We had tentative plans to go to Colorado and Utah this month to visit Arches National Park but that trip was put on hold due to coronavirus concerns. Arches was closed to the public due to the public health crisis in late March.

It has been a quiet month here in Pennsylvania and it will probably be a pretty quiet summer as well since we do not expect to be traveling much. The cheap flights are tempting but at the moment it seems too hard to predict when things will be open and safe. We have been taking walks around the neighborhood as well enjoying the world from our front porch instead.

The spring flowers were a welcome change of pace as we emerged and explored. The tulips were beautiful and a sign that winter was on its way out. We managed to escape this year with only minimal snow – I can only think of a few times when I put down salt and only one minor snowfall required shoveling. Since we acquired a snowblower last year, that was to be expected.

One of our local national wildlife refuges (John Heinz NWR) has closed the parking lot and building but the trails are open so we will probably be venturing there soon again as it looks like Philadelphia is going to begin a phased reopening shortly.

In the meantime, here are a few photos of birds that we took in our front yard and around town:

We have been keeping the bird feeder and suet holder in our front yard stocked. I have been trying to practice my birds in flight photos but I have not managed to take a great photo yet. I am sure it will come with time. I did manage to capture this bird when it landed on the suet feeder.

This bird landed on the fence in our front yard while trying to plan its next move. It decided not to go to the feeder since we were on the front porch and instead flew off shortly after.

We just bought a bird feeder for our backyard as well. It took a few days to get here due to coronavirus shipping delays and has been quiet since we set it up – the birds have not found it.

This is an American robin that we saw while on a walk a few blocks from our house. As I grew up in Michigan and it is the state bird, their appearance is always a welcome sign that spring is here.

The above starling was also seen on a walk. Jayne loves the iridescent plumage of starlings and grackles.

After months of research and internal debate over what camera to buy, I have settled on a used Nikon D800 camera. The D800 was released in 2012 and has been replaced in the Nikon lineup with newer models since then. Nevertheless, the 36 MP sensor will be great for travel photography at the national parks and I have seen photos online of some magnificent wildlife photos that have been taken with this camera model. So I am excited.

Our camera for the past few years has been a Canon SX60, which is in a class of cameras frequently referred to as either a bridge camera or superzoom camera. It was bought several years ago during a black friday deal, and we have taken some amazing photos with it over the past few years. We have passed it back and forth in parks around the country but it is time for us to stop sharing and each have a camera around our neck. I am sure I will miss the amazing telephoto lens on the SX60 while I am using the D800.

I will post more about the Nikon D800 soon once I have had more time to explore it. We just got it and I was only able to start taking pictures with it last night.

It was a beautiful March day in Philadelphia and John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge was full of people enjoying the weather on the trails. We made our way there on Sunday afternoon and picked up a few more waterfowl that we had been missing from our life list.

One of those birds was the bufflehead. I have been out on a few different trips this year with the hope of seeing this unique sea duck. However, it had escaped me until today.

But I almost missed it again! We were at the two level observation platform when I spied the white head bobbing in the water. I checked it out in the camera with the telephoto lens and I thought it was actually a hooded merganser. It wasn’t until I reached home that I realized that I was mistaken and it was actually my first bufflehead.

We also saw several American coot. They look like ducks but are actually a part of a separate family. These were swimming and feeding when we saw them:

We also saw a group of waterfowl out in the middle of the impoundment which contained new birds for us. There is the colorful head of an American wigeon (below). I thought some of the other birds were lesser scaup but on second look now they are probably ring-necked ducks. You can see them in the photo below too:

We also saw a redhead (below, with the blue beak) in the same grouping floating in the water:

As the sun got lower in the sky, several groupings of northern shoveler flew in and landed near about a dozen mute swans. The best photo of them flying was above – the picture below with them floating in the water was much easier to get:

It was like the waterfowl were putting on a show at this point. This one flapped its wings several times as it lifted its body out of the water:

There were also a lot of gulls at the wildlife refuge today. At one point we were enjoying the solitude and I decided to take a few pictures of the gulls:

We saw a lot of turkey vultures this weekend too (as we usually do when we are either driving to birding or out birding), but we finally got a good photo of one flying on Sunday afternoon:

We may have been there for other birds, but we also managed to see an eastern phoebe and a carolina wren – both pictured below:

We are still working on our sparrow identification, but these two were too good to leave off of our bird photos from the day. Song sparrows?

There was even a tufted titmouse that flew across the path into a tree right in front of us. There was a pretty high angle to the bird and the branch managed to partially block it from view, but you can see it in the photo:

Since it was a beautiful day, I thought that we would end with a photograph of the classic bird of spring for us Michiganders: the American robin.

It was a sunny day on Saturday (though a bit windy) so we headed over to Wildlife Drive in Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey north of Atlantic City. It is about 90 minutes from the Philadelphia area.

Edwin B Forsythe NWR protects about 47,000 acres along the Atlantic Flyway, including coastal wetlands that are an important pathway for the seasonal bird migration. The park extends along the New Jersey coast for more than 50 miles.

We have been trying to get outdoors more now that it is heating up, and birding has been our excuse. We slept in though, since it was the last day before the clocks turned forward. We did manage to see at least three hawks and several turkey vultures before leaving Philadelphia, so the day was looking good from the start!

The highlight of the wildlife refuge is Wildlife Drive in the Brigatine Division. The Edwin B Forsythe NWR Wildlife Drive is an eight mile, one way unpaved road which allows for driving through the wetlands. It reminded me of the Black Point Wildlife Drive in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. There are trails located near the beginning and end of the drive for those that want to stretch their legs.

The wildlife refuge, which is run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, turned eighty years old last year. It was originally known as the Brigantine National Wildlife Refuge. The nearby Barnegat Unit (which it would be combined with later) was established in 1967.

In 1984, Congress designated the Brigantine and Barnegat units of the National Wildlife Refuge in honor of Edwin B. Forsythe, a New Jersey Republican who served in the U.S. House of Representives for 14 years. The joint resolution by the 98th Congress noted his leadership in the conservation of the coutry’s natural resources and natural beauty, including sponsorship of the Nongame Wildlife Act and a critical rolse in the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Endangered Species Act and the Fishery Conservation and Management Act.

There are twenty-two (22) numbered marker signs on the drive. Be sure to grab the visitor information map for the driving tour at the visitor center as it explains the significance of each one of the signs. Otherwise, you will not know what you are looking for there.

On arrival, we stopped at the visitor center, where we picked up a map and got the requisite stamp in our passport book. We also found out that there had been sightings of a yellow breasted chat in the area of the Leeds Eco-Trail, and we were on our way.

With our eyes peeled for the bird, we got out of the car at stop #1 for the trail. There is a boardwalk over the marsh and a nature trail through the maritime forest departing from the parking area. We walked down the boardwalk first, and then the trail.

The boardwalk was a bit uneventful, although we did hear and see a few small birds in the distance. One highlight of the boardwalk was that there was a fixed spotting scope (binoculars) which allowed you to see in the distance. We swiveled it to the osprey nest platform, but there were no birds there yet (probably a bit early since it was still early March). There are platforms around the drive – we took this photograph of a closer one later in the drive:

We had better luck for birds on the portion of the trail through the forest, even though we were not on it that long. At the start of our walk, we saw a song sparrow land right on the trail. Before turning back, we managed to see both a ruby-crowned kinglet and a yellow rumped warbler, as well as a few other birds that we were not able to identify.

We did not see the yellow breasted chat, unfortunately. We are definitely going to have to work on our small bird identification as we were only able to identify the song sparrow without looking them up later.

Stop #2 involved a brief detour to reach a viewing platform at Gull Pond, before starting the one-way portion of Wildlife drive. The platform allowed us to see a few mute swans, a few northern shoveler, and a great blue heron. This was the view from the observation tower looking to the south over the Gull Pond area:

We managed to catch this swan eating some of the aquatic plants while stretching its leg out of the water.

The wildlife drive is known for allowing visitors to Edwin B Forsythe the ability to see wading birds, waterfowl and birds of prey from the comfort of their car. We did not manage to see any hawks while we were there, but you should definitely keep your eyes peeled for bald eagles, osprey and other birds of prey while you are there.

The gulls were one of the unexpected attractions of the trip. They were picking up mussels and dropping them onto the gravel road in order to break them open and eat them. If you have never seen this behavior, it is quite a sight.

This did made driving a bit more difficult, as you had to keep a constant eye on them since they were always in the road trying to eat. Fortunately, there were not too many of them.

If you are going to see the waterfowl, be sure to take a good pair of binoculars. You can rent them at the visitor center / gift shop when they are open, but you have to return them by the time that they close. The closing time was 3 PM on the day that we went there, so it was not really an option. The drive remains open until sunset.

If you decide to ascend one of the viewing platforms on a windy day, be sure to keep a hold of your hat and other possessions. As I was about to descend the South Tower, a gust took my hat off and blew it in to the road. Fortunately, it was still there when I finished climbing down the stairs and I was able to retrieve it.

This is the south tower:

This is the view to the east/northeast of wildlife drive and the marsh from the tower:

Here were some of the photographs of birds that we took on the first half of the drive:

We did not make it out to Middle Creek this year to see the snow geese, but we did manage to see some along the drive. It looks like one might be a Ross’s Goose instead. There were also a bunch resting in one of the marsh fields at a distance.

We went pretty slow on the first half of the drive out, and traveled back at a faster pace. The sun was getting lower in the horizon, which made it harder to see and photograph the birds in the marsh on the south side of the road. It was probably made a bit faster too by the fact that we had a few snacks that we brought for the trip.

Here were a few of the birds that we saw on the back half of the trip:

The last section of the one-way wildlife drive leaves the marsh behind for fields and the forest. We stopped at the experimental pool overlook, but otherwise traveled pretty quickly through it with an eye to reaching the bathrooms at the visitor center.

Jen’s Trail Area:

Experimental Pool Overlook:

Jayne from the car got a great photo of me attempting to photograph a turkey vulture here!

Since we had a decent drive to get back to the Philadelphia area, we took to the road. We saw two more hawks on the way back (one in flight and one in the tree), as well as a number of other turkey vultures to round out the birdwatching.

We decided to head down to John Heinz NWR near the Philadelphia airport with our camera again for some March birding.

While we were there, we saw one bald eagle sitting on the nest and the other decided to fly in while we were in the blind on the shore of the impoundment. We were lucky to pick it up very early in the distance, saw it pass the nest, and circle a few times around before it came right at us. We have seen a bunch of eagles in the past year, but I think this is our best photo of one flying yet (pictured above).

The bald eagle ended up landing right next to the blind that we were in! It sat there a while as we admired it, and we ended up getting some great photos!

The impoundment was once again a great place to see ducks and other waterfowl. The northern shoveler was one that we have not been able to photograph before. I have to admit that I thought the first few that we saw were just mallard ducks, but one of the other birders pointed out the one that you see here.

The northern shoveler has a pretty cool beak:

The ring-necked ducks were pretty far across the impoundment. They were having some fun flapping their wings and we managed to get a few good pictures of them despite the distance.

There was also a male and female hooded merganser. I managed to see a few last month but this was Jayne’s first in person.

There were a number of other waterfowl on the impoundment. We are by no means experts in identification, but these appear to be gadwall:

There were still a few swans on the lake (we saw some last time as well), and we got a good photo of this pair:

We believe this is a great black-backed gull in the photograph below:

I was just taking a few photos of the flying gull, but realized when I got home that it was carrying a fish. The fish is visible in the photos from both the front and the back (if you look closely).

We saw a number of great blue herons during our walk. This was the first of them:

We heard the sound of a woodpecker in the woods and we searched around for a bit before locating one. We never saw the classic red feathers on the head, but the coloring of the downy woodpecker is pretty distinct:

After we saw the bald eagle, we continued around the impoundment and saw two more great blue herons. At the south side of the impoundment, we saw this eastern phoebe flying between a few of the branches.

Last time we were at the National Wildlife Refuge, we were crossing the impoundment on the boardwalk on the way back to the car and we just were not able to get a good photograph of the small birds flying back and forth amidst the reeds. However, we saw one of them perched long enough for us to take several photos today of the swamp sparrow:

This little sparrow was sitting not far from the downy woodpecker. I think it is a white throated sparrow although the angle does not lend itself to seeing the color of the throat.

