2019 Black Hills South Dakota

Flower seeds
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Robaix Lake, Black Hills NF
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After leaving the COE east of Badlands NP some friends and I headed to the Black Hills. We were thinking the higher elevation might be a bit cooler and a NFS campground might be rather quiet after the COE. Sure enough Robaix Lake NFS campground was just what we were hoping for. The evening we arrived I took a walk down to the lake. On the way I spotted what looked like a giant dandelion gone to seed.

 

Milky Way over Robaix Lake
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Later that night I went back to the lake in hopes of capturing the Milky Way over the water. Sure enough it was there in all its glory, a sight neat never fails to awe me.

The next morning I was up and out to gain take the walk to the lake. I was thinking it

Early morning flower
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might be interesting to see some of the wildflowers with dew on them.

Later that morning I headed out to do the scenic drive called Spearfish Canyon. It is mentioned in so many of the travel magazines about the area I was curious to see it. Well, it is definitely a canyon, with the trees (fir or spruce for the most

Roughneck Falls, Spearfish Canyon,
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part) coming right down to the road. About 1/2 way along I could start to see some rock outcroppings up high but nothing to make me want to stop. There is one very popular and impressive waterfall, Roughneck Falls, it’s well worth the detour and walk along the boardwalk.

At the end of the drive I hopped on I90 east and took 85 south through Deadwood to get to 385 and the campground. Definitely better than retracing the canyon.

 

 

 

 

 

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2019 South Dakota, Missouri River

Dignity, 50′ high statue near I 90, Chamberlain, SD
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As you approach the Missouri River in South Dakota you see this 5-‘ statue titled Dignity near I 90.

I recently met up with some friends at a COE campground right on the Missouri River near Ft. Thompson in SD. Lovely campground with electric hookups at each site. Normally that wouldn’t be a selling point with me but the temperatures were abnormally high and being able to run the AC made the stay much more pleasant.

We traveled over to Chamberlain to explore the town. The Atka Lakota Museum and Center was very interesting and educational.

Later one afternoon the camp host came around warning us that a severe thunderstorm was headed towards the area. Everyone prepared by putting everything away, and watched the storm approach with
impressive lightning and thunder. After it passed we went out to see if anyone had been affected. The setting sun was lighting up some clouds across the river. None were but I realized that the storm was SE of us and the lightning was still pretty impressive. Needless to say I got out the tripod and camera and spent quite a while with a front row seat so to speak.

 

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2019 Utah in May

My trip from FL to UT this month was pretty uneventful and I stopped at Goosenecks SP to relax for a couple of days before continuing. As always the goosenecks created by the San Juan River are memorable.

Ever since traveling route 95 northwest from Blanding, UT, to Hanksville I’ve wanted to take that road again and stop along the way. This May I finally got to do that. Most of the road is included in the Bears Ears National Monument and goes through BLM land. I had studied various maps and had some idea where I might be able to stop for overnight. My first stop was just past a butte called Cheese Box Butte. There is a pullout that leads to a sort of circle and beyond that a pretty rough road that goes down to more open space. I decided to stay at the circle but did see a car head down the road and then a couple set up their tent in an open area much closer to the river than where I was.

I had an idea to camp at Fry Canyon, but the entrance of that road was posted so I kept on going a ways. I saw a turn off to the right and saw a pickup truck parked near a sign, but by then I had gone by the turn. Just ahead I saw a sign “Jacob’s Chair Viewpoint”. OK! I turned around there (doesn’t take much room to turn my truck & Casita around) and went back to the turnoff. It lead to another very large circle where I found a relatively level spot to park. The sign posted showed all sort of trails and from my viewpoint I could see tent campers below and across the river. This would be an ideal spot to explore with a 4WD vehicle and a nice place to just hang out for a bit. There was a nice breeze so it wasn’t too hot even with no shade.

I think if I’d been a week later the desert floor would have been covered with cactus blooms. I managed to get some images of most of the flowers in bloom, it’s amazing what a variety there is in that dry climate.

