North by Northeast: The Beginning

Keith hikes along a well-worn trail in Bryce.



View from Nora as we drive into Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

At last...I can start writing again after a summertime hiatus.  As soon as I returned from Hawaii, Keith and I were on the road again astride "Nora," our motor home, and Abyssinian pals Acadia and Baxter.  We've been making a trip north to Fargo, North Dakota, for the past few years now, enjoying an annual visit with Keith's mom and brother Kent and his family.  Along the way, we like to stop and explore or re-explore parks, monuments, and special attractions, like train museums.

The first day of our journey took us up along my favorite highway in Arizona, Arizona 83, past the Grand Canyon, the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, across the Colorado and into what is called the Arizona Strip.  The strip is the long, narrow portion of extreme northern Arizona bounded to the south by the Grand Canyon and to the north by Utah. 

Escalante-Grand Staircase greeted us with its familiar grandeur as we crossed into the Beehive State.  We traveled for hours simply absorbing the astonishing scenery which abounds this route.  Many people choose to head west to Zion National Park, while others head east to Bryce Canyon.  This year, we repeated a visit to Bryce, which offers wild wind- and water-sculpted rock rising like giant thumbs amidst huge cliffs and boulders.  We spent several days exploring portions of Bryce we'd forgotten while also blazing new trails (at least to us) to points we'd unknown.


The wildflowers were at their peak when we visited in early June.
  This penstemon was especially vibrant.

Along one such trail, we descended into the canyon itself, soon surrounded by pines and wildflowers and huge, towering monoliths of stone.  The air was laced with the tangy scent of evergreen and warming earth.  At one point, we walked into a wonderland of wildflowers--a burned out area of the forest rising back to life.  It was carpeted with white and blush evening primrose.  Hummingbirds darted about, eagerly feeding on abundant nectar.  It was simply magical.

 

 

Artistic Roll

I haven't written in my blog for several months; I have a lot of catching up to do.  We spent June, July and part of August exploring National Parks and other public lands.  Those stories will come later.  Right now, I'm experiencing moments of artistic expression through mixed media paintings and carved gourds.  I've been working hard on items for our upcoming community arts and crafts fair.  This will be the first time I've shown work publicly, and I am a bit nervous about it.  However, my dear friend and sister-in-law, Elaine, will be right alongside me with several of her quilted projects.

Here are a few photos and scans of my newest watercolor/acrylic paintings that I'll plan to sell:

The Three Bears

We watched this mother bear and two cubs sauntering along the Gunnison River.

While visiting the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in Colorado, Keith and I encountered a wet, brown bear.  She was wandering along a roadside flanking the Gunnison River.  We were in a car, so we slowed and watched as the bear scurried across the road in front of us and up a hillside.  There the bear stopped to look back at us, and I snapped a couple photos.  The bear began to snort so we decided to leave; we didn't want to stress her.

As we continued our drive along the river, Keith glanced in his rearview mirror and saw the bear returning to the roadside.  Another much smaller bear then popped out of the brush.  This was a mother bear and her cub. 

We left the bears alone and drove on toward the Gunnison Dam, our original destination.  While admiring the dam and the lime-green river flowing downstream, we once again saw the bears.  This time they were on the opposite side of the river and there were two cubs!  We think that the mother bear had already carried one cub across the swift moving current and was coming back for the second cub when we surprised her.   Once we left, she completed her task.  That explained why she was wet.



The cubs were adorable.

We watched the bears amble along the riverside for some time.  We were downwind of them across the river, and they didn't seem to realize we were nearby.  What an honor it was to watch the family!

Later, we flagged down a park ranger and reported our sighting.  He was surprised, telling us that no bears had been spotted in the area up to that date.  We showed him our photos and he thanked us for making the report, noting there was a campground and picnic area downstream from where we saw the bears.  The bruins were headed upstream, but for the sake of the bears as well as for the people recreating along the river, notifying officials of the sighting was important.

We wish the little family well!



The Coyote Pup

The other night we were having dinner with my brother- and sister-in-law, when this little coyote pup squeezed through the narrow bars of the view fence.  Apparently, the youngster has been making daily appearances, attracted to a bird water bowl. 

The pup reminded me a bit of a fawn with his great, big ears and slender body.  It won't be long, though, before he'll be too large to squash through the fence.

It was a treat to see this little guy so close.

Hawaiian Adventure Part 6: Sacred Places

Pu'uhonua o Honaunau heiau, a place of refuge.

Heiaus (hay-ows) are sacred places used as temples by ancient Hawaiians.  Most were comprised of large stone platforms with structures built on top of them.  These structures housed priests, sacred items, and idols representing gods.  Within the lava-walled areas, the kahuna or high priest worshiped, making offerings that included food and sometimes human sacrifices.  Although many heiaus were deliberately destroyed when the traditional religion and kapu (taboo) system were abolished more than 150 years ago, others have been restored or are now protected for their cultural significance. 

