A Cross-Country Drive

Truckee, California to Seville, Ohio and Return
April 28 to May 12, 2001

Lehman Caves

The Start of the Cross-Country Drive
Truckee, California to Cedar City, Utah

Day #1. For my two week vacation, I decided to drive across the country to visit relatives in Kentucky and Ohio and see some attractions on the way. My first day did not offer much in the way of attractions. My only stop was at Great Basin National Park to tour Lehman Caves. Unfortunately, on my tour was a troop of boy scouts with two scout leaders. The scouts were rowdy and loud, and the scout leaders did not nothing to curb their rowdiness. For myself and the other non-scout participants of the tour, it was not an enjoyable visit.

Where you see a day with italics text, that text is from a postcard that I sent while on the road to chronicle my trip. Like a postcard, it is short and to the point.

Another Holiday Weekend Trip

Northeastern California and Southern Oregon
September 1-3, 2001

A holiday weekend trip to northern California and southern Oregon to visit Lava Beds National Monument and Crater Lake National Park. On the way back, Karen and I also made some quick stops to other sites of interest.

Lava Beds National Monument, California
Day #1

We started the morning in Reno, and our first stop was to the top of California to Modoc County. This was my second time at the Lava Beds, and this time I had a partner and did not have to solo into the caves. A drive through the park and stops at the following attractions:

• Big Painted Cave / Symbol Bridge
• Merrill Ice Cave
• Schonchin Butte Fire Lookout
• Balcony Cave / Boulevard Cave
• Gillems Camp and the Canby Cross
• Captain Jacks Stronghold
• Petroglyph Point

We arrived at our stop for the night in Klamath Falls, Oregon just as night descended upon us.

View from the Schonchin Butte Fire Lookout

The start of the trail to Balcony and Boulevard Caves

Inside Captain Jack's Stronghold

Petroglyphs etched onto Petroglyph Point

Cabrillo Namesakes

Cabrillo National Monument, Point Loma, California
February 15, 2010

Statue of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo

Being an attendee of Cabrillo High School in Lompoc, I naturally became curious as to who is Cabrillo and what kind of mascot is a Conquistador. Well, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo was a conquistador – soldier, explorer, adventurer for the Spanish realm in the New World. In 1542 he and his expedition were the first Europeans to see the sights of the coast of California and set foot on the future Golden State. His expedition planted the seed for California's settlement by the Spanish two centuries later.

My alma mater is one of a small number of namesakes for Cabrillo. I've always been interested in visiting other Cabrillo namesakes, and once again, an opportunity was now staring at me just down the road. Mr. Cabrillo has his own national monument at Point Loma, and I guess this is the definitive namesake for him. The monument commemorates the landing of Cabrillo at San Diego Bay, and offers films and exhibits on his voyage and expedition.  The monument also has a statue of Cabrillo overlooking the bay, although I suspect most visitors come to the monument not for Cabrillo but for the spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean, San Diego Bay, and the surrounding lands.

Another Labor Day Weekend Trip Through Oregon

Reno, Nevada to Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, Washington
August 29 to 31, 2008

Another holiday weekend and more places to explore in the Pacific Northwest with my travel partner Karen. Our goal for the weekend was Mount St. Helens with opportunities for other sites along the way.

Day 1 - Reno, Nevada to Bend, Oregon

The plan was to break the drive to Mount St. Helens into two days, and the first day of driving with an early, early start from Reno would take us to Bend, Oregon. As a precursor to the volcanic sites of Mount St. Helens, we explored the volcanic sites of Newberry National Volcanic Monument. We spent the afternoon checking out the monument, which is spread out on the lava lands south of Bend. Although we missed lots of other activities to do in the monument, we:

A Slice of the Mojave

Mojave National Preserve, California
February 13, 2010

South Entrance

Interstates have a tendency to straighten our focus on the freeway and put us into a stupor as to what may be awaiting us if we just get off. That happened to me a number of times when I drove Interstate 15 for Las Vegas or Interstate 40 to get to or from Arizona. I was stupefied into a rush to get somewhere else that I never took a detour into the wonders of the Mojave Desert between I-15 and I-40. Even Congress was not able to get me to detour when it declared this area as a National Preserve in 1994.

Here was my chance as I drove away from Las Vegas on I-15:  Exit 272 Cima Road. Although I was not ready to get intimate with the desert, I thought it at least

Kelso Depot

deserved a drive through as my introduction to this part of the Mojave Desert. My drive along Cima Road and Kelbaker Road provided a 59-mile scenic tour of the National Preserve between I-15 and I-40. The highlights included Cima Dome, the town of Kelso, and the Kelso Dunes. Places that I had previously read about, but now I was able to put sights to the words I read. A couple of hours after starting my detour, I was back on the interstate.