After a brief cold spell in the Philadelphia area, we had another 50+ degree day today and I took the opportunity to walk around the John J Audubon Center at Mill Grove in Audubon with our Canon SX60 camera to take pictures of the birds in the area. I also crossed Perkiomen Creek and walked the trail through Lower Perkiomen Valley Park.

A few months ago, we had the opportunity to walk around the Audubon Center with cameras provided by Canon – a Canon 5D Mark IV and a Canon EOS RP. We posted a few of our photos from that bird walk in October previously, but we definitely missed the superzoom on our SX60, since the incredible 70-200mm F/2.8 lenses that Canon lent to us simply did not have the same reach.

Today was a great day birding as I saw a number of hawks, mergansers, 2 great blue herons, a male and female cardinal, and a number of other birds. The only problem was that it was a bit muddy off the trail today, and my jeans and shoes suffered a bit for it. I also missed both photo opportunities with the great blue herons, leaving me with three blurry tree photos from the first heron and a completely black photo taken with the lens cap on instead of the image that I saw of the heron flying over the river.

Before we get to the bird photos, there was a point where I was walking down to the creek crossing a small stream and came across these flowers just coming out of the stream bed.

The first bird that I saw on the walk was the hawk pictured below. It flew right in front my path and then landed in a nearby tree. I got a few photos of it before it shifted to a different position in the tree, and then a few more photos before it flew away. In total, I saw at least five (and maybe six) birds of prey today.

The hawk that I got the best photos of hit the ground across the street from me while I was on the trail. It must have done a dive bomb after some food and came up short. It looked around a bit while it was standing on the ground and then jumped up onto a branch lying on the ground.

After a while sitting just off the ground, it moved into a nearby tree. I was able to take a bunch of photos and reposition twice to get a better view of the hawk.

When I was down by Perkiomen Creek on my walk, I saw a few merganser on the water and some Canadian Geese. The merganser were pretty far away so I wasn’t able to get a great picture of them. On my way to the other side of the creek, I ended up seeing the profile of another big hawk (I thought at the time it might have been an eagle). I didn’t get any great photos of it, but I did see this pair of nesting hawks fly out of their nest and sit in a nearby tree:

This hawk was the last I saw on the day, sitting above the trail in a tree as the sun was setting. Since the sun was behind the hawk, it was tough to get a good photo of it at first. However, as I passed underneath it on the trail, I was able to take a few better pictures with the setting sun to my back:

It has been a while since I have been able to get so many close hawk photos in one day. Two of the new birds that I saw today were the hooded merganser and the common merganser:

There were also a half dozen or so Canadian geese near the dam in the creek, and I was able to get a couple good shots where the goose was reflected in the water:

I missed a ton of photo opportunities with smaller birds today. I probably took a couple dozen photos of blurry birds and tree branches across three hours. There was at least a ten minute period where I focused on a single bird flying between the trees in front of me and I never did manage to get an in-focus photo where the bird was not behind some twigs or tree branches. I did manage to get a good shot of this woodpecker at another point since there was one point where there were a half dozen or more in the surrounding trees:

When I was trying to solve the problem of how to improve the photographs on the final (then backlit) hawk of the day, I did take a moment to admire the beautiful sunset behind the tree.

We grabbed dinner on the way home where I recapped the days events to my lovely wife and showed her the photos that I took today. She has been taking more and more of the photos lately, since she has the steadier hand and we are almost always shooting near the limits of the superzoom telephoto lens.

We made our first trip down to John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge for a walk and some bird photography this weekend. John Heinz NWR is the nation’s first urban refuge, established in 1972 to protect Pennsylvania’s largest remaining freshwater tidal marsh, Tinicum Marsh. It is located in Southwest Philadelphia near the Philadelphia airport.

We have passed by the refuge hundreds of times over the years and realized a few weeks ago that it is the top spot in the Philadelphia area on eBird. After delaying a day due to a rainy Saturday, we grabbed our Canon camera and our national park passport book and headed down. After a quick stop at the visitor center, we headed out on the trails. It was a beautiful day when the sun was out, but a little chilly when it was behind the clouds or the wind picked up.

We saw a number of birds in flight during our walk, including two bald eagles that were busy flying in and out of their nest. We also saw this hawk and turkey vulture fly overhead. The hawk was higher and crossed first, followed by the turkey vulture flapping its wings to gain altitude.

Below was one of the bald eagles sitting in the nest. You would need binoculars, spotting scope or powerful telephoto lens to be able to see it this close up as it is pretty far away from the trails.

We have seen more eagles in the past month than we have ever seen before, thanks to our trip to Michigan. I also saw another local pair fly into another nest in Philadelphia recently.

We saw countless Canadian geese and mallard ducks on the walk around the water. We also saw two separate pairs of mute swans early in our walk and what I believe were American black ducks.

We watched this great blue heron hunt for a bit. It was basically right off the trail in the water hiding behind some cover. It was very intently searching for fish in the water. We saw another great blue heron flying toward the end of the walk, but there were branches between us and the bird that impeded photography of its flight.

The killdeer was at the end of one of the boardwalks in the marsh. There were mostly gulls around, but Jayne got this photo before the wind picked up and the birds quieted down.

We spied a woodpecker in the trees just off the trail. It was more active than most woodpeckers that we see, busily flying between trees and hopping around searching for food. It looks like a female downy woodpecker.

We saw this bird just after we stepped out of the car in the parking lot. It was in a tree on the far side of the parking lot. Jayne jumped out of the car and started taking photos. This was the best of them.

I saved my favorite picture for last. I thought it was going to be one from the photos right at the end of the walk, when we were on the boardwalk with a few other birders trying to get a good photo of a swamp sparrow and a marsh wren, but never managed to catch a clean picture. Our best picture was of this song sparrow shortly after we started walking on the trails in the morning. I love the look of the reflecting water as it sits on the log.

Our birding trip took a bit more time than I expected, but we had a lot of fun at John Heinz NWR and as you can see, we saw a number of birds in the park. We did miss some waterfowl that people saw earlier in the morning, including a bufflehead, but we will just have to go back another time.

We took an hour in December 2019 to see and photograph bald eagles at the Dafter Dump in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, not far from Sault Ste Marie. We went up north to visit family after Christmas and saw a report that there were 25 eagles spotted at the landfill the day before. So we made the short trip on Saturday morning!

In the past few years, we have spotted a number of bald eagles at national parks – including sightings in the Everglades, Acadia, and Grand Tetons National Park. However, we have never seen more than one bald eagle at a time. Dafter proved far different.

A few years ago when we went to the Soo in December, we were lucky enough to see four snowy owls around the Rudyard area. However, we did not manage to make that trip again this time due to time constraints.

The Dafter Sanitary Landfill is run by Waste Management on 12 Mile Road outside of Sault Saint Marie. If you are going, park at the office and check in. If you are walking around, you need to wear a safety vest which they will give to you. There was no cost to the visit.

We could see on walking up that there were lots of gulls and we quickly spotted the bald eagles flying over the landfill among them. There were a number of adult and immature birds. Jayne quickly grabbed the camera and started taking pictures, even as we were walking up. We were pretty far from them above the top of the landfill, but they were within reach of the telephoto lens on our Canon SX60.

We never stopped to count precisely how many bald eagles we saw – the report the day before said there were 25 and the landfill employee at the check-in said they usually have about a dozen.

They eventually landed in some large trees on the edge of the property. That is how Jayne got the featured photo of the solitary bald eagle as well as the photo below with three in the same tree.

Jayne managed to get a few great action shots of the birds.

At one point we saw a bald eagle land on the top of the garbage heap. We took a few pictures, but it did not seem appropriate for this icon of the United States which has been on the national emblem since 1782.

We were so pleased to have seen so many eagles in one place that we gave each other a high five on the way out and headed home to finish the day off with our family.

Here are a few of the other photos taken of eagles soaring that day:

We were in Miami for a few days for a wedding in November and decided to complete our visit to Everglades National Park and Biscayne National Park. It was a quick trip but we managed to pack in pictures of Stiltsville (on the north end of Biscayne National Park), a semi-private boat tour with snorkeling and paddleboarding near Adams Key in Biscayne Bay, and then a 90 minute boat tour of the Everglades from Flamingo Marina.

A few years back on our way to Dry Tortugas National Park, we were able to complete the Shark Valley Tram Tour, the Anhinga Trail and Pa-Hay-Okee Lookout Tower. However, we ran out of time and were unable to stop at Biscayne or make it all of the way down to Flamingo Visitor Center. Two days after the wedding gave us the time that we needed to round out a few more things at the South Florida parks.

We had a few hours before the Saturday wedding and found our way (despite intermittent rain) to Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park. Bill Baggs is at the south end of Key Biscayne in Miami Dade County. The park houses the Cape Florida Light lighthouse, which marks the deepest natural channel into Biscayne Bay. There has been a lighthouse on the site since 1825 and the present version dates back to 1878. We were not able to make one of the guided tours, but we were able to walk around and enter two of the buildings used by the lighthouse keepers.

We also walked down the trail to the bay and were able to see Stiltsville. Stiltsville is a collection of wood stilt houses located in Biscayne Bay about one mile southeast of Cape Florida. The first were built in the 1930s and there were 27 in the community at their peak in 1960. The houses are abandoned and the area was deeded by the State of Florida to the federal government as part of Biscayne National Park in 1985. Seven buildings remain since Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

Bring binoculars or a powerful telephoto lens to have a better view of Stiltsville from shore. However, since they are located in the middle of the water over a mile away, it is tough to pickup much detail. We used my Samsung Galaxy Note 10 to capture a few pictures despite the rain and clouds.

The next morning we headed down to Homestead for the 10:30 departure of our trip to Adams Key for snorkeling and paddleboarding. Since Biscayne National Park is 95% water, the best way to experience it is by boat. Biscayne National Institute runs boat cruises and eco-adventures which depart from the Dante Fascell Visitor Center. Advance reservations (available online) are recommended.

They offer a twice daily boat cruise to Boca Chita, 3.25 hour Snorkel Experience, a six hour Snorkel and Paddle Eco-adventure, and a sailboat trip (with snorkeling and paddleboarding). The boat cruise to Boca Chita is the most popular trip, but we decided to spend more time on the water with the Snorkel and Paddle Eco-adventure. We had a blast and have some great stories to tell as a result of our choice.

Key things to remember:
– Bring reef friendly sun screen, a lunch, snacks and water.
– There are no bathrooms on the boat for the eco-adventure. There are bathrooms on Adams Key during the lunch stop.
– They have snorkel gear to rent if you don’t have your own.

After the trip across the bay, we went snorkeling near Billys Point off Elliott Key. We worked our way down the shoreline near the mangroves and were able to see plenty of fish as well as the underwater portion of the complex mangrove root systems.

We had our GoPro Fusion with us so we captured some great 360 degree video while swimming in the water with the fish as well as exploring the mangroves. We also obtained a great story as the GoPro was dropped and sunk to the bottom of the bay just as we were getting off the boat and needed to be retrieved. Fortunately, the water was only 7-8 feet deep at the time and it had a bright yellow handle which made it easier to locate.

We stopped at the dock at Adams Key for lunch. Adams Key is a day use area with dock, picnic pavilion, restrooms, and a short trail for exploring the island. This is the picnic area where we ate lunch:

After lunch, we made our way down to Jones Lagoon for exploration on inflatable paddleboards. Our guide led us around and it turned out to be a beautiful and serene day on the water. When we got into a particularly quiet area, our boat captain / guide helped us to touch a jellyfish in the water.

Once we were back on the powerboat, it was time to settle in for our return trip across the bay. We did manage to see a group of pelicans diving into the bay for fish which is always pretty cool to watch.

When we got back to land, we spent a few minutes exploring the visitor center and then took a walk out on the boardwalk.

There was a decent crowd as it was the Sunday of Veteran’s Day weekend. We made it out to the end of the trail and then walked back to our car.

We were starving and headed into Homestead to find dinner and a place to stay for the night before resting up for the rest of our adventure in Everglades National Park.

These were a few of the birds that we saw and photographed during the day:

We got an early start the next day with a stop at Robert is Here for smoothies just after they opened. Since my name is Robert, it has become an obligatory stop to take a photo of the sign while we are in the area. Since it was early and not very crowded yet (particularly compared to the last time), we actually managed to meet Robert as he was working in the store.

After grabbing our smoothies, we entered the park. We saw this bird right at the visitor center near the entrance, and later in the day Jayne photographed the blue jay at the visitor center too.

