Over the years, we’d been through Grand Junction at least 4 times, but had never stopped there or visited any of the local attractions.  After this trip, Colorado National Monument will certainly be a place we would like to visit again.

Colorado National Monument, established May 24, 1911, is located just to the west of Grand Junction.  Part of the larger Colorado Plateau, the monument features canyons that cut deep into sandstone and even granite formation.  It is high desert country, with elevation in the park ranging from 4000 feet to nearly 7000 feet above sea level.  Summer temperatures are usually very hot, while nighttime winter temperatures can be extremely cold.  Precipitation is limited, with an annual average of just over 10 inches..

The monument has a lot of hiking trails, with varying length and difficulty – we took two moderately long hikes during our visit, managing to wander off of the Devil’s Kitchen trail into and unmarked area.  We also took the Monument Canyon Trail from the upper trailhead to the Coke Ovens overlook and back.  The lower portion of the train from the lower trailhead to Independence Monument and back is highly recommended for visitors looking to do only one hike.  It’s a 2.5 mile hike that follows the base of sandstone cliffs, offering views of towering rock formations and, in the fall, it’s the best trail to see desert bighorn sheep.

Photos from Colorado National Monument have been published on the Exit78 facebook page in the “Colorado National Monument” album.

Selected Information Resources:

• National Park Service
• Wikipedia
• Wikitravel
• The American Southwest
• USA Today Travel Tips

Karen’s Post  – Colorado National Monument

Leaving Rocky Mountain National Park on September 16, 2011, our next destination was several thousand feet lower and on the western side of the state – Grand Junction, Colorado.

About nine miles south of Estes Park on Colorado 7, we stopped to take pictures of the Chapel on the Rock – officially St. Catherine of Siena Chapel – on the grounds of Saint Malo Retreat Center.   The chapel  is built on an large piece of granite that the Colorado highway department once planned to dynamite to widen and straighten the adjacent highway.  Dedicated in 1936, the chapel was built from local stone hauled in by mule carts.

In November 2011, a fire heavily damaged portions of the St. Malo Retreat Center.  The chapel, several hundred feet away was not damaged.

Our drive for the day was about 300 miles.  The first part was on mountain 2-lane highways down to Interstate 70.  Traffic was quite light, certainly less than it would have been if we had gone through Boulder and along the foothills of the Front Range as we did in 2009.

I70 meanders up, down, around and through the Colorado mountains between Denver and and Grand Junction.  Our little motorhome did pretty good duty traveling over this road once again, though the CRV it was towing was 6 model years newer than the last time.

“The Eisenhower Tunnel, with a maximum elevation of 11,158 feet (3,401 m) and length of 1.7 miles (2.7 km), is the longest mountain tunnel and highest point along the Interstate Highway System.” (Wikipedia.)

We stopped in Vail for lunch and a stretch break.  Often, when there isn’t a rest area handy, we’ll take a break after an hour or two of driving by stopping at a “big box” store.  Most of them are large enough that we can loosen up by taking a couple of laps walking around inside the store.  In Vail, we stopped at WalMart and, once we were loosened up, went back out to the camper and had lunch in our camper.

Our next stop was a  rest area in Glenwood Canyon, a rugged and scenic canyon on the Colorado River. This area is one of the most scenic natural features along the U.S. Interstate Highway System.  Foot access is available for hiking a four rest areas in the canyon.  The highway through the canyon was one of the final pieces of the system to open to traffic and was one of the most expensive per mile constructed in the United States.  In its 12.5 mile length, there are three tunnels, 40 bridges and viaducts, and miles of retaining walls.  “Through a significant portion of the canyon, the eastbound lanes extend cantilevered over the Colorado River and the westbound lanes are suspended on a viaduct several feet above the canyon floor.” (Wikipedia)

The trip along I 70 was a gradual transition from high mountain forests and tundra west of Denver to the high desert of western Colorado and Utah.

We would be camping in the Grand Junction, 4,593 ft (1,397 m), area for the next 4 nights and would be in desert country for a good portion of the rest of the trip.

We visited Rocky Mountain National Park in September, largely because it’s the prime period for viewing North American elk (wapiti) in the park.

