December Visit to the Wild Animal Sanctuary

Yesterday Joe and I drove down to Keenesburg and spent a couple of hours admiring some of the animals at the Wild Animal Sanctuary. It was a beautiful, sunny day, no wind and not too cold. Most of the cats were relaxing in spots where they could enjoy the sunshine, a few wolves were laying in the sunshine napping, and the only bear not in its den was a grizzly who was wandering about. Here are a few pictures from the trip:

leopards napping

leopard




This mountain lion, Romeo, was pacing in his enclosure--but in a sunny spot!

Pictures of some of the tigers:

Some of the outside stock tanks had heaters, some were filled with ice. A couple of the tigers were laying on the ice (and out of the sunshine!):





We spent some time watching the servals, Rhett and Scarlett:


They are very beautiful cats, alert and very aware of their surroundings:

View of one of the large tiger enclosures. There are a couple of tigers in this picture but they are hard to spot.

And finally, my favorite picture from the trip:

November weekend in the Black Hills

Joe and I took a short, spur-of-the-moment vacation trip to the Black Hills this weekend. It's an area neither of us had visited before, making the trip a bit of an adventure. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, mostly sunny with daytime temperatures in the high 50s and low 60s. We had a wonderful time and saw some magnificent sights and an overwhelming amount of natural beauty. So glad we were able to take this trip! We rented a red Camry for the trip, a good choice and a nice car:





We were on the road by 7 Saturday morning, the Black Hills are a 5-6 hour drive and we wanted to have time to do some sightseeing Saturday afternoon. The trip was great, once we cleared the traffic of Fort Collins we felt like we had the road to ourselves. It has been a long, long time since we have driven on such a long stretch of empty road...

When we got close enough to have a good idea of when we would be arriving, we decided to go to Jewel Cave National Monument first and take the 2PM tour, the last one of the day. We thoroughly enjoyed the trip into the cave, although I wound up not taking a single picture during the tour. There was just so much to see that I spent the whole tour trying to absorb as much as I could. It was marvelously overwhelming.

The tour lasted about an hour and a half, starting and ending with an elevator ride that took us about 23 stories deep into the cave. The route we took was over a narrow pathway paved with concrete and incorporating metal spans and stairways to get around, into and out of, various areas in the cave. Much of the construction of the pathways was done by the CCC in the 1930s, and they did a wonderful job. Although it was a fairly strenuous course (over 700 stairs in the mile and a half we covered), it was sturdy and everything felt safe and secure. The lighting was well placed and bright, and the ranger leading the tour was very effective in explaining a bit of the historical and geological significance of what we were seeing.

The cave was nothing short of magnificent and the tour definitely left me wanting to see more. Since November is the off-season there was only one tour offered, we will have to return in the summer months to take some of the other tours available. After the tour we wandered around a bit in the above-ground part of the monument, also a beautiful area.


Joe relaxing on a bench behind the visitor's center
We stayed in Rapid City Saturday night, about a half hour's drive from the cave.



views of the downtown area of Rapid City, taken through the windshield

The next morning we spent a little time driving around Rapid City to see what the area is like, then we decided to spend some time driving around Custer State Park. We'd read a little before the trip about the spectacular beauty of the park, but somehow we still weren't prepared for what we saw. We were truly awed by the beauty of this place. And we saw only a handful of other cars during our drive, the place was deserted for all practical purposes. We had a wonderful time driving around. We saw some animals up close:

There are about 1000 bison in the park, we saw several herds grazing close to the road and more off in the distance.

When we first saw this flock of big horned sheep they were standing so still we almost mistook them for statues. They are on the lawn of the park headquarters building, which is closed for the season.

We saw quite a few white tailed deer in the park. This is a buck who was accompanied by three does when we saw him.



A flock of 20-25 wild turkeys we sat and watched until they disappeared from sight. They are beautiful birds and they are can run very fast when they want to!

The scenery on the drive through Custer Park was gorgeous and quite varied.





Sylvan Lake





A view of Mt Rushmore from one scenic pullout





and drove through several very small one-lane tunnels



Yes, that tiny green square is a tunnel!


Close-up of a tunnel wall
One of the roads we took through the park, the Needles Highway, goes through an area full of gigantic rock formations that dwarf everything else around them. My pictures do not begin to do justice to their magnificence and there is no way to accurately describe how imposing a presence they have.






