American Landscapes: Hills

On our road trip we saw lots of lovely landscapes. Many of those that made us pull over to take pictures were mountains and hills. Not too surprising, since we live in the East and don't see much elevation in our everyday lives. I suspect that even those who see them often still get a bit of a thrill from the hills.

Hills, Southern Idaho

Powder River Pass, Wyoming

Devils Tower, Wyoming

Bighorn Mountains, Wyoming

American Landscapes: Badlands

It's tempting to put badlands in quotes, because "bad" isn't the adjective that comes to mind: "strange", "tortuous", or even "severe" seem better. But apparently early europeans called them bad because they were difficult to traverse, and the name stuck.

"Extensive" is another adjective. The badlands cover more than two hundred square miles in North Dakota and South Dakota, in Theodore Roosevelt National Park and Badlands National Park respectively. A casual tourist can see wonderful sites but to see it all would take a long, long time. We were happy we could at least visit both parks.

The northern badlands were cloaked in haze from large fires to the west, but the vistas were beautiful nevertheless. A memorable hike led to a vantage point overlooking a group of grazing bison. My preconceived notion of the badlands as barren was wrong. They have colors, textures and life.

Painted Canyon, Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Bison, Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Jones Creek, Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Yellow Mound Formation, Badlands National Park

American Landscapes: Canyons

Susan and I took a long road trip to the U.S. West Coast and back, driving 8,200 miles over 38 days. Loving landscapes as I do, this journey thrilled me. The scale and variety of the terrain and vegetation kept us enthralled through many hours in the car, and made every hike unique.

Some of the most enchanting scenes were in canyons. One chilly morning in South Dakota we drove through Spearfish Canyon, where the Ponderosa pines on the hills were frosted and the cottonwoods at lower elevations still had their autumn yellows.

Spearfish Canyon, South Dakota

Another morning found us in Twin Falls exploring the Snake River Canyon near the Perrinne Bridge.

Snake River Canyon at Twin Falls, Idaho

Wyoming had two canyons we loved: On the Wind River in central Wyoming, and Ten Sleep Canyon at the western edge of the Big Horn mountains.

Hillside in Wind River Canyon, Wyoming

Ten Sleep Canyon, Wyoming

Outside of Bozeman, Montana we hiked in Cottonwood Canyon along South Cottonwood Creek.

Cottonwood Canyon, Montana

There seems to be no end to the beauty in our country, let alone in our continental neighbor, Canada, where we also traveled. Pictures from north of the border in an upcoming post.

African Wildlife, part 3

Apologies for the multiple posts. There are so many animals to see, including a wonderful variety of birds. There was no way to get photos of them all.

Tawny Eagle, Hwange National Park

Lilac-breasted Roller, Okavango National Park

Saddle-billed Storks, Okavango National Park

African Fish Eagle, Chobe National Park

Woodland Kingfisher, Okavango National Park

Small mammals are harder to spot. One of the most unusual is the hyrax: a mammal that resembles a rodent but is in the same taxon as elephants and manatees.

Hyrax, Okavango National Park

Banded Mongoose, Okavango National Park

African Wildlife, part 2

Every day on safari brought new sightings. Impala were the most numerous of the large animals and among the most beautiful. We saw other antelopes as well: kudu, tsessebe, waterbuck, bushbuck, red lechwe, eland, puku, Sharpe's grysbok, and klipsringer.

Impala, Okavango National Park

Kudu, Okavango National Park

Zebra were also a common sight, sometimes in the company of wildebeest. Apparently they are better able to spot predators using the multiple talents of different species.

Zebra, Okavango National Park

Wildebeest, Okavango National Park

Cape Buffalo, Okavango National Park

Vervet Monkeys, Chobe National Park

African Wildlife, part 1

On our safari tour, we were fortunate to see many animals. The national parks we visited, Chobe and Okavango in Botswana and Hwange in Zimbabwe, are well-endowed with wildlife and not much traveled by humans...at least, in comparison to some U.S. national parks. The animals are protected and so (to varying degrees) are not too shy of people or their vehicles, making close approaches possible. Our guides were uniformly skilled and knowledgeable, increasing our chances of finding our "prey" in the bush.

And find them we did. It's a thrill to see them in their own environment. Each species has a character of its own, a combination of appearance, movement, social groupings, sounds and preferred habitat.

African Leopard with Impala Prey, Okavango National Park

African Elephant, Chobe National Park

Lion Pride with Two Juveniles, Chobe National Park

Hippos, Egrets and Hippo Corpse, Chobe National Park

Southern Giraffe, Okavango National Park

South Africa Landscapes

Everyone who's been to Africa told us to go. We spent three weeks in southern Africa during March and April 2017, mostly on a "safari" tour in Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, with several days by ourselves seeing the sights in Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa.

It was an amazingly successful trip. The wildlife is the big draw on these tours. We saw lots of it, including four of the "big five": Elephants, lions, cape buffalo, and leopards (number five, rhinoceros, have been wiped out in the areas we visited.) Others included giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, hippos, impala, kudu, baboons and all sorts of birds. The weather was nearly perfect, and our guides and accommodations were splendid. So, to everyone who encouraged us to go: Thanks! I'll get to wildlife photos in a future post.

The landscapes were also wonderful. Our safaris were in national parks, so they are largely undeveloped. Our vehicles traveled on dirt roads (or off-road) and those roads were often the only visible evidence of people. Even where we weren't in parks we saw amazing terrain. This first photo is a view of False Bay from Cape Peninsula, near the southernmost tip of Africa. I hadn't realized how much topography we would see on our drive south from Cape Town.

False Bay from Cape Peninsula

At the south end of the Cape Peninsula is Cape Point, which towers above the Atlantic and Indian oceans. From there you have a wonderful view of Dias Beach and the Cape of Good Hope.

Dias Beach and Cape of Good Hope

Cape Town lies at the foot of Table Mountain National Park, in one of the most beautiful city locations anywhere. A cable car ride to the top of Table Mountain opens incredible vistas.

View from Table Mountain

Driving southwest from the city center along the coastal Victoria Road affords views of the Twelve Apostles peaks, which are part of the same sandstone range as Table Mountain. You also see some of the priciest beach real estate in Africa.

Twelve Apostles