Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Twelve Mile Circle

  • Perseverance Trail

    City and Burough of Juneau, Alaska, USA (August 1995) Ebner Falls Juneau has multiple hiking opportunities. The Perseverance Trail (map) is perhaps one of the most accessible. The trailhead is close to downtown where Basin Road ends. It was a path once used by Native Americans for hunting, gathering and fishing. It also became one…

  • Caldeira Velha

    São Miguel, The Azores (Açores), Portugal (March 2001) Caldeira Velha clings precariously halfway down the volcanic mountain that forms Lagoa do Fogo in São Miguel’s middle interior (map). One of the amazing features of the caldera is a naturally heated swimming pool built beneath a gentle waterfall. The water’s rich mineral content stained the incline…

  • Waterfalls of the Finger Lakes

    New York (September 2006) Taughannock Falls The Taughannock Falls Cascade from High Above Taughannock Falls State Park lies on both sides of Route 89, eight miles north of Ithaca (map). The eastern side of the park flanks Cayuga Lake, and includes a boat launch, a playground and a sports field. The lake serves as a…

  • Blue Mountains Waterfalls

    New South Wales, Australia (1997) We rode the Great Western Highway out from Sydney for about two hours until arriving at Katoomba, high in the Blue Mountains. Along the way we stopped at a roadside attraction known as Scenic World, which has managed to convert an abandoned coal mine into a stop for enjoying the…

  • Inner Banks, Day 2

    We spent the first day getting down to our base at Elizabeth City, North Carolina.  That set us up well for Day Two.  Now we could focus squarely on capturing some unvisited counties.  I decided to travel counter-clockwise (or anti-clockwise for the international 12MC audience).  This map shows the actual coordinates I used to guide…

  • Inner Banks, Day 1

    I set my sights on a doughnut hole of unvisited counties in northeastern North Carolina.  I’d left them untouched until now.  No interstate highways passed through them.  The didn’t fall on a direct path coming home from the beach.  They simply sat there as empty white space on my County Counting map.  Seven of them,…

  • Maine Lighthouse Museum

    Rockland, Maine (August 2009) The Maine Lighthouse Museum occupies prime space along the waterfront in the City of Rockland, sharing a building with the Penobscot Bay Regional Chamber of Commerce Information Center and the police department (map). It is the largest, most impressive collection of lighthouse and lifesaving paraphernalia that I have ever seen. It…

  • Umpqua River Lighthouse & State Park

    Reedsport, Oregon, USA (May 1998) The Umpqua River Lighthouse seemed to be located surprisingly inland, further inland than any other lighthouse along the Oregon coast, about a half-mile from the shore it protects (map). An earlier lighthouse sat closer to the oceanfront on the other side of the river in 1857 but succumbed to fierce…

  • Tybee Island Light Station

    Tybee Island, Georgia, USA (July 2006) The Tybee Island light station sits a pleasant 18 mile drive east of Savannah (map). From there, visitors can overlook Georgia’s Atlantic coast and the mouth of the Savannah River. The beautifully restored facilities mirror their original condition. Admission requires a modest fee.  This allows visitors to climb all…

  • Sand Island and Eagle Island

    Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Bayfield County, Wisconsin (August 2007) We cruised past Sand Island and spied its famous lighthouse in the distance, a tan notch along a forested cliff. The Sand Island Lighthouse first shined in 1881 as a companion to the nearby Raspberry Island light. Ships heading east to Ashland couldn’t see Raspberry Island…

Latest Comments

  2. what is the total population that lives now in the land given back to Virginia should it be part of…

  5. Park ranger at Chalmette (New Orleans) Battlefield let me pull up the Union Jack 20 years ago. My dad would…