Little State Parks and Wind Farms along the route

We are almost HOME.  We have been staying one night at several small State Park campgrounds in Idaho and Oregon.  Since we left NY we are inspired by seeing every state has increased their Wind and Solar Farms.  The land is vast out here.  It is so heartening to see cattle grazing under a Wind Turbine than near an oil fracking rig. The best was to see Idaho is using it all Solar, Wind and Water. One little Energy Power company had Solar and Wind right beside its building along Hwy 20. just outside the National Forests.

One of the Idaho State Parks: You can see in the picture below the storms that have been chasing us - they come with wind. 

In the photos below: The Columbia River through Oregon on one side and Washington on the other has 4 dams and Wind Farms on each side. I have written about dams before and how ambiguous I feel about them. Yes, they destroy natural habitat and the ones along the Columbia and Snake disrupted the salmon and trout migrations. They were built for irrigation (the best story came from our Snake River Guide that said the dam on Jackson Lake and the Snake was to irrigate Idaho and Idaho actually controls it with cooperation from Wyoming.  And what does Idaho grow-you got it potatoes.), flood control, energy, but now bring in tons of revenue in recreation to very poor regions of the country. Our guide on the Snake River said he came to fish 6 years ago straight out of college in Ohio and stayed. He is a river guide during the summer and in winter takes people out on snow mobiles to look at the wildlife, his partner works for the Teton Lodges.  Bringing wolves back into Yellowstone has increased the winter revenue of the towns around Yellowstone by the millions of dollars$$$$$$$$$ because everyone wants to see the wolves. And has helped increased the balance in nature that has affected not only the predator's prey but ripples down/up to even the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.  That is an interesting science read. Of course, the wolves are only one part of the equation, but they are probably to me the most majestic, like the mountains.  Seeing those wolves run through the Hayden Meadow. Wow!  Just Wow!  

Gros Ventre in Tetons, Snake River Raft Trip at Flagg Ranch, Yellowstone and People

Almost caught up, maybe still two days behind. 

 The Tetons have 5 ecosystems, some within each other like 1) Lakes (Jackson Lake which goes on for miles and miles, almost 40 sq. miles and the smaller Jenny and String Lakes and even smaller ones), Rivers (The Snake), Creeks and Ponds which dot the landscapes. Jackson Lake  is suppose to be a fisherman's paradise, but while we were there we only saw two boats on the lake?2) Wet Meadows and Wetlands where you are suppose to see Moose, but we saw a moose in the forest.  3)Then there are the Sagebrush Flats a complex ecosystem where interdependence is important for the survival of life, where you can see a huge herd bison like we did, 4) Forests of conifers, pines, spruce  and 5) the Alpine (the lower meadows can be beautiful, but above a certain altitude it is also like a cold desert.)

Let's start with the bike ride and hike and the CROWDS.  

The bike ride in the Tetons was great but not as long as we wanted (there are miles and miles of bike paths from Jackson to Antelope Flats within the Tetons.)  Pat had made a turning mistake the day on a road we weren't suppose to be on before going to a hike around String and Jenny Lake and he kind of hit the bikes with a sign. The bikes needed a rubber hammer to bend them back in shape. See the stream between Jenny and String Lake below.  The hike was just beautiful and took photos of wildflowers in the Alpine Meadow, but I will write a Wildflower blogg while the house is being built. 

We laughed because 21 years ago someone hit our bikes in Yellowstone. So we weren't sure a long bike ride was good for them or us if they broke down because of the heat so we decided to bike only a few miles ? 3-6 miles (we can do 14 without too much of a problem. Pat and his friend Rob do the Tri-Borough and Montauk, but they do die a little each time.)We went from the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center to the Homestead of William Menor and Chapel of Transfiguration-Episcopal which still has church services on Sunday. The Visitor Center had great original Native American Art, Recycled Art-see the Trout made from aluminum cans and the river it is flowing in from soda bottles, the bottle blowing in the wind sounded like the river and timeline of historical sculptures.  All were fantastic!

