Lisa
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Strataca: Kansas Underground Salt Mine
My friend, Martie, has been suggesting a visit to this place for years. When I saw them on the Harvest Host map, I knew it was time to stop, do a tour, then spend the night in their parking lot. The Strataca Museum is located 650 feet below the city of Hutchinson, Kansas. This is…
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Petrified Forest National Park
As a kid, my family visited the Petrified Forest National Park. I remember seeing the “logs” laying on the ground in pieces, and that differed from the vertical tree trunks I had imagined. I also recall buying a piece of petrified wood in a gift shop, and now wonder what happened to it. Most of…
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Meteor Crater
Today we saw a different type of crater than yesterday’s Sunset Crater. The Meteor Crater is not volcanic, though that wasn’t proven until 1960. Meteor Crater science is relatively young. With the snow-covered San Francisco Peaks still visible in the west, people thought logically that this crater must also be part of a volcanic field.…
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Sunset Crater National Monument
Sunset Crater is the remains of a cinder cone volcano that erupted over 900 years ago. Every “mountain” in this area is really a volcano. This type of volcano typically erupts once and the cinders and ash pile up around the vent to form the cone. Sunset Crater was a primary vent among smaller ones,…
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Walnut Canyon National Monument
Walnut Canyon is home to cliff dwellings along the canyon walls and pit houses along the rim that were built by one clan of ancestral people to the Hopi tribe. This canyon was occupied from 1125 to 1250, at which point the people moved away and assimilated into Hopi culture. The Hopi have migration stories…
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Valley of Fire State Park — Day 2
Most of the hikes in the Valley of Fire are short, so this allows visitors to see several different rock formations in a day’s visit. There are two main roads in the park with several places to stop on each one. Some stops are photo opportunities and some are hikes as well. Fire Wave &…
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Valley of Fire State Park — Day 1
As we approached the gate of the Valley of Fire State Park, it was clear that this is a popular spot. We joined a line of about 20 cars at the west entrance, and the line stayed about that long as people were issued their passes. The scenery is amazing, beautiful, gorgeous, sublime, etc. Words…
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Death Valley National Park — Day 2
Sadly, there are high wind warnings starting later today, so we must bid goodbye to Death Valley sooner than we would like. We’ll definitely have to come back since we haven’t checked out the west side of the park yet, plus there are more hikes we want to tackle. On our way out, we made…
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Death Valley National Park — Day 1
Zabriskie Point Our first stop in the park was Zabriskie Point. This is a popular tourist stop and has a big wow factor. It was a good introduction to what the park had in store for us. Texas Springs Campground The next order of business was to find a place to camp for the night…
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Palm Springs
Our home base for the next two nights is a KOA outside of Palm Springs. It was very windy as we emerged from the mountains toward the city. Their is large area dense with wind turbines (one can pay to tour the wind turbines) so we assumed that winds are pretty common in the area.…