Category: Terrain
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Noosa National Park
Noosa Heads, Queensland, Australia (1997) We drove 160 km north of Brisbane to Noosa Heads on the Sunshine Coast. This town served as a gateway to the spectacular Noosa National Park with its rugged shoreline and abundant native Australian wildlife (map). Hastings Street provided access to the popular Headlands section of the park. We found…
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Glass House Mountains
Sunshine Coast, Queensland (October 1997) The Glass House Mountains became an easy detour on our drive back to Brisbane from Noosa Heads. Gently rolling plains surrounded the mountains which appeared to poke up randomly from the terrain. It’s not really a mountain range, but several volcanic plugs with the surrounding land eroded away. Our friend…
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Fossil Butte National Monument
Outside of Kemmerer, Wyoming, USA (July 2011) Fossil Butte National Monument may be one of the more obscure National Park Service properties but it’s worth a visit if you happen to be traveling through southwestern Wyoming. It’s particularly convenient to people driving out of Salt Lake City, Utah towards the east along Interstate 80. At…
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Apostle Islands / Bayfield Peninsula Index
Index of Pages from the Visit to Wisconsin’s Apostle Islands (2007) Few areas can rival the natural beauty of the Apostle Island and the Bayfield Peninsula. The state of Wisconsin borders Lake Superior only briefly but this mighty wedge takes full advantage of its limited coastline. The islands are a national treasure full of rocky…
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Visiting the City of Bayfield
Bayfield, Wisconsin, USA (August 2007) Bayfield (map), the Apostle Islands gateway, owes its identity to Admiral Henry Wolsey Bayfield. He charted much of the western Great Lakes in the 1820’s as a Royal Navy Surveyor. That included Chequamegon Bay and areas surrounding present-day Bayfield and Madeline Island. When the Bayfield Land Company platted their town…
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Mawikwe Sea Caves
Apostle Islands National Lakeshore; Bayfield County, Wisconsin, USA (August 2007) Sea caves adorn several points along the Apostle Islands and the nearby mainland shore of Lake Superior. Sailors, sea kayakers and other adventurers flock to northern Devils Island, Swallow Point on Sand Island, and Mawikwe Bay along the Bayfield Peninsula, to explore these natural wonders…
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Big Bay on Madeline Island
Ashland County, Wisconsin, USA (August 2007) With the exception of the immediate boundaries of La Pointe, the most popular spots on Madeline Island were the adjacent state and town park along Big Bay’s sandy hook. “Popular” was a relative term however. We never felt crowded anywhere on the island. We found Big Bay State Park…
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New River Gorge
Fayette County, West Virginia, USA (late 1990’s / early 2000’s) The momentous New River starts its journey in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, a part of the Appalachian chain, as it gently winds its northerly way through forests, valleys and fields. It continues its rural journey into Virginia and occasionally past towns like Galax and…
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Golden Spike National Historic Site
Promontory Summit, Utah, USA (July 2011) Most of us remember the Golden Spike, Promontory, Utah and the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. They featured prominently in long ago history classes when we were kids. Now we arrived in northern Utah. There was no doubt that we’d have to stop at the Golden Spike National Historic…
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Timpanogos Cave National Monument
American Fork, Utah, USA (July 2011) We’d never heard of Timpanogos Cave National Monument prior to our trip to Utah. During our planning we’d asked people for suggestions for fun activities in or near the Salt Lake Valley. A family friend who lived in the area recommended Timpanogos (map). It sounded like something right down…