Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Twelve Mile Circle

  • 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…

  • Rockland Breakwater Light

    Rockland Harbor, Maine (August 2009) A breakwater stretches along the mouth of Rockland Harbor providing refuge from storms and pounding surf. A lighthouse rests atop that long wall of rock assuring that no harm comes to mariners as they negotiate their way into the harbor. It’s easy to find the lighthouse. Visitors merely need to…

  • Raspberry Island

    Apostle Islands National Lakeshore; Bayfield County, Wisconsin (August 2007) Mariners navigated through the Apostle Islands with the Raspberry Island Light as their companion since its 1863 activation. This “Showplace of the Apostles” took its present form in 1906 when the U.S. Lighthouse Service expanded the keeper’s quarters to accommodate additional workers to operate a new…

  • Presque Isle Lighthouse

    Presque Isle State Park; Erie, Pennsylvania (August 3, 2003) Pennsylvania doesn’t have very much coastline. It’s completely landlocked except for a scant 50-mile shore where a notch was taken from New York to provide it access to Lake Erie. A small peninsula along an otherwise smooth coastline juts into Lake Erie, and this is the…

Latest Comments

  1. The British flag continues to fly at Roche Harbor, a couple miles north of English Camp.

  3. Been there Once for a few years. In 76 &77. Ran cooperative store. Even though it was very isolated It…

  4. As an Alaskan I always wondered why Interstates were a big deal. From my point of view a road went…