Road trip - Hoover Dam, Sedona and Monument Valley

Last week I went on a road trip to Sedona and Monument Valley in AZ.


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First stop Lake Mead, Nevada. Looked like rain. Thankfully it didn't. Not for another 2 hours. Hoover dam was next. It was packed with tourists, cold and overcast skies. Looking down the dam from the top, I wished I had a bicycle or something to slide down the slope of the dam.





Just a few miles out of Hoover dam we were treated to some truly wonderful, jaw dropping light play. The sun dove from behind the clouds just before setting, over a river (probably Colorado River) and behind mountains. That was the first time I ever saw such rays of light that made it look like the sets of a fairy tale - dark clouds above, quickly swallowing the last golden rays of the sun.





That evening we drove through sheets of rain. We were lucky we didn't miss anything because of the rain. We were already on our way towards Phoenix.

The next day we headed towards Sedona. We stopped at Montezuma's Castle for about an hour.



Sedona is where the Red Rock Canyon is. A nice city nestled between the Mountains, on the Canyon floor. I loved the city more than the Canyons. We regretted not doing the Hot air balloon ride over the Canyons. Next time perhaps. It starts early in the morning at 6 AM. It was too late by then for us.







After watching the sun set over the Canyons, we headed north towards Monument Valley. We stopped for the night at Kayenta.

The first thing you get to see as you drive towards Monument Valley is El Capitan, the solitary formation that greets all visitors.



Monument valley is almost close to the place where 4 states meet - Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. This is quite similar to the formations in Bryce Canyon but no way near it in terms of sheer number of such structures at Bryce. At Monument valley, there are a few stand alone structures spread across a vast plain. Certainly worth a visit if you loved watching MacKenna's Gold.

Road trip - Sequoia and Death Valley

I went to Sequoia National Park and Death Valley this long Thanksgiving weekend with friends.

Here's our route map:


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We started on Friday evening from the Bay Area and reached Three Rivers, near Sequoia and stayed at a motel there. The drive up to Sequoia was covered in a thick fog that you could almost cut with a knife. Well that's how it looked to me because I'd never driven through fog before.

Anyway, the next morning we were up and about in Sequoia and the first thing we saw was a pair of Black bears (one was brown in color) feeding on berries or something, on a tree right next to the road. What luck!



Sequoia was disappointing because everywhere we went, there was fog. We could barely see the top of "General Sherman" - the star attraction at the park. This was obviously not the right season.



All we did there was hike around Crescent Meadow.



On our way back, we drove past a wandering Coyote. At first, I thought it was a dog, because it was standing on the road, staring at us and hoping we'd throw something to eat. We didn't. Obviously - "Don't feed the animals".



By evening, we had already left the Park and we were well on our way to Death Valley. We stayed at Beatty, NV because that was the only place we could find a vacancy.

The next morning, we had breakfast at a nice little Mexican joint in Beatty and headed to Death Valley.

Death Valley has basically 2 circuits - the northern leg and southern leg. We did the north stretch - Titus Canyon, Scotty's Castle and Ubehehe Crater. The Racetrack was too far away and we were driving a rental car with mileage problems (Yes, it was an American 4x4). So, we had to skip it. Northern circuit was so so, except for the Crater.





Day 2 - the southern circuit was very good. The Sand dunes, Devil's golf course, Badwater, Artist's drive and Dante's View were wonderful.





We were on Dante's View during sunset and it was very windy but beautiful. Zabriskie point is probably a nice spot to watch the sun set like Dante's.







Food at Lone Pine was good - Pizza Factory and a Mexican place called Bonanza.

Camelus dromedarius (Apache Camel - for lack of a witty title)

If you still haven't heard of Apache Camel or seen how elegant the concept is, you should stop and have a look.

I think a lot of credit should also be give to the authors of the Enterprise Integration Patterns book. I wouldn't consider the book to be ground breaking, but a worthy reference book. Just like the old GoF Patterns book.