In late summer and early autumn, elk descend from the high country to mountain valley meadows for the annual mating season.  Bull elk compete with each other for the right to breed with a herd of females.  Although the competition is high, it’s mostly posturing for the females as actual fighting results in injury and depletes energy.

One of the best – and most popular –  areas for viewing the elk is Moraine Park.  The word “park” used in place names in the Colorado Rockies often refers to a valley or meadow.  In this instance, Moraine Park is a long, glacier formed valley, with broad meadows at the lower end.

A moraine is a accumulation of boulders, stones and other debris deposited by a glacier.  Aptly named Moraine Park is bounded by moraines on three sides.  On the north and south, the valley is enclosed by lateral moraines, formed when the glacier deposited debris along its side.  Debris at the east end of the valley formed a terminal moraine against a small mountain.

A two lane paved road to the Fern Lake trailhead runs along the south side of the Moraine Park meadow.  In the cool evenings of the elk mating season, portions of the road are often jammed with cars and pedestrians watching the elk – what we like to call a “critter jam.”

While we were down along Fern Lake Road several evenings to view the elk, we didn’t take our car.  We could have taken the hiker shuttle bus, but didn’t do that either.  Instead, we walked.

Moraine Park campground is situated on the northern lateral moraine and there is a trail that goes down the hill to the meadow.  When we visited in 2009, our campsite was right next to the trail, but, this year, that site was, unfortunately, reserved, so we had to settle for a site a little further away.

Selected Information Resources:

Rocky Mountain National Park

• National Park Service– Rocky Mountain National Park
  • Suggested Hikes
  • Conditions and Closures
• Wikitravel
• Wikipedia

Estes Park

• Convention and Visitors Bureau
• Town of Estes Park
• Wikipedia
• Wikitravel
• Trail Gazette (newspaper)
• Stanley Hotel

Grand Lake

• Grand Lake Chamber of Commerce
• Wikipedia (the lake)
• Wikipedia (the town)
• Town of Grand Lake

This was our second time on this trail segment, which runs from the Bear Lake parking area to Emerald Lake and connects with other Bear Lake area trails.  We had hoped to make it to Emerald Lake if our legs, and the weather, held out.  The weather had been iffy overnight and during the morning.  Trail Ridge Road had been closed closed the night before and remained closed due to snow for the first time in the season. With rain threatening, instead of a hike that morning, we went into Estes Park.  After lunch and walking around Estes Park town center a bit more, we headed back into the park to the Bear Lake area trailhead.

The trail we chose goes to a trio of subalpine lakes – Nymph, Dream, and Emerald – in upper Tyndall Gorge.  The trail is well maintained and rises steadily over most of it’s 1.8 mile  length.  Difficulty is easy to moderate, but can be more difficult for those not acclimatized to the altitude as it climbs to over 10,000 feet.  We had already been in Colorado a week, so the altitude was less of an issue than it might have been otherwise.

From the Bear Lake area trails parking lot (9,475 ft.), the trail climbs steady for 1/2 mile, then levels off at about 9, 700 feet at the south end of  small, lily pad covered Nymph Lake.  The trail begins climbing again in the forest on the north end of Nymph Lake and levels off again at Dream Lake, 1.1 miles from the trail head and at an elevation of 9,912′ ft.  Dream Lake is .35 miles long.  The trail passes along its west shore.

We had hoped to make it all the way to Emerald Lake, 1.8 miles from the trailhead and 10,090 feet above sea level, but we turned back at the north end of Dream Lake due to deteriorating weather conditions.  Weather in the high country can be unpredictable, even in the middle of summer, but this was the middle of September and we’d already had some rain on our hike.  We had rain gear with us. However, it was already 3:30 PM and light rain was falling again, so we decided against pushing on ahead.

Selected Information
Resources:

Rocky Mountain National Park

• National Park Service– Rocky Mountain National Park
  • Suggested Hikes
  • Conditions and Closures
• Wikitravel
• Wikipedia

Estes Park

• Convention and Visitors Bureau
• Town of Estes Park
• Wikipedia
• Wikitravel
• Trail Gazette (newspaper)
• Stanley Hotel

Grand Lake

• Grand Lake Chamber of Commerce
• Wikipedia (the lake)
• Wikipedia (the town)
• Town of Grand Lake

On our four previous visits to Rocky Mountain National Park, we stayed one or more nights in the adjacent town of Estes Park. This time, we didn’t, as we were able to get reservations at Moraine Park Campground in the park for the duration of our planned visit.  As a result, we actually spent less time in Estes Park than any other visit – other than traveling through town and stops for fuel and groceries, just a short visit before and after lunch on September 15th, followed by an afternoon alpine hike back in the park.  It was an nice stroll along the street and into some of the shops – and much less crowded than our last visit on Labor Day weekend, 2009.