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2019 AZ Sandhill Cranes

The last few days I spent in Arizona were at a state game & fish wildlife refuge. What a wonderful place! It is home to thousands of Sandhill Cranes in the winter. There is also a variety of ducks and a pair of resident Great Horned Owls.

The cranes fly out early so getting up before down to capture them as they fly out can be challenging. It’s usually pretty cold, but definitely worth the effort as the sun rises and highlights the birds.

They return late in the morning, coming back in great groups. Then the sun is high and it’s more a matter of looking for interesting behavior as they mingle.

The ducks are very fast, hard to capture. The owls were a different matter entirely. She was sitting on a nest and he was perched at the opposite end of the shed high up so the challenge wasn’t in capturing action but getting the lighting right.

There were a also some Snow Geese there but they tended to stay pretty from from the berms where watchers can stand.

 

The last evening I was there there was a spectacular sunset. As I and others watched it just got better and better, the colors so strong. Then some of the Cranes flew across, making it even better!

This was my second visit to this refuge and it was well worth the time. It was also a lot warmer this time than in mid January last year!

 

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2019 AZ Winter

After spending a couple of weeks at Quartzite seeing friends and visiting another friend in Buckeye I went south to Organ Pipe Cactus NM for a few days. Been there before but it is a lovely campground and a good place to relax. I did get out one evening for some night images but the OP cactus were not close enough to the road for me to get any images of them. I tend to stick very close to the truck at night.

From Organ Pipe I headed over to Gilbert Ray cg, just  south of Tucson. Very glad I got there on Thursday because when I got up Friday morning it was snowing!  It didn’t let up so after breakfast I grabbed a camera and large zip lock bag to keep it dry and headed out to where I knew there might be some great photo opportunities. While I’m not a big fan of snow it was such a great opportunity I couldn’t pass it up. The roads were wet but not slippery.  

At times it was snowing pretty good, the blurry spots are snowflakes coming down.

 

This is a great campground with electric hookups at each site. Given the very cold weather it’s been a real treat  to  not  think  about  using  up  the  propane.

My last day here it has warmed up and I even got a few sunset images.

 

 

 

 

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2018 Valley of Fire SP, NV

A few friends have been to this state park and had glowing reports so this fall on my way south I decided to stop there. It’s not a large area but has some really nice views and scenery. It reminds me of what a cross between Arches NP or some of the other UT NPs and City of Rocks SP in NM might be like. Many of the rocks have the coloring of the UT parks, but the size and the fact that the campsites are located in in among the rocks reminds me of the NM state park. There are plenty of places to hike and lots of very little “arches” to view. Maybe someday some of those mini-arches will be bigger?

There are some Desert Bighorn Sheep there, rather regal looking the way their horns are set on.

 

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2018 Gros Ventre final days

Watching and photographing the moose in the Gros Ventre area in Wyoming is usually the highlight of the fall for me and this year I was there close to a  month, what a great time! I got to see and photograph several bulls, watch them interact with each other and with some cows.

One of the things a bull will do at times is pee in a spot, then lay in it. I’ve seen elk do this, too. This time I learned that a cow will lay down with the bull, getting very cosy. After a while these two wondered off to the river, she went across and i don’t know what he finally did. It was getting too dark to hang around

Fall is when the aspen turn golden and I got to see that, too.  The moose were pretty active at dawn so I was up with or before the sunrise. That paid off one morning with some glorious color. 

But the moose were my main interest and they cooperated so well. One time there were two bulls. a cow & calf and another cow on one side of the drive and two bulls on the other side of the drive. Where to look, which to photograph, and all the while paying attention to where they were all moving!  The campground has been putting up very sturdy “bear boxes” at each campsite for storing food,
etc., in. They often seemed to be in the worst locations for taking photos, though.

One morning when I left the trailer I saw two bulls and a cow right close by. The mature and immature bull butted antlers a while then took a break, grazed, moved to another area and resumed the challenge.

 

 

 

To give you an idea if the size of some of the bulls, the truck on the left is mine and that bull was right behind it.

 

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