No wonder Yellowstone was our very first national park. It has so much of everything! It is geologically active with geysers and sulphur springs. It has its own “grand canyon”. It has mountainous views, prairies, rivers, waterfalls and wildlife like grizzly bears, black bears, bison, elk, moose and more. And just to its south is the Grand Teton range of mountains. The John D. Rockerfeller Highway runs north to south between these two parks.

We encountered several sulphur fields and springs. Here are some:

But the prismatic spring is the most spectacular spring of them all. The water is a bright aqua with sulphur colors surrounding it. Ken took a moderately difficult hike up a cliff to get the aerial view, while I shot the views at the spring itself. There are specially adapted microbes that live in these hot temperatures and are aiding scientists to learn about possible life forms on other planetary objects.

The Yellowstone River has carved quite the canyon through the park. The walls are multi-hued. There’s a beautiful waterfall to photograph (upper falls and lower falls).

Next, we went looking for all those wild animals that Yellowstone is so famous for. We especially wanted to see the iconic buffalo (bison) herds. Do you think we saw them?


Or what about bears?

Or prong horned antelopes, this hemisphere’s fastest animal?

Yup, we saw them. BUT, not at Yellowstone! We’ll save that for another post.

Our stay at Grand Teton was somewhat marred by smokey skies caused by wildfires in Montana and Idaho. Grand Teton is actually in Wyoming. Ken and I did some bicycling there and traveled the scenic routes. It’s interesting how the Snake River runs through these lands, and we had learned how it all ends up in the Columbia River and out to the Pacific at Astoria, OR. The photo below was taken from the very same spot that Ansel Adams took his photo of the Snake River and the Grand Tetons. Of course, I had to deal with the smokey skies!

The loop in the river is now obscured by tree growth. If you get a chance to see his photograph, please do because it’s so interesting to compare after so many decades later.

Here’s an interesting panorama of the range:

Yellowstone was the motivation for the concept of a national park. America was the first country to adopt it. History was made here. But, more importantly, this entire area is phenomenally special, and we should all be grateful that we have National Parks! Yes, this country is so gosh darn beautiful!

Our last theme was the gorgeous coast of Oregon. In contrast, we are going to share with you the volcano range of the Cascades in northern California, Oregon and Washington, plus the Olympic peninsula in Washington and Glacier National Park in northern Montana on the border with Canada. We’re saving Yellowstone for its own separate post. Same for Seattle and ditto for Portland and the Columbia Gorge. Yikes, we have a lot of catching up to do!

When we arrived at Mt. Lassen in mid June, we had no idea that snow in the park would render a visit there nearly useless as the bulk of the park was CLOSED to vehicles. The visitor’s center was open, and a short 2 miles past that was as far as you could go! Here is a photo of Ken at the end of the road at the snow bank. Can you see the snowman?

We did learn a great deal about the entire volcano area of the Cascades that lead all the way up to Mt. St. Helens. These are all classified as active. We planned on visiting Mt. Rainier and driving by Mt. Shasta. These are all the tallest peaks in the U.S. To  make the best of our two full days here, we took a side trip to Burney Falls, which was spectacular! Teddy Roosevelt had high praise for them.

Our next National Park adventure was to Crater Lake.  But, I want to back up a little bit because we first went to Grants Pass in Oregon to visit with my brother, Richard, whom I haven’t seen in a very long time. On our way to Grants Pass, we drove near Mt. Shasta.

Crater Lake was also covered with snow! But, most of the roads were open. Hiking was not an option, unless you had snowshoes. I can’t believe that in mid to late June, there’s still snow in these areas! I guess that over 280 inches of snow per year takes a long time to melt in the high elevations. The lake tour boat doesn’t start running until July 4th weekend. Crater Lake is the deepest natural lake in the US at 1,949 feet at its deepest point. It is also part of the cascade volcanic range due to the surrounding mountains. It was formed by a collapsing volcano. There are no rivers or streams that feed into it. It has the bluest water color to it.


In this photo below, you can see some climbers with snow gear tackling the nearby trail!

While visiting the area, we did the cascade area “waterfalls” byway trail by car and visited many waterfalls. We’re still hoping to combine our photos and videos to put together a post on waterfalls.

