Hopewell Rocks, New Brunswick (July 2006)

Originally when we started to plan our trip, our route stopped at Maine. Then we read a magazine which rated Cape Breton as the 2nd best National Park in North America and also one of 10 must go destinations in Canada. However, it would add at least another 1500 miles or 4 extra days of driving to go out there and back. We weren’t sure we wanted to drive that far to see Cape Breton even though I had heard that Nova Scotia was rugged and beautiful. It would still be a long drive to just see one thing. We couldn’t decide until Susan saw some pictures of Hopewell Rocks on the internet: it seemed to be an interesting place to see and it was about a half way on the road to Cape Breton. That settled it.

We arrived at Hopewell Rocks in early July. We were disappointed right away as it was a big attraction with a huge parking lots and amusement park like ticket booths to guard the entry. We were hoping that it was a hidden treasure and we would have to hike miles to see it but it was not to be. Hopewell Rocks is located in the Bay of Fundy where the highest tide has been recorded in the world. On the average, the Bay of Fundy has a 50 feet tidal range. The Hopewell Rocks are the famous flower pot rocks that are totally immersed in water during high tide but reachable on foot during low tide.

We paid our money to get in; the tickets were good for 2 days to allow visitors to see both a low tide and a high tide. Right away there was an interpretive center with some history about the geology and natural history of the area along with the inevitable gift shop. There was also a children playground there where we had our lunch. It was a fun place for kids and we had to drag Kadia out of there to walk toward the flowerpots. The trail was well-maintained and paved with a few scenic overlook. It was just a little past the low tide so the coast look barren with many people wandering down below.

Soon we arrived at stairways where we hiked down to the beach of Fundy Bay. The famous flower pot rocks were there for us to explore along with hundreds of others. We knew we had a couple of hours so we walked along the beach to explore other areas. The beach was flat with almost no discernible slope so the water was far away. The shoreline was a mixture of small rocks and large sands. There were some areas that were muddy where few adventurous kinds would venture out to. We walked until we reached an impasse with huge boulders for us to carry the kids through before we slowly made back to our entry point where we sat and waited for the tide to come in.

Once the tide started to come in, it came fast. Because the beach was relatively flat, each feet of rising water would cover perhaps 20 to 40 feet of land. We sat and watched the water swallowed up the flower pot rocks and soon many kayakers appeared to go among them. That was definitely a fun way to see the rocks. Next time we will definitely try that. Soon we were ushered out of the area to go up out of the harm way. We watched as the tide soon reclaimed the beach and the ocean triumphed again.

 

Royal Tyrrell Museum, Alberta (Aug 2006)

Millions of species have become extinct but only a handful of them appear in our daily lives as if they were still alive. And of them, no species captures more imagination more than the dinosaur. It must be the size. My cousin, Christine, told me about the Royal Tyrell Museum in Alberta being one of the best dinosaur museums in the world so we made our way up to Drumheller after the Waterton Lakes National Park.

As we drove close to Drumheller, we began to see land formations similar to what we saw in Badlands National Park. It was the Canadian Badlands similar to the Badlands National Park we visited a few weeks ago on the trip. I didn’t know that badlands stretched that far north but it made sense. This was the area that a lot of dinosaur remains have been uncovered. And it made sense to have a world class dinosaur museum in Drumheller.

When we got into the town, we were greeted with the world biggest dinosaur (see picture on the right). We camped at the Rivergrove campground across from the big dinosaur. The next morning, we visited the Royal Tyrell Museum. It was situated at the edge of a vast area of badlands, a source of unlimited dinosaur bones. The museum was huge and filled with many varieties of dinosaur bones. We also learned they had dinosaur bone digging expeditions, something would thrill children and adults alike. I found the expeditions to be enticing and would definitely like to go back there when Kadia and Bryden are older. Kadia was thrilled to see many dinosaurs, running back and forth going from one to another.

We took a hike at the badlands right next to the museum. I found badlands interesting with its many different hues of colors. Badlands were named so because they presented difficult obstacles for pioneers to travel through in the old days, but they seemed to be innocent and inviting to visitors like me. This barren ground preserved the richest collections of dinosaur bones in the world. As we walked around the trail in the badlands, knowing that there may be dinosaur bones beneath our feet made the hike unique. We were walking on the same ground where dinosaurs roamed millions of years ago. If there ever is a time machine, I would like to travel back there to see for myself.

 

Mall of America (Aug 2006)

Which one of the following has the most visitors per year? Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, or Mall of America? The answer is Mall of America and it is not even a close race. It has more visitors per year than the other 4 combined!

We are not into shopping. The 1st time I heard of Mall of America was when they built a Great Mall in the Bay Area and said that it rivaled Mall of America in size. Since then I have also heard that it was popular and attracted millions of visitors a year. Therefore we decided to visit it when we were at our friend, Steve’s house in Big Lake, MN.