Estes Park, a town of just under 6,000 permanent residents, is a popular summer resort in the Front Range of the Colorado Rockies, though there are plenty of recreational opportunities during the rest of the year. Located at 7,522 feet above sea level, the town is at the east entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. Tourism has been a primary business for the town for most of its history.  Lodging includes The Stanley Hotel, inspiration for the setting of Stephen King’s novel The Shining.  (We stayed in the hotel during our 2001 visit.)

The word “park” used in place names in the Colorado Rockies often refers to a valley or meadow. Estes Park, then, originally referred to the valley and was named after town founder Joel Estes.

The town experienced severe damage in July 1982 from flooding resulting from the failure of Lawn Lake Dam.

Additional information on the Lawn Lake Dam Failure, July 15, 1982:

• KOA TV Channel 4 – YouTube, 1982 footage
• Wikipedia
• Town of Estes Park

Selected Information
Resources:

Rocky Mountain National Park

• National Park Service– Rocky Mountain National Park
  • Suggested Hikes
  • Conditions and Closures
• Wikitravel
• Wikipedia

Estes Park

• Convention and Visitors Bureau
• Town of Estes Park
• Wikipedia
• Wikitravel
• Trail Gazette (newspaper)
• Stanley Hotel

Grand Lake

• Grand Lake Chamber of Commerce
• Wikipedia (the lake)
• Wikipedia (the town)
• Town of Grand Lake

Rocky Mountain National Park’s Trail Ridge Road (Wikipedia) crosses the park from Estes Park on the east to Grand Lake on the west. It is a segment of U.S. Highway 34 and is the highest continuous highway in the United States.  Crossing the Continental Divide at Milner Pass ((elev. 10,758 ft/3,279 m), it reaches its highest point at 12,183 ft (3,713 m), near Fall River Pass.

On this visit, the day we crossed on Trail Ridge Road to Grand Lake and back started out cool, with precipitation predicted.  We ran into a little rain and quite a bit of fog, some of which rolled in when we were on the Tundra Communities Trail, which climbs a couple hundred feet, starting at about 12, 100 ft. elevation.

On the way back to the campground, we stopped at the gift shop next to Alpine Visitor Center – at Fall Creek Pass – at a little after 3 PM to take a break from the fog and get a cup of coffee. However, the gift shop was closed, as was the visitor center.  The temperature had dropped from the mid 50s when we were there earlier in the day to 35°F.

About three hours after we made it back to the camper, the park service closed the road.

Selected Information
Resources:

Rocky Mountain National Park

• National Park Service– Rocky Mountain National Park
  • Suggested Hikes
  • Conditions and Closures
• Wikitravel
• Wikipedia

Estes Park

• Convention and Visitors Bureau
• Town of Estes Park
• Wikipedia
• Wikitravel
• Trail Gazette (newspaper)
• Stanley Hotel

Grand Lake

• Grand Lake Chamber of Commerce
• Wikipedia (the lake)
• Wikipedia (the town)
• Town of Grand Lake

On September 9, we visited Florissant Fossil Bed National Monument and Cripple Creek.

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument is located in Florissant Valley, a high mountain valley west of Pikes Peak.  The valley, fossil beds and national monument take their name from the nearby town of Florissant, Colorado.

In 1893, when the photograph on the right was taken, tourists had ready access to shale fossils and petrified wood.

“Early accounts describe the valley as being littered with petrified wood.  As word spread, the Florissant area became a popular tourist destination.  Exploitation, constant collecting, and thoughtless destruction continued for nearly 100 years.  There is no way to assess the damage done or the loss of rare scientific evidence during this period.” ¹

Our visit to the park included the small visitor center, the Petrified Forest Trail, and the Hornbek Homestead.