We proceeded to make our way down State Highway 9336 to Flamingo. It is roughly a 45 minute drive, but we wanted to make sure that we had enough time to get there as we missed out on it the last time. Our first stop once we were there was the restrooms outside the temporary visitor center. The Flamingo Visitor Center is closed for restoration following hurricane damage. They have a temporary visitor center setup across the parking lot in trailers.

Our next stop after the visitor center was the marina. The marina offers boat tours and a small store. We were in exploring mode so we walked along the docks and watched the osprey and vultures fly back and forth. We also saw a group of manatees that were in the marina area.

Pro tip: If you are going to visit Flamingo, be sure to bring something to cover your car (or at least your windshield wipers), as the vultures in the area are known to attack rubber on cars. We asked why this was and learned that they apparently put fish oil in such products and the birds are attracted to it. We didn’t know so we were not prepared for it but there were a number of grocery bags on windshield wipers in the parking lot. We heard a few stories about the vultures tearing into cars in the area.

We had some time to explore the area while we were considering whether we had time to go on the Everglades boat tour so we headed down the road to the Eco-Pond (above) and the amphitheater area near the Guy Bradley trail. We saw a number of birds on the way including two osprey and an American Kestrel.

These birds were near the amphitheater:

The amphitheater was overrun but we did get a nice photo of Florida Bay:

It was a beautiful day so we decided to take the backcountry boat tour. The cost is $40 for adults and includes a 90 minute trip up Buttonwood Canal through Coot Bay (second pic below) and Tarpon Creek into Whitewater Bay (third pic below), then back to Flamingo Marina.

The boat trip presented us with some great birding. We saw a bald eagle, an osprey, great blue heron, anhinga, wood storks, egrets, a kingfisher and more.

We also saw plenty of crocodiles including a few young crocodiles like the one below (zoomed in).

After the boat tour, we started the journey back to Homestead. Jayne jumped out on the other side of the marina to photograph a crocodile mom and her babies:

We made a quick stop at Nine Mile Pond to look around and take a few pictures. Nine Mile Pond offers canoeing and kayaking with rentals available at the Flamingo Marino. The boats are stored at Nine Mile Pond.

Next up was a short hike on the boardwalk at Mahogany Hammock Trail. The Mahogany Hammock is a slightly elevated area in the wetlands where Mahogany and hardwood trees grow. It is a short loop trail with the largest living Mahogany tree in the United States.

We headed back to the visitor center and then the hotel – it was tempting to repeat some of our previous adventure but we had other plans for the afternoon and were travelling to see family the next day.

We headed down I-80 into Central Pennsylvania for a weekend of fall foliage, state parks and camping. If you are looking to leave cell phone coverage behind, the PA Grand Canyon is a trip we highly recommend!

The Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania is a 47 mile gorge carved by Pine Creek through the Allegheny Plateuu. It is also called Pine Creek Gorge. Pine Creek is protected as a Pennsylvania Scenic River and the area includes Tioga State Forest, Leonard Harrison State Park, Colton Point State Park and Little Pine State Park.

We explored the gorge on Sunday after we arrived. We even stopped in at the Waterville Apple Butter Festival which we stumbled across. Unfortunately, it took a long time to make the apple butter (and the pre-made was sold out early in the morning) so we did had to leave before it was ready.

We camped for the night at Happy Acres Resort, which is near Little Pine Creek State Park. This is the view from the Little Pine Dam and Vista in the state park:

Here are a few more pictures that we took of the fall foliage and Pine Creek on Sunday:

On Columbus Day, we woke up in the morning and headed up to Leonard Harrison State Park, which offers an overlook of the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon.

On our way back to Philadelphia, we stopped at Hickory Run State Park. Hickory Run is located in the foothills of the Poconos Mountains near the intersection of I-80 and the Northeast Extension of the PA Turnpike (I-476). It was named one of the 25 must-see PA state parks by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. We explored a bit and made the hike down to Hawk Falls, which is a 25 foot high waterfall.

In total, Hickory Run State Park has more than 40 miles of hiking trails and the park contains 15,990 acres. It also has a 16 acre boulder field which is the largest in the Appalachian region, and which we will have to see next time. The light was setting on the day so we simply ran out of time for this impromptu adventure on the way home.

Jayne booked us a morning bird walk at the Audubon Center in October 2019 because Canon was going to provide some of its premium Canon cameras and lenses to participants. It ended up being a pleasant but overcast October morning in the Philadelphia area.

I ended up shooting with an EOS RP mirrorless camera and Jayne went with the Canon 5D Mark IV. The lens attached to the end was a 70-200mm F/2.8. We were walking around with several thousand dollars in Canon camera equipment each and it would be an understatement to say that we were excited. Normally, we shoot on a Canon SX60HS. The walk was joined by a Canon rep to answer questions about the cameras as well as an Audubon tour guide to talk about the birds.

The Audubon Society maintains more than 100 wildlife sanctuaries and nature centers throughout the United States. The John James Audubon Visitor Center in Audubon, PA is a museum run by them. The location at Mill Grove is on the site of a historic 18th century farm where John James Audubon lived when he first came to America in 1803.

We saw a number of birds on the walk including a great blue heron in Perkiomen Creek. We didn’t get a photo though. We were able to capture a photo of this blue jay in the first few minutes:

We did not compensate enough for the grey skies with the camera settings. But we were still able to capture a few amazing photos. Here was one with the blue jay in flight:

It wouldn’t be a hike without at least one texture or flower photo. Enjoy!

At the end of the walk, a few of the employees / volunteers brought out a few of the birds being rehabilitated for us. This was one of the hawks that we photographed:

We will be going through the photos that we took with the Canon cameras and posting them soon!

The one thing that we were disappointed in was that we didn’t get there earlier and obtain one of the larger telephoto lenses. Since we are used to shooting on our superzoom, 200mm was just not enough reach for us! At one point in the hike, Jayne even pulled out our camera to take a picture of a bird that was just too far away for the 200mm lens.

We had an extra day after a Las Vegas conference at the end of September to do some sightseeing and decided to make a quick road trip out of it to see the Grand Canyon. Since the Hoover Dam is on the way, and neither of us had ever been there, we also stopped there for some photos!

The South Rim of the Grand Canyon is a bit of a jaunt from Las Vegas. There is no direct route between the two (other than by air), so the trip requires going southeast to Kingman and then across on I-40. The exit for the Grand Canyon is in Williams, which is located about an hour south of the park. The one way trip time (without stops) from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon South Rim is about 4.5 hours.

We picked up the rental car at the off-airport rental location in Las Vegas and headed toward Hoover Dam in the evening. The Hoover Dam is about 45 minutes from the Las Vegas airport, so we made it there before it was dark. The major thing that we noticed on the way there were the rows after rows of power lines between the city and Hoover Dam.

Shortly before the exit for Hoover Dam, there is the impressive Robert L. Mendenhall Scenic Overlook which provides a view of Lake Mead.

The highway exit coming from Las Vegas is about three miles away from the Hoover Dam. There is a short stop at a security checkpoint and then (absent sightseeing traffic) you are at the Hoover Dam pretty quickly. There is a parking garage and visitor center before you reach the dam, with the cost of parking in the garage is $10.

You can also drive across the dam and park in one of the parking lots on the other side. We ended up driving across the dam and parked for free (although this would not have been possible if there were more visitors there as it was not a large lot).

After parking, we walked back down to the dam to take pictures. One of the things that we noticed was how far below the high water marks the Lake Mead water level was at the time. The spillway (pictured below) which is necessary to divert water around the Hoover Dam during high water, has not been needed since 1983.

There is a bypass bridge for US-93 traffic called the Mike O’Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge which opened in 2010 and crosses the canyon just south of the Hoover Dam. It was the first concrete-steel composite arch bridge constructed in the United States and is the second highest bridge in the United States. It can be seen from the Hoover Dam.

After you finish at the Hoover Dam, you can backtrack north from the dam to the highway to take it across the canyon – which is what we did – but it really was not worth it in our opinion due to limited visibility. There is also an entrance to and exit from the highway south of Hoover Dam.

Hoover Dam is a popular site for visitors, with around seven million people annually visiting and one million of them taking the Hoover Dam tour.

The Hoover Dam was constructed in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River during the Great Depression. It sits on the border between Nevada and Arizona and forms Lake Mead, which when full of water is the largest reservoir in the United States by volume.

Lake Mead is 110 miles long when full, with a depth of approximately 500 feet at its deepest point. In 2018, Lake Mead National Recreation Area saw 7.5 million visitors according to the National Park Service, which made it the sixth most visited unit in the entire National Park Service system.

Grand Canyon National Park (South Rim)

The sun set as we departed from the Hoover Dam to make the journey to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Our destination for the night was Tusayan, which is located about 15 minutes south of the Visitor Center at the South Rim. The Tusayan hotels offered more affordable accommodations then staying in the park. We arrived safely and turned in for the night with our alarms set for an early wake up in order to get to the Grand Canyon before sunrise.

In the morning, we made the quick drive to the Visitor Center parking area and then walked to Mather Point. We ended up walking along the rim rather than directly to Mather Point because Jayne simply could not wait to see the Grand Canyon any longer. It was her first time to see it in person and her excitement set the tone for the morning.

Our arrival at Mather Point was not early enough to get one of the premium spots along the railing so we settled in on the far side to watch the sun hit the canyon walls. It was beautiful to watch it light up the landscape.

After the sun rose, we dashed back to the hotel to enjoy a bit more sleep, take a work call and have breakfast. We checked out and headed back to the park.

We checked out the visitor center and made the walk on the Rim Trail from Mather POint to Yavapai Point. We took photos for a while at Yavapai Point, and then headed back to the car to drive over to Grand Canyon Village.

On our way, we stopped at the Canyon Village General Store to do some souvenir shopping and ended up buying some Grand Canyon trail mix.

We found a parking spot near the Grand Canyon Railway. We ended up taking a bunch of photos of the Grand Canyon Railway trains, since one had just pulled in, and the railroad station.

We worked our way along the canyon from El Tovar to Bright Angel Lodge, where we stopped for a quick snack lunch. We also encountered the squirrels here, which were not afraid of humans and we had to constantly guard our lunch from them while we were eating outside.

We were also looking for California condors here as it was a beautiful day and we were watching them (or maybe just turkey vultures?) fly back and forth. It is a beautiful landscape.

After lunch, we worked our way through Mary Colter’s Lookout Studio and the Kolb Studio. The Kolb Studio was located near the Bright Angel Trailhead, so we took a few photographs here as well. We both want to hike down to the canyon floor sometime. There was just not enough time to do so on this short one day trip over.

It was already early afternoon and we had a 4 hour trip back to Las Vegas to drop off the rental car and catch a flight, so we started walking back to the car. We did stop in El Tovar to check it out as well as the Hopi House, before getting in the car and beginning the drive out of the park.

Most of the trip was focused on seeing the canyon, but, in addition to the squirrels, we did manage to see some other Grand Canyon wildlife, including elk and take a few different photos of birds while we were there.

More to come including more photos!

We took the Ford Mustang convertible (rental car) up the Pacific Coast Highway (California Highway 1) and explored Natural Bridges State Beach, Shark Fin Cove and Beauregard Vineyards on our way from Monterey to the San Francisco airport at the end of our San Francisco trip.

Here are some of the photos – we will post the complete summary of the day soon.

Entering in Monterey.

Our first stop was Santa Cruz:

Natural Bridges State Beach:

Shark Fin Cove:

Landscape along the way:

Beauregard Vineyards:

Driving by Pigeon Point Light Station:

Here were some of the flowers that we encountered on our trip up the Pacific Coast:

We visited the West Entrance of Pinnacles National Park on Day 7 of our honeymoon for an hour – and it was action packed!

Pinnacles may receive the award for the National Park over which we have argued the most. There are two sections of the park and there is not a direct route to drive between them. We were traveling between Sequoia National Park and Monterey, California so we had to decide whether we were going to do the East or West Entrance. We did not have time to do both as we were meeting family in Monterey. The online reports indicated that the East section was more developed (visitor center, campground and nature center) and we were concerned that Pinnacles West would not have a stamp for our passport (since it only has a contact station).

After a bit of debate, we ultimately called and posed the question to the Park employee, who was very helpful. After the call, we ended up going to the West Entrance. We were assured that the visitor center was going to be open on the day we were there and that they would also have the passport stamps for the park. We also found out that Pinnacles West was the preferred location to drive in and see the Pinnacles Volcanic Formation.