(At the Visitor Center we saw a bus hit a car. It was very crowded in the Tetons and people were parking their cars wrong every place so it wasn't the bus driver's fault he hit the car.) People were coming into the campgrounds and stealing campsites by stealing the campsite tags.  We were told to take a picture of our campsite tag and chain our chairs to the picnic table. During the eclipse in August it is suppose to be even crazier.)  

Anyway when we biked to the area of what was left of the homestead, a wedding was in process. Everyone dressed in cowboy gear.  (I felt bad for the little ring bearer it was so hot in the get-up.) Menor, the pioneer, put down roots in the early 1800s at this spot and ran a cable ferry across the Snake, then it was the only way to cross the river for miles. He charged 25 cents for horses and 50 cents for wagons. There is a general store which still sells goods, a replica of the ferry and the ice house.  In 1888 there were only 20 men in the Jackson area, two women and their children.  Now there are 1000s just going in and out daily.

 We have found everyone at campgrounds and at stores in the checkout lines interested in our journey nice and friendly.  “All the way from NY, well, well, moving to Olympic Peninsula in Washington?  Well, that is a pretty place. Safe travels.”  Almost had a confrontation though with an Indiana farmer here at the General store in the Tetons at Menor Homestead, who was bragging about how much corn he could grow with just the right amount of fertilizer-the comment from him was you can’t grow enough corn without the chemicals and I perked right up and said there are sustainable organic methods that grow enough to feed you and others, but stopped before I asked him how much he was subsided to grow his field after field of corn which either isn’t consumed here in the USA or used for food for cattle. I understand from one conversation some of the corn is just thrown out if they can't sell it for ethanol.  God forbid someone point out that our made-in the USA President out-sources to other countries where labor is cheaper for his commercial endeavors just like every other big corporation. Countries like Mexico and Central America, people he seems to disregard and disrespect as having a dream for a better life for their families.  Sorry, I got to raging again, must be the Malathion, read the previous blogg.  

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Rafting the Snake from Flagg Ranch:

If Grand Tetons were crowded, Yellowstone was Disney World. We camped only two nights at Flagg Ranch just before the South entrance of Yellowstone.  After the first night we rafted down the Snake into Jackson Lake with a guide, it was a lazy river ride no white water this time of the year, but we saw many immature bald eagles as well as adults and American white pelicans. The next day we decided to leave and go to Hayden Valley and were so lucky to see Elk and a Blonde and black Wolf running across the meadow.  They were moving too fast to really keep up with them with binoculars and it was hard to get a good sight anyway because of the crowds.  Pat also saw a moose but there was no place to stop.  The park rangers do not want people to just stop along side the road because it causes traffic jams. We spent a lot of time at Norris Geyser Basin walking along the fumaroles and bubbling springs.  I tried all my witchy powers to get Steamboat Geyser to blow, but it only threw up small gushes. People cheered. Still it is something, last time it erupted was 2014. It was only about 12 noon when we decided not to drive back around to Old Faithful because the roads were getting treacherous with all the traffic and people. 

Above the most white water we saw was over the low water on the snake.  Our guide Kent was an expert and got us over and around trickly places where trees fell down.

The Snake early on a dark morning to right.

If you look closely you can see a female elk's rear end.  You are not allowed to get within 100 yards of wildlife.

All the photos below are of the Norris Basin Geysers. The walk can take up to 3 hours if you do the whole area.  Check out the themophile archean bacteria which looks green, causes the beautiful colors of the springs in Yellowstone and can live in temperatures up to 106 to 250 degrees F.  Will write again soon.

Where Was I oh yea on way to Tetons and Yellowstone and Books

I can’t think about those people who showed up at 4:15 Friday 7/21 at Gros Ventre in the Tetons and found that in the first time in 20 years there was no space (not at any campground in the Tetons or Yellowstone). There were two big rigs. Some people like Pat and I travel 1000s of miles, but Stefani was smart and said let’s get there early from the Falls since they don’t let you make reservations for most of the campgrounds in Yellowstone and the Tetons. We got there at 10 am. All campgrounds were filled by 3pm. Only once since we started camping under the stars in 1974  at Indian Springs in Georgia then in our sleeping bags did we not find a place to camp.  We either had reservations or were lucky like at Falls in the Bighorns and Gros Ventre, along side the Snake River in the Tetons about 15 minutes from Jackson.

