Tonto National Forest

Yesterday we took a road trip along the Apache Trail thru Apache Junction, past Superstition Mountain and thousands of Saguaro Cacti to Canyon Lake, known originally as Mormon Flat Lake,
which is one of the man-made lakes in Arizona formed by the construction of the Mormon Flat Dam (completed in 1925) and Roosevelt dam on the Salt River in 1911, which at the time it was built was the largest dam in America. It is the smallest of the four lakes in the Salt River chain. The other lakes are Apache Lake, Roosevelt Lake and Saguaro Lake.
We had lunch in the old town of Tortilla Flat (http://tinyurl.com/yhfhmgc) where every wall of the restaurant is covered floor to ceiling with dollar bills left by customers from all over the world.

Side Trip To California

I've been in Mesa, AZ since last Thursday, decompressing after Symposium. Spent some time visiting and relaxing and then got on the move again to Riverside California. The 4-hour drive through the desert seemed endless but Palm Springs showed off her Windmill Farm (http://tinyurl.com/yhwzzgr) and a beautiful view of snow on the distant mountains.

Some Visions of Arizona

Tucson: I spent the last 6 days at ElConquistador Hotel in Tucson, the ITMI Symposium has kept me busy networking and job interviewing but I did find some time to shoot some local scenes.

Desert Sunsets

San Xavier Mission

Into the sunshine....

It's 10:30 New York time, 8:30 Arizona time. I left Islip at noon on the 6 hour flight to Las Vegas, where I only lost $10.00 at a slot machine in the airport. Not bad.

Here's my first view of the Rocky Mountains and hopefully my last view of snow for the next two weeks.

It certainly looks beautiful from this distance, doesn't it?

I caught another flight from Vegas to Tucson and I finally got to my room at the El Conquistador Hotel in Tucson at 8:00 PM.

I'm pretty tired from the trip and all I have to say is..."Hello...Room Service..."

Arizona

Today I'm getting out of the cold of Long Island and into the warmth of Arizona. I'll be attending the 23rd Annual ITMI Symposium in Tucson at the Hotel El Conquistador http://www.hotelelconquistador.com/ for about a week and then spending some leisure time in Mesa. Check back here for details and pictures.