stage 4: the southwest

The next bit of our car trip across the country brought us from Phoenix, where we stayed with some family friends, to somewhere near Las Cruces, New Mexico, where we camped. Somehow, we completely failed to take any pictures where we camped that night, but it was a nifty little place in the shadow of some great rock formations, set amid numerous desert plants. We got there just in time to set up the tent before dark. Which is true of most of our camping on that trip.

Update: Just kidding. Justin did snap a picture with his phone at the campsite. Here's me, in the morning, all sleepy-eyed and bed-headed and in my pj's.




Of course, southern Arizona is characterized by its many amazing saguaro catci, found only in the Sonoran desert (never mind that Texas often uses it as as symbol of that state, even though there are none to be found that far east). We stopped at a truck stop just to take this picture:




Somewhere in there (but it's all becoming a blur to me: the west was a hot, dry blur, and the east was a wet, green blur, but still, all a blur) we saw some absolutely awesome ancient cliff dwellings, made by Native Americans about 1000 years ago. This dwelling was five stories high, and the bottom story was at least a couple hundred feet off the ground. Totally astounding that people could do that, so long ago.