Tag Archives: State Park

Mark Twain described a “solemn, silent, sail-less sea” and called it “California’s Dead Sea”. Mono Lake is, indeed, other-worldy. The air is hot and still: July afternoon temperatures range from the high twenties (29°C; 84°F) into the mid-thirties (35°C; 95°F) – and rapidly drop into the single digits at nightfall. The waters are dense and […]

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For the last three weeks, fires have been raging across the Western States of the USA: in Oregon, California, and Washington millions of acres of land have been razed, more than 30 people have been killed, and thousands of homes have been lost. I’ve been watching in horror as the images coming out of the […]

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Hocking Hills State Park, in the American state of Ohio, comprises 2,356 acres (9.53 km2) of caves, waterfalls, trees, and hiking trails. The park is known for the dramatic geologic features that, over the aeons, have carved themselves into the surrounding Black Hand Sandstone. Black Hand Sandstone is the name given to an early Mississippian […]

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We drove across North Dakota on our road trip this summer: about 350 miles – almost all of them dead straight – through black dirt and green hills, and under a dark, looming sky. It made me think about our visit to neighbouring South Dakota last year. Granted, the landscape further south was different: hotter, drier, with […]

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Cold. Dark. Completely dark – but for the stars overhead – and cold. And early!  Way too early. It was 5:15am in California’s Eastern Sierras. A small clutch of cars and a congregated group of people with their hands shoved deep in their pockets, huddled against the kind of piercing cold that only a dry […]

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