September 26 – October 2, 2020. South Dakota never shut down due to the pandemic so when we got to Mount Rushmore the first thing we saw was a bulletin board listing ranger talks. Ranger Talks! We love ranger talks and hadn’t been to a one since the beginning of the year. We checked the …read more
August 16 – 21, 2020. After our trip to Glacier National Park, we were once again looking for a place where we could just relax and pursue our newest hobby, stalking birds. Along our path to our next provisioning stop in Great Falls, I found Freezout Lake. Freezout Lake is a Montana Wildlife Management area …read more
July 4 & July 22 – July 30, 2020. One thing I found rather curious about Yellowstone National Park is how many people I saw fishing. I imagine someone’s significant other coming home and saying, “Honey I just booked us a vacation to Yellowstone National Park, the country’s first national park and a UNESCO World …read more
July 20 – 21 & August 7 – 13, 2020 Mountains. They are all over out west. When I first moved to Tucson, AZ from the Midwest some 30 years ago I was awed by the mountains. I’d never lived near mountains before and in Tucson, the city ran right up to their ascent. As …read more
July 1, July 10-14, 2020. Right now this very minute a breeze blows through Ballena Blanca as I sit here writing. Greg is sitting outside playing the guitar. Life is lazy. We have spent a week camping out in the Freezout Lake Wildlife Management Area where we have had the best internet connection since we’ve …read more
June 21 – June 24, 2020. We didn’t expect to find shorebirds in Idaho, we didn’t expect to find an amazing canyon with such amazing scenery in Idaho, and we didn’t expect to find the tallest sand dune in North America in Idaho. And we had no idea we’d find all of this in one …read more
June 2 – June 5, 2020. John C. Fremont called it the “Great Basin” in 1844. His father-in-law, Missouri Senator Thomas Benton, had gotten him the job. In May 1843 Fremont led a party of 39 men west on the Oregon Trail. Reaching what is now Nevada, they turned south to explore and map. They …read more
May 27 – June 2, 2020. Bryce Canyon National Park is full of interesting birds, beautiful flowers, adorable critters, and oh yeah – lotsa amazing rocks! Although we have been to Utah many times we had never visited Bryce since the park is at such a high elevation it has alway been cold in the …read more
May 13 – May 24, 2020. I got lost in the woods alone. This was annoying. Not just because I was lost but because by becoming lost I ended up not avoiding the very thing I was trying to avoid when I became lost. No worries, obviously I found my way in the end. We …read more
April 27 – May 5, 2020. It was hot in Ajo. Really, really hot. Pushing 100 hot. The giant saguaro cacti were loving it. The intensity of the sun beating down on their recently sprouted green nubs growing out of their spiky extremities was causing them to burst out into amazing white blooms. We, on …read more