route 64 can be seen bowing along near the bottom of the picture.



The edge of the plateau is amazing to see from above. The patch of bare land is HERE.



We then flew over the Grand Canyon. We flew directly overhead of Grand Canyon Village, so I did not get to see the same landmarks that I saw from Mather Point, the Village, and places a little farther west. Some of the distant views from the first page, looking from Mather Point, show this section of the Canyon.









Here's an example of untouched and auto-corrected pictures of the Grand Canyon.





We then flew over the North Rim.



I also saw the edge of the Grand Canyon, before it really opens up. The Echo Cliffs, which form the edge of the Kaibito Plateau and is paralleled by U.S. Route 89, is in the distance.





Far off in the distance, I could see Lake Powell. In the foreground is Vermillion Cliffs National Monument, where the Vermillion Cliffs form the edge of the Paria Plateau.



Let's see the Vermillion Cliffs in negative.



Let's see it in grayscale too!



Here's a great picture of the Vermillion Cliffs, in Vermillion Cliffs National Monument.





We flew over the western edge of Vermillion Cliffs National Monument. This picture was taken HERE, just south of Utah.



We then flew over Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah. Grand Staircase-Escalante is the largest National Monument in the U.S. It's slightly bigger than my home state of Delaware!





As we passed over Bryce Canyon National Park, there was a sign of civilization. See it, towards the bottom?



If you didn't, I zoomed in. That's Cannonville, Utah.



Let me caption ths picture by saying that northern Arizona and southern Utah has a ton of National Parks and National Monuments! Grand Canyon, Vermillion Cliffs, Wupatki, Grand Canyon-Parashant, Canyon de Chelly, Walnut Canyon, Sunset Crater Volcano, Petrified Forest, Montezuma Castle, Tuzigoot in Arizona; Grand Staircase-Escalante, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, Natural Bridges, Arches, in Utah. What a wealth of places to go!



We then flew over Tropic, Utah.



West of Tropic is the northern section of Bryce Canyon National Park.



We continued on over southern Utah. By the way, near here I took another picture of the area on my flight from San Francisco to Dulles. In 2010, I flew over Fish Lake, and Fish Lake Hightop (interesting suffix for a mountain). Also, here's a picture from that flight of Moab, much farther east, just because.









The next town we passed was Glenwood.



Nearby Glenwood was the town of Annabella.



And then we flew over Richfield, seat of Sevier County.



Here's an untouched picture of Richfield.





North of Richfield is the Cedar Ridge Canyon.







We flew past the town of Aurora.



I got a view of the Wasatch Plateau.



The town of Redmond was next.



Then we reached the Wasatch Range. Wow.





Levan, Utah, was the first town after going past the southern end of the Wasatch Range.



Next was Nephi, seat of Juab County.



Mona was the town after that. Look at those mountains!



From there, they said no more electronics, and I had that flight attendant right near me. We flew past Utah Lake and Provo, and over Salt Lake City's suburbs. I wish I could've taken pictures. This was my first picture once we were on the ground.



The mountains were huge!



I had a few minutes to walk around the terminal before boarding my flight to BWI. I quickly found windows that offered views of the city, and honed in on the Utah State Capitol.







I also had a great view of Downtown Salt Lake City. I took some wide-angle pictures of Downtown: here's one, and here's another.







I took a few more pictures of the Capitol. Who knows if I would ever be in Salt Lake City again. I also took a wide-angle picture.



The University of Utah is in the distance, behind the Capitol. Either hidden by buildings, or just out of the picture, is the Block U, the second hillside letter in the US.



The Utah Air National Guard hangar gives the elevation at the airport as 4,226 feet (1,288 m).



I then had to get on the plane. My window seat gave me views of the mountains on the other side of the airport. I think these are the Oquirrh Mountains.



I'm not into planes like my friend that I was with out in Arizona with is (and he's otherwise not nerdy at all), but seeing an Alaska Airlines plane was pretty cool. They don't have too many flights to BWI or Philly or the other airports that I use.



One thing not really found on the East Coast are the hillside letters, or mountain monograms. This one is located HERE. It's for Cyprus High School.



Let's finish off this part of the day with some pictures of the beautiful Wasatch Range. Too bad there were clouds!







I decided to split this day into two, because I realized that I had almost 200 pictures from my flights to show. We will pick things up when we leave Salt Lake City.



