June Road Trip

In mid-June, I set off on a four-day road trip, mostly through Western Illinois.  My first stop was Starved Rock State Park, an hour or two southwest of Chicago. I almost stopped there on my drive back from Colorado, but opted for the I&M Canal bike ride instead.  My favorite spot in the park was Eagle Cliff overlook, an aptly named promontory that feels like a human scale aerie a couple hundred feet above the river.

On the second day, I focused on an the area in the vicinity of Dixon, Illinois, the town were Ronald Reagan grew up.  In addition to visiting his boyhood home and, in nearby Tampico, his actual birthplace, I did some hiking at Mississippi Palisades State Park and McCure Sand Prairie Preserve.  I also stopped at the John Deere Historic Park in Grand De Tour. The park is built on the homestead where John Deere perfected his famous plow and manufactured them for many years.

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Most of my stops on my third day related to Abraham Lincoln: New Salem Historic Park, where he operated a couple stores before devoting himself to law; his tomb in Springfield; and a state park commemorating one of the first Lincoln family farms in Illinois. At my most notable, non-Lincoln-related stop, Nauvoo Historic Park, I rode in an ox cart.  This city was the Mormon's last settlement before Salt Lake City.  The LDS church runs the park, with church members acting as historical interpreters from the era.

On my last day, I crossed the Indiana stateline and spent most of the day in Turkey Run State Park.  It was my third visit to this park.  It seems I go there about once every dozen or so years: once as a kid with my family, one summer during my college years, and this most recent stop.  The park holds a lot of memories for me.  I checked out the campground where we camped, but hardly recognized it; watched a float party from the bouncy suspension bridge; climbed up and down the ladders in Bear Hollow and crossed the Sugar Creek via the 1840s covered bridge. Before driving north to Niles, I took a short hike in nearby, much-less-crowded Shades State Park.

To save money, I camped out all three nights, the first two nights at campgrounds right on the Mississippi and the third at a jewel of a state park tucked among the vast agricultural lands of central Illinois. I regret not stopping to watch a Minor League ball game in Quad Cities.  The stadium which is beautifully situated right along the Mississippi River looked pretty full and I wasn't sure yet were I'd be able to camp.

Statistics
Miles: 1251 (1,225.46 driving, 25.4 hiking, 0.2 oxcart)
Days: 4
States: 5
Total Counties: 54
New Counties: 30
Pictures Taken: 397
Pictures Archived: 70
Fuel: 37.39 gallons
MPG: 32.8
Cost: $262.43 

Eagle Cliff Overlook
Starved Rock State Park

Sentinel Rock Overlook
Mississippi Palisades State Park

Reagan Boyhood Home & Park
Dixon, Illinois

McCure Sand Prairie Preserve

LDS Temple
Nauvoo, IL

Berry-Lincoln Store
New Salem Historic Park

Rock Hollow
Turkey Run State Park

Narrows Covered Bridge
Turkey Run State Park

Pilot Knob

By shear coincidence, I camped last night in the shadow of Iowa's second highest point.  I didn't plan follow my visit to the state highest point with one to its junior, but as the day came to an end, Pilot Knob State Park was the logical place to stop.

In the morning I hiked up to the Knob.  It may be 250 feet shorter than Hawkeye Point, but the setting is more befitting a highpoint.  The CCC constructed an three-storey observation tower, which adds immensely to the already impressive view.

After coming down from the Knob.I extended my morning hike a couple of miles around a couple of the lakes tuckeeld in the hills of the park.

Ponca State Park

Last night, I camped in Ponca State Park on the Nebraska side of the Missouri River a few miles upstream from Sioux City, Iowa.  I got an early start to my day thanks to a noisy turkey wandering through the campground.  In fact, I had broken camp and started hiking before the alarm on my phone started beeping.

I eyed two trails in the park for hiking in the morning, but one was hard to follow; the other, hard to even find.  I ended making my own way along the shore of the river.  I saw plenty of birds including pelicans, turkey vultures and the ubiquitous Canada goose.  I had to engineer my own bridge to cross a small channel separating a quasi-island from the shore.  It wasn't much but kept my feet dry.

When I finished hiking, I drove to Three State Overlook, the best view in the park.  Below the observation deck, the Missouri flows through one of two unrestrained sections.  In addition to Nebraska, South Dakota & Iowa are visible from the overlook.  I also stopped in the new Missouri River Museum on the park grounds to spend thirty minutes or so perusing the exhibits.

Nebraska Panhandle

Over the weekend, I headed out of town and in to the plains. Originally, I planned to see three sights (Pawnee Buttes, Panorama Point and Carhenge) in a day, but during last minute preparations decided to throw my camping gear in the car, which allowed me to extend my range a little further and see Fort Robinson in far northwest Nebraska, as well.

