The Badlands National Park, South Dakota

 May 27, 2021

We arrived in Rapid City, SD today after spending three days in the Badlands. We've been there before, but there's always something new to experience. There's so much to share, so I'll break this into two posts. First will be sights along the Badlands Loop Road. This is the most popular way to see the park. The landscape changes at different times of the day. 

One morning, the birds woke me at 4:30, so I decided to get up (almost unheard of for me!) I walked from the campground along a portion of the Loop Road. These show different times of the day.

In the early morning

 

In the afternoon

In the evening

The Yellow Mounds are particularly colorful.

Wildlife is abundant. Bighorn sheep, bison, and prairie dogs, can easily be seen along the Loop Road.  On this visit, the sheep and prairie dogs were the most visible, but we did see this one bison. The bison and prairie dogs were farther out on the unpaved section. The sheep were seen along the paved section.

Prairie dog caught with a mouthful

Lots of cute babies

Both male and female bighorn sheep have horns. They grow continually for their entire lives.

  

Bighorn sheep with young

Young bighorn sheep "play" bucking each other

This bighorn is looking for more

Of course, we can't forget the birds!

  Western Meadowlark

Black-billed Magpie

           Barn Swallow

Rock Wren

In the next post, I'll describe our two hikes.

Indiana Dunes National Park

May 23 We crossed the Mississippi River today! We're camping tonight in a pretty little municipal campground in Adrian, MN where I have barely enough wifi to catch up on our visit to the Indiana Dunes.

 Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore became a National Park in 2019. It spans 15 miles along the southern shore of Lake Michigan. The park is made up of dunes, sandy beaches, wetlands, and forests. Our first stop was to its signature dune, Mount Baldy, which is 126' above Lake Michigan. It is so named because it is one of the few dunes that aren't covered with vegetation. The trail to the top wasn't open, but we took another short, but steep trail through the woods next to Mount Baldy to get a view of the lake.

Mount Baldy from the back. The other side faces the lake. 

View of Lake Michigan from our hiking trail.

There are several hiking trails of varying lengths throughout the park to choose from. We drove next to the area called The Great Marsh. The flat trail winds through wetlands for about three miles. It's a popular birding trail. 

We spotted a lone Sandhill Crane in a field, and a little while later, we spotted a pair wading in the marsh.

You can always tell an Eastern Kingbird by the little touch of white on the tip of the tail.

After our hike through the marsh, we found a picnic table overlooking the lake. Down the street from the picnic area were five houses that were built for the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. "Century of Progress." Click on the photo to read about it. 

 

These two were my favorites. Both look out onto Lake Michigan.

After lunch we hiked the Dune Ridge Trail. In .75 mi, we encountered several different ecosystems. As we climbed, we went through desert, forest, and wetlands.

We spotted this little lizard in the sandy start of the trail.      

                           

Lupines were in bloom along the sandy dune trail.

Views of the wetland portion of the trail, including a beaver lodge.

Later we stopped at the Visitor Center to watch a short, very informative film about the park. The rangers recommended another area called Cowles Bog, so we headed over there. We were surprised to spot an Indigo Bunting by the parking lot. I had never seen one before this trip, and this was my second one in a week! As it turned out, we didn't see much wildlife along the trail except for this little turtle crossing our path, but after the bird in the parking lot, I wasn't disappointed.

       









 

After a total of about seven miles of hiking up and down sandy trails, we were beat, (especially since I was carrying my six pounds of camera gear all day!), so we called it a day. On our way back to our campground in Michigan City, we stopped for take-out bbq ribs at Smokey's and enjoyed them with a cold beer!

We'll be getting to the Badlands of South Dakota next where there probably won't be any wifi or cell service. I'll post again once wifi is available.

Cleveland -- Warblers and Rock & Roll

We arrived in Cleveland on our second day on the road and set up camp at the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds. Nothing fancy, but convenient to downtown Cleveland. It was still early, so we drove to the Lakefront Nature Preserve to do some birding. We had heard that this area is on the migratory path for warblers. 

The Preserve is on the Lake Erie waterfront, with about three miles of loop trails. This red-wing blackbird is showing us the way.

We weren't disappointed. We saw several different kinds of birds, including ones I had never seen before. My four "firsts" are:

 Yellow warbler (there were lots of these)

   American Redstart (so high up in the tree I almost couldn't see him)

                    

Indigo bunting (this one is just starting to change to its breeding color of solid bright blue)

Blackpoll warbler (he just took a bath and was busy fluffing up his feathers)

Along the trail was an overlook with a view of the Cleveland skyline across Lake Erie.

The next morning, we headed to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This was the main reason we had decided to stop in Cleveland. Because of Covid, we had timed entry tickets. Ours were for 11:00, the first of the day. There was so much to see and read about that we spent three hours just on the first level before taking a break for lunch in the cafe. We then continued up the remaining levels before returning to the first level to finish watching a special video about the Beatles. At 5:00 closing time we finally left after completely immersing ourselves in R&R history. It was a wonderful experience. That's me standing in the sign!

It was a fun start to our adventure. Our next stop is Indiana Dunes National Park.

Joshua Tree NP South/Palm Springs/Cathedral City, CA

The week before Thanksgiving we traveled south from the high desert to the low desert to a private campground in Desert Hot Springs, CA. This is where we discovered pickle ball! It's kind of a cross between tennis and paddle tennis. What a fun game, and a nice change from hiking.

An interesting fountain in the center of Palm Springs

We explored some of the neighboring towns while we were in the area. The main streets of Palm Springs were lined with shops and restaurants. There were gated homes on many of the side streets.











Cathedral City was all lit up for the holiday season.

The Civic Center

Street Scene

Fountain in the square

Sunset in Cathedral City

And, as luck would have it, there was a balloon festival the evening we were there. We watched as they laid out their balloons in the park and began to inflate them.

Eventually, the small park was filled with inflated balloons, and the crowd was invited to walk among them.

There was music playing, and the balloon pilots lit up their balloons to the beat of the music.












Joshua Tree National Park South

After leaving Desert Hot Springs, we arrived at Cottonwood Campground at the southern entrance to Joshua Tree National Park. When we arrived, we were greeted by Jeff and Carol, two friends whom we met on our Alaska trip a few years ago. It was great to have a chance to spend an evening with them to catch up before they took off the next morning.

A hike around the Cottonwood area

As I mentioned in my earlier post, this portion of the park is in the Colorado Desert. The low desert is much drier. Some of the vegetation is the same, but there are no Joshua trees in this area.



There were a variety of plants along the trail. The ocotillo is one found in all areas of the park. It can lose and regain its leaves several times during the year, depending on rainfall. Most of the ones we saw were leafless, but this one had most of its leaves.

Ocotillo flower

Ocotillo

Paperbag Bush

A group of palms at the Cottonwood Oasis

This sign was at the end of the trail was a beautiful description of the way the Cahuilla Indians respected and cared for the land.

Cholla Cactus Garden

We drove north on the park road to the Cholla Cactus Garden. There were hundreds of them. This cactus is a favorite nesting place for the cactus wren.

Cactus wren nest from the back

Cactus wren nest

Skull Rock (named for obvious reasons)

Creosote Bushes

In this typical scene in the park there are many creosote bushes. These bushes are well adapted to arid desert conditions and are commonly seen throughout the desert southwest.











This is the farthest west we're going on this trip. Time to head east again. Next stop, Tucson, AZ.