So, obviously, the Visitor Contact Station was our first stop – where we got our passport stamp.

Our secondary reason to visit the park (beyond seeing the Pinnacles) was to try and see a California Condor. It is one of the world’s rarest bird species with under 500 living in the wild or in captivity in the world. About two dozen of them are in and around Pinnacles.

Viewing one proved harder than we imagined as it was tough to tell the difference between the turkey vultures and the California Condors in flight. We eventually ended up confirming that we indeed saw a condor at home after examining the photos taken with our telephoto zoom lens. We took a picture of the profiles at the contact station in order to help us identify them. Here is the photo of the condor:

Here is a photo of the chart that was at the contact station which helped to identify that the bird was a California condor and not a turkey vulture:

In addition to our constant quest to confirm a condor while in the park, we saw a number of other birds even though we were only there for a very short time. We definitely should have planned to spend more time here!

After stopping at the contact station, we headed to the end of the road which contains a parking area at the Chaparral Trailhead. The trailhead parking has a picnic area and provides a view of Resurrection Wall, High Peaks and Machete Ridge. Even if you do not have much time, we would highly recommend that you take a quick trip from the parking lot out to Juniper Canyon Trail. This was where we saw the condors!

We were only there for an hour but there was so much to see near the trailhead. We were not on the trail for five minutes before we saw a bird of prey speed past. We couldn’t get a picture though. If we were lucky, it was probably a prairie falcon or a peregine falcon. Both nest in the cliffs of the park.

We also saw a goldfinch. It’s not particularly clear to us whether it was a Lesser Goldfinch or an American Goldfinch, but we got a few photos so maybe one day we can actually identify it.

We were then mystified by the hummingbirds and bees in one of the trees. It was the neatest old tree. We spent a while watching them fly back and forth, and enjoying the beautiful, sunny day. We never got a photo of the hummingbirds, but did manage to take a picture of the tree and the bees (tree only below):

We later saw a California Scrub Jay right off the trail in a tree. It was much easier to find then the Florida Scrub Jay in Canaveral National Seashore, which involved a one hour hike through a mosquito infested marsh area and the birds were so far away that we could only identify one as our target later when zoomed in on the computer). This Scrub Jay was so close we barely needed the telephoto lens at all.

Pinnacles National Park now holds the honor for the national park that we have spent the least time exploring from among those that we have visited. Do not worry though – we plan to go back! We still need to do the east entrance as well as hike to the top of the Pinnacles.

As you can see from our photos, it was absolutely beautiful in mid-June:

We also saw plenty of pretty wildflowers on the drive in and while hiking around. Jayne took lots of pictures of them:

For those looking to visit:

The gateway city for the west entrance of Pinnacles is Soledad. Soledad has a population of 25,000 and contains both local restaurants and national fast food chains along Front Street for those looking for civilization outside of the park. To extend your time around Pinnacles, also consider the tasting room for the Chalone Vineyard which sits right outside the west entrance.

If you are looking for somewhere to stay in the area and are looking for a national hotel chain (which it doesn’t look like you will find in Soledad), try King City to the south of the park or Salinas to the north. Both cities are about thirty minutes from the park. King City portrays itself as “The entrance to West & East Pinnacles” and is about 40 minutes from the east entrance as well.

We were going from Sequoia National Park to spend the evening in Monterey Bay, so we did not spend much time exploring the area. Hopefully we will get a chance to do so when we go back!

We spent a day in Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park after our stay at Yosemite National Park. We took the tour at the General Grant tree, drove through Kings Canyon to the end of the road at Copper Creek Trailhead, explored the area around the General Sherman Tree, drove under Tunnel Log, climbed Moro Rock, and had breakfast at the Grant Grove Restaurant.

It was a pretty long day. We woke up early in Fresno with a big day ahead of us. We had a reservation the prior night at the Hume Lake Campground but our hike in Hetch Hetchy meant that we did not get down to Fresno until the sun was setting. We decided that it was better to drive into the area during the light since we did not really know where we were going and there were a lot of twists and turns on the map which usually signals an elevation change. So as we were watching the sun set in Fresno we decided to abandon that plan and stay a night near the Fresno airport. After the free breakfast in the morning we were ready to go!

Fresno is a little over an hour from Grant Grove Village and the Kings Canyon Visitor Center, our first stop in the park. After a bit of souvenir shopping, we hit the road again but quickly got detoured by the sign for the General Grant Tree.

The General Grant tree is the second largest tree in the world and is estimated to be about 1650 years old. It is reached by a 1/3 mile paved loop from a parking area. We got there just as a free park ranger tour was starting, so we tagged along.

We heard a number of interesting stories along the way, including the story of the “California Hoax” during the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876 – where a sixteen foot section of a sequoia tree from the General Grant Grove was cut down and the people did not believe the outer shell reassembled for the exhibit was from a single tree. We also learned about the massive root systems of the sequoia trees, and the importance of fires in their development.

The General Grant was the number three tree in volume in the world until the Washington tree in the Giant Forest Grove in Sequoia National Park partially collapsed after a heavy snow in 2005. The General Grant is also the widest tree known in the world with a 40 foot diameter at the base.

If you listen carefully while you are there, you will probably hear the woodpeckers striking a tree. We were fortunate to see a pileated woodpecker striking one of the trees while on the tour. It was not our first sighting though – we saw a few earlier in the year when we were down in Congaree National Park in South Carolina.

We checked in at the Hume Lake campground and then continued on our journey. We stayed at the campground because there were not any available reservations at either Sequoia or Kings Canyon for the night (it was still early in the season) and we wanted to make sure that we had a place to stay. The hosts were friendly and it worked out well.

We continued past the campground and set off to descend into Kings Canyon on the Kings Canyon Scenic Byway for the rest of the morning.

Kings Canyon is one of the deepest river gorges in North America. At more than 8,000 feet deep in some spots, it is actually deeper than the Grand Canyon. You can see the road widing its way down in the next shot:

The Kings River was running fast through the gorge from all of the melting snow runoff, making for some beautiful scenery.

We made our way down past Grizzly Falls to Cedar Grove. Cedar Grove is the location of Cedar Grove Lodge (we grabbed lunch at the market there and ate on their balcony), four campgrounds and the Cedar Grove Visitor Center. After lunch, we worked our way down to the road’s end, and then did a short walk around Zumwalt Meadow before heading out of Kings Canyon and over to Sequoia National Park.

We retraced our steps to make our way to the Generals Highway – headed for the Lodgepole Visitor Center, General Sherman Tree, Auto Log, Tunnel Log, and Moro Rock.

We stopped to explore the Lodgepole Visitor Center and grab a quick lunch at the Market Center, before continuing on to General Sherman.

We used one of the park shuttles to access the General Sherman Tree. We parked on the lot for General Sherman Tree off Wolverton Road. We got off the bus at the upper drop off and walked down the half mile trail through the sequoias. We then picked up the bus at the stop at the handicapped parking area and took it back to the parking lot.

After admiring other large trees this year (first at Congaree, then Muir Woods and Kings Canyon), it was really surprising how much fun we had walking through this grove. The General Sherman Tree is incredible and a must-visit for any adventurer through the national parks. Walking among what many consider to be the largest living organisms on earth is simply amazing.

There is no way to adequately describe the size of General Sherman – you simply have to see it for yourself.

After retracing our steps to the parking lot, we headed down the road toward Moro Rock, admiring the many other large sequoias alongside the drive. Our next stop was at Auto Log, where visitors once drove their vehicles onto the fallen sequoia. This is no longer possible, but we did enjoy taking a picture of the historic site.

We then drove under Tunnel Log. If you are looking for a great picture spot during a road trip for your family and car, this is one of THE places to go. A “tunnel” has been carved through the fallen giant sequoia so that you can drive your car through/under it.

Climbing Moro Rock was a bit crazy. This is one of the most popular hikes in Sequoia National Park, and it should come as no surprise since the view after the 350+ steps in the quarter mile climb was totally worth it. Moro Rock rises 6275 above sea level but the hike only has an elevation change of 300 feet from the parking lot. However, if you are afraid of heights or have small children, there are a few places where you may be concerned, as there are not guardrails against the drop off in a few areas.

The viewing platform of Moro Rock provides roughly 360 degree views of the surrounding area including the Great Western Divide, a subrange of the Sierra Nevada mountain range

One thing to know about Moro Rock is that you should be prepared to find photographers situated at the end of the platform in anticipation of sunrise or sunset. We were there as the sun was waning and the photographers already had their cameras setup on tripods for the sunset.

Since we had at least an hour to get back to the campsite, we did not stay around for the sunset. We arrived back at our campsite just after dark, and quickly setup the tent and searched for the restrooms.

We took a moment in the morning to walk down to Hume Lake, enjoy the quiet, and watch a duck cross the lake.

Then we packed up our campsite and headed to breakfast at the Grant Grove Restaurant. We chose the buffet and filled up before setting out across the state to Pinnacles National Park. Check our next blog post for more information on that part of the adventure!

After we spent a day exploring San Francisco, we drove over for three days in Yosemite National Park. We stayed in the canvas tent cabins of Half Dome Village and explored Yosemite Valley, Glacier Point, Taft Point and Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.

We arrived into Yosemite Valley around mid-day via 120 and Big Oak Flat Road after plenty of winding up and down. We were also delayed a bit as they were asphalting the road and it was down to one lane in a section in the park which had traffic backed up.

It was definitely worth the wait! I was a bit disappointed while planning the trip that the season’s heavy snowfall meant that we would not get to explore Tioga Pass (which was still closed in mid-June when we were there and did not open until June 21). However, the waterfalls were running hard since the snowfall was still melting and this made up for it! The Merced River which flows through Yosemite Valley was raging as well.

It took us a while to work our way through the valley because we were stopping to take pictures of all of the waterfalls against the gorgeous landscape.

After parking and checking in to our tent cabin, we grabbed some pizza at the Curry Village / Half Dome Village Pizza Patio. We+ then made the hike up to Mirror Lake. Mirror Lake became famous for its reflections of the landscape in the broad shallow pool formed in Tenaya Creek when there is sufficient water.

On our way back, we took the bus down to the Ahwahnee Hotel (formerly the Majestic Yosemite Hotel) to grab a drink at the bar, but we did not have a good experience. We ended up getting our drink (and dinner) at Yosemite Valley Lodge instead.

In the morning, we headed over to the Yosemite Visitor Center to get the stamp in our passport. We also grabbed breakfast and coffee at the Market before making the trip to Yosemite Falls. We also did Bridalveil Fall, since Jayne still had her bridal veil from our wedding the Saturday before..

As we worked our way over to Glacier Point, we stopped at Tunnel View to enjoy the scenery and take a photo pictures. Tunnel View is a classic stop for any traveler coming to the area, and has two parking lots just outside the tunnel.

Glacier Point is located at an elevation of 7,214 feet, a distance of 3,200 feet above Half Dome Village. It offers unparalleled view of Half Dome and the Yosemite Valley. It is accessible by road in the summer via bus or with a drive of about an hour. There is a parking lot at the end of Glacier Point Road, but it fills up at this popular spot in the park.

We spent a while here, taking in the scenery. It was simply incredible and I will just let the pictures do the talking.

We also saw a Steller’s Jay, which was pretty cool too.

After finishing up at Glacier Point, we decided to do the hike to Taft Point on the way back. The Taft Point trail is a 2.2 mile round-trip hike with an elevation change of 240 feet to a spectacular overlook of the Yosemite Valley. The trail ends in a steep cliff with a railing to permit hikers to get right to the edge. If you have a fear of heights, this is not the place for you.

There were two parts of the trip that gave us pause which are worth noting for future travelers in the area. First, there was a sign marking the trail as closed due to snow. However, in June when we were there, the only part which had snow was a few sections through the forest. We were able to follow the trail with only some minor backtracking at times. The other concern that we had in going to this widely photographed spot was the warnings about fissures in the ground. We successfully avoided them as they are mostly near the terrain’s edge. You did not have to step over any fissures in any way to get to Taft Point. We did look down through a few of them though.

Since we had dinner reservations at the Ahwahnee Dining Room, we hustled back to Half Dome Village to change. Despite our experience at the bar the night before, dinner was wonderful and we would highly recommend to others. Particularly pleasant was the piano player, who deserved five stars by himself.

