A drive through New Mexico’s Jemez Mountains: Visiting verdant Valle Caldera National Preserve and quirky Jemez Springs. Continue reading Wandering Westward through Valle Caldera National Preserve and the Jemez Mountains
After two hot and sunny days in the high-desert landscape of the Rio Grande Gorge, I am craving cool green forest. I head up the High Road toward Santa Fe, excited to drive this quintessential New Mexico route for the first time. Continue reading Driving the High Road: Taos to Bandelier National Monument
Wandering the blue highways of northern New Mexico is a true treat. Today’s route takes me through state parks and national forest, near Hermit’s Peak and through wildflowers by Coyote Creek, past a restored Fred Harvey railroad hotel. And did I mention the secretive Scientology base? Continue reading A day of Wandering New Mexico’s Blue Highways: 7 Towns, 3 State Parks, 1 National Forest
Arguably one of the prettiest places in the U.S., a visit to heavenly Mendocino County just may have you dreaming of trading in city life to live out your days in the country. If I ever become weary of wandering, you may just find this “brighlighter” rooted here. Continue reading Bahl Hornin’ (Good drinking) in Anderson Valley, California
“It is necessary to leave the impersonal highway, to step inside the rusty gate and close it behind. One is now inside the orange grove, out of one world and mysteriously in the heart of another. And after long years of spiritual homelessness, of nostalgia, here is that mystic loveliness of childhood again.” — Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (Cross Creek, 1942) Continue reading Southward We Wander: Tiny North Florida Towns (Part 2)
The photographer in me finds the charred remains of the burnt forest darkly beautiful. I quickly push that ugly thought from my mind and do not stop to take pictures of the scarred landscape. The sky is hazy. The west is burning. But in New Mexico’s Enchanted Circle we will find blue skies and a surprisingly sweet tourist town. Continue reading Enchanted Circle / Eagle Nest Lake State Park
Westward We Wander 