Our next visit was to Mt. Rainier, and you would imagine that by then (July 14th), the snow would be all gone. But, no, there was still snow in places! Of course, the snow is always present on the peaks along with the many glaciers. We would’ve visited Mt. St. Helens since our campground was close to both, but the highway to St. Helens had a washout and was closed to traffic so that was not going to happen. Mt. Rainier’s “Paradise” area is known for its beautiful wildflowers and we caught them just in time. It was so interesting to watch the cloud formations around the peak (elevation is 14,411 ft.). We had a cloudless day, but not at the peak as clouds would come and go just there.

Interestingly, we were able to see the peak of Mt. Rainier appear out of what seems like “nowhere” in Seattle harbor. It’s 90 miles away. Pretty spooky photo!

The Olympic peninsula in Washington state hosts Olympic National Park. Here we have really tall mountains that meet the Pacific ocean.  Again, they are so high, they remain snow covered.  This park requires quite a bit of driving to see the sights as it’s a huge park with no central location. We should’ve allocated more time to spend here because of this.

From the Olympic peninsula we move on to Glacier National Park in upper Montana, straddling the Canadian border. The scenery in the park is splendid, but unfortunately, the infrastructure cannot accommodate the number of visitors that want to spend time visiting here. The roads are windy and narrow in a fairly large section of the park and is pretty much recommended only for their small shuttle buses to use. In other words, no cars for the feint of heart. Ken will not drive! We found that you have to wait 2 to 3 hours to board a bus for the entire road trip, starting from the Visitor’s Center. There’s no parking anywhere else. Then you board the small shuttle for the winding area. This process takes all day! You don’t really have time to get off at the different places for sightseeing and hiking. Most of my photos were taken through the bus or shuttle windows. What a shame! And there’s nothing that can be done to fix this. It is a beautiful place, though.

It’s neat to see snow covered peaks in the heat of summer. It is also a reminder about how diverse our climate is in this country. And, of course, these mountains are all part of what makes this country so “GOSH DARN BEAUTIFUL”!

 

The old train depot, built in 1892 in Duluth, MN, is not just a preserved historical building. Inside are several separate museums that delve into fine Art, woodcraft as art and furniture, and a comprehensive display that honors and explains the craft and engineering of the train, particularly steam. The diversity of the exhibits are remarkable! Not only does the Depot house these fascinating museums, but is also home to the Duluth Playhouse and the Minnesota Ballet. I urge you to visit this place.

The Duluth Art Institute features various artists. While we were there, they highlighted the artist Jonathan Thunder. He is a painter and digital media artist currently residing in Duluth. He has attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe and received a Bachelor’s Degree in Visual Effects and Motion Graphics from the Art Institutes International Minnesota. To quote from his site, “Jonathan’s paintings explore personal themes of identity, life transitions, internal conflict, and self-transformation. He depicts expressive characters whose emotions and thoughts manifest viscerally in their physical form. The bodies of his subjects often appear fragmented, disfigured, animalistic, or partially obscured. They portray the prison of old patterns and the desire to fluidly overcome them. His art acts as the scrapbook recording an evolving identity. Through his subjects, Jonathan can exaggerate the villains and heroes that make up his self-image. A strong theme focuses on the ability of the self to break away from ‘what it has been programmed to do.’ His work questions the cost of conformity, examines moral responsibility ….” I found his art both riveting and disturbing.

The art of woodworking takes the form of furniture and folk like carvings. The furniture of Herman Melheim (April 24, 1891- February 23, 1990) is exceedingly ornate, looking like it was done at between 1880 and 1920. This is not surprising when you look at his life span except why did he look backwards toward his birth for aesthetic inspiration? The most startling piece is the television stand. The television is circa 1970 encased in this ornate cabinet. The plastic of the TV is so remote from the beautiful wood. It would sort of be like driving a Model T Ford with an advanced navigation screen that was integral to the design of the car.  I have considerable admiration for his craft since woodworking is one of the skills I have had to develop for maintaining our wooden vessels. Gratefully, I do not need to have Herman’s skill for the work that I do.

Unfortunately, the furniture is crowded into a small space, making the photography difficult.

The train portion of the museum mostly deals with steam engines. The steam technology advanced to the point that the last trains produced using steam were not lacking in speed or power. It was the maintenance cost that made steam technology obsolete. The museum not only displays the various engines, cars and equipment, but often accompanies the displays with videos showing the equipment being used.

The snow plow displayed is simple, yet massive. Videos showing the plow in use creates an explosive effect pushing feet of snow far beyond the track.