We also managed to capture the iconic photo of the sun illuminating Half Dome during sunset.

We packed up our tent cabin in the morning, had breakfast at Half Dome Village, and made the trek up to Hetch Hetchy. Hetch Hetchy is the name of a valley and reservoir north of Yosemite. A dam was built there in the 1930s to provide water to San Francisco. Before it was filled with water, John Muir called it a “remarkably exact counterpart” to Yosemite Valley.

The first views of Hetch Hetchy on the drive in are breathtaking. The two waterfalls were roaring and the clean blue water was simply sparkling under the bright sun and skies of the day. The views of Tuolumne downstream from the dam are wild. We had planned to simply stop after walking across the dam, but we ended up doing a 5 mile roundtrip day hike past Tueeulala Falls to Wapama Falls and back. The trail was closed at Wapama Falls due to the force of the waterfall so we couldn’t have gone any farther even if we had wanted to do so. The hike was tiring (and we really should have brought more water for a noon hike) but it was well worth delaying our trip down to King’s Canyon to spend a few hours exploring Hetch Hetchy Valley.

Here are some of our photos from Hetch Hetchy:

On our way out, we decided to get out of the park as soon as possible rather than retrace our steps from the previous day toward Glacier Point, and set the GPS for Fresno. We didn’t quite make it to Hume Lake, where we had a campsite reservation, before dark, so we stopped at a hotel near the Fresno airport.

Check out our next blog post to see our photos from King’s Canyon and Sequoia.

We will post more about our honeymoon adventure soon!

Our first full day in San Francisco saw us make a whirlwind trip through Fisherman’s Wharf, across the Golden Gate Bridge, to Point Reyes National Seashore and Muir Woods National Monument.

We arrived at San Francisco airport on a late Sunday night flight and after a stop at the rental car agency (where we got a Ford Mustang convertible) we headed to the hotel – the Comfort Inn by the Bay.

I was looking for something affordable where I could get a view of the Golden Gate Bridge at night – and we were able to secure a view on an upper floor despite our late reservation. The sunrise was worth every penny!

After the short night’s sleep, we walked down to the wharf and our first stop was the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, We walked out onto the pier to enjoy the views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and Fisherman’s Wharf.

We then made our way down the waterfront, stopping at an electronics store to pick up a memory card and charger for the camera battery (which we accidentally left at home in the rush), before going to Pier 39 to see the sea lions. There was a big crowd there watching them, but we were able to get a few photos thanks to the telephoto lens on our Canon SX60 camera.

We also stopped at the Krispy Kreme in Fisherman’s Wharf, which is apparently the biggest franchise location in the United States.

It was about time to check out of the hotel, so we headed back, enjoyed breakfast, and planned our day. We found out that we needed to make a reservation for parking at Muir Woods National Monument, and we were fortunately still able to get a mid afternoon time (probably because it was a Monday!). We sketched out the rest of our adventure – a drive across the Golden Gate Bridge and up the coast to Point Reyes National Seashore before returning to downtown San Francisco for dinner with family after the stop at Muir Woods. The timing would be tight but it seemed possible.

We jumped into the convertible, put the top down, and we were soon driving across the Golden Gate Bridge! We had a packed day already so we did not stop at the overlook, but this is something that we would encourage of everyone when you are there. It looked to be very popular and pretty.

There was some traffic until we made the turn for the Pacific Coast Highway, but it was smooth sailing after that. The section along the coast was incredibly beautiful and the convertible was the perfect way to enjoy it. We left the Pacific Coast behind when Highway 1 passed Stinson Beach and Bolinas Lagoon, but we were soon to be reunited with the Pacific Ocean.

Point Reyes was our second visit to a national seashore. We already spent some time at Canaveral National Seashore when we were in Florida.

We found the Bear Valley Visitor Center, but discovered that it was not very close to the beach at all! After getting our passport stamp, and still determined to dip our toes in the Pacific Ocean for the first time despite being a bit short on time with Muir Woods, we drove to Limantour Beach.

After parking, the beach was close but this was where we ran into some trouble. We made the dash across the sand trail to the beach and the sand was so hot! It was a heat wave and the sand was burning up. The hot sand was getting trapped in the sandals and there was simply no relief at all. Jayne eventually decided to remove her Keens and make a run for it, which was not a smart move. The dip in the ocean was pleasant, but on the way back we found out that Jayne really burned her feet.

We spent less than 10 minutes at the beach as we had our timed parking reservation at Muir Woods which was still a significant drive away. We really didn’t do the seashore justice, but that was all of the time that we had. We were only about a half hour late getting to Muir Woods and we did not have a problem getting in despite being late. The attendant waved us right in and we worked our way to the back of the lot for a spot.

The one thing that will always stick with me about our trip to Point Reyes and Muir Woods was the smell. It was unbelievable and relaxing.

We spent about an hour at Muir Woods, making our way down the trail to Founder’s Grove, although we could have easily spent much more enjoying the serenity.

Muir Woods National Monument was created by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1908. The land was donated by Congressman William Kent to protect the coastal redwoods, and he requested the park be named in honor of John Muir, a naturalist and conservationist who was an important advocate for protecting the wilderness of the United States.

The coastal redwoods are the planet’s tallest living things, with the tallest in Muir Woods reaching 258 feet. They are a close relative of the Giant Sequoia which we saw later in our trip at King’s Canyon and Sequoia National Park. Perhaps one day we will also have to go find the tallest coast redwood (named Hyperion), which stands at nearly 380 feet tall and is located not in Muir Woods but in a remote area of Redwood National and State Parks.

Our trip back over the Golden Gate Bridge and through the city happened in the middle of rush hour, so there were plenty of traffic delays. But we weren’t too late for our dinner plans, so the day worked out well.

After dinner, we went back down to Fisherman’s Wharf to get some dessert at Ghiradelli, but after we drove down Lombard Street (the Crookedest Street in the World) and stopped to watch the sunset, we ended up missing the ice cream shop since it closed (way too early for the summer) just before we got there.

With plans to start the next day by driving into Yosemite, we headed east and crossed the Bay. We ended up stopping for the night in Oakdale and went to bed with dreams of Yosemite dancing in our heads.

We will post more photos of the giant redwoods in Muir Woods and the rest of the day soon!

We finished off our trip to Congaree National Park with two days in the Charleston area. We explored historic downtown Charleston, Fort Sumter, Fort Moultrie, Francis Marion National Forest, Hampton Plantation State Historic Site, Santee Coastal Reserve and Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge. It was a busy two days and there was plenty that we did not get a chance to do so we will have to plan to come back.

We will write more soon! Here are some of our photos:

We planned a canoe trip down the Congaree River through Congaree National Park from Columbia, SC to the 601 bridge in April 2019. Unfortunately, it was rained out as too many April showers led to flooding throughout the park.

We made the trip to the park anyway and spent two days camping at Congaree, exploring the largest intact expanse of old growth bottomland hardwood forest in the southeastern United States. We also ventured into Columbia and did a quick hike in Congaree Bluffs Heritage Park before spending two days in Charleston. It was a beautiful, quick spring adventure even though we will need to go back to do our canoe trip some day!

Our trip to Congaree National Park will go down in history as the first which was poorly planned. My fault. Simply put, it was derailed by weather, as April showers resulted in the Congaree River overflowing its banks and leaving nowhere to camp along the river in the national park. So rather than a leisurely canoe trip down the river with fishing and backcountry camping, we were limited to camping in the frontcountry campsites and walking around the boardwalk (which was flooded in select areas when we got there). We were not the only ones that weekend which the park rangers had to tell that it was not advisable to begin a trip. We listened.

It was still a fun trip. It is the largest intact old growth bottomland hardwood forest in the southeast United States. The trees are … large. They are not as large as the redwoods and sequoias of California but we did not get out to see those trees until June. The forest in South Carolina is … big, also. Congaree is known for its champion trees and for a swamp so thick and confusing that you would need a GPS to navigate it. In addition to its mosquitoes and lightning bugs.

The mosquitoes were not as big of problem as normal due to the floods, although we still needed insect repellent when at the campground. And the synchronized lightning bugs would not start for another month, so it was predominately trees and woodpeckers for us. There were plenty of loblolly pines, mangroves and pileated woodpeckers.

Congaree is also thought to be one of the places where the possibly extinct Ivory-billed woodpecker may be hiding. The Ivory-billed woodpecker is one of the largest woodpeckers in the world and is native to the bottomland hardwood forests and temperate coniferous forests of the southeastern United States and Cuba. The last confirmed sighting was in the 1940s in Louisiana, but there have been a number of potential sightings since then. The thought that we might see one while standing in Congaree was exhilarating, and I have to admit that my heart skipped a beat every time we saw a pileated woodpecker.

We didn’t end up seeing any owls either, which are another reason to explore the park, though we definitely heard them at night and once in the morning. We did not really look too hard for owls though.

The first part of the trip went well – travel to Charleston. We flew into Charleston airport bright and early on Saturday morning, picking up the rental car not long after. Since we were flying on Frontier credits received for a previous trip delayed overnight, it was a great start to be on time. It was cheaper to fly into Charleston then columbia and we could get their direct on Frontier.

We made the hour plus drive to the park. But as soon as we got to the parking lot under the Highway 601 Bridge and saw that the river was over the banks, we knew that the canoe trip was definitely not going to be possible. We were able to enjoy watching the cliff swallows under the bridge fly in and out of their nests

Fortunately, we had a reservation for a campsite the first night in Longleaf Campground so all was not lost due to the weather. And we made a reservation for a different campsite in the campground shortly thereafter.

We stopped at the visitor center to talk to a park ranger, which confirmed our suspicions that they were not issuing backcountry camping permits for the park.

We then explored the areas of the boardwalk which were not flooded, marveling at the quiet of the forest and the size of the trees.

When we returned from our hike, we set up our tent before heading into Columbia to get some supplies. It was actually a pretty leisurely drive, as we stopped to eat in Five Points in Columbia and explored the downtown area a bit.

Sunday morning was spent relaxing in the hammock, before we moved the campsite. Since the flood waters had receded a bit, we ended up making it all the way around the boardwalk. We also made the hike over to Bluff Campground, the hike-in campsites which are located past the Visitor Center.

When we finished, we lounged around a bit and then went in to Columbia to do early dinner and a movie. We ended up having barbecue and watching Captain Marvel, which was amazing. There was a series of thunderstorms scheduled to roll through the area so we had decided rather than ride it out in the tent we would hit up the movie. We didn’t even notice any of the storms move through while in the theater, but we saw them on the weather radar after we got out.

At night, I ended up watching Game of Thrones from the tent because, for once, I had cell coverage in a national park. It was the first episode of Season 8 – Winterfell, so it was an important one. I did not have cell coverage past the visitor center, but my Sprint phone did work in the campground which was pleasant.

Monday morning we slept late, packed up the camp, and then went to Congaree Bluffs Heritage Preserve. We had high hopes that the overlook would be incredible. We hiked down to the overlook, but it was just ok. The trees in the Heritage Preserve have grown and it is not quite high enough to give you as spectacular of view as I anticipated from reading about it.

Still, it gave us a different view into the park and a perspective on the forest that is not possible from the boardwalk. We then went down to the Congaree River since the national park was too flooded to reach it on the hiking trails, and dropped in a fishing line before going back up to the parking lot.

We then started our drive back to Charleston for the second stage of the adventure, stopping for lunch at a Waffle House in Orangeburg.

It definitely was not our standard national park adventure, and the first that did not go anywhere near as planned, but we got our passport stamp, enjoyed exploring it, and it preceded a really fun day exploring Charleston.

Check out our photos from Charleston on the next blog post!

We will post more photos of Congaree soon!

We made a quick trip north of Philadelphia to Tyler State Park in Bucks County for July 4th today! We’re still getting used to paddling our new Advanced Elements inflatable kayak so we thought it would be a great opportunity to get some more practice. Plus, it is over 90 degrees so spending some time at the river sounded much cooler than hanging around in the city for the fireworks.

Tyler State Park is a 1,711 acre Pennsylvania state park in Newtown and Northampton Townships. To get there, we headed north on I-95 out of the city and it was only a few miles to the west of the highway. Neshaminy Creek cuts through the park on its way to the Delaware River.

Once you enter the park, the drive down to the river passes a few different fields. We saw a young deer and a bluebird in the fields on the way out (sorry, we had put the camera away at this point!). We did take a picture of one of the fields on the way in however.

