A Hidden Gem, Moore State Park

More State Park is a great place to relax and escape if you like to enjoy walking, running, drawing or painting in the summer.  There is a natural Abundance of beautiful plant life.  A wooden bridge over looks the ponds collection of lily's on one side while creating a waterfall with hand built stone walls on the other. 

A smaller portion of Moore State Park is paved and gives easier access to those who have difficulty following a dirt trail.  The trails do lead off from this paved area giving a more places to explore and roam. 





Moore State Park information

A Trip to the Grand Canyon

Gazing over the edge. The Grand Canyon is too large to be seen from the ground.  One can only ponder the numerous adventures exploring this phenomena.  
On a nice day the Canyons colors of bright oranges and mixed earth hues stand out against a bright blue sky.   Strange rock formations stand tall balancing on themselves.  Layers of erosion show the years of drought.  This Canyon was once a very large lake.  Dwindled down to a river that powers the Hoover Dam, Vegas and a Large portion of California. 

What will happen when it dries up and there is no more water to power the cities of Nevada and California.  Will they become ghost towns? Will people be forced to create new ways of making fresh water and electricity?  Only time will tell.

Grand Canyon

Exploring Arizona's Montezuma Well

"Montezuma Well #1" oil on canvas (c) Janet Tremblay 2009

       A trip through Arizona is a great adventure on its own.  You can visit a volcano, a giant meteor crater, snow capped mountains, the grand canyon,  the hoover dam, The red rock valley, ancient cultural landmarks, a painted desert, a petrified forest...  the list goes on.  There is so much to explore that one must take pictures of the unique landscape of Arizona to remember how different it truly is. 

       And on occasion those photographic memories may inspire you to paint or animate.  My Fiance and I had created 2 paintings each of different places close to the Camp Verde area.  The first painting I created was of a stair case cascading into Montezuma well.

       It had been raining and Travis and I took shelter under one of the cliff sides and I liked the composition of the stone steps down to the water.  Montezuma Well is part of the native American ruins associated with Montezuma Castle.  It is a large well that collects rain and has stone shelters on the inside walls.  Clay pottery, arrows and other remnants of the Natives that once lived there can still be found amongst the desert cliff dwellings.

Fallout New Vegas a trip to Hoover Dam

Hoover Dam

     One of my favorite games is Fallout New Vegas.  Even though its glitchy and freezes allot, I still enjoy it. Mostly Because I have visited Vegas and the Hoover Dam.  The Dam in the game  is similar in exterior structure but is missing some of the features I loved about the original dam.

       The Hoover Dam has beautiful Native American art symbols through out it on the floors and Art Deco bronze architecture on the Visitor center gates.

       It has marble tiled tunnels and very steep stair cases.  The stair cases are soo steep they have gates about every 15 feet so that if you were to slip.  You would not continue to tumble to the bottom.  There are hidden passageways blocked by mysterious doors with dark corridors lit by orange and blue safety lights.

The texture of the concrete inside the dam corridors is actually a wood relief from the planks used to mold the concrete to the wall.

       I understand it is a game and in order to put that amount of detail into it would have probably run down the system even more.  And for security measures the game company was probably told they could not create an accurate model of the Dam.  But I gotta say they did pretty well with what they could use to create the environment and portray the overall feel of the dam.