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General
This website describes the spectacular and amazingly varied landscapes of the American Southwest. All the information is based entirely on my own travels in Southwest USA, and all the photographs were taken during these times. The pages are meant to describe and illustrate the scenery of the national parks and monuments, and the land in general; places to visit, where to camp (free of charge!), interesting hikes, scenic drives and viewpoints. More mundane aspects such as park rules and regulations, opening times, visitor services in local towns and full weather details are available elsewhere, such as at the main NPS site (www.nps.gov).
I have spent a total of 18 months and driven well over 100,000 miles touring the Southwest in a rented recreational vehicle (RV), since 1993 and continue to do so several times every year. Generally, I prefer natural scenery to cities although I have visited all the major towns in the Southwest. I rent a small RV so that I can reach remote places on rough tracks, as well as visiting the more popular attractions.
I have also driven across Texas to Florida, and been as far north as Oregon, Idaho and Wyoming, but most of my journeys have been around California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and (southwest) Colorado. I think the best part about RV travel is the freedom it offers and the ability it gives to visit and stay overnight at (almost) any place in the countryside - it is often possible to park in spectacularly beautiful locations with nobody else for miles around.
This site will be expanded gradually, to cover more attractions and to include additional details for the current locations. I intend the focus to be increasingly towards more remote places; hiking trails, narrow canyons and mountains. The series of guides includes (west) Texas and California, in keeping with a broad geographical definition of the Southwest rather than just the conventional area comprising Arizona, Utah and New Mexico. Other selected locations in Wyoming and Idaho will be added occasionally.
History
From 1994 to 1998 this site had the URL http://xray.chm.bris.ac.uk:8000/, and a physical location of Bristol, England, before moving to http://www.swlink.net/~southwest/ in 1998 (a server in Phoenix, Arizona) and the present URL in October 1999 (New York, now Chicago from December 2006). It has developed as follows:
| November 1994 |
Site established, with the Travelogue pages |
| September 1995 |
Added south Utah guide |
| November 1996 |
Added Arizona guide |
| October 1997 |
Added southwest Colorado guide; expanded Utah section to cover all the state |
| April 1998 |
Added California guide and moved to new URL |
| October 1998 |
Added Slot Canyons section |
| April 1999 |
Added New Mexico guide |
| October 1999 |
Added Nevada guide and moved to new URL |
| May 2000 |
Added Texas guide |
| November 2003 |
Redesign |
| January 2007 |
Started Wyoming section |
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