Best part of this campground at Gros Ventre was we were within range of the first FARMER's Market in Jackson since we left LI and it also had a great bike path.

Below photo Pat off his diet eating a blueberry fritter at the Farmer's Market listening to some great Blue Grass Music.  We bought free range organic beef, chicken, elk salami (which was recommended on the diet because it is lean, lean) fresh organic vegetables and fruits and home grown oyster mushrooms.  We both are suppose to be doing this diet for a month...it lasted a week with more and more modifications added each week.  Pat has been totally supportive of me doing it but not so much him doing it with me...he called it "the Nazi" diet.  Too many restrictions (what honey isn't a  natural sugar you can use? You can't eat beans on phase 2?and no, nos ( I can't have milk on my cereal, what my cereal can't be wheat base?  NO diet cola?) .  He says we will do Weight Watchers at Olele Point, we will see.  See the elk antler...they grow them like finger nails, loose them each year and re-grow them the following year. The biggest rack gets the most mates. 

Pat totally satisfied after eating his fritter, claiming he now has much brain power again as Einstein even though I cut his hair short.  And says he almost could look like Einstein's taller brother.

Jackson was fun because of the sculptures around the town and art galleries, easy to walk. Houses cost quite a bit here, in the millions. Pat's favorite is the 7 bedroom, 8 baths, 40 acres, your own trout stream and quest house all for only 18 million 900,000...oh and never lived in.  but a 2 bedroom 2 bath cabin on less than an acre will cost almost 2 million.  Olele Point 2 bedroom 2 bath with an airbnb questhouse/ the RV will come in at most $350,000.

The second book I am reading is a best seller, a series of essays about every state called State by State, A Panoramic Portrait of America  2009 from 50 writers who either were born there or migrated there or spent a lot of time in the state …really stories about their childhood experiences, characters they met with historical facts and stats mixed in. 

I have read Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming and I have to say they are all both touching and bitter sweet.  In almost every essay there is something about the displacement and horrid ways the Native Americans were treated, how progress in the form of fracking, oil drilling, pesticide use and big box stores isn’t really progress because it takes away from the beauty of the land and waters.  (Reason for big box stores is obvious to me, though, when its Sunday out here when no RV Supply or Automotive dealers are open and your battery dies where are you going to find a battery? Meijer’s in Michigan; when you run out of fruit where are you going to find the best and freshest selection? Well, in a huge grocery store like Smith’s off I-90 vs. a little Western Family store on a back road in Wyoming and that also includes what you buy for the best price? I paid double in a Western Family Store in Wyoming for a box of blueberries, same brand, as I did at Smith’s, but maybe it cost them that much more to get it to the smaller town? Who knows? Also there are very few "organics" in the smaller stores.)

The best story so far come from Michigan by Mohammed Naseehu Ali, a Muslim from Ghana who was sent to art school to Michigan in 1988 and about the all white Christian family who took him in on holidays.  They became his second family and his children think of them as their USA family.  He was the only black skinned individual as well as Muslim in a town of 1000 people. Infact, no black person had ever lived in the town before him.  His story is all about the generosity of the Michigan people and the acceptance of his religious beliefs, especially stopping to pray 5 times a day.  He said he stayed in Michigan for 3 years and it made him what he is. When this book was published he was living in NYC and the snows he says there are scant and dirty compared to the snowfalls in Michigan. 

 The second best story I read came from Louise Erdrich from North Dakota. She was half or 4th Turtle Mountain Chippewa and ? She talks about the heart “shattering” “spectacular” “inescapable” sky  and billboards which offer the advice “SMILE”, “THINK” “SAY THANK YOU” and when you see them you do Smile and think because I pointed them out to Pat and he smiled and then said thank you.  Her funniest lines to me were what she did as a kid, because I did the same thing in Florida as a kid and that was bike behind a mosquito fogger which as you can guess if you never did this as a kid spews out insecticide to kill mosquitoes. She said she only did it once but some of her friends waited each night to follow it to get the high from breathing in malathion, some got addicted and are now “survivalists or raging fundamentalists”. I have to admit I must have biked behind it at least two or three times because I remember getting really sick before quitting. And I am not a raging anything except every once in awhile and for a short period.  Maybe the fogger trucks explain it. More on the Tetons and Yellowstone in next blogg.  Too tired now.

