Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
Devil's Tower - Sept. 7 - 8
Devil’s Tower perhaps best known from Close Encounter of the Third Kind, was a great stop to rest for a couple days. The tower is sacred to many tribes and hiking the base we saw many prayer clothes tied to trees. There were also several rock climbers making their assent. A ranger told me there is a shortcut they can take making a 4-5’ jump across a crevasse to a section called the Meadows where they can walk to the top. Right!
Sunday, September 6, 2015
Wind Cave NP & Custer SP in SD - Sept. 6
We decided to chance leaving Iowa on Sunday of the long holiday weekend and picked Wind Cave in SD because there are few services. This wouldn’t be the type of CG for weekenders. Perfect choice for us. The CG was nice and it was here that we learned from Ranger Mike that there are no buffalos in the US. Forget the buffalo nickels. They are bison! The herd at Wind Cave is tightly controlled, DNA tested and said to be 100% pure bison. Here and in Custer State Park, we got into some large herds making driving down the road both exciting and challenging.
The cave itself was a bit of a disappointment. Having gone to Carlsbad Cavern in NM several years back, most caves would pale. Wind Cave is dark, dank and with narrow passages. What is unique to this cave is the box works structure (see photo) but there isn’t any of the limestone caves and rock formations that you see in other caves.
Saturday, September 5, 2015
Part 2 - Sept. 4 - 5
After 1424 miles, we came into Iowa on a Thursday before the long Labor Day weekend. This complicated finding a place to stay. After trying a couple campgrounds, we grabbed a spot on Clear Lake for the night and then departed early to a county park, Oak Grove CG, up on a hill in Hawarden, a better choice with a nice breeze and views of a farmer rolling his alfalfa.
Iowa, land of corn and soybeans, is beautiful. Many of the fields have labeling of Pioneer, Asgrow and others which are some of the GMO seeds from Monsanto, Dupont and Syngenta but there also seems to be a growing movement of farmers turning back towards non-GMO seed.
Tomorrow will take us through the Badlands of SC and into the Black Hills.
Thursday, September 3, 2015
Westward X-Country Trek - Sept. 1 - 3
Trading sea for land, we are off again heading west to Yellowstone and Grand Tetons National Parks in Wyoming. The Fishers led the way for the first two days to Seneca Falls, NY and Elkhart, IN. Had I done my research, Seneca Falls would have been a several day stay visiting the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Next time!. In IN, we parted ways with T & J hoping to cross paths again down the road in Wyoming.
Thursday, May 7, 2015
Friday, May 1, 2015
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Sunday, April 26, 2015
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)