Kelso Dunes

Where's the Mountain?

Mount Rainier National Park, Washington
August 31, 2010

I'm not having much luck seeing the great mountains of Washington.  Two years ago I traveled to southwest Washington to see Mount St. Helens and its exploded top. I got to see the bottom of the mountain, but the top of the mountain was engulfed by clouds.  The clouds opened up for only a couple of minutes as I was driving away, the Washington rainy weather spoiling my view and the trip.

So it was no surprise to me when the Washington rainy weather spoiled my trip to Mount Rainier National Park. Yep, I ran into the rain and clouds which obscured the mountain, even up close. Below is a photo of where Mount Rainier should be. I took the photo from the parking lot of the Paradise Visitor Center around midway up the mountain. There should be around 6,000 feet of mountain and 25 glaciers right in front of me, but all I saw was clouds. I will have to take the word of Washingtonians that there is a majestic mountain here at Mount Rainier National Park.

I did get to see lots and lots of trees in the park. I took a short hike to the Grove of the Patriarchs, a small ancient forest  of Western Red Cedars and Douglas Firs that are nearly a thousand years old.

Mount Rainier in the clouds

The Grove of the Patriarchs

What I Learned Today

Ochoco National Forest and John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Oregon
September 9, 2010

My travels from Redmond to La Grande took me through the volcanic lands of central and eastern Oregon. I saw many remnants of ancient volcanic activity in the Ochoco National Forest and the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. And of course, there were many pieces of information left by the Forest Service and the National Park Service to tell us about these geological landmarks. Before the day was done, I read many a sign interpreting the landscape around me. And when the day was done, I was a little bit smarter on the subject of geology.

Here are the interpretive signs that taught me some geology in Oregon ...

Steins Pillar
Ochoco National Forest

Clues to a Volcanic Past

Stein's Pillar, 350 feet high and 120 feet wide, is a modern clue to this area's ancient past.

Around 44 million years ago, avalanches of hot ash, pumice and volcanic dust flowing from local volcanic centers filled this ancient valley. A long period of erosion followed.

These flows are still visible in the layers of Stein's Pillar. Finally, Mother Nature patiently sculpted the landscape you see today. Rain, wind, and frost slowly chiseled along cracks in the rocks forming the valley and leaving Stein's Pillar as a beacon to travelers.

Major Enoch Steen explored the area in the 1860's. His name was misspelled so often that the incorrect version being official. The pillar has aided travelers and enticed geologists for many years.

Snapshots of the Big Island

Hawai‘i County, Hawai‘i
November 19-23, 2007

Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park

Lava flow near the Pu`u `Ō `ō Crater of the Kīlauea volcano as seen from a helicopter. The volcano was not very active (comparatively speaking) during my week on the island.

Near Kukuihaele

A coastal waterfall as viewed from a helicopter.

A Drive Through Joshua Tree

Joshua Tree National Park, California
March 4, 2003

One of the many rock formations in the park

An afternoon drive through the west side of Joshua Tree National Park. Lots of rocks, coyotes on the road, and great views of the Coachella Valley from Keys View. I took the rough exit from the park on Berdoo Canyon Road—unimproved with a drop of around 2,500 feet in 6 1/2 miles. A chef from Palm Springs had the same idea as me, but his Chevrolet sedan was not up to the task. He high centered his car, and I pulled his car back onto the level portion of the road with my Xterra. He had to drive back to the paved road and return to Palm Springs the long way, but I was able to go straight down the road to I-10.

A coyote on the main park road

The Berdoo Canyon Road exit / entrance to the park

Dozens of Pages of a Grand Book

South Rim, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
March 2, 2010

In 1862 the Russian author Ivan Turgenev wrote, "A picture shows me at a glance what it takes dozens of pages of a book to expound." The pictures of the Grand Canyon are worthy of dozens and dozens of pages. Depending on what the viewer may be thinking at the time they inhale the immense atmosphere of the Grand Canyon, the subject of these pages can be almost anything and their depth can vary from a simple poem to a treatise on sedimentary geology.

I did not want to over-think the Grand Canyon like a geographer would do. I would rather just take in and enjoy the landscapes as I traveled along the South Rim. I would like you to do the same. Enjoy these landscape visuals from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, west to east.

A Day Without Pictures

Arches National Park, Moab, Utah
October 14, 2010

This was my second visit to this national park of arches. My first visit was a short one, late on a winter day, limited to scenic stops with no hiking. Today I had the whole day to soak in the park. I decided I did not want to be burdened with a camera and the compulsion to photograph the many views I would see today; I left my camera in my motel room to remove this burden. Of the places and people I met today, I was able to think, to analyze, to imagine, to laugh, to question, to opine, and mostly to smile. Not through the camera lens but through all of my senses.