Bighorn to Tetons, Books and LUCK

When we left Leigh we went through Thermapolis and thought about stopping and taking a white water river raft, but our RV wouldnot fit under a bridge so we went on but only after making we thought reservations at a KOA in Dubois, Wyoming to do laundry and rest one night.  When we got there they didn't have our reservations, their internet had been out.  No Private RV campground had any sites, we should have figured something was up 60 miles from Yellowstone. A terrible storm came up just as we left heading west.  Pat had to stop off the road as soon as it let up we went on.  It was getting late and still raining although the wind had died down.  We should be in Bridger-Teton National Forest now and so there should be a place we can stop. And there before us a little campground called Falls.  What LUCK! We pulled in found a sweet site and had probably the best 18 hours of the trip.  They don't take reservations at Falls.  Read on.

Pat as we entered the Tetons.
So I am reading three books simultaneously: 1) Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods 1998

Quotes: https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/613469-a-walk-in-the-woods

This is a re-read for me.  Once upon a time, Ben Scott-Killian said “Hey Mom why not in the summer I graduate from high school, why don’t we-meaning him and me (don’t correct my English, please, my mouth is still hanging open) walk the Appalachian Trail  (Well, this was after our many camping trips-when he was in Jr. High at Gelinas-what 13 years old? I said sure. Then as he got older, it was meet me and my friends as we hike it at certain points along the trail, you and Dad can drive the then Class C RV**-so we can take showers and get a good meal.  Then when he finally took his road trip in college and did walk part of the trail we got sent photos with no requests for met ups). There are so many scenes in the Walk in the Woods, while Bill is walking the Appalachian trail that just make you laugh so hard you think you might wet your pants.  But so many things have happened similar to us in all journeys. (Like the time we were chased by a buffalo.) One of the funniest paragraphs in the book is about what he would do if bears showed up in his campground. I won’t spoil it for you but it starts out that he would just shit himself to death. I may have told this story before, but it is a great repeat. Back in 1996, when Pat and 9 year old Ben were playing golf near Glacier NP, a group of Black Foot Native Americans were also playing golf and he overheard a conversation between two older white women and the men playing golf.  The women were told by the National Park Rangers to make themselves look small and crouch down and cover their heads if they met a bear. “Of course, We Indians”, said one of the Black Foot in a slightly sarcastic voice, “don’t know anything about Grizzlies, but if we see a bear we make ourselves look at big as possible and make a lot of noise”. Here is the latest sage advice: make yourself look as big as possible, make a lot of noise walking trails -one way is to wear bells on your shoe laces or old fashioned bell bracelets or have noisy children with you-because then bears won’t be surprise at you coming up on them, bring bear pepper spray- which we still have a can of from 1996-I wonder if it is still good?.. Keep your eyes open, back away slowly if you see a bear before he/she sees you, never run, play dead only if they catch up with you if throwing things at them doesn't work.  Bill Bryson has the same advice, but he says what the heck, run because you only have probably no more than seven seconds to live anyway or they chew off an arm or leg.  One T-shirt in Jackson reads:  “It is important to be always aware and if you see fresh bear scat (poop) walk in another direction. (which way did the bear go?) ID a Black Bear’s scat vs. a Grizzlie because Black Bears aren’t as aggressive. If it’s a Black Bear there will be berries in the poop, if it’s a Grizzlies’ scat there will be bells in the scat and it will smell like pepper.” Lots of Luck.

(**PS the Class C died on EXT 52of LIE 495 after moving Toby sometime after his last year at Geneseo??  We got it hauled away to Ronkonkoma where they said it would cost $5000 to fix the transmission or something?-well it was at that time only worth about $5000 and so we put it on Free Cycle and some guy came and picked it up.  He called us later and said it wasn’t a transmission but something else and he and his cousin fixed it for about $1000.  He and his wife were thrilled, but it needed a lot of work, new refrigerator, etc…  

