the turquoise trail

{new mexico} I crossed back into New Mexico in the late afternoon, too late to visit the tourist info centre & late enough to call it a night in the first town, Gallup.  I found a little asian restaurant for some well-cooked stir-fry, then found myself parking spot for a quiet night of Walmart camping.  Well, I think it was quiet - I was dead to the world thanks to the pain killers from the dentist... Welcome (back) to New Mexico!  As I was driving up to Albuquerque the next morning, the radio revealed that according to recent statistics, Gallup is the 15th most dangerous city for violent crime in the US.. fabulous.  It wasn't a place you'd choose to spend a lot of time, either way.   It was a couple hours from Gallup up to Albuquerque, where I headed to the old town district for a look around the historic square.  There was a wide selection of galleries and shops featuring native art, an old church & lots of adobe buildings with chile pep...

I have to admit that I am definitely buying into the call of the mountains.. they are pretty tough to resist. I recently spent a few days exploring Banff, Lake Louise & Fernie with a friend, and it was absolutely incredible.  Seeing as there isn't too much snow this year, it was more of a sightseeing trip than anything. Here are some of the highlights..  {Lake Minnewanka} So gorgeous.  This view actually makes me speechless.  Something I found really interesting about this lake is that it develops bubbles in the ice which you can see as you are walking!  Nature is awesome. Lake Minnewanka {Wildlife} On our way to Lake Minnewanka, we were lucky enough to see a massive herd of elk!  It was my first time seeing elk outside of a zoo, so I was pretty excited.   Not very much further down the road, we also saw some mountain goats!  They were quite drawn to the salt on my cars tires, so we got really up close and personal with ...