The Pawnee Buttes made a cameo appearance in James Michener's Centennial, the first novel of his that I read.  A bit out of the way, it took me three hours to drive there. Then, I spent about as long hiking around them including a climb part way up the eastern butte, but trying for the true top was out of the question.  Located not too far from the buttes, Panorama Point is the highest point in the state of Nebraska.  It's the thirteenth highpoint that I've 'summited' behind Mauna Kea in Hawaii and Mount Washington in New Hampshire.  Like those, I drove to the top of this state highpoint.  From the point, you can see the tri-corner marker placed where Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming meet. After signing the Panorama Point summit post, I drove over to see it.

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From the tri-corner marker, I had a long drive to see Carhenge, a mock depiction of stonehenge using junk automobiles in place of monoliths.  I arrived shortly after sunset and had just enough light for a few pictures.  Two hours later, I pitched my tent in Fort Robinson State Park near Crawford, Nebraska.  It's the first time I used it since the Lonliest Road.  I had a similarly chilly, though not quite as uncomfortable, experience. In the morning, I checked out out the fort grounds.  Still off-season, none of the the buildings nor museums were open, but I was free to walk around and read the historical markers.  The army commissioned the fort during the Indian Wars of the late Nineteenth Century and used it until the end of World War II, during the later conflict, as a POW camp.

I drove back toward Denver through the western fringes of the Nebraska Sandhills, my second trip through the strangely scenic region.  I hoped to visit Ash Hollow State Historic Park, in its day an important way station on the Oregon Trail, but the park was closed for the season. I couldn't even access the park trails.  There weren't any other attractions in the area and the day was almost over so I drove to Ogallala and had lunch at Runza, a Nebraska institution, before finishing the drive back to Denver.

Statistics
Miles: 947.1 (941.6 driving, 5.5 hiking)
Days: 2
States: 3
Total Counties: 23
New Counties: 11

Highest Elevation: 5,610 feet (Lakewood, CO)
Lowest Elevation: 3,225 feet (Ruza, Ogallala, NE)
Pictures Taken: 127
Pictures Archived: 42
Fuel: 26.853 gallons
MPG: 35.1
Cost: $147.85

Pawnee Buttes

West Pawnee Butte & Pawnee Grasslands

Panorama Point

CO/NE/WY Tri-State Marker
(Panorama Point in the background)

Carhenge

Fort Robinson

Smiley Canyon Overlook

Coal Train Traveling though Nebraska Sandhills

Hickison Petroglyphs Campground

Last night, I found my favorite kind of campground, a free one, in which to spend the night.  I had planned to drive to Eureka to find a motel until I saw the sign for a campground.  I even arrived with some daylight left in which to set up the tent.  It was a really lovely spot, surrounded by sage & pinyon pines.  High on a hill looking down in to the valley I could see in the distance the headlights from cars appraoching on the highway.  They were so far away, they didn't seem to be moving at all.

With camp set up, I hiked the short trail around some more petroglyphs.  It was too dark to see the prehistoric artwork, but the full moon cast enough light to hike through the shrub forest without a flashlight.

It got really cold last night.  It was 32 degree when I woke up at 6:30.  I wasn't uncomfortable, but was for the first time aware of the cold.  This morning, I retraced my steps around the petroglyph loop.  The ones from two days ago were more impressive.

Indian Grinding Rock

Last night, I camped at Indian Grinding Rock State Park in the Western Sierras.  This morning, I woke up at sunrise to explore the park.  Miwok Indians used an outcropping of rock to pound acorns into to flour.  Their actions left behind over 1,000 mortar holes in the rock.  In addition to looking if these Chaw'se, as the Miwoks called them, I walked a short interpretive trail through the forest.

Big Sur

North of Hearst Castle, Big Sur territory starts in earnest.  I didn't have a lot of time left in the day.  The only notable site I had time to enjoy was a collection of Elephant Seals on a beach visible from a pull off the highway.  

After a couple of tries, I found a camp site part way up the coast, the first time I had to search multiple campgrounds for a place to stay.   It rained most of the night.   Today, I spent the first half of the day completing the drive.  I stopped at a couple of state parks and a handful of scenic views along the 5 hour drive.   

Lake Hiddenwood

I'm spending the night in South Dakota's Lake Hiddenwood State Park.  I didn't make any more planned stops after crossing that one version of the continental divide, but I did see some pretty cool by-the-side-of-the-road sights.  The best was a very unusual sunset while going west on US-12, the same highway I started the trip on.

This campground is pretty remote so I not going to bother to try to upload pictures tonight, but will try to post a few tomorrow.

Alexander Ramsey

The spelling is a little different, but have relatives the share their name with a park in Redwood Falls, Minnesota, the largest municipal park in the state.  My grandfather's first & middle name was Alexander Ramsay.  He was himself named after, I believe, his mother's father.

I had hoped to drive all the way across Minnesota today or at least get a little farther, but this park deserved investigation.  When I found out they had tent camp sites, I decided to pitch mine here.  It is the first time since my first night out of Denali in Alaska.  It promises to be the nicest yet.  The site is well within earshot of the Redwood River.  I'm the only tent camper; there are as few RVs in an adjacent part of the campground. Goodnight.