We are now looking at the Proud Mary and it is 10 years old and we have ridden it hard, many little things need fixing but it still runs great and it cost less to live in an RV and energy and water wise we use less in a month than we do in a week in a house. There is a boom in RV sales.We met a guy at the State campground we were staying at when we were at UU GA in Columbus 2016 who refurbishes RVs and sells them. He gets them for nothing and then sells them for triple what he puts into them.  His wife decorates them.  There is an entire tv show about fixing up vintage RVs. Why, a tv show and a new career as an rv decorator, well more and more people are choosing nature adventures as vacations and who wants to stay in an hotel at $200 a night when you can stay in a National Forest-National Park for around $7.50 like Falls (no perks, but you might get lucky and have Internet service so you can hot-spot with your phone) to $40 (no perks to electricity and maybe water, with a dump to get rid of your sewage and maybe and maybe not internet).  The camp host at Falls said many of the people were staying there and driving 60 miles each way each day because Yellowstone and the Tetons were too crowded and it was cheaper. Read the next blogg.  We made it to the Tetons as you can see, but didn't know if there would be any room in the INN since our reservations at Flagg Ranch did not start for two days. 

Keyhole State Park, Wyoming and the Bighorns

National Forests, State Parks, National Parks, Private RV Campgrounds

So we thought you might like our ratings vs. others.  See the next few bloggs.  We have been out of internet from Keyhole to Tetons.

National Forests ****for beauty, quiet and peace, rare to have electricity, showers, but usually you can fish, hike, some climbing, see wildlife, wonderful campsites, private, sometimes can make reservations.

National Parks*** (-1* because too crowded and campgrounds are not always visually pleasing or private, all the above, if you want electricity you have to pay!! And very few campgrounds with electricity or the ability to make reservations.)

State Parks****(for the most part we like these because the sites are large with some privacy and usually there is recreation and the ability to make reservations.)

Private RV (**, but sometimes you need a laundry and sometimes they have a pool.)

Keyhole State Park, Wyoming had great bike paths and we finally had a change to go kayaking.  They also have a  marina there because it is  reservoir lake and so fishing is big time sport.  Very pretty, but dry and hot! Next the saga of trying to find campsites from Keyhole to Tetons and Yellowstone.  

Next stop: Leigh Creek, Bighorn National Forest. It was so hot (no electricity) at our next stop in the Bighorns which are just beautiful that we only stayed one night.  We had reservations for three and lost a big-$15.00 (ha!) We got in one bike ride to the State Fish Hatchery called Tensleep because it is where Tensleep and Leigh Creeks meet. We stayed there for over an hour learning all the new techniques they use for raising trout and fish management.  They raise several kinds of trout for Yellowstone and other Wyoming rivers and lakes. I am telling you both Pat and I were fascinated. The Fish and Game people who run the hatchery were so informative and nice.  The most interesting thing we learned is that they use hybrids trout, tripoldies, to help manage the other invasive fish.  If you are interested in this kind of thing go to: https://wgfd.wyo.gov/About-Us/Offices-and-Facilities/Ten-Sleep-Fish-Hatchery.  The people live there all year round even in -30 degree weather and have beautiful small homes on the hatchery property. 

  

So it was too hot to do anything but try to cool off your butt in the very fast and treacherous stream, right at the back of our campsite.  That is Pat's rear end not mine.  We turned on the generator and Pat and Eliza read a book (more on that book in next blogg.)  You will notice these are coming fast and furious now because we were without internet for so many days and have only 7 more before Olele Point, WA. 

Medicine Rocks Montana and Devil's Tower Holy Places

 

In the Middle of No-where in Eastern Montana near the border of North Dakota stands the Medicine Rocks. Since 11,000 years ago Native Americans (at least 7 different First People) have inhabited or past through the rocks collecting medicine plants. They believed the place to be holy with the rock formations looking sometimes to them like spirits. The Crow each year made offerings to the Little People-tiny rather "difficult" dwarfs. (Read James Doss Mysteries, I love his characters, they are humorous and so likable: Charlie Moon the tall rancher -investigatorUte, his elder grandmother, the Shaman and her relationship between the Christian god and  the old beliefs and her friendship with the pitukupf-dwarf spirit of the canyon.  Doss like Hillerman is no longer with us, but I believe their stories will live on and on.)
Geologically, the rocks are unique in how they formed and for their age.  Fossil snakes and others date the formations to 63.3 million years. So  here we are along the Belle Fourche River next to the Devil's Tower.  Another Holy place which calls to me and to the Native Americans.  We were here two years ago but could not camp and I made Pat promise to come back. In fact I think the last blogg I wrote in 2015 was about "close encounters" and how the Native Americans feel about this area.  Can you imagine traveling through the Badlands that they called in their way "hell" fire and seeing the tower in the distance and following the river to it?  