“Adeline Hornbek was not a typical homesteader.  In the 1970s, after the loss of two husbands and two homes, this single mother of four moved her family to the Florissant Valley.  At a time when women had few opportunities to own property, she filed a claim to homestead 160 acres here. Within seven years, Adeline had built a sizable house and nine outbuildings, and had acquired $4,000 worth of livestock.  On top of the daily work of homestead chores and raising children, she added a job at the general store in Florissant.”¹

Information and Resources:

• National Park Service
• Wikipedia
• Wikitravel
• University of California Museum of Paleontology
• Proctor Museum of Natural Science
• GORP
• Facebook

^__________

¹ from a park interpretive sign

…and it’s free to visit.

Until we visited it in 2004, I had no idea that Garden of the Gods was a Colorado Springs city park.  Most large cities have some nice parks, but few have parks with outstanding geologic features like Garden of the Gods.

We visited the park again this year.

Garden of the Gods Park started with a gift from the family of Charles Elliott Perkins, a former president of the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad.  Perkins had purchased 480 acres of the current park for a summer home that was never built.  He died in 1907 with his children aware of his wish for the public to be able to enjoy the natural wonder.

A plaque in the park reads, “The Garden of the Gods.  Given to the City of Colorado Springs in 1909 by the children of Charles Elliott Perkins in fulfillment of his wish that it be kept forever free to the public.”

Source of the name “Garden of the Gods” –

The name of the park dates back to August 1859 when two surveyors helping to set up nearby Colorado City were exploring the nearby areas. Upon discovering the site, one of the surveyors, M. S. Beach, suggested that it would be a “capital place for a beer garden.” His companion, the young Rufus Cable, awestruck by the impressive rock formations, exclaimed, “Beer Garden! Why it is a fit place for the gods to assemble. We will call it the Garden of the Gods.” The beer garden never materialized, but the name stuck.  –Wikipedia

Geologic formations –

The outstanding geologic features of the park are the ancient sedimentary beds of red, blue, purple, and white sandstones, conglomerates and limestone that were deposited horizontally, but have now been tilted vertically and faulted by the immense mountain building forces caused by the uplift of the Pikes Peak massif. Evidence of past ages; ancient seas, eroded remains of ancestral mountain ranges, alluvial fans, sandy beaches and great sand dune fields can be read in the rocks. A spectacular shear fault can be observed where the Tower of Babel (Lyons Sandstone) contacts the Fountain Formation. There are many fossils to be seen: marine forms, plant fossils, and some dinosaur fossils.

The hogbacks, so named because they resemble the backs and spines of a pig, are ridges of sandstone whose layers are tilted. Instead of lying horizontally, some layers are even vertically oriented. Each hogback can range up to several hundred feet long, and the tallest (called North Gateway Rock) rises to a height of 320 feet (98 m) tall. A notable rock feature on this hogback, the Kissing Camels, appears to be two very large camels sitting face to face with their lips touching. –Wikipedia

Links:

• Garden of the Gods Visitor and Nature Center
• Wikipedia
• City of Colorado Springs
• Garden of the Gods Trading Post
• Friends of Garden of the Gods

Our travel day was a short one from La Junta, Colorado, to Garden of the Gods Campground, a commercial campground near the Garden of the Gods park.

Even though we had been to Grand Teton National Park many times before, on this trip we explored some areas we had not been to before in the southeastern part of the park and just outside, in the Gros Ventre and Antelope Flats areas. They which yielded quite few opportunities for photographs from viewpoints different from what I had taken in the past including old log structures and the Mormon Row settlement.

Other photos include a large plane landing at Jackson against Grand Teton as a backdrop, Jackson lake, Signal Mountain, Chapel of the Transfiguration, moose resting along the Snake River near the Moose entrance to the park; Menor’s Ferry, Bill Menor’s cabin and store, and aspen fall colors.

__________

References and Resources:

• National Park Service
• Wikipedia
  • Grand Teton National Park
  • Jackson Hole
  • Jackson, Wyoming
• Wyoming Tourism
• Wikitravel
• Grand Teton Lodge Company

Separated from Yellowstone National Park by only 10 miles, Grand Teton National Park is another of our favorites that we have visited many times.  Though we have camped in the park on some previous visits, this time we stayed at a campground on the Snake River south of Jackson, Wyoming.