Since we were getting there late in the afternoon, we headed straight for the boat launch area. We managed to follow the signs without any problems. They have a boat rental there where they rent stand up paddleboards, canoes, and kayaks (both single and double). The cost is $20-30 for the first hour and between $50-80 for up to 4 hours (depending on the type of boat that you are renting). But we have our own kayak and gear so we didn’t have to worry about this.

There is a small dam and walkway bridge just below the boat launch, which was popular for fishing and swimming (despite the no swimming sign). This isn’t a full drive down boat launch – if you are bringing your own canoe or kayak you are going to have to carry it down a grassy strip of land. Boats go upstream from there, which wasn’t a problem for us due to the slow current.

We took a quick walk around first to orient ourselves. On our way back up to the car to grab the kayak, we saw this American Robin which had just found a worm. It took a couple pictures for us to get a great one to show you:

We had two different people comment on our kayak, one just before we were about to inflate it and one while we were on the water (they were in a rental canoe). Everyone thinks it is fantastic.

We timed it this time to see how fast we could get it ready for the water. We took a video to be able to show people and it lasted just over 7 minutes from taking it out of the bag until it was completely inflated. It really only takes us about 3 minutes to blow it up with our Intex manual air pump – the rest was talking into the camera and unfolding it.

We had a great afternoon on the water, rowing upstream and then just drifting back down. It was July 4th, so there were plenty of people on the water in the park, but we still managed to enjoy the serenity of the river despite its higher than typical usage by people.

How many people were there? Well, the rangers had put out signs instructing people to use one of the higher parking lots because the two parking lots closest to the river were full. We decided to ignore the signs because it was late in the day and we needed to unload the boat anyway (rather than drag it so far) and it worked out well because we got a parking spot near the boat launch. But if you are planning to use one of the PA state parks near Philly on July Fourth, you should plan to get there early. For example, there was a sign on I-95 as we were driving up around 3:30 PM that Neshaminy State Park was closed because it was at capacity (too many people/cars!). Tyler worked out well for us though!

We didn’t have time to make it to the Schofield Ford Covered Bridge, which we hear is one of the main attractions in the park. But since it isn’t too far away from us, we will be back to take a few pictures of this bridge built in 1874 sometime soon.

We’re sitting at home now enjoying some BBQ and waiting for the fireworks. We can’t wait to tell you about our next adventure in a park!

We made a day trip up to Evansburg State Park to celebrate a birthday with family and friends. Evansburg State Park is located in southcentral Montgomery County near Collegeville and Skippack.

This 3,349 acre PA park tracks Skippack Creek as it meanders toward Perkiomen Creek. It wasn’t meandering when we were there, however, because it was smack dab at the end of this year’s unusual May rains. But it turned out to be a beautiful, sunny day in the park.

We rented a covered pavilion for our family and friends to join us at the park for a BBQ. They have one that is for 60 people and one that is for 200. Reservations are accepted through Reserve America and there is a fee associated with it. If no one has reserved the pavilion, then they are open for usage by others.

When we arrived at the park, we started with a quick driving tour of the area. It turns out that it is hard to get down to the river from the pavilion area, particularly with mud on the trails from all of the rains. There is an interpretive center with small garden.

When we finished touring the area, we drove down to the southern end of the park where the fishing pier is located. Shortly before we got there, we saw a small pedestrian bridge that crosses the river.

We tried our luck fishing for a few hours but we didn’t catch anything. Skippack Creek is stocked with trout but the river was pretty high and brown from all of the recent rains. We saw a few other people fishing there, so there definitely must be some fish. But we ended up having much better luck birding, enjoying watching this northern flicker dust in the parking lot and then climb on a nearby tree across the river.

When we called it quits on fishing, we headed to the pavilion, where our friends and family were already gathering. There was plenty of grass to spread out, a play area with jungle gym for the kids, and a huge grill which was capable of cooking up a true feast with enough charcoal.

After lunch on our way out of the park, we stopped for a few minutes at Keyser’s Mill to walk around the property and down to the stone arch bridge. Keyser’s Mill is a 2.5 story stone and stucco mill built in the 1800s and restored in 1985-86. It was built as a grist and plaster mill but the machinery and wheels have been removed.

The old miller’s house is just down the street.

We walked down to the Skippack Bridge from here, a historic stone arch bridge built in 1792 with eight spans covering 202 feet. It carries traffic on Germantown Pike across Skippack Creek and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1970.

Even though the water was pretty muddy upstream, it was beautiful here.

It was getting a little late in the afternoon and we were stuffed from all of the hamburgers, hot dogs and other food (plus CAKE), so we headed home. We can’t wait to tell you about our next adventure!

We spent the morning of December 31st searching the Rudyard area of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula for our first ever snowy owl sighting. As you can see from the photos, it was a success! We saw four snowy owls in around an hour.

Snowy owls are typically found in the Arctic tundra but some migrate south to Canada and the northern United States in the winter. In some years, snowy owls migrate farther south in greater numbers. This is usually referred to as an irruption.

I found out that the winter of 2017-2018 was a good time to see them after watching the bird-watching movie Big Year and doing some online research about them. Since I haven’t ever seen one, I was excited that this might be the year. There were a few found near where we live in Philadelphia. We were also planning to be in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan briefly at the end of the year and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to see one in the wild. It happened!

We left Sault Ste. Marie around sunrise to make the drive down I-75 to the Rudyard exit. The thermometer in the car said it was a brutal -16 degrees Fahrenheit when we got started. By the time we got back, we were experiencing a heat wave: it was around -11 degrees.

Rudyard and Pickford are located about halfway between the Mackinaw Bridge and Sault Ste. Marie. There is a lot of farmland in the area and snowy owls sightings have happened there frequently in the past according to reports on the Cornell eBird website.

We didn’t have to wait too long. We took the Rudyard exit off I-75 and then turned south on S Centerline Rd. We were scouring every possible perch in the area but didn’t have any immediate luck. We made a left when we reached M-48 and then we saw our first on the south side of the road on a pole near the I-75 overpass. We had only been looking in the area for less than 15 minutes!

Our First Snowy Owl

We actually almost drove right by it at first. We weren’t positive it was a snowy owl sitting on top of the pole. But we decided to stop and check it out anyway. As you can see from the below photo, it isn’t always easy to pick them out on top of the poles.

We jumped out of the car and once we found it in the telephoto lens of our camera we knew we had found our first snowy owl! You can see the close up photo that we took of our first snowy owl above. After a bit of celebrating, we got cold and decided to jump back in the car, warm up, and continue driving.

Number Two and Three

There were a few recent sightings near Pickford so we decided to drive over there and keep looking. The second bird was sitting just south of the intersection of M-48 and M-129 north of Pickford.

The third one was sitting on a pole by a chiropractor. We had found our second snowy owl in a mile just north of Pickford.

The Last Snowy Owl of the Day

We decided that we were running out of time and should backtrack as we kept looking. The final one was sitting on a pole in a field as we were about to return to I-75. I noticed that there was a small white speck on top of a pole some distance across the field that could not be found on any of the surrounding poles.

Can you see it in the photo? We moved down the road a bit closer and brought out the telephoto lens. It was clear that it was our fourth snowy owl of the day.

We couldn’t get a great picture because the distance was so far and we haven’t bought a tripod yet. But after realizing how important it is when trying to take these photos it will be one of our next purchases.

We were pretty much out of free time for the day and decided to call it quits and head back to Sault Ste. Marie. We had a family holiday event to attend and we had already accomplished what we set out to do. I don’t think we will ever forget the morning, though. I was definitely celebrating our success like a giddy schoolboy for the rest of the day.

We decided to spend the afternoon at Valley Forge National Historical Park today. Located only 25 miles from downtown Philadelphia, it is one of the nation’s most significant historical landmarks from the American Revolution.

Nearly 240 years ago, on December 19, 1777, Washington’s army marched into Valley Forge where they would stay for the next six months. They had been defeated at Germantown and Whitemarsh as they ceded Philadelphia to the British. Although there would be no battle at Valley Forge during their six months there, they lost around 2,000 soldiers to disease, from the approximately 12,000 that started the winter. A number also deserted, while others’ enlistment ended and they returned home.

The winter at Valley Forge is often referred to as a turning point in the Revolutionary War. In the first battle after Valley Forge, the Continental Army demonstrated vast improvement as it fought the British to a standstill at Monmouth, New Jersey and the British withdrew from the field after dark. While at Valley Forge, France also entered the war as an ally of the United States against the British.

Valley Forge is not one of the 59 national parks. Instead, it is listed as one of the 40+ national historical parks in the country. The designation is shared with Abraham Lincoln’s birthplace, Appomattox Court House, Harpers Ferry, the Klondike Gold Rush, Nez Perce and many other sites of historical significance.

Valley Forge was originally Pennsylvania’s first state park, created in 1893. The area was transferred to the National Park Service on July 4, 1976, the Bicentennial of the United States.

It was a beautiful day for our visit with a high of around 51 degrees and the park contains 28 miles of authorized trails for hiking, biking and horseback riding, so it was probably a bit busier than the ordinary winter day. However, it was clearly not as busy as the park gets at its peak, since the park ranger at Washington’s Headquarters told us that more than 1,000 people will go through there on a busy day.

We made our way to the visitor center at first to orient ourselves to the park and pick up a map. We also found out there is a cell phone audio tour with details about a handful of important locations around the park, so we didn’t buy a recorded audio tour like we did at Gettysburg.

While at the visitor center, they announced that the next video about the park would be starting in the theater, so we made our way up the stairs and over to the next building. It was about a fifteen minute video and gave us a great overview of the park and the events of that winter.

(the theater)

Much of the park is accessed by a one-way road, so with our map in hand we made our way to the second stop (the visitor center is the first stop on the audio tour), which isn’t too far away. Here, we found a redoubt and replicas of the soldiers’ quarters. Although we saw the soldiers’ quarters a few years ago, they had made substantial improvements to them as an educational learning tool. There was even a park employee in one of them with a fire going and dressed in a soldier’s uniform to answer questions.

Above is a cannon that was located in one of the redoubts near the soldiers’ cabins not far from the visitor center.

We made our way next to the National Memorial Arch. This sixty foot high arch was created by Congress and dedicated in 1917. It was designed by Paul Phillipe Cret and is modeled after the victory arches of Ancient Rome. Cret is also known for designing the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.

We stopped briefly near Wayne’s Woods. Anthony Wayne was a prominent Chester County resident in the Pennsylvania legislature who raised a militia unit to fight with the Continental Army. The sun was setting over the field and it was beautiful.

Our next stop was Valley Forge Station and Washington’s Headquarters. We parked, made our way around the small circle of historical buildings in the lower section and then got back in the car as the sun was setting. (The park closes each day at dusk.)

The train station was created by Reading Railroad in 1911 to provide a point of entry for visitors to the park from Philadelphia. The building which served visitors through the 1950s was restored in 2009 and is now an information center about the area and Washington’s headquarters.

Washington’s headquarters was a rented home where up to 25 people were living during the army’s encampment in Valley Forge. Washington and his aides worked in the two first floor offices and his guards lived in a nearby set of log cabins. The home was purchased in 1877 by the Valley Forge Centennial Memorial Association.

Valley Forge is a must see location for any Philadelphia visit to see Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. Given its proximity to our home, we’ll definitely be back again in the future!

We picked up some extra sleeping pads and cots from REI this weekend to test and review. We were able to buy a pair of the REI Kingsman Cot 3, an Exped Megamat Duo 10, a Therm-a-Rest NeoAir XLite, a Therm-a-Rest ProLite Plus, a Sea to Summit Comfort Plus, a Big Agnes Q Core SLX, and a Nemo Tensor. They were running all of their sleeping bags and air pads on a buy one, get one for (around) $6 sale.

We have been carrying a pair of Klymit sleeping pads for the past two years. We love them but since we have both tossed and turned a few nights while on them, we thought it was worth trying to upgrade. We have also been doing a lot of car camping, so suffering a bad night’s sleep when we have plenty of space in the car to carry a bigger air mattress seems pointless.

We didn’t go to REI to acquire hundreds of dollars of sleeping pads for camping. But REI was having a big three-day Garage Sale so we decided to add to our gear while they were selling these returned items at a great price. We started by falling in love with the Kingsman Cot 3, a pretty luxurious foldable camping cot. And before we made our purchase, we decided that we were going to review some of the most popular sleeping pads on the market for backpacking and car camping here at Parkcation.

