desertDJ’s Halo Halo

This week temperatures dropped to the 60s for the high, bringing back memories of hot chocolate, Christmas lights, sweaters, and for some of us, snowboarding. Before I got into snowboarding we did the next best thing, sledding.

In 2005 a freak snow storm in March extended our winter season just a bit longer that year. Even in Sedona, the normally rusty red rocks were all but covered up with the white snow. In our attempt to reach Flagstaff for some snow play (read blog story about the accident), we only got to Prescott, which had over a foot of snow there.

Right near the trout farm in Oak Creek Canyon is a campsite I’ve visited many times when I was younger so I wanted to capture the snow with Oak Creek. This shot was taken right on the bridge that goes over the river to the trout farm.

Remember, be sure to click on the photo to see the full resolution version.

Snow in Sedona

I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want.
If you’re looking for ransom, I can tell you I don’t have money.
But what I DO have are a very particular set of skills,
skills that i have acquired over a very short career,
skills that make me a nightmare for people like you.
If you let my bike go now, that’ll be the end of it
but if you don’t…

My missing bike

Earlier this year we took a road trip to Colorado. To get there we had to get through a lot of Arizona, up through the 4 Corners. I was excited to drive though parts of Arizona I’ve never drove before. If I were by myself I would probably take a full day to get to Colorado with all the stops for photos. 

About an hour to an hour and a half outside of Flagstaff is the Petrified National Forest. What a unique place!  Normally when a tree dies, as all things living eventually do, it rots and turns back to earth. Well that never happened in this one small patch of Arizona. It turned into rock hard stone. In that process it also turned into a kaleidoscope of colors too. 

If you ever get the chance to visit the place, you’ll notice the whole area looks like you’re on another planet. I’ll post some of those photos another day. For new enjoy the petrified wood.  Be sure to click and view the full size image to see the detail in the wood.

OK after a long, long break of posting my photos, I hope to get back to posting a new photo of mine weekly.

This was taken on Cebu island, driving from Cebu City to the tip of the island where we took a ferry across and eventually made it to our home in Dumaguete City. It was a 4 hour drive just on Cebu island. This is right in front of a massive church built about 400 years ago. Think about what life was like in the US that long ago? And in this part of the Philippines, the small town would make it’s way to mass every Sunday just like they do today.

In the provinces you would see this often, for a couple peso’s (less than .25 cents American) the driver on the bike can take you where ever you want. We thought we’re leading the world in being “green” in the US? This is the original hybrid. And it gets unlimited miles to a gallon!

(Click the image to see a bigger one)