The park is named for Grand Teton, the tallest peak, 13,775 feet (4,199 m),  in the Teton Range, which rises abruptly above the valley of Jackson Hole.

Jackson Hole is believed to be named after a mountain man, David (Davey) Edward Jackson, a mountain man who trapped the area for beaver in the early 1800s.  The name “hole” is a term used by early trappers who entered from the north and east, descending along relatively steep slopes, giving the feeling of descending into a hole.

The town of Jackson, Wyoming, the only incorporated town in the valley, is often mistakenly referred to as Jackson Hole.

__________

References and Resources:

• National Park Service
• Wikipedia
  • Grand Teton National Park
  • Jackson Hole
  • Jackson, Wyoming
• Wyoming Tourism
• Wikitravel
• Grand Teton Lodge Company

West Thumb Geyser Basin is situated on the shore of Yellowstone Lake’s West Thumb, a submerged volcanic caldera within the larger Yellowstone caldera.  It was created about 162,000 years ago when a magma chamber bulged up under the earth’s surface, which it cracked along ring fracture zones, releasing the magma as lava.  Once emptied, the chamber collapsed and, later, the caldera was filled with water, forming an extension of Yellowstone Lake.

The boardwalk trails at West Thumb provide easy walks that let visitors take in the beauty of the deep thermal pools and Yellowstone Lake.

While we’ve visited West Thumb Geyser Basin over the years, before 2007 we had not looked at the Yellowstone Lake Hotel, a few miles to the northeast.  The hotel is one of three hotels in the park constructed by the Northern Pacific Railroad.  Originally built in 1891, it was re-designed, expanded, and remodeled in 1903, 1922-23, 1928 and 1894 to 1990.  The building is a “relatively plain clapboarded Colonial Revival structure with two large Ionic porticoes facing Yellowstone Lake.¹”

Yellowstone References and Resources:

Yellowstone is one of the most popular destinations in the U.S. and there are a lot of available resources, including books and DVDs as well as internet resources.  I’ve included links to a few reliable resources below and have more on my Yellowstone page at Haw Creek.

• National Park Service
• Wikipedia
• UNESCO World Heritage Site
• National Geographic
• New York Times Travel Guide
• Wikitravel
• Gorp
• PBS

__________

¹ Lake Hotel – Wikipedia

We probably visited the Old Faithful part of the park more often this trip than any place else.  We saw Old Faithful erupt at least four times that I can think of.  We also made dinner reservations for one evening.  Another day we hiked up to an overlook where you can view the eruption.  Unfortunately the eruption occurred before we got all the way to the overlook, but we were able to get a good view of it.

Old Faithful is, without a doubt, the most popular location in the park.

The Old Faithful Inn is a fascinating hotel over a hundred years old.  We stayed there one time back in the late 70s in the fall.

Reservations for lodging and camping – for those campgrounds where  reservations can be made – should be made as far as possible in advance.  In 2011, we waited too long to decide on our travel plans and campsites were not available in the campgrounds we preferred.  We had to settle for something else.

Yellowstone References and Resources:

Yellowstone is one of the most popular destinations in the U.S. and there are a lot of available resources, including books and DVDs as well as internet resources.  I’ve included links to a few reliable resources below and have more on my Yellowstone page at Haw Creek.

• National Park Service
• Wikipedia
• UNESCO World Heritage Site
• National Geographic
• New York Times Travel Guide
• Wikitravel
• Gorp
• PBS

On our first night at Arches National Park, I was so excited with a photo that I had taken that I went into to show Karen, then went back out to try to get more – and tripped over a big rock that was in plain view even though it was dark since we had the outside light on.

I’m a bit too old to go tumbling like that.  Fortunately, except for a gravel nick on the arm and a leg that was a little sore after hiking for the next couple of days, I wasn’t hurt.  I was a bit afraid for my camera as it hit the ground pretty hard, too. Fortunately, it’s pretty tough and came through unscathed, though the lens did gain a a few scratches.

So what was I taking pictures of that had me so excited that I didn’t watch where I was going?

Stars, of course.

Now, I’ve seen a lot pictures that others have taken of the night sky, but I’ve never been successful, not that I’ve tried in a long time.  The following photo is the best of the bunch that I took at Arches.  It was taken at 9:26 p.m.,  a couple of hours after sunset.