We hope you find our camping gear reviews helpful as you make decisions on what items to buy. If we can find cheap sleeping bags, tents and other items in the future, we’ll probably be doing it again.

Here is a look at what we now own:

Klymit Static V

The Klymit has been a great air pad for us for the past two years. We bought them after our first night in a tent in Pennsylvania in April. In the run up to our camping trip to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone, we did a quick weekend trip to figure out what we were missing. We split a foam pad between us for the evening (one not designed for camping) and it was a pretty awful night of sleep. We quickly realized the error of our ways.

The Klymit Static V is a compact, light and affordable inflatable sleeping pad for backpacking and camping. It has served us well. They have been pretty durable for us with no major leaks over twenty days of use in the past two years. They roll up into a compact bundle ideal for backpacking. They are priced at right around $50 on Amazon and have a more than 4 star rating after 2,000+ customer reviews. We would definitely recommend them to anyone looking for an entry level sleeping pad.

The problems with the Static V are that it isn’t one of the thickest or most insulated pads on the market. When I’m tired, I don’t have any problem falling asleep on it. But if I wake up during the middle of the night, it can be a little difficult to fall back to sleep.

REI Kingdom Cot 3

These will remind you of the lounging chairs at a pool with the addition of a cushion that you typically find on outdoor furniture. The reason we fell in love with the Kingdom Cot 3, though, is the comfort. We’re both eager to put these out in a campground and try them for a night. We have high expectations.

On first glance, the problem with the Kingdom Cot 3 is its bulk. When you first try to put the boxes in your car, you’ll understand what we are talking about here. We are hoping that they take up less space when they are removed from the box and that there is still plenty of room in our SUV for the rest of our gear. There’s also no way that they are going to fit side-by-side in a standard two person tent, or even our two-plus. We’re planning on picking up an inexpensive tent that will fit them when we are doing car camping.

Exped Megamat Duo 10

We have been thinking about a camping air mattress for couples for some time now. When you are sleeping on two individual sleeping pads on the ground, it is hard to snuggle. The pads separate and at least one person usually ends up lying on the ground instead of on the cushions. We are hoping the Megamat Duo fixes this problem for us.

The Megamat is one of the thickest camping mattresses on the market and is designed to lie completely flat. The Duo completely fill a wide 2-person tent and is the length/width of a queen mattress. We have heard it compared to sleeping on your mattress at home.

This is definitely for car camping. Exped makes another two-person sleeping pad, the Synmat Duo, which is more appropriate for backpacking. If you are looking to compare the Megamat Duo to another mattress, we have heard it is best compared to the Thermarest DreamTime, another luxury mattress on the market.

The one thing that we have already noticed about the Megamat Duo is that it is not a one person mattress. If you are lying on it by yourself, you tend to sink to the ground. The weight of a second person helps to maintain the air underneath you rather than surrounding you.

Therm-a-Rest NeoAir XLite

This pad is one of the lightest on the market and has gotten rave reviews in the past from other websites. It is shaped like a mummy to conform to your body, and is known for its thickness and comfort at an extremely light weight. We bought the women’s version though, so it is shorter than some of the other sleeping pads we are testing. But we can still see why it garners great reviews. Based on our preliminary testing of this pad, I would have no hesitancy in recommending this one for anyone that wants a mummy pad or a similar Thermarest rectangular pad (like the NeoAir Trekker).

Big Agnes Q Core SLX

This is a rectangular sleeping pad and one of the thickest inflatables on the market. The 25L is a great size for a big person and I had high hopes that it would be my favorite until I realized that it was leaking air due to a hole somewhere. We will have to patch it up or send it back to the company for repair. There was a repair kit with our purchase, so we will have to try it at home first. The instructions say to submerge it in a bathtub or swimming pool. Alternatively, Big Agnes will attempt to repair it for a fee. According to their website, they do not warranty items bought at the REI Garage Sale. Update: We have found and patched the hole!

Thermarest ProLite Plus

The Prolite Plus is a self-inflating pad with memory foam that is popular for thru hiking due to its durable nature and low cost. This is the smallest mummy pad that we are testing (in terms of area) and we saw many that had been returned to REI because of the size/fit. We will let you know how it compares to the Klymit and some of the higher priced pads we are testing.

Sea to Summit Comfort Plus

Our first test of this pad hasn’t impressed us. We think that at this price point the NeoAir and the Big Agnes are more comfortable options. We will let you know if our opinion changes next year as we try it out more.

Nemo Tensor

This sleeping pad ranks similarly to the Big Agnes Q Core SLX in our initial comfort testing. We will let you know which one we prefer after we have had a chance to try them both out.

Conclusion

It is still far too early to say which one is our favorite. We are going to be sleeping on these air pads a lot more over the next year in order to determine which one is our favorite. We have a good range of styles and manufacturers represented to try. We will be sure to link to our reviews here.

We did two days of cave tours at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky last weekend. We were there because Mammoth Cave is the longest cave system in the world with more than 400 miles of explored caves below the surface. It became a national park in the 1940s but has been on the nation’s radar for much longer. There have been cave tours here for just over 200 years. Neither one of us had been in a cave before, so we were excited to get below ground and check it out.

We drove down to Mammoth Cave from Cincinnati. We were there for the Oktoberfest, the largest in the United States, in mid-September. Cave City, KY is roughly 2.5 hours southwest of Cincinnati, making it a great weekend or three day weekend trip south for much of the Midwest. Monday was a long drive back to Philadelphia, but we completed four cave tours in under 48 hours and had a blast.

We started planning this trip about a month ago, and locked in our tour times and campsite just over two weeks ahead of departing. It was the fall, so we weren’t too worried about campsite reservations. There were a lot of people here in the campground Saturday night, so it was a good thing that we did make reservations. On Sunday night, there were only a handful of people camping, so we got a great photo of our campsite in its natural state on Monday morning:

The only tour that was completely booked at the time we made reservations was the Wild Cave tour. Since it is only offered once a day on the weekend (and not during the week), be sure to book it very early if you have your heart set on it.

We ended up booking four tours ahead of schedule. On Sunday, we did the 8:45 am Gothic Avenue tour, the 11:45 am Great Onyx tour, and the 3:15 pm Historic tour. The tours in the middle of the day booked up by the time we arrived (the Onyx tour was sold out, for example), so if you have your heart set on a certain schedule, better book early. In the summer, I would definitely recommend reservations.

Three tours and a trip down the River Styx trail on Sunday definitely wore us out, but we wouldn’t have changed our schedule a bit.

(the Gothic Avenue tour and the Historic tour both enter through the historic cave entrance pictured above)

On Monday, we did the Grand Avenue tour. It is a four hour tour that leaves at 9:45 AM on the weekdays in the fall. The combination of the four tours let us cover almost every inch of cave available to us at the time.

The tours were very well designed and each guide was obviously passionate about the cave. The Gothic Avenue tour lets you see see some of the amazing architecture and the scrawled names of past visitors on the walls/ceiling. The Historic tour takes you across a lot of historic areas, including the Bottomless Pit, the River Styx Hall, Fat Man’s Misery and the Mammoth Dome Tower. The Onyx tour takes you by bus to a different entrance and lets you see one of the competitor caves that remains more natural (the operator, Miss Lucy, didn’t allow any graffiti). The Grand Avenue tour traverses four miles underground, the longest tour other than the Wild Cave Tour. The section of cave at the end (the Frozen Niagara section) is remarkable and was the perfect end to our trip through Mammoth Cave.

(handwriting on the ceiling from past visitors seen on the Gothic Avenue tour dates back to the early 1800s)

We’re putting together more detailed descriptions of each component to our trip, but here are a few tips and things of note for people planning their own trip:

Tickets are picked up from the Visitor Center, but many of the tours leave from the Rotunda Room at the Lodge, or the shelters between the Visitor’s Center and the Lodge. Make sure you pick up your tickets early so that you have time to walk between the Visitor Center and the Lodge. The bridge between the two is under construction in fall 2017, making it a nontrivial walk between the two locations. We had a moment of panic, but ended up making it in plenty of time.

Any tours leaving from the Historic entrance (including the Gothic Avenue and Historic tours) involve a fairly steep upward climb on the return trip to get back to the Lodge. This is nicely broken up and the second half is at your own pace, but you should definitely be aware of it as you are making reservations.

You have to walk on bio-security mats after exiting the caves. This is to minimize the risk of spreading white nose syndrome, a disease that impacts hibernating bats. Mammoth has already lost a significant percentage of its bat population to the disease, so they are trying to keep it from spreading to other caves. These mats are safe and simple to use, as they are a solution of Woolite laundry detergent and water, and just serve to rinse spores off the bottoms of your shoes. We did manage to see two bats across our roughly eight miles in the caves.

If you look closely at the tour information, you will find that portions of the Gothic Avenue tour are duplicated by the Historic tour. We saw this and decided that we were doing both anyway. It was the right call. The only part of duplication is really the entrance and initial hallway. The Gothic Avenue tour is the first of the day, so you open up the cave and turn all of the lights on. We really enjoyed the leisurely pace of the Gothic Avenue tour and it is an entirely different experience – plus our ranger led the first half of the tour as an 19th century tour guide and the second half as himself, giving a range of interesting information.

The River Styx exits the cave only a half mile from the Historic entrance (photo above). At one time, they did boat trips down the river in the cave. Due to the environmental impact, these were stopped some time ago. We heard that they occasionally still do tours to the edge of the river when the conditions are right, but it can otherwise be some of the thickest mud you will ever see to get down there (according to a guide). Instead, you can reach the exit from the cave via a trail from the Historic cave entrance. However, it is at a much lower elevation than the entrance to the cave. We walked down there after our last tour on Sunday. I would definitely not go down there before a cave tour because you may not make it back in time. It’s a decent uphill for the East Coast.

For most tours, the only things that you should bring are water, a camera and a fleece sweatshirt. If you don’t wear long pants, you may get cold. Tennis shoes work fine – just don’t wear flip flops! There are sections of both wet cave and dry cave on various tours, plus steps and rock to walk on, so we want everyone to be safe.

Additionally, they no longer serve lunch at the Snowball Room during the Grand Avenue tour. We were really excited and extended our trip because we thought that would be really cool. But we found out just a few days before that they had cancelled lunch service a few years back due to insufficient resources and lack of demand, plus the impact of that program on the caves. We still really enjoyed the tour though. The beginning is a deep stair descent into the cave which really sets the mood, and the finish at the Frozen Niagara is spectacular.

(none of our photos really did it justice)

Please don’t be the annoying person on your tour. Don’t forget to turn the flash off on your camera, avoid taking a picture every five seconds while walking even after realizing your photos are blurry (the rangers’ safety talk does remind you to stop to take all pictures, so you don’t trip or fall), or shine the light on your cell phone around everywhere to see. It only takes a handful of annoying people to make a tour less pleasant.

One last note: be sure to check the route your GPS is taking you to the park. If you are approaching from the north or west, there is a possibility that it decides to take you over a ferry. This would be a problem if you are hoping to make a certain tour time, or in our case racing to pitch the tent before dark. Our GPS sent us through Cave City off I-65 (the correct route), so we were good.

(one of the fawns that we saw)

We had a great 48 hours in Mammoth Cave National Park. If we stayed in the park longer, we definitely would have explored more above surface. We would have taken the ferry, rented a canoe to float down the river, done some fishing, plenty of hiking and spent a lot more time watching the wildlife (we did manage to see plenty of deer and hear two owls without even trying). It is a bit of a drive for us, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re back in the next year or two.

We made our first visit to Everglades National Park this June with a brief stop over there on our way between Orlando and Key West. Since we were only planning to be in the Miami area for a few hours, we decided to forego nearby Biscayne Bay and concentrate on seeing as much of the Everglades as we could in our limited time frame. We got in the area around 11 AM and were out of the park by 5:30 PM, so it was a true whirlwind visit for a park as large as Everglades.

After doing a lot of research, we decided that we couldn’t pass up the Shark Valley tram tour. The Shark Valley Visitor Center is located near the northern boundary of the Everglades and is about an hour by car away from the southern entrance. The guided tour turned out to be a great choice as we saw a great variety of birds and several alligators.

