Canyon de Chelly: Part 1: The Rim Drives

by Richard Quinn | Dec 2, 2023 | Road Trips, Travel, Tribal Lands

Canyon de Chelly (“D’Shay”) is a geological marvel of the first order, a hidden treasure, tucked away in a remote section of the Navajo Reservation in northeastern Arizona. It’s one of the more striking features of the Colorado Plateau, where sediments from an ancient...

Mexican Road Trip: How to Plan and Prepare for a Drive to the Yucatan

by Richard Quinn | Nov 4, 2023 | Mexico, Road Trips, Travel

People who don’t live in Mexico tend to assume, based on what they see on the news, that the whole country is unsafe for road trips. Ask just about anyone, and they’ll tell you that driving your own vehicle anywhere south of the border is foolishly risky....

Day of the Dead in San Miguel de Allende

by Richard Quinn | Oct 20, 2023 | Mexico, Travel

The Dia de Los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a national holiday in Mexico, a tradition that’s so deeply ingrained in the collective psyche of the country that it’s almost a cultural imperative. The actual holiday–the day the banks and government...

Chichén Itzá: Requiem for the Feathered Serpent

by Richard Quinn | Oct 14, 2023 | Maya, Mexico, Travel

The Temple of Kukulkan, the Feathered Serpent, is the largest structure in the ancient city of Chichén Itzá. Often referred to as the Castillo, it is perhaps the most perfect example of a Mayan step pyramid to have survived into our modern age, and it’s so well...

A Serendipitous Sunset at Shiprock

by Richard Quinn | Sep 5, 2023 | Travel, Tribal Lands

What do you call it when you stumble across something wonderful that you didn’t know anything about in advance? Some people say that’s just good old-fashioned luck, while folks that are a bit more full of themselves tend to consider it fate, or destiny....

Photographer’s Assignment: Mount Rainier

by Richard Quinn | Aug 30, 2023 | Mountains, National Parks, Photography, Road Trips, Travel

The State of Washington has a population of almost eight million people, and more than half of them live in or near Seattle, the 15th largest metropolitan area in the U.S. There are several things that all those folks have in common: An extremely high cost of living...

Photographer’s Assignment: Crater Lake

by Richard Quinn | Aug 12, 2023 | Mountains, National Parks, Photography, Road Trips, Travel

The Cascade Range is a major chain of mountains that begins in northern California, and runs through Oregon and Washington before crossing the border into Canada. Many of the peaks in the range are volcanoes, most long dormant, but some still active, part of the...

San Xavier del Bac: The White Dove of the Desert

by Richard Quinn | Jul 25, 2023 | Arizona and New Mexico, Travel

Arizona didn’t become a state until 1912, the last of the contiguous 48 states to get the upgrade from U.S. Territory to full statehood. Prior to that time, which wasn’t so very long ago, it was still the Wild West, complete with real cowboys and renegade Apaches, a...

Granada Park: An Avian Oasis in the Heart of Phoenix

by Richard Quinn | Jul 18, 2023 | Arizona and New Mexico, Photography, Travel

I’ve lived near Granada Park for most of my life. It’s hardly an exotic destination, and it’s far too popular to be considered “less traveled,” but over the course of time, I’ve discovered that there are goings on here that not everyone sees. Granada...

Magnificent Monoliths: The Enigmatic Idols of San Agustin

by Richard Quinn | Jul 13, 2023 | Archaeology, South America, Travel

The San Agustin Archaeological Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in the Huila Department of Southwestern Colombia, a mountainous region near the headwaters of the Magdalena River. Within the park is the largest complex of funerary monuments and statuary on...