There was little or light pollution to mask the stars.  It is a sight that many of us seldom, if ever, have the opportunity of seeing these days.

The area just above the hill that looks a little smoky or, perhaps, milky is our galaxy, the Milky Way.

The exposure time for the photo was about 60 seconds.  Towards the end of the exposure, I used a large flashlight to “paint” the hill with light so that it would show up in the image.  The hill is actually a huge rock, one of many in the campground area we were in.

Below: Part of our campsite, with  a Scrabble game set up, a portable speaker unit for IPOD, and my Kindle on the table.

During our visit to Yellowstone National Park in 2007, we stayed in a campground near West Yellowstone, Montana, so, each day, no matter where we were going in the park, we traveled along the Madison River on our way in and, again, on our way back to the camper.  Sometimes it was clear, sometimes, cloudy, but always a beautiful drive.  One morning, the day I photographed the mists over the river, the temperature was several degrees below freezing – winter was just a few weeks around the corner.

The rest of the video slideshows from Yellowstone 2007 are arranged by regions of the park and will be posted here every three days  over the next three weeks, followed by those from Grand Teton National Park, Canyonlands National Park, and Arches National Park.

Yellowstone National Park has long been a favorite of ours.  I first visited in 1963, back when bears were a very common sight.  Our first visits there as a family came in our second year of marriage, tent camping with a six month old with temperatures falling into the mid 30s at night.  When we lived in Idaho from 1977 to 1980, we visited many times and have been back numerous times since we moved to Arkansas.  We also spent a week in the park in 2010.

Yellowstone References and Resources:

Yellowstone is one of the most popular destinations in the U.S. and there are a lot of available resources, including books and DVDs as well as internet resources.  I’ve included links to a few reliable resources below and have more on my Yellowstone page at Haw Creek.

• National Park Service
• Wikipedia
• UNESCO World Heritage Site
• National Geographic
• New York Times Travel Guide
• Wikitravel
• Gorp
• PBS

Whenever we go on a trip, I take a lot of pictures.  Before I share any of the pictures, I post-process them – sort of like putting them through a digital darkroom – to remove flaws and adjust the saturation and contrast.  It takes time, but I have been able to streamline my process somewhat.

I have just completed processing the last groups of images from the first big western trip we took after I retired in 2007.  I’ve started creating videos using photos from that trip, with background music from YouTube audio swap. The first two of the series have been already posted:

• Nebraska – A Ranch in the Sandhills
• Have you ever seen a wild ass? – feral burros and more in South Dakota’s Custer State Park

Since I’ve finished with all the groups of images from the trip, the video for today is a montage of photographs from the trip; for the most part, one picture each day of our travels and explorations.

The audio track is Paul Mottram’s “Sidewalk Saunter.”

If I were to post a photo a day – or even 5 a day –  it would take quite a while just to share those that I have selected for posting.

By putting together a video, I can share a large number at once – and create a video library that we can view on a TV screen.  The original of the video below is higher definition than what I uploaded to YouTube.

The photos, in the sequence that they appear:

1. Bear Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, September 2009
2. Menor’s cabin and store, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, September 20, 2007
3. Canton Lake, Oklahoma, August 29, 2009
4. Canyonlands national Park, September 23, 2007
5. Pronghorn, Custer State Park, South Dakota, August 22, 2007
6. Wild burro, Custer State Park, South Dakota, August 22, 2007
7. Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens, March, 2011
8. Devil’s Tower National Monument, August 27, 2007
9. Devil’s Tower National Monument, August 28, 2007
10. Texas Interstate HighwayI40, eastbound rest west of Alenreed
11. Devil’s Tower National Monument, August, 2007
12. Cottonwood Tree, Lake Ogallala, Nebraska, July 8, 2010
13. Clouds, Lake Ogallala, Nebraska, July 8, 2010
14. Lewistown, Montana, August 30, 2007
15. Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado, September 14, 2009
16. Nuthatch
17. Ouray, Colorado, September 2010
18. Rest are at Marais des Cygnes National Wildlife Refuge and Kansas Highway 52
19. Moraine Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, 2009
20. Rocky Mountain National park, somewhere trail to Nymph Lake, Dream Lake, & Emerald Lake, 2009
21. Pea Ridge National military Park, Northwest Arkansas, July 15, 2011
22. Abyss Pool, West Thumb, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, September 12, 2007
23. Delicate Arch, Arches National Park, Utah, September 24, 2007
24. Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Visitor Center, Colorado, 2009
25. Garvan Woodland Gardens, Hot Springs, Arkansas, April 13, 2010
26. Entrance to Yellowstone National Park, Gardiner, Montana, September 13, 2007

The music,  Improvisation On Friday… by Alex, is licensed under a Attribution (3.0).