We stopped at Robert is Here near the southern entrance to the national park. As my name is the same as the owners, it was appropriate to get a few pictures there. We also thought some of their delicious milkshakes were necessary to help beat the heat. We ended up getting a Strawberry Banana and one of their special concoctions with mango, key lime and coconut.

After consuming the shakes, we proceeded to the Anhinga Trail. This is one of the best places to photograph birds and alligators in the park. The anhingas hid from us, but we did manage to get some great photos of an alligator along the boardwalk.

After leaving Anhinga, we saw some smoke from a prescribed fire that the park service was conducting that day. The prescribed burns help manage exotic vegetation, reduce hazardous fuels, and prevent large uncontrolled wildfires. It didn’t impact our plans at all, but it did mean that a small area of the park was closed to visitors. There were rangers patrolling the road area – no doubt to stop cars if the fire somehow approached the road.

The Pa-Hay-Okee Overlook was our final stop in the park. It was an easy and short walk up the boardwalk to the overlook platform. We really enjoyed watching the birds in the distance. You can see some more of our pictures of the Pa-Hay-Okee trail using the link below.

Unfortunately, we ran out of time before we got down to Flamingo. We will just have to come back in the winter (the busy season) when it is fully operational.

We’ve kept this post short as we wrote separately about our experiences with the Shark Valley tram tour, the Anhinga Trail, and the PaHayOkee Overlook. Check them out!

President Obama designated two national monuments at the end of 2016, protecting an additional 1.35 million acres of federal land in Utah and Nevada.  The new national monuments are Bears Ears National Monument and Gold Butte National Monument.

Bears Ears

Bears Ears Buttes is located in southeastern Utah.  The national monument designation was originally proposed for this land back in 1936 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Interior Secretary.  The park has deep sandstone canyons, desert mesas and meadow mountaintops.  It is named for twin buttes that are visible from every direction in southeastern Utah.  The land has been occupied by Native American tribes for hundreds of generations, leaving rock art, artifacts, ceremonial sites and ancient cliff dwellings of cultural and archaeological importance.  The area contains one of the best continuous rock records of the Triassic-Jurassic transition, providing insight into the transition from dinosaurs to mammals.

The park is remote.  It is one of the least roaded areas in the contiguous United States.  The night sky is absolutely black and the silence is deafening, according to the proclamation designating it as Bears Ears National Monument.

Gold Butte

Gold Butte National Monument is located northeast of Lake Mead.  Senator Harry Reid called the 300,000 acres here “quintessential Nevada.”  It has sweeping desert vistas, pastel sandstone formations and ancient rock art.  The designation ensures there is a corridor protecting wildlife from Lake Mead-National Recreation Area to the Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument.  The Mojave Desert tortoise, mountain lions and bighorn sheep, as well as many other plants and animals, all live in this area.  Further, there is a long history of Native Americans, ranching and mining in the area.  The area holds promise both for archaeological and paleontological research.

We look forward to visiting the area soon and enjoying these new national monuments.  Thank you President Obama for creating them even though they were somewhat controversial!

Photo Credit: Top (Valley of the Gods in Bears Ears, Bottom.(Devil’s FIre in Gold Butte)

On our way to celebrate the holidays in Michigan, we stopped at Cuyahoga Valley National Park.  We didn’t even know there was a national park in Ohio until a few months ago.  And it turns out we had already passed through it many times without realizing it!  If you have ever driven the Ohio Turnpike through Cleveland, you’ve probably driven past this park without realizing it.  The turnpike actually goes over the middle of Cuyahoga Valley.

It doesn’t have the name recognition of some of the bigger parks, but 2.2 million people annually visit this gem just outside Cleveland.  The area is chock full of history, space for outdoor activities and waterfalls.  Running through the area that became the park was the Ohio & Erie Canal.  The canal’s tow path would be turned into a 20+ mile trail for running, biking and snowshoeing (in the winter).

We stopped, in part, because it was the perfect resting point after a late start for our ten-hour journey.  Given its proximity to Cleveland and Akron-Canton, there were plenty of lodging options within a few miles of the turnpike.  We stayed at the Baymont Inn off the Ohio Turnpike, where the staff was friendly, the room was clean, the bed was comfortable, and the price was reasonable.  Our room with a king bed, desk, mini-fridge and microwave was about $80 with tax.  There was a pool and free continental breakfast from 6-9 AM, which were all of the amenities we really needed given our 1 AM arrival and morning departure.

With rain overnight and snow still on the grass, we slept in and set out for the park at about 8:30 am.  After a bit of driving around to orient ourselves, we ended up at Brandywine Falls.  Brandywine Falls is the second highest waterfall in the state of Ohio.  The handicap accessible trail to the falls had been cleared of snow but there was still a number of spots of ice and slush.

Although the trail starts out heading away from the road, it soon cuts back toward the valley and back towards the road (where the falls is located along the trail).  From the path to the falls, you can soon see the spectacular river running through the valley.

Before reaching the falls, the path splits to the left with stairs down to a lower viewing area.  We weren’t able to get pictures from there because it was closed due to the ice and snow, but we would highly recommend it when open.  We could see the lower platform viewing area from the upper platform and the view looked fantastic.  On the upper path, it is a short and easy walk to the falls.

For our visit, the base of the falls was beautifully covered with snow/ice.  The river was also roaring due to the combination of melting snow from the prior day and rain overnight.  We could hear the roar of the falls and the river well before we saw it.

We took a few selfies and admired the beauty of the gorge and waterfall.  We also wondered how many people had passed through this area without even knowing what lay a short adventure into the woods.

There is a 1.4 mile path around the area for those looking to take in more of the area.

The visitor center at Boston Store opens at 9:30 AM.  Since it was Christmas Eve, there wasn’t much traffic and we had a long conversation with the park ranger about the history of the park.  There is an 18 minute video about the area’s history produced by the park service which is played on demand.  There is also a series of exhibits explaining the area’s boat building past.

We did donate a few dollars at the visitor center to help with conservancy efforts in the park, but there was no entrance fee for the park in part due to its connectedness with the surrounding area.  Traveling by car through the park didn’t involve the isolation from normal life that we saw in Yellowstone – there were homes at various points as we travelled on the periphery of the park.  But even though we were “near civilization”, there are very few roads cutting through the park compared to the development of most cities.

We drove south and west for about ten minutes to get to the other side of the park and pick up the turnpike to continue our journey to Michigan.  It was definitely our shortest trip to a national park so far, but we’re excited to come back to take pictures in the covered bridge, walk the towpath, take the scenic railroad and view the falls surrounded by autumn colors (October is the best time for foliage in the park).

We stopped an hour short of Grand Teton National Park the night before we entered the park since the sun was setting on our drive from Rocky Mountain National Park. We spent the night camping at the Dubois/Wind River KOA in Dubois, Wyoming since we didn’t have a campground reservation in the park and we weren’t especially eager to press our luck looking for a place to spend the night in the dark.

On the remaining drive, we passed through Bridger-Teton National Forest and the mountains that make up the Continental Divide to the east of the park. Once we cleared those mountains, we entered the park to an an impressive view of the Grand Teton range.

We entered the park at Moran Entrance on the east side of the park. We made our way to the Jenny Lake Campground to ensure that we got a spot, stopping only at Oxbow Bend and Jackson Lake Dam in order to take some photos (we couldn’t resist since the scenery was so beautiful).

We ended up staying at Jenny Lake Campground, which is a first-come first-served campground inside the national park that borders Jenny Lake. We searched the available campsites for the best view, and several times we abandoned an earlier selection for a better view that we found later. We ultimately went with site #48. We didn’t get to enjoy it as much as we would like, since several days were rainy or overcast. But we would choose it again in a heartbeat if we had the option.

Jenny Lake is a 1,191 acre lake to the south of Jackson Lake. It was formed approximately 12,000 years ago by glaciers. It is a focal area of the park with some of the tallest peaks of the Teton Range there, as well as scenic boat rides and hiking trails.

(View of stream below Jenny Lake and mountain)

After we set up our tent, we went down to the visitor center and walked around the marina. A park ranger on the horse bridge pointed out a bald eagle flying over the lake.

We just couldn’t get enough of the mountain range, so we headed north to see the mountains from the resorts across Jackson Lake. We stopped at Signal Mountain Lodge to check into the guided fishing tours and buy our fishing licenses. Then we headed to Jackson Lake Lodge, which has a picturesque view of the mountains from the second floor of the lodge/great room. Even though we had plenty of other items on our agenda for the day, we spent a few minutes out on the porch staring at the beauty before us.

We left the park and headed south on 89, which runs parallel to the mountains towards Jackson. Along the route we found the Cunningham Cabin Historic Site, where the oldest historic building in the park stands. J Pierce Cunningham, initially opposed to the creation of the park, later saw the value in preserving the area. Along with his mother, Cunningham began a petition signed by all 97 ranchers in the area to sell their land to John D Rockefeller Jr to be donated to the federal government for the creation of the national park.

Next we stopped at the Snake River Overlook, the place where Ansel Adams took his famous 1942 photo of the Snake River and the Grand Tetons. We snapped a few photos ourselves, although the terrain looks a little different than it did back then!

We arrived at Schwabacher Landing in the early afternoon. Schwabacher Landing is an access area to the Snake River that is east of the Grand Tetons. It is a popular spot for professional photographers in the early morning because the water there provides a beautiful reflection of the mountains in the photos during the sunrise. The large beaver dam and resulting ponds are also a popular place to see moose. It is located four miles north of Moose on US-191, off a small dirt road to the west. Unfortunately, the raindrops started shortly after we got there, so we didn’t stay long. We will have to get there earlier next time.

After we finished at Schwabacher Landing, we drove down the Mormon Row Historic District on our way to Jackson. It was still pretty overcast, so our pictures don’t match the beautiful photographs that people normally take from this area with the barns in the foreground and the mountains in the background.

On our way to Jackson, we took 89 past the National Elk Refuge. In the fall and winter, it is a popular area to observe the majestic herds that inhabit the area. We spent the evening in Jackson, Wyoming. It is a resort town popular for world-class skiing, abundant wildlife, outdoor recreation and a gateway to Grand Teton National Park. It is located in Jackson Hole, which is a 48 mile long valley that is typically six to eight miles wide. We walked around the downtown area a bit and had a beer flight plus meal at Snake River Brewing. We definitely regretted that we did not have more time to explore this town.

The next morning began with a little bit of rain, but it eased slightly so that we could make breakfast. This was our day to go fishing, and we chose to start in the Snake River below the Jackson Lake Dam due to the weather. After a little rain, it turned into a beautiful morning. We didn’t catch any fish, but we agreed that it was probably the prettiest location that either one of us has ever gone fishing.

(You will just have to picture the moving clouds revealing the mountains and the opposite shoreline of the Snake River lined with evergreens)

We did lunch at String Lake, which is right above Jenny Lake. There were picnic tables overlooking the lake, and we watched paddle-boarders and kayaks on the water while we ate. When we finished, we grabbed our gear and started towards the trailhead. Unfortunately, we only had time to do a short hike before we had to turn back due to the oncoming rain. We did manage to see an osprey perched over the lake and admire the areas rejuvenation after a fire in 1999.

We decided the rain was a good opportunity to change locations, so we headed south toward Moose-Wilson Road. We didn’t see any moose, but we did have a nice hike through the Laurence S Rockefeller Preserve. Once owned by the Rockefellers, we remarked throughout our time on the property how amazing it must be to live like a Rockefeller. The one mile hike up to Phelps Lake was beautiful, beginning with paths and bridges leading to waterfalls and rapids, before ending in a beautiful subalpine lake. We turned back when we started to worry about darkness, but the 20 minute hike up through the property was something that we would both do again.

Since we spent the previous evening in town, we drove north from the preserve to Signal Mountain Summit. It is supposed to be one of the best places to watch the sunset in the park. The sunset disappointed, however, because we learned when we got to the top that we should have stopped along the way because the end of the road faces east towards the valley rather than west towards the mountains and sunset. When we headed back down, the clouds and trees didn’t cooperate with our search for a truly spectacular sunset. However, we did find a cell phone tower at the top of the mountain. We had spotty cell phone reception throughout the park and this was the one place that we both had multiple bars.

When we got back to our tent at Jenny Lake, we were in for another rainy evening. We were getting used to the afternoon and evening storms, so the rain out of our dinner plans only had a mild impact on our mood. We knew that we would be packing up early in the morning to make the trip north to Yellowstone. And we were very excited to get to see this gem of the national park system.