The engine shown below, the William Crooks, belonged to the St Paul and Pacific railroad.  The engine arrived by steamboat in Duluth on Sept 9, 1861. To put this in perspective, this is the same year that hostilities broke out and plunged the United States into civil war. This is one of the few remaining locomotives from that time. Personally, I think this train is beautiful. The melding of the many metals is eye pleasing both as sculpture and as an engineering achievement. Kudos to the museum for keeping up these engines in such great condition.

Not only did they have this engine from the civil war, but they also had President Lincoln’s funeral car, or so I thought. When I went to research the details, I found out from the History Channel site, that that car burned in a prairie fire in Minneapolis in 1911. Further investigation revealed that the car on display is a fairly accurate reproduction. The Depot gives the following information. “Using photographs, written descriptions, pieces of charred metal, and a single wood frame window removed from the car before the blaze, an exact, full-sized replica of ‘The Lincoln Funeral Car’ was constructed. This colossal effort took over five years and was completed in time for the 2015 Sesquicentennial of the original train ride from Washington to Springfield.”  

Duluth was a great stop, not only for the Depot, but the Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center and the lift bridge. Duluth is also a major shipping port. I wish we had planned more time to explore the area.

Mitchell, SD became the focus for this blog because of the enthusiasm and kindness of Ron Fuchs. I walked into the Andrew Carnegie Library and looked around. I saw darkened rooms, but to my left was Ron at his computer. I was ready to walk out when Ron pulled away from his desk and offered to give me a tour of the library and told me some of the history of the town.  A larger library has recently been been built and this building is now home to Mitchell Area Historical Society (MAHS) and the Mitchell Area Genealogical Society (MAGS) and the building is now officially called the Carnegie Resource Center.

Alexander Mitchell (1817-1887) and Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) may have known each other. They were both born in Scotland and both extremely wealthy. Andrew contributed the funding for the Library in Mitchell in 1903. He funded the construction of  2,509 libraries.

 

Alexander Mitchell was president of the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad (Milwaukee Rd). Mitchell, SD was originally named Firesteel but was changed to Mitchell in anticipation of the completion of the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad in 1880. His grandson was the famous Billy Mitchell, the pioneering aviator who was able to convince the military of the growing importance of air power during World War II.

Mitchell has the last remaining Corn Palace (there were 34 palaces throughout the state). What is a Corn Palace? The building acts as a civic center, indoor sports arena and theater. The walls of this building have panels depicting history, famous visiting artists and other scenes from life in this western agricultural town. The panels look like they are made out of tile, which may explain the Moorish influence of towers and minarets.  The tiles are actually corn husks of various colors which are changed every year. From 1948 to 1971, the artist Oscar Howe (1915-1983) designed the panels.

 

This year is an exception, for the drought was so devastating that it will be a major financial effort to renew the panels after two years. This is ironic, for the intention of a corn palace is to show the world and potential farmers that this is a great and profitable place to grow corn!

Oscar Howe also painted the dome of the Carnegie Library.  His art is bold and intriguing in its design. The Library rotunda displays many of his art works.

We also visited the McGovern Legacy Museum at the Dakota Wesleyan University. George McGovern was a prominent teacher, statesman, humanitarian and Senator. The information is well presented.  For more information: Click here!

 

The entire coast of Oregon is so very special. It is far more dramatic than California in so many ways. Although we didn’t visit the northern coast of California beyond just north of San Fransisco, I can’t imagine it could hold the beauty we found in Oregon’s coast. These beaches are not for swimming, or surfing. They are there for your meditative spirit. They are there to make you say “Ahhh.”

Our first encounter with the coast was in Port Orford, the westernmost port of the United States (before Alaska and Hawaii) and home to the Port Orford Cedar, the wood from which our two boats were made. Just south of the port is Humbug State Park that has mountains and cliffs that meet the ocean.

The port of Port Orford is very interesting because there are no actual docks for the boats. There are boat lifts and all the fishing fleet are “docked” on either their cradles or trailers once they are back at port. This solves the problem of high tides and strong winds affecting the fleet adversely.

Here is a photo of a fishing boat out in the bay of Port Orford.

There’s a prominent lighthouse just to the north of Port Orford, warning mariners of the westernmost promintory strewn with rocky out croppings. It’s Cape Blanco, and it’s a beautiful lighthouse that is still important today.

This is one view of the coast nearby to the lighthouse to give you an idea of why this coast is tricky to navigate. These out croppings appear everywhere!

