Category: Terrain
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Coos Bay to Eugene, Oregon
Western Oregon, USA (May 11, 1998) Florence, Oregon provided excellent access to the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. Along this stretch of coast the cliffs gave way to large hills of sand (map). We spent the morning investigating various trails among the dunes and drove to our southern terminus in Coos Bay. A Hike In…
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The Big Obsidian Flow
Deschutes County, Oregon, USA (July 2012) The Big Obsidian Flow has an appropriate albeit unimaginative name for this geological structure in central Oregon, just east of the Cascades. It is indeed a big obsidian flow. It forms part of the vast Newberry National Volcanic Monument, founded in 1990 within the Deschutes National Forest, and specifically…
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Chaco Culture National Historical Park
San Juan Co., New Mexico, USA (May 1992) We spent much of a day and drove more than four hundred miles without ever leaving the state of New Mexico. That morning we left Carlsbad in the far southeastern corner destined for Chaco Culture National Historical Park in the for northwest. First we passed Roswell, looking…
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Carlsbad Caverns National Park
Carlsbad, Eddy Co., New Mexico, USA (May 1992) We drove up and over the Guadalupe Mountains in Texas, crossing into New Mexico and heading towards Carlsbad Caverns National Park in the southern part of the state (map). This is an unusual environment for a variety of reasons. The Guadalupe range is the exposed portion of…
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Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
Near Traverse City, Michigan; September 2000 Glaciers scoured the Great Lakes region during the last Ice Age. This mighty forces inundated the countryside, carving out many areas while leaving deposits behind in others. Sleeping Bear Dunes became one of those locations that happened to gain land, and presents rare examples of what are known geologically…
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Fayette Historic State Park
Delta County; Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (September 2000) We drove along scenic shoreline through Michigan’s Upper Peninsula between Manistique and Escanaba on U.S. Route 2. It to just a short detour down Lake Michigan’s Garden Peninsula to reach the Fayette Historic State Park and its lovingly preserved ghost town (map). Fayette once housed 500 residents in…
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Beaver Island Travel Index
Beaver Island, Michigan, USA (September 2000) Beaver Island is the largest island in Lake Michigan and the third largest in the Great Lakes, at about 6 miles wide and 13 miles long. It is located 18 miles from Michigan’s lower and upper peninsulas. Native Americans settled Beaver Island originally and Irish immigrants began arriving by…
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Scenic Lakeshores of Beaver Island
Beaver Island, Michigan, USA (September 2000) While Beaver Island displayed amazing lakeshore scenery from practically every angle, three places stood out in particular Mount Pisgah Mt. Pisgah is an overgrown sand dune at the island’s northwest corner (map). It rises to 730 feet just a quarter mile from shore and it’s an obligatory climb. We…
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Rural Scenes from Beaver Island
Beaver Island, Michigan, USA (September 2000) One small town existed on Beaver Island — St. James — and barely a couple hundred people lived there. The remaining several hundred residents spread broadly across the island. Essentially, almost every view involved a rural scene around here. Hiking Miles of hiking trails literally covered Beaver Island. Many…
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Bermuda Shorts, Part 9 (Lists)
I like to count a bunch of different things and that didn’t change simply because I went on vacation. If anything, it actually accelerated it. I’m always looking for opportunities to grow my lists. So I thought I’d wrap-up this final article in the Bermuda series with a summary of my progress. Parish Counting I…