In 2000, I visited the north rim a second time, this time with my father,
but because of a fire, there were no notable pictures. I passed through
again in December, 2000, stopping at the Painted Desert. In August, 2001,
I visited the San Pedro Riparian Area, and in April, 2002, I passed through
Arizona on my way to Big Bend.
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Organ Pipes Here is an Organ Pipe cactus from Organ Pipes National Monument. |
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Arizona Dust Storm The dust storm obscured the road. It made it difficult to drive. |
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Great Blue Heron A Great Blue Heron in flight. |
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Black Vulture Black Vultures are more eastern, but they are in Mexico and the border states. |
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Great Horned Owl Look closely. There's a Great Horned Owl roosting in the hollow in the tree. You may need to click on the picture to get a bigger one to see it. |
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Western Kingbird There were a lot of Western Kingbirds at Patagonia. |
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Gray Hawks mating Sorry for the quality, these two gray hawks were mating in a tree quite a ways away. This was the first day I'd ever seen gray hawks, and to observe this behavior was interesting. |
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Gray Hawk in Flight The gray hawk in flight is a very distinctive bird. Looks vaguely like a Gabar Goshawk (from Africa) to me. |
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Cassin's Kingbird This is a Cassin's Kingbird. Note the similarities and differences with the Western Kingbird, above. |
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Vermilion Flycatcher Vermilion Flycatchers are bright red flycatchers. Most flycatchers are grey with a bit of dull yellow, but the Vermilion stands out. |
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Hoover Dam Spillway The spillway was dry, the level of Lake Mead was very low so there was nothing to spill! |
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Hoover Dam Hoover Dam is an amazing piece of engineering, although one must wonder about the daming of any natural river. |
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Lake Mead Level The water level at Lake Mead was down at least 100 feet, to my naked eye. |
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Hoover Dam Two more dam pictures. |
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Power Generation At the base of the dam are the power generators |
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Water flow The Colorado River flows through the turbines to generate power. |
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Colorado River And then it just flows south. |
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Bridge Construction See below |
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Old Water Level There is a very clear and visible mark for the old water level for Lake Mead. |
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Bridge Construction US-93 traverses the top of Hoover Dam, but since 9/11, there are serious security issues about allowing traffic across the dam. So, a new bridge is being build beside the dam, and this is the construction. No idea when it will be finished. |
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Hydroelectic One more look at how power is made. |
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Access Workers for the dam need to go through this tunnel for access. |
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New Land Not really new, this was submerged when Lake mead filled, and has since emerged as a result of the drought. |
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Tower One of the bases of the towers for the dam, to collect water for power. |
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More new land More recently recovered land. |