The Proud Mary at our campsite with the
Tower in the background.

Pat not waiting for me in our 2 mile hike around the Red Bed, Valley View and Prairie Dog Town Trails. The prairie dogs here are probably 3x larger than at Theodore Roosevelt. The hike to the tower itself was still .7 miles and straight up.  Two young women past us and said they didn't know if they could make it.  But the heat was rising (96 here today) and we headed down.  In the foreground is Muellin, one of my favorite wildflowers, but it is considered an invasive here.  I saw a woodpecker on one last summer at Hobbs Farm and watched it for at least 10 minutes peck away.  

Theodore National Park South Unit

We are at Theodore Roosevelt National Park, South Unit this time, its beauty is just incredible.

As I took this photo of Pat I started to cry.

The Buttes and vast Badlands

 As we sat looking out at the beauty of the N. Dakota Badlands I could see how Roosevelt found solace here living in this stark vivid place. He left NY soon after his first wife and mother died on the same day and built a small ranch. Roosevelt as most of you know was a progressive Republican who established the US Forest Service and signed the 1906 Antiquities Act which proclaimed 18 National Monuments, he worked with congress to create 5 National Parks, 150 National Forests and dozen of federal reserves-over 230 million acres of protected land...Pat says he was the president who established Anti-Trust Laws; now we have a president and his big business appointees who wants to take away some of our children's future heritage and who ignore a promise we made to the rest of the world to fight Climate Change.  I am sorry but it makes me sad (and mad) and so I am speaking up again today. Unfortunately the hikes are out to the Petrified Forest because it is 100 degrees, going up to 102 today.  I understand the HOUSE did declare Climate change a real threat and they are using national security as the reason.  I celebrate that even though I think they should be using the fact that Climate Change threatens all Earth's biodiversity and so threatens all life on Earth.  Before we set up camp we drove around and found some great photos...someday I will get a zoom lens for my phone (no electricty or water so you can imagine how hot we were and the generator was still not working right.  You can only use generators during certain hours in parks. Eliza the cat and I were truly suffering.  I was worried my knees would start to swell.)
See the wild horses from the ranch in a prairie dog field.  A heard ob bison.  We had to follow one great ugly fellow down the road and Pat commented his ass was prettier than his face.

You can't see the yellow hats Nancy L, but they are there getting rid  of invasive plants.

We heard coyote cry at the moon last night and we know elk, mule and white tailed deer, badgers, bighorn sheep and pronghorn antelope are many of the other mammals that find refuge in this harsh land. Yesterday and today we saw two instances of science aiding the mission of National Parks.  National Parks are refuges for wildlife, places for adventure-wish it wasn’t so damn hot, preserving our heritage, our shared history and culture (if we ever get back this way, we aren’t going to miss Knife River Indian Villages north of Bismarck because they have the remains of Hidastsa Village and every year I worked at Hobbs I grew the 3 Sisters, children came and planted Red Popcorn or Blue Dwarf Hopi Corn (plot is small), various squash and a Native American Bean like the Cherokee Trail of Tears or the Hidasta Shield Bean.

I write a lot about history, culture and nature, but rarely about science so this is for Nancy Lynch, Nancy Hunter and all my science friends.

Nancy Lynch told me Katharine is working leading groups in irradiating invasive species in Colorado, a whole team of volunteers were out here today in this heat burning out something called spurge today and that is so native species will have a fighting chance to come back into the habitats that support the wildlife.

