 Giuseppe  Thursday, 31st of January 2008 at 07:42:28 PM
Dawn over El Paso (View towards border). Early in the morning I started from El Paso towards the Carlsbad Caverns, my first New Mexico adventure. A 3h drive through untouched nature. I arrived around 10 am at the Carlsbad Caverns, taking a coffee break at the visitor center.
I decided to hike and to not use the elevators. Equipped with camera and tripod I entered the cave. I did several long exposures experiminting with different settings, and I walked about 3 h in the dark cave system and was really tired at the end.
I arrived back in El Paso at around 5pm. Enough time to visit the three missions at the El Paso mission trail. But I had to hurry, there was only 1 hour to sunset and it slowly began to dawn. The first one was the Ysleta Mission.Going south on the mission trail I visited also The Socorro Mission and finally another 4 miles south: San Elizario Mission.
Nigthly View from El Paso Scenic Drive down to the city.
After a beer in Rosas Cantina, and a big Texas Steak in the State Line Steak house I made a short walk over the bridge to Juarez anto the Guadelupe mission in the Mexican border town of Juarez. Unfortunartely my taxi driver frightened me with his warnings so I returnded very soon back to El Paso.
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Giuseppe Wednesday, 30th of January 2008 at 07:08:21 PM My plan today was to reach El Paso, Texas. Leaving Scottsdale I stopped in Mesa/Phoenix and I bought a Wide Angle Zoom lens for my Nikon D80. I saved around 150 Euro buying the lens in USA. I continued my trip from Scottdale towards Tucson where I had planed to visit the Saguaro N.P, and the San Xavier Le Bac Mission. Saguaros are the cactuses I like most of all.
This is one of the first photos with the 10-20mm wide angle. My Rental Car in the Saguaro N.P.
In 2001 I had visited the San Xavier Le Bac Mission and I wanted to see it again for some nice photos. Unfortunately the mission was in construction and half of it was covered by a construction canvas. So I continued my trip, knowing that it was still more than 4 h drive to El Paso. Last spot I visited in Tucson was a big airplane cemetary near the PIMA air museum.
On my way eastwards I stopped in Tombstone, which is around 1 1/2 hours drive time from Tucson. I made a short stop in Tombstone, strolling around in the main street.
Further 3 hours later, late in the evening I arrived in El Paso, TX. I was so tired from driving (560 miles today) that I took the first Hotel I found: The Camino Real in downtown, near the border bridges. This photo is a view over El Paso towards Juarez from my Hotel Room.
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Giuseppe Tuesday, 29th of January 2008 at 11:54:29 PM This morning I started my first longer drive. The plan was to drive from Las Vegas to Scottsdale for a short visit to Christianes aunt and uncle. Scottsdale was also the first stop in Arizona, on my way to my end-target: New Mexico. On my morning schedule was a visit of the new Skywalk at Grand Canyon West.
The last 20 miles to the Skywalk I had to drive a dirt road, which was really a challenge for my non-4WD rental car. But I was lucky that it hadn’t rained here recently. I had to drive through some muddy road holes.
View of the Skywalk and Grand Canyon. Unfortunately it was not allowed to take the camera on the skywalk platform. Around the Skywalk some exhibitions explained life and culture of Native Americans and some native american people showed some dances and their costumes.
View from Guano Point towards south direction of the Colorado River and Grand Canyon.
I arrived late tuesday evening in Scottsdale and visited Christianes aunt and uncle we had a very nice Steak diner in Cartwrights steak house in Scottsdale. I would say that was definetly the best steak I ever had.
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Giuseppe Tuesday, 29th of January 2008 at 11:34:39 PM This morning I drove 2 1/2 h north of Las Vegas to the Zion N.P.. I had planed a 5 h hike to Angels Landing. Unfortunaely it was snowing in Zion and I couldn’t do that hike. I drove up the Virgin river valley and took some photos.
Winter scene in Zion N.P.
Monday evening back in Las Vegas I took some more photos from less known spots. Knowing I would leave Las Vegas the next morning. I photographed several Hotel casinos like the MGM and NYNY Hotels and Hooters.
The Hooters is located in Tropicana Rd next to Tropicano Casino, opposite to MGM.
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Giuseppe Sunday, 27th of January 2008 at 10:55:16 PM Unfortunately on my first day, the weather was not nice. It was rainy, so I decided to do some shopping. Heading towards Fashion Show Mall, I noticed the new Trump Tower, which was not there on my last visit in 2006. Las Vegas constantly changes its face. The Trump Tower is located north of TI and opposite to Wynn, behind the spot where the Frontier was located. Frontier has gone too. I remember a nice shot I had made in 2006 of the Frontier sign. Now everything of the Frontier is gone. They left the sign only and I was told they are planing to rebuild a New Frontier.
Photo shows the Fashion Show Mall, where I like to shop . My favourite stores in the Fashion Show Mall are Levis and Sketchers. I also check out always the Ticket4less shop, and of course I always pick a take-away coffe at Starbucks. It had rained the whole day on this first day and I hadnt had any chance to photograph. Seeing that weather had improed at the evening I decided to make some nightly shots, so that the first day would still bring some shots to my collection.
I liked the neon colors of this Diner between North Strip and Downtown. I made photos of The Riviera from the Strip side and also from the Sahara Casino (photographed from the Self Park Garage deck). Going North towards Stratosphere and Downtown, more and more chapels can be seen on the strip.
Near Fremont Street I made this shot of a nice old Motel with broken i+d neon letters. I returned late to my Hotel the The Flamingo where I stayed the first three nights.
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