Starved Rock State Park, Illinois

On our way to Wisconsin in 2008 to visit our daughter, son-in-law, and grandkids, we stayed a couple of nights at Starved Rock State Park, one of the most popular state parks in Illinois.

While there, I wrote: “Yesterday, we drove to Starved Rock State Park in north central Illinois.  It seems to be very large.  We’ll be exploring it some tomorrow when the weather will be better.  From there, we’ll be going into Wisconsin on Wednesday. (Rainin’ in Peoria…, and other news from the road!)

While at Starved Rock, we did get in some hiking and exploring.

Starved Rock State Park website.

Mueller State Park, Colorado, August 28, 2004

The snow on Pike’s Peak had fallen during the previous night.  By the end of the day it was gone.  It was a sure sign that the summer was drawing to a close.

We had rented a cabin for a week in an area next to this park.

The Mueller Park area was once part of Mueller Ranch, created by W.E. Mueller by combining ten ranches and homesteads that he had purchased.  In the 1980s, the Mueller family designated the ranch as a game preserve. Later the ranch was purchased by the Nature Conservancy, Colorado State Parks and Division of Wildlife.  The old ranch road in the photo above is now one of many trails in the park, used as both a hiking trail and a horse trail.

Related web sites:

• Mueller State Park official website
• Wikipedia
• ReserveAmerica
• The Weather Channel

Related posts:

• Flying low
• Dead Pine
• Blanket Flower
• Rocky Mountain Beeplant
• A View from Pikes Peak
• Clouds over Colorado
• Storm over Old Colorado
• Garden of the Gods
• Garden of the Gods – Colorado Springs

Photo Galleries:

Note: This “lost” Haw Creek Out ‘n About post was recovered from the Internet Archive WayBack Machine.

(Click on any of the thumbnail images for larger versions of the photos)

We got a little bit of a late start on June 10th, a Sunday, when we headed for Madison for a picnic and a hike. It was a beautiful day and I was skeptical that we would be able to find an empty table at a park in the city. We were following our daughter, Jessica, and son-in-law, Shane — the grand-kids were with us. Since we had never been in Madison before, and didn’t have a clue where they were heading, it could have been very interesting. However, Shane drove slow so the “old man” following him — me! — could keep up and we ended up finding a table at Tenny Park, a small park near Lake Mendota on the Madison isthmus.

After the grand-kids were done playing following lunch, we headed out again. I really didn’t have a clue where we were going and, for a while wasn’t sure Shane did either. However, before long, we stopped at a University of Wisconsin gardens.

The Allen Centennial Gardens are open daily from dawn to dusk and there is no entrance fee. The gardens serves as a 2.5 acre outdoor classroom for the Department of Horticulture. Allen Centennial Gardens is centered around a beautiful Victorian gothic house known by several names, including “the Agricultural Dean’s Residence.” One of the first buildings on the agricultural campus, the house served as residence for the first four deans. Today it is home for the offices of the Agricultural Research Stations.

Allen Centennial Gardens was dedicated in October 1989. It was designed to compliment the house and existing plantings, including a larch tree planted in 1899. (See more at the Allen Centennial Garden web site.)

From the gardens, we walked past Porter Boathouse to the shore of Lake Mendota and took a pedestrian/bicycle path along the shore over to Memorial Union. Round trip, we walked a little under 2 miles. It was a nice stroll through the woods along the lake. There were a lot of other folks out walking, running, and bicycling.

Memorial Union is one of two buildings that comprise the Wisconsin Union. The other is Union South, located in another area of this very large campus. The Union is the “social, cultural, and recreational center of campus” and “serves as a daily gathering place for students, faculty, staff, community members, and visitors.”