The Camry (bottom left) provides a reference to the size of this formation
Our drive through Custer State Park exceeded every expectation we had, it was thoroughly enjoyable the park we headed for our final stop on the trip: Wind Cave National Park. As we approached the entrance to the park we saw the smoke from a nearby fire:

The Black Hills were devastated by the Jasper fire which burned over 83,000 acres in late August and early September 2000, and the devastation the fire caused is still very visible in the area. Asking about it at the visitor's center, we learned that the smoke we saw was from a controlled burn, thankfully. To mitigate damage from fires, underbrush in forested areas is cleared and piled up every summer, then burned off during the fall and winter, and that was what we were seeing. From what we have read this approach to fire management has been quite successful, cleared areas (including the visitor center area of Jewel Cave) which burned during the Jasper fire burned much cooler and, it is believed, are recovering more quickly. Here is a picture from the area showing the piles of cleared undergrowth awaiting its controlled burn:



Wind Cave had a much more interesting visitor's center than the one at Jewel Cave. Perhaps it is due to the difference between an National Park and a National Monument, perhaps that distinction is irrevelant. In any case, we found W-Cave's informational displays and exhibits quite interesting and well worth perusing.

Again, because we were visiting off-season there was only a single tour being offered, so we signed right up for it. This was a tour obviously designed for maximum accessibility, not a lot of walking or stairs. We were taken to areas on two levels of the cave by elevator (going down about 350 feet at the deepest point!) and then taken to a couple of "rooms" with interesting features and lots of time to look around. It was a good tour, the ranger conducting it was very knowledgeable and personable, and we learned a lot about what we were seeing from geological and historical perspectives. In contrasting the tours of J and W-Caves I can see the need for both types because they do address different visitor populations. Many fewer people could experience the wonder of being in a cave if all the tour options required the stamina required on a fairly strenuous route.

Again, I didn't take any pictures in the cave. Didn't even take my camera into W-Cave after deciding the day before that there is really no way my pictures could convey the essence of the experience. I figured I would have wound up with a series of pictures of rocks, so I decided to skip the hassle of hauling the camera and taking them.

After the Wind Cave tour we headed home. The trip was a lot of fun, we saw some magnificent sights and stepped out of our routine for a few days--in other words, a perfect vacation. Hope you, the reader of this, enjoyed my narrative and pictures. However, if you have not been to the Black Hills and their caves and ever have the opportunity, do not hesitate to go, it is well worth travel from anywhere, it is that spectacular!


Joe standing by a plaque honoring Peter Norbeck, the man responsible for access to much of the beauty we saw on our trip. The first native-born governor and later a senator, he was responsible for the creation of Custer State Park and laid out the marvelous roads we travelled in it himself, on horseback. He felt that it was very important that the Black Hills be protected and that people have access, and he made that happen. He lived from 1870-1936.

Pictures from Korea

We returned home Wednesday, August 2nd. We are ever-so-glad to be back after a month away. We enjoyed our time in Korea, but of course there is no place like home.
Here is a picture of our plane and the 1st sunset of our day. We watched the sun set again in LA.




These are pictures taken from our hotel room in Seoul, which was on the 15th floor:

**if you would like to read about an earlier trip we took to Korea (2005), click here. **

More Pictures From Icheon

We took a walk around Icheon yesterday evening, here are some pictures of what we saw:













Pictures of tanks in front of some seafood restaurants with the live offerings from their menus.


3 maple trees loaded in a truck






Spiders everywhere!



A restaurant that looks like a ship. At night it really stands out because it is outlined with lights.



This was taken in a park located next to our hotel. The walk is made of some sort of rubber which feels great to walk on.



During our walk through the park we encountered 2 women walking this dog. They were very friendly and seemed pleased that we wanted to take the dog's picture. I wish I'd managed to take a clearer picture, as this was one cute dog with its braids and red shoes and matching leash!



A parking garage that can hold 12 cars on a very small footprint.



View of the walking street in downtown Icheon


Looking in the other direction is one of our favorite restaurants here, the A4, which is located on the 2nd floor and has a great view

Their specialty is a Japanese-style pork cutlet with a spicy tomato sauce served with rice, shredded cabbage with 1000 Island dressing, rice, a pepper, pickles, pickled daikon radish and some kimchee. An incredible bargain at slightly less than $4.00! We love this place.

**if you would like to read about an earlier trip we took to Korea (2005), click here. **