User:Bill-on-the-Hill

Greetings from Los Alamos, New Mexico. I use the same user name in Wikipedia, where I contribute articles on New Mexico, classical music, mountains and mountaineering, and chess -- in other words, a lot of the same stuff as here. (Incidentally, Los Alamos is widely known as "The Hill," hence the handle.) I'm 62 years old, married, with two children in grad school. If you have questions about hiking opportunities in New Mexico or suggestions for WikiTravel articles on the area, drop me a line!



Current Projects

 * New Mexico and its regions, although I'll have to treat the southeast and southwest rather superficially
 * Colorado -- the region structure here is a real mess, and I'm trying to redo it to make it more useful
 * Valles Caldera National Preserve, a new and utterly gorgeous unit of the national park system
 * Hot springs -- trying to populate a "topic" page that has some fun associated with it
 * Santa Fe Trail -- an historic "itinerary" that's going to keep me busy for some time

Completed (!?) Projects
I reserve the right to go and tinker with these "completed" ones, of course. :-)




 * Bandelier National Monument
 * Bloomington-Normal (Illinois) -- My old stomping grounds many years ago, and worth a little effort as they're on Route 66 which is a trendy "meta-destination." I've started the process of combining the old Bloomington and Normal articles; please feel free to help.
 * Carlsbad Caverns National Park
 * Chama (New Mexico), on the border separating New Mexico and Colorado -- great scenic railroad, and lots of winter sports
 * Española (New Mexico) -- small town, may not get much beyond stub stage, but a useful jumping-off point with one really good restaurant
 * Grants (New Mexico)
 * Los Alamos -- btw, renaming to emphasize "New Mexico" would be OK with me
 * Navajo Nation -- I could still use some help on the "Do" section
 * Sangre de Cristo Mountains -- and another
 * Santa Fe National Forest -- First of several articles on "outdoors" destinations in the Southwest extending beyond national parks
 * Santa Fe (New Mexico) -- The "City Different" can't really be "completed" as a destination, as it's constantly changing, but most of the heavy lifting is done. Note that I've set up a (WT-en)  photo page with photographs of this extremely beautiful place, with the intention of using one or more in the article once there's been some discussion; if you particularly like (or dislike) one, please leave a comment in the corresponding discussion page.
 * Taos -- not really "completed," but in reasonable shape until the next visit



Future Projects

 * Lots of little towns in northern New Mexico, including Farmington and Pojoaque, all of which are waypoints and overnight stays en route to interesting things here even if they're not that exciting themselves
 * I'll also kick in on some destinations in Arizona and Colorado, although my knowledge of these is somewhat more superficial.
 * A possible topical page on Folk Art, to bring some rigor to the hodgepodge of American Indian art mentioned in some of the other pages, and try to encourage other areas with interesting folk art to represent it coherently.

Things where I'm a Docent
Kudos to User:(WT-en) Maj, User:(WT-en) Mark and company for setting up the Project:Docents feature! I'm taking the liberty of proclaiming myself a Docent for:


 * Bandelier National Monument
 * Jemez Mountains
 * Los Alamos
 * North Central (New Mexico)
 * Sangre de Cristo Mountains
 * Santa Fe (New Mexico)
 * Santa Fe National Forest
 * Taos
 * Valles Caldera National Preserve

If you want info on these, for the time being I recommend you simply leave a message on my Talk page, as my e-mail is flaky and I only participate rarely in IRCs.

Things I know enough about to be helpful(?)
I don't think I really qualify as a Docent for these, but I'll still try to add stuff from time to time on them:
 * Yellowstone National Park
 * Lots of other national parks in the southwestern United States
 * The rest of New Mexico plus small towns in the boonies of southern Colorado
 * Route 66 and communities along it (Flagstaff, etc.)
 * All sorts of mountains and volcanoes
 * The Big Island of Hawaii

Places I've been
(Exclusive of a few in-transit airports)




 * United States
 * All states except Mississippi and North Dakota
 * Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands
 * Zillions of national parks in same
 * "High Points" (highest mountains/hills) in:
 * Arizona, via a nice (if long) hike; the pleasant town of Flagstaff makes a good base
 * Colorado -- Leadville, the nearest town to this scenic hike, needs an article
 * Massachusetts (can be driven to, but we did a significant hike to it instead)
 * Nebraska (drive-up at the wishes of the landowner)
 * New Hampshire (okay, so this one was only a short hike...)
 * New Mexico (more than once, a hike in the superb mountains above Taos)
 * Oklahoma
 * Rhode Island
 * South Dakota
 * Tennessee
 * Watch this space, as it's still a goal of mine to reach all fifty -- yes, including Denali (Alaska).


 * Canada
 * British Columbia
 * Ontario


 * Mexico
 * Juarez
 * Mexico City
 * Puebla
 * Various mountains including the summits of Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl; Amecameca is a very pleasant little town en route that deserves a good article


 * Belarus (mainly Minsk and Brest)
 * British Virgin Islands
 * Chile
 * Costa Rica -- from a traveler's perspective, the world's best, or second-best, place
 * England
 * France
 * Georgia, uncertain, and just barely if at all; it was still part of the USSR at the time, though
 * Germany (mainly Frankfurt and vicinity)
 * Italy, notably Sicily and the Aeolian Islands
 * Lithuania, under peculiar conditions
 * Russia -- mainly Moscow (one of the world's most fascinating cities) and various places in the boonies of Siberia
 * Saint Lucia
 * Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
 * Scotland -- from a traveler's perspective, more or less tied for "world's best place" with Costa Rica

Places I want to visit
The short answer is "everywhere," of course, but some things at the top of the list:


 * Australia
 * Canada's Atlantic Provinces
 * Iceland, particularly geothermal features and the wild inland
 * New Zealand, ditto
 * The Aleutian Islands, improbably enough, for the same reasons
 * More of Russia, particularly Kamchatka and the volcanoes and geysers there -- detect a pattern here? :-)
 * England and Republic of Ireland to do some genealogical work
 * Antarctica
 * Other sources of folk art beyond those of the Southwestern United States and Russia. I think we really need an article on this subject; planning to get started on it soon.