Delicate /  by Dave Hileman

The intricacies of a simple flower that one glances at in a field of flowers. The minute of this world is as staggering as the universe is awe inspiring.

City of Rocks, too /  by Dave Hileman

Two more shots from this unique spot in New Mexico. The first photo here was near sunset - my second trip into the rocks. As I said yesterday you could roam freely around the park. However it does not mean there are no dangers. People tend to be less cautious than they need to be far too often. Just a few hundred feet from the right edge of the rocks in the photo a man died from a fall the day before we arrived. Don’t take a vacation from common sense.

Great overview of City of Rocks from a nearby ridge. The trailers, the rocks, the plateau and the distant mountains near sunset.

Otherworldly

Room with a view

City of Rocks /  by Dave Hileman

In south central New Mexico is a unique cluster of large boulders atop a gentle hill in the midst of the otherwise seemingly empty landscape. This is City of Rocks State Park. We camped here for two nights - should have stayed longer, to facilitate a visit to a remote National Park, Gila Cliff Dwellings about 2 hours away. The rock formations also included several trees as the rocks allowed some of the snow melt here to collect along with the rare rain storm to provide sufficient water for a few trees. You were free to roam across the mile or so of the jumble of rocks and explore without defined paths. It was quite interesting however it was cold and windy when we were there. Windy was the theme for much of our trip. I will share a couple of photos today and tomorrow.

The shade of a tree is so appreciated in this land

If this place is a “city” this is the main street

Pun Alert /  by Dave Hileman

I finally got my first Shovel Ready Photograph.

This is taken in a hardware store circa early 1900’s in Alderson, West Virginia. Still in operation. More about this place later.

Hope you didn’t have to pitch in too much energy to handle this photo and that your week has a lot of smiles in it.

800 Feet /  by Dave Hileman

At the upper end of the canyon at Zion National Park, just a few yards down the trail to the Narrows, is a view you do not get most of the year while visiting Zion. The heavy snow pack had waterfalls up and down the valley but none of them were has high nor as powerful as this one. The rangers said it was at least 800 feet, that is an 80 story building, and was rapidly filling the Virgin River that runs through the canyon. We were so fortunate this spring to encounter the majesty of Zion with a unique opportunity to see several tall and mighty falls.

We Interrupt this Blog for a Special News Update /  by Dave Hileman

Dateline - Raleigh, August 2023: It is now being reported by reliable sources that Kellen - grandson to the Two Lane Touring editors, has asked the lovely Lauren to marry him. The answer was yes and the ring of engagement slipped on her finger. The citizens of the greater Raleigh area are celebrating now even though the impending vows are almost two years away. The families of both of the newly minted fiancees are reported to be very pleased, indeed brimming with excitement. Someone’s grandparents are thrilled. The planning has already begun for what will be the most watched event of 2025. Stay tuned to this channel for updates, the latest news, and the most farfetched rumors.

Busy /  by Dave Hileman

There is a small park near our house, Wooten Meadow Park. It is in a depression between two housing developments and along Hare Snipe Creek. It has a walking trail in the form of a paved figure 8 of only one quarter mile. The first half loop is wetlands and wild flowers with three tiny ponds and wild grasses, the second is a flat grass area where kids and dogs like to play. I don’t often walk here because of the size but I should because the flowers are beautiful and there are three kinds of water lillies as well. The flower here is well past peak but the bees were still busy getting every last bit of nutrient they could. This is a fun photo to super enlarge. At least it is to me, you may in fact be normal:)

US Route 60 /  by Dave Hileman

We read often of Route 66 but other US highways crossed the US going from Sea to Sea while the fabled Route 66 was from Chicago to Santa Monica. US 60 once stretched about 3000 miles from the Atlantic Ocean to San Diego but in 1972 the California portion was deactivated as a US designated highway. US 60 is a road I drove often living in Williamsburg as it went through town and a good alternate route to I-64 if you were traveling to Richmond. I have driven it from the starting point in Virginia Beach to the end in Virginia at the West Virginia line and beyond. So, I was excited to find in a very rural and out of the way portion of New Mexico that I was once again traveling on US 60, this time from Abu to Mountainair along one of the busiest transcontinental railroads. We spent a bit of time in Mountainair waiting for the NPS Visitor Center to open and toured some of the town. This block of of three motel units was all that was left of a 1920’s - 1930’s motel, from a time when Mountainair was a busier place with the coast to coast traffic. So if you want to explore a long, scenic and endlessly interesting highway try US 60 or US 2 or US 30 and leave the over-hyped Route 66.

Content Advisory /  by Dave Hileman

This photo shows the most common wildlife encountered in the Beartown State Park. They come in various iterations from the annoying Selfious Photogium to the silly Snapious Photogium (the subspecies Snapious Photon Photogium is nearly extinct forced out by the ubiquious Snapivarious Phonious Photogium) and finally the most intrusive of all the Tripodium Photogium captured here in a singular, nearly rational moment. Most often this species is frantically dashing to and fro peering into small black accouterments and bemoaning the “light.”

This particular specimen is rare for this area as it is usually confined to coastal America and drawn to old boats and iron horses. We also see here the typical costume of this species, hat, usually red, hiking boots (even for the back yard) satchel and “any kind of weather” clothing from the last century. We also observe him in the usual blocking posture while focused on some minutiae unseen by normals. Please note there are various scientific opinions as to whether the black box is fixed to the host or if it can be removed. Most hold to the idea it is removable but that has never been verified in the wild.

So if you choose to visit Beartown State Park in West Virginia and I recommend that you do, bring lots of Photogium spray.  A simple device that you aim toward the attached equipment and with just a few drops of water the Photogium will flee back to some shelter and you can enjoy your hike.

PS, output of this particular Tripodium Photogium can be viewed at www.thewanderinglensman.com

Viewer discretion advised.

Green Dragon /  by Dave Hileman

This is a fiddlehead from a fern located in the Beartown State Park in West Virginia. Beartown is worth the trip to experience a remote, boulder strewn landscape cloaked in ferns, pines, mountain laurel, mist and mystery. There is a boardwalk that twists and turns over the landscape. Tomorrow’s photo will show the native wildlife.

Abo /  by Dave Hileman

These are the remains of a late 1500’s Spanish Mission Church at the Abo section of the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument. You can imagine how impressive it was rising six stories high over the pueblos on the high desert south of Albuquerque. There were three different pueblo mission churches served by this single NPS designation and they are about 20 miles apart. I really was deeply moved by this place, not sure why but I was.

New Visitor Center Entrance Plaza at Mesa Verde National Park /  by Dave Hileman

The old VC is still in partial use - a log structure built by the CCC miles into the park where most of the cliff dwellings are located. It takes an hour to drive to this portion of the park at the southern end. In contrast the new VC is just a few hundred feet into the park at the northern edge. You can get needed permits and passes here. .

This is a striking piece of an Indian with a basket of stones as would be needed in the construction of the dwellings.