Once I got back to my motel room, I was able to relive the day by scribing notes of the day, and here are my notes:

Pictures on Rocks

Carrizo Plain National Monument, San Luis Obispo County, California
February 18, 2010

I have driven through the Carrizo Plain several times over the last few years but never really stopped to smell the roses that this national monument offered. On my way back to Lompoc from the Mojave Desert, I decided I would stop at one of these roses, the Painted Rock.  Painted Rock is a horseshoe-shaped formation of sandstone rocks with Native American pictographs. One of the three major forms of Native American rock art, a pictograph as defined by the Archaeology Wordsmith is "Any design, picture, or drawing painted on a surface (usually rock/stone) and used to represent a thing, action, or event. Pictographs are believed to be the earliest form in the development of writing (pictography). It represents a form of nonverbal communication used by non-literate people."

Pompeys Pillar

Pompeys Pillar National Monument, Yellowstone County, Montana
August 2, 2010

Pompeys Pillar as viewed from Highway 312

The Outdoors of Vegas

Clark County, Nevada
February 11-12, 2010

I am not one to burrow myself inside a casino during the daytime, and I can only endure so much traffic and solicitors along the Strip. With the February weather in Vegas sunny and in the 70's, I set off into the outdoors of Las Vegas. Yes, there are outdoors to enjoy in the Vegas area that are not made by the hand of man.

I chose three contrasting spots for my Vegas outdoor adventures. One well-known with a Federal designation to recognize its significance. One shown as a small red square on my road atlas with no clues of its worth. One at the end of a long road next to a long waterway.

A Man, His Truck, and The Unconquered Road

The Needles District, Canyonlands National Park, Utah
October 12, 2010

A stop at the visitor center has usually been the first order of business when I get to a national park. The visitor center is typically near the entrance and gives me an opportunity to stretch and get a feel of the lay of the land. The lay of the Canyonlands is immense, so much that it has three districts with the entrances to these districts tens of miles apart. A quick look at the visitor center exhibits and the park map gave me my agenda for the morning in The Needles District of Canyonlands National Park. A scenic drive down the dead-end road to Big Spring Canyon Overlook with a side trip on the Elephant Hill access road for a distant view of the Needles. Also, a short hike on the Pothole Point Trail for my daily exercise.

Rocky Homes

Flagstaff to Marana, Arizona
March 3, 2010

Today, as I traveled from Flagstaff to Marana just north of Tucson, I visited a lot of homes and a lot of rocks. Here in central Arizona you don’t have many choices but to build right on the rocks, in the rocks, or as part of the rocks. Here are three rocky ways I discovered to have a home in Arizona.

Homes Built in a Rock

Montezuma Castle

Around 700 A.D. the Sinagua people were migrating and came upon the waters of Beaver Creek just north of Camp Verde and the Verde River. With plenty of water and fertile ground, the Sinagua put down roots although they decided to put their homes into the sky. Within the high limestone cliffs bordering Beaver Creek, the Sinagua became cliff-dwellers and built their homes into the cliffs for comfort and for protection. An area inhabited by the Sinagua with a spectacular example of one of their cliff-dwellings is protected by Montezuma Castle National Monument.

Also protected by the National Monument but several miles away from the main unit of the park is Montezuma Well. The Sinagua people abandoned central Arizona around 1425, but the Yavapai believe their people were brought into the world at the well which is a limestone sinkhole. The pond in the sinkhole has an outlet to Beaver Creek along with a canal system which delivered water further downstream. The well is coming under the assault of modern man with the spreading of Illinois Pondweed, but it is still a sight with small dwellings squeezed into the limestone walls surrounding the pond.

Montezuma Well

The Legend of Sleeping Bear

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Michigan
May 27, 2010

The Ojibwe or Chippewa are people of the forest and respect the fearsome animals who call the forest home, especially the black bear. On the eastern shore of Lake Michigan lies a series of sand dunes on a high bluff overlooking two islands. The Ojibwe believe the islands and the one dune peering towards the islands were created by the Great Spirit. And that brings us to our story, the legend of Sleeping Bear (as told by me).

A mother bear and her two cubs were walking along the western shore of Lake Michigan in what is now Wisconsin. The mother bear could see into the distance all around them the flames and smoke of an enormous forest fire coming their way. The fire and flames and smoke crept closer and closer to the bear and her cubs, and they had nowhere to flee. The mother bear gathered her two cubs and swam into the lake to escape the terrifying flames. The fire would not go away, and the family was forced to swim eastward hoping to soon find dry land and safety across the lake.