You saw the picture of the huge bison herd.  Bison almost became extinct in 1900s in North America; the herd at TR National Park came about from a relatively isolated group, this impacts the diversity of the bison gene pool. ( Over and over again, I have taught and talked about the importance of maintaining biodiversity in Nature.  It just doesn’t affect wildlife it affects us because we have lost so much biodiversity in nature, our vegetable crops, our medicine crops. ) Anyway the biologists in the Park system are taking blood, hair samples of the bison and geneticists will compare their DNA with the DNA in the centuries old bison bones from the Knife River Indian Villages. The results may help them to understand the history of the species better and so help them to ensure the future health of the species.

 There is more hope as 2 years ago when we drove through North Dakota we saw only fracking wells, but now we see more and more wind farms. One rancher had solar panels and old fashioned wind mill sitting on his plains land.  

There is a little wild west town here called Medora, founded in 1883, in the same year TR came to hunt bison, by a 24 year old French nobleman, the Marquis de Mores.  He named the town for his bride the former Medora von Hoffman, the daughter of a wealthy NY banker. The tales of his venture is interesting history.  Medora today has 32 attractions including the National Park which is a 5 minute drive from main street, musical shows, horse riding, stage coach rides, a museum about cowboys, ranching, rodeo and Native Americans, 18 eateries and 25 hotels and a bountiful number of shops.  People, Nature and Commerce. Got to go...will write more at Devil's Tower.

Wisconsin Prairies

We enjoyed a bike ride through prairies which the state of Wisconsin is restoring.  They are also going to build a 1000 mile hiking trail through Ice Age Moraine, nice. Once Buffalo and Elk ranged in this meadow.  Off to Minneapolis/St. Paul  tomorrow to get the RV's generator serviced.  It is suppose to be 101 at Teddy Roosevelt National Park when we get there at the end of the week.  If we don't have the generator to cool off for Eliza then we will have to change our trip plans. I am not sure the prairie dogs will be peaking out of their holes in that heat.   Butterfly Weed to the left.  You can see I figured out to insert, yes!  Now I will work on the videos.

Swamp Milkweed

Welcome to the Great Waters

We welcome you to the Great Waters
We want you to see nature's abundance, to feel her powers, to hear her songs, to touch hr gifts and smell her sweetness.
We want you to stop...if only for a moment and wonder what it must be like to play in the warmth of the sun, dance by the light of the moon or dream in the glow of the stars.
We want you to search and find that feeling of connectedness that comes from knowing Mashkikimikwe (Mother Earth).
We want you to experience this land (and waters) through the eyes of Anishinaabe.

I couldn't say it better than this piece from the brochure we received about places to experience here by the Sea of Superior from Gilly our Irish Host at Bayview, Hiawatha National Forest (more about Gilly later when I write about people we meet on the way.  Gilly reminded Pat of  our friend Carol).

July 4 Quiet Day We walked along the Great Shores of Lake Superior..It was strangely quiet, not a boat in sight.  Later Gilly told Pat that no one "boats" on this part of Lake Superior (open waters of Whitefish Bay) too dangerous due to great waves and storms coming out of no where. The lake is so large that it brews its own storms. Later we learned from the Shipwreck Museum that many sinkings were due to one ship colliding with another.  Fog must have something to do with it.  We saw a film of the Edmund Fitzgerald which was a huge iron ore caring ship sunk by a storm of 100 mile winds and 35 foot waves.

We biked 12 miles total on the 5th, I was feeling a little tired, but knees weren''t too bad.

I hope you are looking up and down for multiple bloggs because I still can't remember how Toby taught me to make a draft and then insert the photos. Somehow the Images I check are not loading onto my blogg when I insert image and when I try to share to the blogg it automatically publishes some of them but not others???  Here are two I selected and saved and I found them in the Google Album, but the others I saved aren't there? It is all magic to me. I will keep working on it. I am not alone in my frustration; others say the same thing.

1853-1962, The Point Iroquois Lighthouse guided freighters and other ships between the open waters of Whitefish Bay-where we are camping-to St. Mary's River and served  to mark the narrow channel between PI and Gros Cap in Canada which had rock reefs.  You can see how large the living quarters were..In the early 1950s, 3 families (head keeper and two assistants with their eight children lived at the lighthouse). They formed their own community and the children even had a teacher. The lighthouse is named for the point which saw a battle in 1662 between the Chippawa (Anishinabeg-"Original  People" and the Iroquois who came 400 miles from upstate NY to try to take over their lands, reason the European fur traders influenced the Iroquois in trying to get them to take over the trade routes. The Iroquois were defeated and their bones were found on the beaches up into the late 1700s thus the name.   People claim to have seen on the land around the lighthouse supposedly apparitions of the victims of the battle.  And also that of a little girl who had been eaten by a bear nearby.  

