Category: Terrain
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Exploring the Mitten, Part 3 (Gladwin)
Michigan contained a lot of square-shaped counties within the Mitten. Surveyors laid them down neatly like that for settlers in the mid 19th Century. Gladwin County fit the same basic definition, with rolling farmland eventually replacing much of the forest (map). Not much differentiated it from surrounding counties although it had some nice lakes. We…
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Exploring the Mitten, Part 2 (Two Great Lakes)
The upper tier of the mitten sits between two of the Great Lakes: Huron and Michigan. That means the farthest someone needs to travel to hit an immense body of water is maybe 75 miles (120 kilometres). Generally, unless situated directly atop the midpoint, a given location will sit even closer than that to at…
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Australia’s Blue Mountains
The “Three Sisters” Rock Formation (October 1997) The Great Western Highway left Sydney and headed up through the Blue Mountains. Echo Point laid perhaps an hour and a half from Sydney near the town of Katoomba. This offered excellent views of the Blue Mountains and the “Three Sisters” rock formation (map). Every tourist who travels…
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Jenolan Caves
Australia’s Blue Mountains (October 1997) We pushed further into the Blue Mountains to the Jenolan Caves complex (map). The park offered several cavern options and we chose an “adventure” tour. I was a little skeptical. I figured it couldn’t really be all that adventurous. Boy, was I wrong. We both considered this activity one of…
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Atop Mt. Coot-tha
Atop the Summit (October 1997) My wife and I rented a car, and drove the short distance from Brisbane to Mt. Coot-tha. An overlook provided excellent views of Brisbane. It also offered a convenient place to grab a cup of coffee. Later we drove out further to Mt. Nebo, then down through the Samford Valley,…
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Noosa National Park
Noosa Heads, Queensland, Australia (1997) We drove 160 km north of Brisbane to Noosa Heads on the Sunshine Coast. This town served as a gateway to the spectacular Noosa National Park with its rugged shoreline and abundant native Australian wildlife (map). Hastings Street provided access to the popular Headlands section of the park. We found…
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Glass House Mountains
Sunshine Coast, Queensland (October 1997) The Glass House Mountains became an easy detour on our drive back to Brisbane from Noosa Heads. Gently rolling plains surrounded the mountains which appeared to poke up randomly from the terrain. It’s not really a mountain range, but several volcanic plugs with the surrounding land eroded away. Our friend…
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Fossil Butte National Monument
Outside of Kemmerer, Wyoming, USA (July 2011) Fossil Butte National Monument may be one of the more obscure National Park Service properties but it’s worth a visit if you happen to be traveling through southwestern Wyoming. It’s particularly convenient to people driving out of Salt Lake City, Utah towards the east along Interstate 80. At…
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Apostle Islands / Bayfield Peninsula Index
Index of Pages from the Visit to Wisconsin’s Apostle Islands (2007) Few areas can rival the natural beauty of the Apostle Island and the Bayfield Peninsula. The state of Wisconsin borders Lake Superior only briefly but this mighty wedge takes full advantage of its limited coastline. The islands are a national treasure full of rocky…
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Visiting the City of Bayfield
Bayfield, Wisconsin, USA (August 2007) Bayfield (map), the Apostle Islands gateway, owes its identity to Admiral Henry Wolsey Bayfield. He charted much of the western Great Lakes in the 1820’s as a Royal Navy Surveyor. That included Chequamegon Bay and areas surrounding present-day Bayfield and Madeline Island. When the Bayfield Land Company platted their town…