After our multi-day stay in Port Orford, we drove north up the coast to a town named Florence, also a seaside destination. We spent our next four days here, including July 4th. We used this as a base to explore other areas of this part of the coast, such as Yachats (listed as a must visit place in all of the guides). Just to the south of Florence are the famous sand dunes of the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. In this photo you can see the dunes to the south and the rocky shore to the north.

A short drive north of Florence was Heceta Head lighthouse. This is one of the most photographed lighthouses in the USA. It also guards a very rocky coastline. It works in the same group as Cape Blanco.

Here’s some of the coastline to the north of Florence between Heceta Light and Yachats.

From Florence, our final destination in coastal Oregon was to Seaside as our base in order to visit Astoria to the north and Cannon Beach to the south. Both of these locations are on everyone’s “must see” list in Oregon. They are much different places.

Cannon Beach is absolutely gorgeous. The coastline is beautiful with large outcroppings that seem to be placed in just the right places for a picture perfect photograph. The shops in town all resemble shops that might be in Nantucket, either in weathered gray wood boards or light tan ones.

In one of the shops, I even found a ceramic coaster that had a drawing of a schooner that looked just like Woodwind. I bought two of them to send to Jen.

Standing in the Ecola State Park in Cannon Beach, I photographed these rugged coast photos:

The “haystack” outcrop in the distance in both the photos above appear below at beach level. Compare it to Morro Rock in California!

Is it bigger than Morro rock???

Our next “port of call” was Astoria, where the mighty Columbia River meets the Pacific! We only had one day to spend here and decided that the much praised Maritime Museum would be a must see. It did not disappoint! We learned so much about all the shipwrecks on those moving sandbars at the mouth of the river. This area is the most dangerous in the entire U.S. due to the strong currents that cause the shifting sand. The museum was dedicated to showing how all the pieces fit together to perform warnings to mariners, and life saving when those warnings no longer work. It covered early recovery boats, the original Columbia Lightship, early weather forecasting through to modern day methods and modern electronic aids in search and rescue.

We ate lunch at a very different place: A Bosnian restaurant named Drina Daisy. Ken had a stuffed cabbage dish (not your typical tomato based type) and I had a goulash. As you can see, they were both presented well and were also very tasty!

We also learned how the city had to move itself up the hill from the river. There are still underground tunnels connecting to the old river level.

From here, we travel east to Portland and to the Columbia Gorge. That will be another blog post.

We made plans to stay here for 5 days to give us time to see the area and to get some small projects done on our prairie schooner. It is remote enough to feel like camping and yet convenient to restaurants, shopping and sightseeing with it only being a 25 minute drive to Monterey including its always-present traffic. This area is also well-known for its damp maritime layer which influences its daily weather. Our campground, Marina Dunes, is on a small side street directly across from the Monterey Dunes Preserve in Marina. These huge dunes can be seen from Monterey when there’s a clear sky. We had a dedicated walkway directly from our campground. The campground is listed as one of the best for waterfront views/access in California.

We spent a couple of days in Monterey. One of our favorite places from year’s past is the world-famous Aquarium. It’s always fun to return there again. The sea otter feeding “show” gives us a chance to see these cuties act up.

The gigantic tanks of reef fish where walls of glass surround you with their habitat is gorgeous.

And, the display of jellyfish was so mesmerizing, I had to set their movements to music. But first, here are a few stills:

Here’s the link to the YouTube video: YouTube Video Monterey Aquarium

A visit to Monterey would not be complete without strolling the touristy areas of Fishermans Wharf and Cannery Row. Of course, we did both! One of the advantages (or disadvantages) of traveling in small quarters is that you can’t load up with gifts and souvenirs for yourself, other than jewelry: no place to store them safely until you get home. A picture essay is shown below after the two panoramas:

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The weather here is cool, in the mid 60’s during the warmest part of the day but it takes time for the blue skies to appear. We were lucky that on these two days of photos, we had good days for photography. As for the the inclusion of the Trump items in the slide show, well, we found them in a shop here at Cannery Row. This is California.

Traveling the Oregon coast means driving US Route 101. There are side roads, but no alternate coastal passage. We take traveling by car (OK, truck, RV, etc) for granted. But this highway was not completed until 1926! Before the highway and railroad, travel and commerce was by boat or by foot. Local traffic by horse and wagon would often rely on traveling using the beach, but only at low tide, weather providing. That meant that the small fishing villages along the coast were relatively isolated.