You can't really tell from the photo how large the birches are here.  Think twice Pat' girth and you have an idea. 

I bought a book called Sweet Water, Storms and Spirits because it reminded me of our friend Carol and stories she use to tell about her mother sailing on ship and the book has many Native American legends in it as well.  One of the stories which tells how the whitefish came into being in Lake Superior and why the crane became the totem for one group came from a collection by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft  who  married the granddaughter of a Chippewa Chef.  Supposedly his stories influenced Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to write Hiawatha, but were very dark like the Brothers Grimm.

Here is Pat looking across at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore Monument.  It is hard to tell in the photo of the Miner's Castle, but the 400 million Ordovician Au Train Formation sandstone cliffs are very colorful: ochre, tan and brown between layers of white rising up from the emerald blue Superior.  The cliffs look painted because of iron, manganese and copper streaks coming from groundwater oozing from cracks.  I have to wonder what the people who depend on the tourism of this area would do if this great and beautiful cliff's status were changed?

We saw  sandhill cranes yesterday on way to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.  I am pretty sure they were the rare greater subspecies, but can't be sure.
We also went to the Upper Tahquamenon Falls which is considered one of the mightiest, largest rivers west of the Mississippi, 50,000 gallons of water flow per second. I took another video, a little longer than the other one.  We will try to get it on you tube. A very different water fall.  So much power in our moving water in this country.

The Sound of Power Spanish River Lake Power

Every place we stay we like to find out about the history of the area.  We always have questions,like why is there a town in Canada called Espanola and why was the river named the Spanish river in the French speaking area. "The river's name and the name of the nearby towns of Espanola and Spanish are said to be due to French explorers and Jesuit priests encountering Ojibwe peoples speaking Spanish in the area, apparently as a result of a Spanish woman having been taking captive during an expedition far to the south." Interesting.  In Canada the Native Americans are called People of the First Nation.

If you copy this link you can hear the water fall.  I hope on you tube.  

https://youtu.be/nmieTjzpUq8

We are now at Lake Superior for the 4th of July at Bayview in Hiawatha National Forest, almost boondocking, which means free camping-it is costing us $9 a night for pit toilets, no showers or electricity, but that is fine with us until we have to get rid of our sewage.  The lake is really big and I like walking along the beach.   Pat calls it the Sea of Superior.  Photos to follow.  I still can't seem to figure out how I use to embed them.  

The Michigan Peninsula is where Lakes Huron, Michigan and Superior meet.  Lot of interesting places to view we hope to bike to a lighthouse tomorrow. 

 Internet goes in and out.  Battery lasting on computer and phone ok.

Twin bridge at Chutes.

WATER falls in Canada

We have spent since leaving Buffalo 4 rainy days-water does fall- in Canada at Sturgeon Bay, Grundy Lake and now Chutes.  We didn't get to kayak because of the rain, but did manage to ride bikes and take a few short hikes.
The photos on the blogg before this one are from Chutes Provincial Park.
Chutes is named from the logging chutes built to move logs around the dramatic waterfalls, seeing this power of Nature's just causes amazement. Chutes is near a little whistle stop town called Massey.  Back in 1800s it was jumping...a farming, logging and copper mining community.  The railroad had a stop here to drop off loggers who then had to walk as much as 62 miles to get to their camps.


(I am trying to remember how to include the photos from my phone as I write the blogg but can't remember how to do it...give me time.)
If you ever camp in this part of  Ontario, Canada we would now after making the trip 2x recommend NEYS, Grundy Lake and now Chutes...but bring your mosquito nets.  We spend a lot of time slapping at them.  I can't imagine how the loggers survived...I guess you do what you have to do.
We head for Michigan, Hiawatha National forest along the shores of Superior.  No electricity so probably no blogging.  The computers run out of juice pretty quickly.  Check back in a week.

Chutes water falls