Sonoran Rhythms

I am back from my Thanksgiving journey in the far West and man, that was really awesome. Far away from cities during those rush hours of Black Friday and far away from crowded stores, I was wandering around in the Sonoran Desert in search of quietness and relaxation.

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And that is exactly what I got : miles and miles of trecking in the wilderness along deserted tracks and miles and miles of driving along secondary roads into uninhabited areas where services are scarse and traffic barely existant. But most of all, I came back with a plethora of pristine landscape memories that will stay forever in my mind.

A road-trip along the Mexican border in the Sonoran wilderness

• Wednesday

Early in the morning, I flew from Atlanta to Phoenix aboard a Delta Airlines Boeing 767-300 jet. I then headed to Tucson to explore the Southern part of Arizona and the Sonoran desert.

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With architectural landmarks such as this one, Tucson is undoubtedly an old city from the South West.

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White roman-catholic cathedrals remind the traveller of the Spanish and Mexican history of this part of the United States.

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Incidentally, Spanish and English are both official languages in Arizona.

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Saint Augustine Cathedral in Tucson

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• Thursday

Thursday clinged as the beginning of the exploration. Surrounded to the West and to the East by Saguaro National Park, a traveller getting out of Tucson cannot miss the huge and unmistakable shapes of giant Saguaros.

Saguaro and Choilla cacti in the Eastern part of the park

The giant saguaro is the largest of all cacti found in the United States and has thus become an iconic representant of the Grand Canyon state.

The Saguaro -Carnegiea gigantea- pronounced sah-wah-roh is a tree-sized cactus commonly found in South Arizona.
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Reaching up to six meters, they outlive human beings as they may grow for up to two hundred years. Their body is composed of wooden ribs holding water and surrounded by a thick skin covered with spikes to protect the cactus against predators and to limit water evaporation.

A giant 200-years old Saguaro next to a tiny bush of Pricky Pear Cacti

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The skin is pleated so that the cactus may contract itself during periods of drought and may dilate itself to accomodate more water after Winter rainfalls or Summer thunderstorms. The largest saguaro can hold up to eight tons of water.

Saguaros produce a flower and a sweety fruit that is pollinized by bats and that can be eaten. Native Americans used to collect them to prepare their own food.

Fascinated by this giant cactus, Native Americans were treating Saguaros as living creatures.
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Respect the Giant Saguaro for it is your brother...

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The journey to the South brings me to highlands and plateaus reaching up to 4,000 feets. Temperatures are cooler and water is more abundant permitting more complex and denser forms of vegetation.

An overwhelming silence surrounds the highlands West of Tombstone

The next stop was Tombstone, Arizona where one of the most famous gunfight occured on October of 1881. In this place that would later symbolize the struggle between law-and-order and rustling in frontier towns of the West, the Earp and the Clanton factions met to settle one of the west most famous feud.

Trailer from the
Gunfight at the OK Corral

Burt Lancaster
Kirk Douglas
(1957)
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OK Corral, OK Corral...

There the outlaw band

Made their final stand.

OK Corral...

Oh my dearest one, must I

Lay down my gun?

Or take the chance

Of losing you forever?

Duty calls

My back's against the wall.

Have you no kind word to say

Before I ride away? Away...

Your love, your love,

I need , your love...

Keep the flame, let it burn

Untill I return
From the Gunfight at OK Corral.

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If the Lord is my friend
We'll meet at the end
Of the Gunfight at OK Corral.
Gunfight at OK Corral.

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Boot Hill
Boot Hill
So cold
So still
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There they lay side by side
The killers that died
In the gunfight at OK Corral
OK Corral

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Gunfight at OK Corral

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• Friday

Friday started my skimming along the Mexican border. From Tucson to Yuma through Aro, Kitt Peaks and Organ Pipes National Park. The journey consisted of almost three hundred miles through the great Sonoran desert. Midway between Tucson and Yuma, I stopped on top of the 7000ft-high Kitt Peak to visit some observatories. There was several telescopes there but in the lot stand the rather unusual McMath-Pierce solar telescope featuring an heliostat. Interesting it was...

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Desolated landscapes in the Organ Pipes Natural Park. A United Nation international Biosphere Reserve. Life is scarce during the day when temperatures reach up to 40°C.

The cactus on the left is the so-called Organ Pipe Cactus. Organ Pipe cacti require sunlight and high temperatures to grow and flourish.

Only low elevations such as those found around Organ Pipes National Park and Baja California in Mexico are suitable for this kind of species.

Organ pipes in the last sunrays of the day

The next step of the journey consisted of driving further West to Yuma on the banks of the Colorado river right on the Arizona and California border. While entering California, some forms of human civilisation start to show up again. The most obvious one is traffic both on roads and railtracks. Railtracks... Speaking of railtracks, when I was a little kid, I used to count with my brothers the number of cars on those endless American trains. I think we found some in California that were fifty-car long.

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Yuma is another symbol of the American Far West with the famous 3:10 to Yuma movie taking place there. .
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Trailer for 3:10 to Yuma available here.

(1957)

Glenn Ford

Van Heflin

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There is a lonely train,
Called the 3:10 to Yuma.
The pounding of the wheels,
Is more like a mournful sigh.

There's a legend and there's a rumor,
When you take the 3:10 to Yuma,
You can see the ghosts,
Of outlaws go riding by.

In the sky, way up high,
Tthe buzzards keep circling the train.
While below,

The cattle are thirsting for rain.