Part two of going home will be later
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  #34  
Old Posted Mar 6, 2015, 5:12 AM
Buckeye Native 001 Buckeye Native 001 is online now
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Those Flagstaff aerials are incredible

Stupid anecdote, but I never realized how large the Great Salt Lake was until I flew in/out of SLC...
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  #35  
Old Posted Mar 6, 2015, 7:51 AM
bigcubfan bigcubfan is offline
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These are amazing. I'm going to San Francisco next month via Vegas. I hope I can get some great shots of the Canyon like you did.
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  #36  
Old Posted Apr 1, 2015, 2:42 AM
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PART TWO OF MY FLIGHT FROM PHX>SLC>BWI


We pick up where we left off, with a picture of the Wasatch Range.



I got one last picture of Downtown Salt Lake City, but it's not as good as the ones from inside the terminal.



On the hillsides is the neighborhood of The Avenues, although sometimes the hilly portions are called the Greater Avenues.



Once we taxied down the runway a little bit, I had a nice view of the Utah State Capitol, and the historic Block U on Mount Van Cott was visible.









As we prepared to take to the air, the University of Utah came into view to the right of the Capitol.



We flew past the suburbs of Bountiful and Woods Cross.



I saw the interchange on the Legacy Parkway for West 500 South in Woods Cross. What kind of a name is that for a street? 500 South?



I took a couple pictures of the marshland near the Great Salt Lake, thinking that I was along the edge of the lake. Alas, I never really saw the lake.



We soon flew over the town of Farmington. In the center is Lagoon Amusement Park.



Turning eastward, we flew over the Wasatch Range.



Exit 185 on Interstate 80 in Utah, for Castle Rock (a place that doesn't show up on a map). Castle Rock is apparently a ghost town that started in 1860 with a pony express stop. This part of northeast Utah must've been a big pony express area, because as I searched the pony express once my curiosity was piqued, and this map shows multiple places of interest within an hour of each other. Here's what the area looks like from the section of Interstate that I flew over: Google Street View



This was somewhere over Wyoming, east of Evanston.



The first town we flew over, after leaving the Salt Lake City area, was Mountain View, Wyoming.





There weren't many towns to see, though.



I still auto-corrected the pictures to bring out more colors.



Wyoming was looking pretty gray. Westerners might find it drab, especially compared to the lushness of the eastern United States in the summer, and there are certainly more vibrant colors in the West, but it was still pretty interesting to at least fly over.



We passed the Flaming Gorge, which carries the Green River and Flaming Gorge Reservoir.



After flying over the Green River, we approached Cooper Ridge. Cooper Ridge is located HERE, and you can see where Wyoming Route 430 goes up Cooper Ridge via a ravine at the very right of the second photo.





On the other side of Cooper Ridge, but slightly north near the Black Buttes, are what appeared to me to be strip mines. I took these pictures partly because the mines were interesting, but also to help myself figure out what I flew over later. These mines are between Sweeney Ranch and Bitter Creek. What, you never heard of those big cities before? Let me show you where they are then: HERE. While looking for this place, I came across a picture on Google Earth of the Black Butte Overland Stage Stop.





After passing the mines, the plane flew over the Great Divide Basin. I'm not sure if these places are in the basin, where the Great Continental Divide splits into two, but they're at least close.







The next town that we flew over was Saratoga, Wyoming.



Snow was coming down on the higher peaks in the Medicine Bow Mountains. This is likely Elk Mountain, which is 11,162 feet (3,402 m) high.



We crossed over Interstate 80 west of Laramie. This is exit 279 in far eastern Carbon County, with Cooper Cove Road running north towards the bottom of the picture.



Some of Wyoming was pretty nondescript, although higher elevations already had snow on the ground.





There was some kind of plateau of mountain ridge HERE.



I bet no one lives anywhere in this picture.



Auto-correct and true color, yet again.





In Goshen County, Wyoming, is a butte called Bear Mountain. I got the eastern half of the butte in this picture.



Just east of Bear Mountain is the town of La Grange, Wyoming. No, this isn't the same La Grange as mentioned in ZZ Top's song.



Jagged canyons and mountains still dotted the landscape as we began to fly over the Great Plains.





We flew over the little village of Broadwater, Nebraska.



Lake C.W. McConaughy, on the North Platte River in western Nebraska. The reservoir was formed when Kingsley Dam was constructed between 1936 and 1941 on the river.



I got one last picture of the Great Plains before I decided to take a nap. I love taking pictures from a plane, but I was up early and got off to a bad start missing my original flight, and there was a lot of cloud cover anyway, so some sleep was in order.



Once I woke up from my nap, we flew over Morgantown, West Virginia.





Next was Maryland's panhandle. Deep Creek Lake is in the middle.



We then continued on over the ridges of the Appalachian Mountains. This first picture, I believe, is is over an area southeast of Oakland, Maryland.



These two pictures are over West Virginia somewhere.





