Ruins @ MindSay 
Home on Friday, after a Spring Fling dance at school- nothing like painting middle schoolers' faces to pass the final couple of hours before the much anticipated week off! We head out after dark and camp on the banks of the San Juan river in Bluff, Utah on our way to Arizona.
The next day we trek down dirt roads in search of ruins, (Butler Wash, southern Utah) but find mostly warm weather and solitude- exactly what we needed.
Across Monument Valley and reservation roads- warming up already!
A quick stop in Cameron AZ for a virtual cache- asking about this old bridge across the Little Colorado River, and the original name of this small roadside stop
The next night we are in Phoenix to see Eric Clapton- what an excellent start to the week- the music was amazing
Monday, we go hiking in red rock country- Boynton Canyon, a "vortex" spot near Sedona, and a beautiful area, beyond the clatter of resorts
Indian ruins and petroglyphs in Palatki take up the next afternoon
On Wednesday, we hike into the Beaver Creek Wilderness area- first a stop for a cache at a stage stop monument. This cache container looked like a small rock- took me awhile!
This virtual cache along the Beaver Creek trail highlighted an otherwise overlooked historic rock
A quick nap, then off to watch sunset from Schnebly Hill Road
and a cache in the dark- a little shaky following the trail back. . .
A hike into the West Fork of Oak Creek on Thursday- pine trees and patches of snow await in the furthest depths - perfect escape from the unseasonably hot weather- ahhh!
A drive into the pines on Friday and up a lookout mountain brings amazing panoramic views- but the cache we seek is missing!
Saturday marks the end of our stay in Sedona- we head north- it's St Patricks Day! 32 years ago we shared green beer at this pub in Flagstaff- we learn that it opened only a couple of years before that- and remains open today. We share a commemorative beer and a game of pool before continuing on.
For sunset on the rim of the Grand Canyon. . . .
Highlights of a great week. . . not sure I'm ready for reality, yet!
Breaking News!
Tourist Blown Off Great Wall? No! (It was really windy that day!)
China has no idea how long the Great Wall is.
Pretty long, I'd say!! Look at how it stretches away towards the horizon!
Speculation says between 5,000 and 7,000 kilometers, but the Chinese government wants a definitive answer before the Beijing Olympics.
A little olympics marketing at the rebuilt Wall site close to Beijing.
At almost 2500 years old, you think someone would have measured the thing by now.
The rebuilt wall site packed with tourists - actually a light tourist day!
And here's another shocker from the UK's Times Online:
"This week the China approved for the first time laws to protect the Great Wall. It has banned the carving of names, digging out of bricks or building of unauthorised structures. However, a survey in June found that 20 per cent of the wall’s 6,300 kilometres was in reasonable shape, 30 per cent was in ruins and the rest had disappeared."
Sign posted on Great Wall. Nobody cares about anything anymore.
That is sad. They just passed laws regarding the protection of the wall NOW? In 2006? Let's hope that 20 - 30% can be maintained. The article discusses a runner, William Lindesay, who was the first foreigner to run the entire length of the Wall. He has been working on a photographic exhibit of the Wall over it's photographable history - documenting the changes the Wall has taken, natural and man-made. His photographs will be on exhibit at Beijing Capital Museum in January, and will be titled Great Wall Revisited. I wish I could see it. If you are in Beijing, check it out!
Part of the Wall in ruins.
And part of the Wall rebuilt.
Practically deserted! Actually, the package tourists usually climb the wall in the other direction, so we were blissfully free to explore.
The reason the package tourists go the other way - this way is steep!
Here is one of my gratuitous "I was there" shots:
Contrast these photos, taken in June 2006 at the rebuilt, rehabilitated Great Wall site located near Beijing to these photos, taken in March 2006 at a ruined portion of the Great Wall.
Today a few of my program mates and I went to the ancient Roman ruins that can be found in Jersah, a city in north Jordan. Getting there was quite easy as we took taxis and met at the bus station in Abdulli that takes people to destinations in northern Jordan.
Once at the bus station we easily found our the bus we were looking for as an attendant called out Jersah to us as he assumed that we being Westerners were probably looking for the city frequented by my many tourists each day. Much smaller than Amman, the city of Jersah itself was a nice respite in itself from the bustling pace of the Jordanian capital. Even more serene though, was the park of ancient of ruins that my friends and I came to see.
While they are obviously not comparable to either Petra or the Coliseum, the ruins at Jersah are still quite magnificent and really connect you back to the past. Walking around certain parts of the park, I forgot that I was in the Middle East as the open expanse of ancient Roman architecture takes you out of the region. Additionally, the only Arabs that I saw inside the park were employees while the rest of the park’s occupants were large groups of tourists from the United States, France, Germany, and Asia who were a part of travel programs that took them to the well known tourist sites in Egypt, Israel, and Jordan.
Reminding myself that the structures that I saw, such as Hadrian’s Arch, were in Jordan rather than Giancaldo, I marveled at how such an ancient empire had the ability to be so expansive and conquer so many distant lands and cultures; however, as I went into other parts of the park, I was able to see and feel how the ruins stood right in the middle of the city alongside the modern elements of Jersah.
Here are a couple more photos from my little trip to Fort McKavett.
I took a short trip out to Fort McKavett. It was a really interesting place. Here are some of the pictures that I took.
Showing 1 - 5. [ Next ]