The Wandering Scot

An occasional travel journal.

Browsing Posts tagged USA

New Mexico: Alien Egg Hatchery

New Mexico’s Bisti/De-Na-Zin is a confusing trackless wilderness, but in these days of GPS and downloadable maps, that’s not a big issue. I saw lots of hoodoos, some petrified wood, many weird rocks.  But the main thing I was looking for was the “Cracked Eggs” aka the “Alien Egg Hatchery“.  This is an area with […]

A Botanical Road Trip

I’m on an all-electric road trip through California into Arizona and back. The trip has ended up having a distinctly botanical flavor, including visits to: The Joshua Tree National Park. Indian Canyons, near Palm Springs, with lush palm groves along narrow desert canyons. The Desert Botanical Garden near Phoenix, for an amazing collection of mature […]

I’m doing an all-electric road trip across California into Arizona. I’ve got delayed a little in Yuma, Arizona, at the Yuma Territorial Prison – apparently there was a problem with my paperwork when I bought my admission ticket. I’m sure it will all be fixed soon, but if someone could bake me a cake in […]

California: Nike Missile Site

The Nike Missile Site in the Marin Headlands, just North of San Francisco, is the sole preserved site from a giant 1950s era US national anti-aircraft defense system.  This site was one of six defending San Francisco, using nuclear tipped anti-aircraft missiles so they could reliably take down incoming Soviet nuclear bombers.  Gulp. On the […]

Hawaii: Lava 2018

Fissure 8, from 3000ftI’m out in Hawaii to see the current lava flows. I started at 4:00am with a bouncy boat ride with Lava Ocean Tours. I had sacrificed a delicious lemon muffin to Poseidon, so the sea was reasonably smooth and we got a good view of where the lava river is hitting the […]

Idaho: The Black Sun

I was in Idaho Falls for the 2017 US Total Eclipse.  The local authorities had been unsure what to expect: hotels had sold out far in advance and there were fears of a vast insurge of eclipse watchers up Interstate 15 from Salt Lake City.  So Starbucks and the local police had all hands on […]