It's also true, they say,
On the 3:10 to Yuma,
A man may meet his fate,

For fate travels everywhere.

Though you've got no reason to go there,
And there ain't a soul that you know there,
When the 3:10 to Yuma whistles its sad refrain,
Take that train! Take that train!

Well, as far as I am concerned... I wouldn't ride on that train....

• Saturday

Saturday started the beginning of my Californian adventure. From Yuma, I headed to the Imperial Sand Dunes and later to Calexico, one of those twin-cities along the Mexican border: Calexico in California and Mexicali in Mexico.

There is a little bit of Sahara in this picture. Don't ask me why...

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Later in the day, I headed North to Salton Sea, Indio and Mount Palomar. For me, it was a trip back in time and in my very own footsteps which brought back fond memories of childhood. I went there in 1991 and I still think of it as if it were yesterday. I remember playing and splashing all around while swimming with my huge inflatable hippo in Salton Sea. It was 16 years ago ... I'm getting old I guess.

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Mount Palomar Hale telescope. The 200-inch telescope features adaptative optics and remained the world largest telescope for 45 years between 1948 and 1993.

Mount Palomar observatory stands high on the Coastal Range at 5550 feet above the Pacific. Operated by the California Institute of Technology (those lucky bas....!), it is one of the first modern Cassegrain telescope. However, even at that altitude the ever-growing light polution from public lighting in San Diego and Southern California dooms the future of this otherwise great facility.

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• Sunday

Sunday was my second day in California. Starting my journey in cosy Palm Springs in the Coachella Valley, I drove East to Joshua Tree National Park. Coachella Valley lies at the junction between the Northwest-moving Pacific Plate and the North American Plate. With the two plates rubbing each other, it is therefore a place of large sismic activity.

Lying in the middle of the Coachella Valley, the San Andreas fault reminds us that California is one of the most Earthquake-prone place on Earth

Here is the so called Joshua Tree - Yucca Brevifolia. Joshua Trees are very common in the elevated Mojave desert of Utah and Nevada. Joshua Tree National Park lies on the Southern edge of its natural geographical spread and marks the northern border of the Sonoran desert.

The name Joshua tree was given by a group of Latter Day Saints who crossed the Mojave Desert in the mid-19th century. The tree's unique shape reminded them of a Biblical story in which Joshua reaches his hands up to the sky to stop the sun by God's command.
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A Joshua Tree in all its glory

The tips of Joshua Trees and their flower remind observers that this is indeed a Yucca.

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Granite outcrop formations are the signature of Joshua Tree National Park. Formed in deep intrusions, these rocks underly most of California's mountain ranges from the Sierra Nevada to the Mexican border. Because it cools slowly, its minerals grow into large, tightly locked grains. This is the medium in which weathering and erosion of various kinds have sculpted Joshua Tree's remarkable landforms.

A skull seems to emerge amongst granite boulders

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• Monday

Monday consisted of crossing the Colorado river and driving back to Phoenix. I stayed only a couple of hours in Phoenix while awaiting my flight back to Atlanta. Boarded the Boeing 757-200 very early Tuesday morning to get back in town Tuesday by 6am.

The Colorado river in an oasis of life lost amongst hundreds of square miles of arid and unforgiving landscapes

A video of this journey is available here. Enjoy !!

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Cross country to North Carolina

I haven't posted for a while, not because of lack of time but because of lazyness I guess. So I thought a little update about what I was going through would be welcomed... Well, last week-end was pretty fantastic, the highlight being a very nice flight to North Carolina.

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There are several milestones attached to this flight so you can expect a pretty comprehensive story about it... I am nevertheless awaiting the pictures from my friend to post a complete report. In the meantime, you will have to help yourself with this little petty appetizer...

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So I flew with a good friend of mine deep into the Great Smoky Mountains up to Bryson City and Franklin in North Carolina. In Bryson City, we skimmed along the Tennessee borderline before heading back South again to Franklin. Up there, we enjoyed an awesome view over the Appalachians : miles and miles of endless and uninhabited mountains reching more than 6,000ft. I was expecting a bumpy ride over those peaks but at 7,500ft turbulence was allright. Choppy from times to times but nothing major. The crystal clear weather above a thin layer of haze as well as the late evening sunrays added some fiery colors to an already dramatic late Fall festival of red and orange. What a sight !!

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As might be observed in the picture, large embankments of sand along Lake Fontana are clear indicators of the worst drought in decades that the South East is experiencing. According to the media, there are only sixty-days of water left in Lake Lanier, the major water reservoir supplying Atlanta... Well... well... well...

After almost two hours in the air, we glided peacefully towards Franklin airport where we stretched our legs and enjoyed the calm and peacefull atmosphere surrounding those massive mountains. We took the opportunity to refuel both the aircraft and our bellies for the late afternoon and early dusk trip back home.

This is bitsy birdy, the little Cessna C172 that hauled both of us during the entire trip. Seen here cooling down and resting on the ramp while awaiting us to return to its home base in Atlanta. The sunshine nearly transformed the ramp into a bright sea of silver...

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That's it for today...as soon as I get new pictures, I will update the thread.

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Cleared my Quals

Done.
I still can't believe it but I am done. I guess I am off for at least six months of celebration, dancing, flying and travelling. Yeah, I believe I will need at least six months to go back to my studies...

I left so much behind me to come here and do this PhD, I couldn't afford to miss the step. Too much left and lost forever, it couldn't be for nothing.