We crossed over the tip of Virginia. North Mountain is here curling to the right of the picture, and is in Frederick County, Virginia, which is the northwesternmost county.



West Virginia and Virginia share a border along that mountaintop in the distance there.



West Virginia Route 9 goes through one of the state's panhandles. Charles Town, West Virginia (not to be confused with Charleston), is in the upper right.



We flew right past Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. Harper's Ferry is famous for John Brown's raid, which was a pivotal event in 1859 that helped fuel the beginning of the Civil War. I did a thread for Harper's Ferry in 2009, but the links to the pictures are dead now.







East of Harper's Ferry are two mountains: on the left is Short Hill Mountain, with an elevation of 1,450 feet (441 m). You westerners are probably laughing at that elevtation. Loudon Heights, or Loudon Mountain, is on the right.



Loudon Heights, on the right, carries the border between West Virginia and Virginia on it. Maryland is at the bottom, on the other side of the river. So there are three states in this picture!



Here's one thing that's amazing about the Appalachian Mountains. You have a mountain ridge. Yes, it's not as big as mountains in the West. It's a continuous ridge, except that a river goes right through it. I'm used to seeing this with the Susquehanna Water Gaps where the Susquehanna River cuts through five ridges of the Appalachian Mountains. You can see pictures I have of these here: Profile view in the spring, with a Statue of Liberty replica from 1986; Profile view of another ridge in the spring; Profile view of the first mountain ridge, with the Statue of Liberty again; Profile view of the second ridge, but in summer; A view of the ridges the long way, with cuts made by the river; Another view, downstream, of how the river cuts through the mountain ridges. I always wonder, when I see these, how the river got past the mountain without wearing it down farther on each side.



We then flew over Frederick, Maryland's southern suburban area.



I knew we were flying over Frederick because I saw their minor league baseball stadium. I've driven through Frederick before, notably when I took that day trip to Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, 6 or 7 years ago, and you can see the stadium from the expressway. The stadium is Harry Grove Stadium, built in 1990 and home of the Frederick Keys. The Keys, named for Frederick County native Francis Scott Key, play in the single-A Carolina League. My hometown Wilmington Blue Rocks also play in the Carolina League, so this is somwhat of enemy territory.





Then, Balitmore appeared on the horizon. I got some pictures of the skyline from the west. The second picture is unaltered, so you can see why I auto-corrected them.











Here's a couple bad pictures of Baltimore.





We flew over Townson, a suburb and the seat of Baltimore County (not to be confused with Baltimore City). Towson is developing a little bit of a skyline.





I got a picture of Fort McHenry, in the center on that point of land. It would've been easier to see if it was earlier in the day, but oh well. You can see I-95 and I-895 enter thei tunnels to go under the Patapsco River.



I zoomed in on Downtown Baltimore as we flew past. The neighborhood of Canton is on the right, and the 1st Mariner Building, out on its own in Southeast Baltimore near Canton, is in the foreground.





Here's a couple more pictures of Downtown, with the port in the foreground.





We flew right over Fort Carroll, in the Patapsco River. Fort Carroll was built in 1847 to help protect Baltimore from attack by sea, since Fort McHenry was the only protection at the time. Obviously, the fort is an artificial island.





I got a couple nice pictures of the Patapsco River, and the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which carries I-695, or the Baltimore Beltway.





I picked the best side of the plane to get views of Baltimore and it's skyline.







One last picture of Baltimore's skyline, with the Towson skyline in the background.



And I'm home!





So, now that I've concluded my trip out West, I'll let any Westerners who have been following this thread see where I got away from for a few days. These pictures were taken in the days before and after I went to Arizona in late October.


What does the scenery look like here? Here's a creek that goes through some of Wilmington's suburbs, called Pike Creek.







Northern Delaware is on the edge of the Piedmont Plateau. Here, it's hilly along creeks, and flatter on hilltops, because the plateau was eroded by these creeks long ago. In some areas, the hillsides are steep enough that you can't really develop on them. This is what it looks like driving along Upper Pike Creek Road, along the actual creek.



Here's what a creek a little south, on the Atlantic Coastal Plain, looks like. This is outside of Delaware City. More pictures of Delaware City later.



Our biggest city is Wilmington. The population is around 75,000. That's small, but the city limits are archaic. The suburbs add hundreds of thousands to the metro population. New Castle County, of which Wilmington is the seat, has a population of 550,000.

























Here's what some of our suburbs look like. First is the town of Elsmere, which is a streetcar suburb from the 1900s and 1910s, and is kind of run-down now.









