For the past several years it’s been my habit and my pleasure to take advantage of the long holiday shutdown to travel. This year the Covid-19 pandemic is still raging, and travel is unwise.
Since the present isn’t all I would hope for, here is a glimpse of the past, and where I’ve traveled in December for the past few years, starting in 2016 in Morocco.
On my way back to the US, I spent an extended layover in Madrid— just long enough to mingle with the merrymakers in the city
And join a walking tour of tapas bars
2017 took me in a very different direction- driving across the US in this rig:
To explore the high deserts of the Southwest. This brought me to a part of the country that looms large in American history and iconography, but which I’d never seen before. Highlights included sunrise on Muley point overlooking Monument Valley,
And a Christmas-day visit to the Navajo Nation and White House Ruin in Canyon de Chelly National monument.
And my first experience of the fantastic shapes that water carves through the soft sandstone.
In 2018 I returned to the southwest, unfortunately accompanied by a terrible cold, but I recovered enough to explore the painted cliffs in Kanab and hike through Wire Pass and Buckskin Gulch.
Last year I headed a little further south, to Arizona, with a plan for a solo backpacking trip in the Superstition Wilderness. Heavy rain thwarted my backpacking plans, but I managed some scenic, solitary hikes,
And visited a few National Monuments, including Montezuma Castle, built by the Sinagua people, (who had no connection to the Aztecs).
This year I’ll explore the world a little bit differently, and dream and plan for next year, when the world is once again open for me to explore.
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