A New Cross Country Road Trip
We wrapped up our 9-week trip in South America. Whew! What an adventure!
Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, Taos, New Mexico. ISO320, 16mm, f/8, 15sec
After picking up our car from the east coast, we took a small break to see family, repacked our luggage, and started another cross country road trip.
We drove across 2 time zones, 9 states over the past week, and slowed down a bit in New Mexico and Arizona, when we finally got some good weather. Before that, there was only one sunset with colors.
Sunset in Peoria, IL. ISO100, 35mm, f/9, 179sec
We packed so many medicines for South America and didn’t use any. Ironically, we had to use a lot of them - ranging from cold, cough, diarrhea, etc - over the first 3 days we were back. Looks we are better off traveling!
I can’t comment too much on the places we visited, mostly in the middle of nowhere for the first week. See following some snow scenes in New Mexico.
We arrived in Petrified Forest National Park on Sunday, just 30 minutes before park closed.
Sunset was 5:09pm, but everyone had to leave the park by 5pm, so my best option was to photograph toward the east in the golden hours. I quickly picked Painted Desert lookout based on the map. It was the only lookout that was close enough to the park entrance, allowing me 5 minutes to photograph and leave the park on time.
So this is one of my works in the limited 5 minutes. (See How To Master Timing To Capture The Best Landscape Photos)
I had the whole lookout to myself. It was peaceful, surreal and magic. I wish I could stay longer. Alas, this is my version of perfect time at the perfect place.
ISO100, 35mm, f/11, 1/8sec. Lee graduated neutral density filter used to cover the sky.
See additional US road trips we’ve done in the past
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