A little northwest of Elsmere is The Cedars, which is another streetcar suburb, but is now more like just a little neighborhood. Near The Cedars was an amusement park, Brandywine Park. It was typical for streetcar lines to end at an amusement park in the old days.





West of The Cedars is a big suburban area called Pike Creek. Pike Creek is centered around the creek called, obviously, Pike Creek. You saw it in those pictures just above. Pike Creek is basically north of Kirkwood Highway (DE Route 2), along Limestone Road and Polly Drummond Hill Road, and in between, until you reach Hockessin.



Outside of the heavily-developed area are some small towns. One is Delaware City, located at the eastern terminus of the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal. Delaware City was a boomtown in 1829 when the canal opened, but it was short-lived, as railroads were popping up in Delaware and the surrounding area within 5 years. Delaware City is one of the many quaint towns in Delaware, with even prettier towns like Odessa, Lewes, Bethel, and Milton, but this will have to whet your appetite for now.















Be sure to look for upcoming Arizona photothreads. Here's what I'll be posting:

Scottsdale
Phoenix (upcoming)
Flagstaff (upcoming)
Valle (upcoming)
Grand Canyon Village (upcoming)

I was able to feed my wanderlust and cross some places off of my bucket list. Here's some other things in the Southwest on my bucket list:

Bright Angel Trail, or somewhere inside the Grand Canyon
Monument Valley
Painted Desert
Petrified Forest
Meteor Crater
Supai
Williams
Jerome
Sedona
The most amazing ghost towns in the Southwest
Tucson
Some border town in Mexico
Tombstone
Bisbee
Santa Fe
Albuquerque
One of the pueblo towns
Some structure built before 1600
Petroglyphs
The Mighty 5 (Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Captiol Reef, and Zion National Parks)

Some final thoughts on Arizona, Nevada, and the Southwest:

~ What amazing scenery! So what if Phoenix "isn't urban enough" or anything like that. I'd live anywhere in the Phoenix metro if it meant having time to see all of the amazing places in the state.
~ There are a ton of National Monuments and National Parks in Arizona. It seems like there are too many to count. It appears that there are 21 places in the National Park System in Arizona. Has anyone been to most or all of them?
~ Who knew a vast expanse of dirt (i.e. the desert) would be so spectacular!
~ After looking at my pictures of Utah and Wyoming, the Northwest is a cool place in its own right. It would be cool to drive around the great expanses of Montana and Wyoming, or to see the mountains of Idaho, Utah, or Colorado.
~ Having posted my pictures of southern Utah, I'm now seeing advertisements on TV for the Mighty 5, the five national parks in southern Utah. Southern Utah and northern Arizona might be the most amazing natural scenery in the world.
~ Did I mention how great the scenery is?

Some final questions:

~ What are the most historic neighborhoods and urban areas in each Southwest city? Obviously, central areas will dominate, but are there any other areas? Old Town Scottsdale is one place that might go unnoticed, whereas Downtown Santa Fe is very well-known.
~ I'd like to visit a border town in Mexico some time. Even a border town would seem exotic. What is the safest one? Ciudad Juarez is probably the worst place to go. When I was in San Diego in 2009, I really wanted to see Tijuana, and Zona Centro seems like a historic neighborhood to explore, but it seems dangerous. Mexicali would be cool to see, to see a Mexican state capital and state capitol.
~ What are the best ghost towns in the West? Calico seems like one. How about Rhyolite? Jerome? What else?




That's the end of my pictures!
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  #37  
Old Posted Apr 9, 2015, 3:38 PM
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The east coast is such a different place and environment than the west coast. You Delaware pictures at the end intrigue me.

Thanks for all of the pics, looking forward to the upcoming threads.
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  #38  
Old Posted Apr 9, 2015, 6:47 PM
Leo the Dog Leo the Dog is offline
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Tijuana has gotten much safer in recent years. It's an absolute zoo compared to civil San Diego. It's shocking to say the least.
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  #39  
Old Posted Apr 12, 2015, 1:57 AM
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xzmattzx xzmattzx is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Leo the Dog View Post
Tijuana has gotten much safer in recent years. It's an absolute zoo compared to civil San Diego. It's shocking to say the least.
Glad to hear that it's safer. I can imagine it being wilder than the US. If it were safe enough for walking around, I would go over there if I made it back to San Diego.

Quote:
Originally Posted by PHX31 View Post
The east coast is such a different place and environment than the west coast. You Delaware pictures at the end intrigue me.

Thanks for all of the pics, looking forward to the upcoming threads.
Here's some more Delaware for you. I went downstate for a few hours and got some pictures while roaming around.

Seaford













Laurel











By the way, Flagstaff pictures are up!
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