The 19th annual Isthmus Jazz Fest was in it’s last few hours on the Memorial Union Terrace on Lake Mendota when we got there. We stopped inside for some ice cream and then went down by the lake with the grandkids while Professor Les Thimmig was playing the sax.

Note: This “lost” Haw Creek Out ‘n About post was recovered from the Internet Archive WayBack Machine.

Note: This “lost” Haw Creek Out ‘n About post was recovered from the Internet Archive WayBack Machine.

The morning started out very cloudy with a forecast of 60% chance of rain. We had been planning on taking a 2.8 mile loop trail, but decided to wait awhile to see what the weather held for us. When the clouds lowered and it started misting, we decided to go for a drive back to Spearfish in South Dakota, do some shopping and see some different country on our way back.

On the way back it was still raining intermittently.

In one section of Wyoming 24, the fill dirt under the road had settled a lot earlier this summer. Until just the last couple of days the road had been closed as a result.

We had gone over that section of road the day before and had been wondering whether the workers would be out in this kind of weather. Having lived in this kind of country before, we were not terribly surprised to see them out in the misty fog. There is not a lot of time left before the weather could get inclement to the point that the job will have to be shutdown until late spring.

While the road is open now, there is only one lane open — and it is nasty muddy. It was a bit windy and cold and the flaggers were all bundled up. In just a short section of road, the truck got dirty enough that we need to take it to a car wash so that we won’t have to be careful of leaning or rubbing up against it.

On the way back from Spearfish the conditions must have been just right to entice deer to come out in the open. We counted 95 deer — almost all of them white-tails — between Belle Fourch, South Dakota, and Devil’s Tower, Wyoming, and I’m sure that there were many more that we didn’t see.

Three of them were pretty close to the road and I got some close ups of one of them. I was very pleased with her doe eyes, but when I saw the second picture, I was surprised that it looked like she was sticking her tongue out. She’s really in the middle of eating, but it is one of the oddest pictures of a deer that I’ve seen.

By the time that we got back to the campground it had cleared up considerably. Deciding to take a walk while it was clear, we first went over to the front of the KOA store. At the entrance to this campground, there are 2 artistically painted large boots. The first boot has the KOA logo on it and it is also painted on all sides.

This is the other side of it.

The other boot is also painted on all sides. The back of the boot has an image of Teddy Roosevelt and the front has an image of Sitting Bull. The side that is in this image is interesting in that it depict Devil’s Tower and above and behind it is the real Devil’s Tower.

When we got to the overflow camping area on our walk , I changed lenses on the camera replacing the telephoto zoom with the closeup zoom so that I could get more area into the shot. However, just after I did, we spooked two deer and they took off running for the national monument. I didn’t have time to switch back to the telephoto zoom, so the images of one of the deer as she ran and then jumped the fence are not as clear and crisp as I would like.

The area at the rear of the campground is by far the prettiest. It is wide open with a lot of tall cottonwood trees. One side borders the national monument and on another the campground property ends at the Belle Fourche River, with a red rock cliff on the opposite side of the river. There are a lot of photo opportunities in that part of the campground.

This photo is a twisted dead tree with the Belle Fourche (pronounced foosh) River, part of the cliff and other land in the background. The buildings in the picture are KOA Kamping Kabins.

This is a similar image, except I’ve focused in on the grasses along the river, with the background intentionally blurred.

The monument boundary fence ends right at the river and then picks up again at the top of the red rock cliff, as shown in this picture:

Every month during the summer and when weather permits, a nighttime walk is conducted on the night when the moon is full. In the morning the weather looked like it would likely cause the walk to be canceled. However, after we got back to the campground from our drive earlier in the day, the sky just got more and more clear. By the time we headed up to the trail head where we would be hiking from, the sky was almost perfectly clear. This photo was taken with my camera held in my hand, no tripod. The night by that time was too dark for any other photos without using the flash. I didn’t want to use the flash because it would momentarily impair the night vision of the other hikers.

We enjoyed the walk, though when we stopped for the park volunteer to talk, the breaks lasted too long. The temperature has dropped into the low 50’s and there was a slight wind blowing. Even though everyone had bought flashlights, the moon light was bright enough in the open areas away from the trees that you didn’t really need them. We started out on the trail at 9 P.M. and got back to the truck at 10:30 P.M.