It was a big deal when the railroads opened up commerce and transportation.  As Ellen and I travel along US 101 it is quite obvious that the highway paralleled the railroad.

While traveling North from Port Orford, we passed through the town of Coos Bay and stopped for lunch, pulling to the curb next to the Oregon Coast Historical Railway. That is a nice benefit of RVing. Hungry? Just park and eat. This was an unplanned stop, but as you can see below, well worth our time.

The engine and its coal tender, pictured above, was used from 1922 and 1960. It was purchased by the Coos Bay Lumber Company from the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia, PA. In 1956 it was sold to Georgia Pacific and moved to Toledo, OR.

Steam engines were not replaced because of a lack of speed or hauling power. They were replaced by diesel/electric engines because of the high cost of maintenance involved with steam.

I also saw two strange looking vessels. At first I thought they were ice breakers for inland pounds. Look carefully and you can see that one of them was powered by an outboard and the fuel tank was stored above the engine. I sent an email to the museum asking for an explanation. I received this information from Tom Baake:

“The boats you’re referring to are called Nelson Pond Broncs, and they were used to corral logs floating in storage ponds adjacent to sawmills. The logs are often stored in water to slow down the aging process, or “checking,” that can occur if logs are stacked in the sun. It’s also a way to minimize fire danger in sawmills. The boats were actually “invented” in Coos Bay by a man named Nelson. The one you photographed is an authentic Nelson pond bronc, and the other was based on the same design but fabricated independently by the Roseburg Lumber Co. sawmill shop. Both have those distinctive “dogs” of iron spikes on the front, the better to corral and push around logs. The engines are center mounted so the little boats can turn on a dime as they jockey the logs around, hence the nickname “bronc,” because they sort of go every which-way when they’re in action. They still use pond broncs in sawmills around the Pacific Northwest; the Roseburg mill in Coquille has one in their log storage pond and it’s really fun to watch it work — lots of froth and splashing.”

If you are anywhere near Coos Bay, on the rugged Oregon coast, visit the museum.  Oregon Coast Historical Railway and display area, 766 S. First St. (US 101 Northbound), Coos Bay. They are open 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesdays and Saturdays year round. Free admission. Many thanks to Tom Baake for allowing us to post this blog.

Both of our Woodwind boat’s hulls are planked with Port Orford Cedar. John Scarano, our designer/builder, loves working with this unusual wood because its grain is tight and straight, it is light in weight, it is rot resistant and insects don’t like its aromatic oils. Over the years a fungus has been affecting the roots of these majestic evergreens and they are dying off before scientists can figure out a cure. They only grow in a small area of the world in near coastal northern California and southern Oregon. Port Orford, OR is where they were first identified by a botanist named Lawson visiting from England.

This wood has created a high demand because of its scarcity and because the orient values it so highly for religious uses and its great inherent qualities above. Our boat builder had to actually buy the wood from the Japanese who purchased the wood from the same wood broker. It is quite expensive for a conifer.

We both decided that once we knew we would be visiting Oregon, we would have to find Port Orford trees. So, a coastal trip up the coast was planned. Once we arrived, careful research didn’t help much to find where we might see these trees. Ken just wanted to hug one! Folks didn’t really seem to know where they are.

We went to Humbug State Park and a ranger there named Paul showed us a small tree there. He cut off a sprig, which we used as our guide to find more trees, hopefully large ones within a grove or stand, which would be large enough to make boards from. After spending parts of two days searching , we found some small trees lining a roadside.

 

We put together this as a quick post to be timely. But, wait until you see a later post as to how “gosh darn beautiful” this seaside place is! Here’s a teaser:

We are in Port Orford, OR. I will have more photos of this unique place later. We had just arrived and I felt compelled to take a quick walk. I shot this photo not more than 2 blocks from our campground. Notice the home to the left.

Standing by his house is Byron. He greets me and I return his greeting with a comment about how beautiful this spot is. He surprises me with, “This is a dream come true.” That comment from a perfect stranger is out of the ordinary and so I reply, “Why?” Byron told me he had just retired and had always wanted a place by the water. This is was perfect: A house overlooking Garrison Lake which was a stone’s throw from the ocean. Byron is originally from Texas.

In Texas he lived on the Pelican Ranch. He brought his pelican friends with him to Port Orford.

Byron tells me that the lake does not have access to the sea, even though it is separated by a few yards of earth. During the night he is lulled to sleep by the pounding of the unseen surf.

More stories to come, but I just wanted to get this one told.