Heiaus served different purposes:  some were used to treat the sick, known as healing heiaus.  Others provided meditation and prayer sanctuaries where the kahuna asked the gods for victory in war or success in raising crops or fishing.  A few heiaus were places of refuge.  Tabu-breakers could avoid certain death by fleeing to these places.  Those defeated by or victims of war could also find sanctuary at the pu'uhonua.

The historic site's grounds.

We visited one such heiau on the Big Island, Pu'uhonua Honaunau, now protected as a national historical site by the National Park Service.  Pu'uhonua Honaunau once housed the bones of Hawaiian ali'i or nobility, including a son of Kamehameha I.  The Hawaiians believed that the mana or spiritual power of the bones imparted special protection to this "city of refuge."

The site is an absolute gem and shouldn't be missed by any visitor to the Big Island.  Not only is there a walking trail to and around the heiau accompanied by a cell-phone audio tour, there are also demonstrations by locals in Hawaiian arts such as cloth-making and lauhala weaving. 

Hawaiian Adventure Part 5: How Green Was My Valley

Looking down on the Waipio Valley

Waipio Valley is a special place in Hawai'i located north of Hilo and the northeast corner of the Big Island.  The valley remains untouched by tourism, and is today, just as it was decades ago, inhabited by farmers who have for generations nurtured the rich land.  The only way to get down into the valley is by an especially steep, bumpy road that requires a four-wheel-drive vehicle and some courage.  There are no amenities down there--no restaurants, no gas stations, and no hotels.  The valley is peaceful and serene, flanked by steep mountain cliffs and ocean.

The Polulu Valley overlook, located on the far north end of the island, offers a lush panorama of steep mountain cliffs along the oceans edge and deep gulches filled with every shade of green imaginable.  The road dead ends at the overlook, but there is a hiking trail for those interested in exploring the area further.  This area, too, is quite beautiful.



Polulu Valley Overlook



Hawaiian Adventure Part 4: The Living Earth

 

Kilauea's Halema'uma'u crater glows at night.



Halema'uma'u crater during the day.

Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park is a land contrasts.  It is barren lava fields, steaming vents, molten rock, and noxious gases.  It is verdant rain forest of 10-ft tall tree ferns, blossoming ohi'as, koa, and endemic birds.  It is a place of raw power and beauty, history and lore.  Visitors glimpse the earth at its most primordial, as new land is created while the complexion of existing acreage completely changes. 


Natural arch on the coast at the end of Chain of Craters Drive.

Hawai'i's volcanoes are different than those on the continental U.S.  While taller, steeper, strato or composite volcanoes Mount St. Helens, Lassen, and Redoubt explode with violent blasts of superheated rock, gas, and ash moving at hundreds of miles per hour, Hawai'i's volcanoes tend to ooze and dribble from vents along the rift zone of the lower, gently sloping shield volcano.  That is not to say that Hawai'i's volcanoes are any less dangerous.   There are still deadly gas emissions (sulfur dioxide), ejections of tephra, and collapsing deltas or benches at the ocean's edge. 

Our first glimpse of the Halema'uma'u crater was at night.  It was thrilling and amazing to see billowing plumes of volcanic gas light up the night and reflect against the inside rim of the crater.  I thought I could see the faces of a young and an old woman form from the gassy clouds.  We watched this active crater of the Kilauea caldera from the National Park Service's Jaggar Museum Overlook.  The next day, we returned to observe the crater from the same spot, and by daylight everything seemed different.  Several miles away, lava poured into the ocean from the Pu'u O'o vent, and we could see the gas and steam plumes rising over the horizon.
 


A lehua blossom from an ohi'a tree.  Nectar-feeding birds like apapane and i'iwi love this flower.

While at the park, we learned that ohi'a trees can close their pores to sulfur dioxide, sort of like holding their breath, enabling them to survive close proximity discharges of the toxic gas.  We also learned that these are the first trees to sprout on a new lava flow.  Hawai'i as a whole is struggling to save an endangered ecosystem.  The populations of many of its native plants and animals have been decimated by the introduction of invasive species, environmental factors, and development.  The National Park Service is currently working with the U.S. Geological Survey to recover four endangered species:  the Hawaiian goose (nene), the hawksbill turtle (honu 'ea) , the Hawaiian petrel (ua'u), and silversword.

Since our lava boat tour was cancelled due to high ocean swells, we decided to hike Iki Crater.  This was a marvelous hike through rain forest, then across a'a lava to the smoother, hardened lava lake, past fissures offering sauna-like experiences, and then back up through rain forest.  The lovely song of apapane and i'iwi followed us even across the lake.  Unfortunately, we were plagued by drenching rains throughout most of the 4-mile hike, however, the trek was well worth it.



A hike through Thurston Lava Tube.





The Iki Crater hike is outstanding.  It crosses this lava lake.