[jdviole2]

Helena had a wide interest in all sorts of subjects. On any particular vacation we might visit a doll museum, explore prehistoric native american sites, visit an "ice cave" and then climb the extinct volcano that created it, and end up touring the Liberace museum in Las Vegas. She was up for almost anything I might suggest. Sometimes what we wanted to see was only a short drive off the highway. Like the first picture. Helena is standing at the edge of the Barringer or Canyon Diabalo meteor crater in northern Arizona. 50,000 years ago a 50 meter wide iron/nickle meteorite struck the earth with the force of a 10 megaton bomb leaving a 1200 meter wide 170 meter deep crater. When I visited this as a boy you could descend to the bottom of the crater. We were hoping to do that this time but they stopped allowing it (probably due to insurance issues). This was taken in the late 80's. The second photo shows the work that Helena put into her photography. She would go almost anywhere she needed to and assume whatever position required to get the shot she wanted. She really was a good photographer, much better than I am. This was taken probably around 1990. The third and fourth photos are sort of related. We were in Utah visiting some national parks in the region again taken in the late 80's. The third picture was taken in Arches National Park. The park contains many natural sandstone arches formed as wind and water wore away the surrounding rock layers. Though some of the arches are adjacent to roadways some require a bit of hiking. In this picture we are on our way to Tower Arch. Part of the trail is along the top of a fin or spine of sandstone. You need to climb this ladder and walk along the narrow ridge of rock for several meters till you can climb down the other side. Helen is at the top of the ladder ready to do the walk. She was a real trooper. The fourth picture is actually outside Arches National Park. We are on our way to Corona Arch. This arch is so large that a small private airplane can fly through the arch. (I found out about the arch by seeing that airplane through the arch moment in a movie I was watching on TV). It is only about 1 kilometer from the parking lot but you need to climb a ladder then up this rock face using the wire rope handrail. Well worth the climb though. The last picture was taken in the late 80's. A rare outdoor shot where she is not wearing sunglasses. Thus explaining the squint. Probably taken at her brothers house.