The mall was big and crowded. I think it was well-designed with an indoor amusement park in the middle and 4 levels of shops on the outer perimeters. I liked the design because it allowed me to cut across the middle to get to the other side of the mall quickly. The idea of putting an amusement park in the middle was the stroke of a genius. With Minnesota being one of the coldest places in USA, the mall provides a winter haven for the region. It was far better than the Great Mall both in designs and in the quality of shops.

We spent a couple of hours there, bought a pair of sandals for Kadia as she grew out of the old pair, Kadia got behind a kids-size 18-wheeler, and played at LEGO store there. I can easily see people spending a whole day there, having fun and spending money but it was not for us: it was too crowded and, although there were some unique shops, it was still just a shopping mall disguised as an attraction place. Well, they did a good job as we got suckered into it.

 

Lighthouses

These days, a lighthouse is almost an afterthought when come to marine navigation; all the high-tech gears such as radar, GPS, and sonar, have put lighthouses out of jobs but not out of our fascination with them. Most of the lighthouses have ceased operations but their presences on the coast can still serve as landmarks when electronic gears are not available or not working. And they grace any coast beautifully. Although we don’t absolutely have to visit every lighthouse, we like to visit it whenever we can.

On the trip, we saw quite a number of lighthouses, some on east coast, some on west coast and some along the Great Lakes and bays as well. Each one had its charm and has served its purpose of guiding ships and saving countless number of lives. In the old days, lighthouse keepers had to live inside many miles away from civilizations to operate them. We owe a great gratitude to them and their sacrifices. Let’s preserve lighthouses, not let them die of neglect. Hover the cursor over each picture to see the lighthouse name.

 

Mt. Jo Trail, Heart Lake, Adirondack Park, New York (July 2006)

On a New York state map, there is a big park called Adirondack Park north of Albany. It is huge, bigger than Yellowstone National Park and Death Valley National Park combined; but I have never heard of it. I knew one place in it, Lake Placid which hosted 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics. As nature lovers, we couldn’t pass up an opportunity to visit it.
The park is different than most of the parks we have grown accustomed to; more than half of the land within is privately owned. There are a lot of mountains and lakes, a great place for outdoor activities. We camped a night at Heart Lake near Lake Placid and hiked up to the Mt. Jo. The hike was about 2.5 miles loop with 700 feet of elevation change. We took the short loop up to the summit because, although steep, it would mean we would have a gentle climb, better for our knees, coming down the the Long Trail. It would have been an easy trail except the trail was filled with big boulders, which could be used as stepping stones for normal adults, presented a great challenge for Kadia. A lot of rocks were at waist or shoulder high for her. She didn’t complain much and tackled each big rock with a purpose and determination. I know sometimes I asked a lot of her at her young age, made her hiked a lot of trails on her own. Although she complained sometimes, she was a great sport.

Toward the top, the trail was steep. In many places, I had to pick up Kadia to pass her up to the top of rocks. Finally, we arrived at the summit. It was beautiful. We had a great view of the surrounding High Peaks Wilderness Area. And there was the Heart Lake beneath us. It didn’t appear like a heart shape to me. We thought we would have an easy way going down the Long Trail as it appeared to be twice as long as the short trail but we were wrong. It was as steep if not steeper on the 1st segment of the trail going down. It was too dangerous for Kadia to hike down all the boulders so I carried her down. It was definitely hard for the knees with the extra weight on our back. Luckily again we brought along our hiking poles. Our knees thanked them. Although I had a GPS with topo maps but it didn’t have the trail on it so I couldn’t see that both routes were about the same steepness until after I completed the hike. The GPS data confirmed that (see below, soon to come).

 

Moose

The one animal we wanted to see on this trip more than any other animal was a moose. I couldn’t explain it; maybe it was because we didn’t have much luck catching it in the past. Or maybe it was the cartoon show, Rocky and Bullwinkle that I watched when I was a kid. The only time we had seen it was off a road in Great Teton National Park a few years back. There were 2 of them, a mother and a calf, sitting far away in a field. We can barely see their heads and they just sat there. We left after waited for them to move for 30 minutes.

Up until Quebec, we saw a lot of Moose signs but never a moose. A lot of areas we went through were supposedly heavily populated by moose such as Maine and New Brunswick but we just seemed to miss them. In Cape Breton National Park, a neighbor camper asked me was I the person pointed out a moose to him last night when we camped in a small campground with 15 sites next to the Gulf of St Lawrence. He said it was a big bull moose with a rack at least 8 feet wide. I was disappointed because I knew I was only no more than 20 yards away from where he saw the moose.

When we were at Jacques-Cartier Park in Quebec, we were treated to a spectacular view of a river and surrounding mountains with low hanging clouds (see right) partially cover them. We saw a few canonists and kayakers. If there was a heaven, this would have been it. We drove along the river, savoring every angle of the view. Then all of a sudden, we saw a moose in the middle of the river, eating and drinking, in the plain daylight. It was the first time we saw a wild moose in such an unobtrusive view. She looked at us a couple of times but didn’t seem to care as we watched it slowly picking through things in the river and took some pictures of it. It was an exciting discovery for us.

A couple of months later, when we were hiking at Glacier National Park, we saw another mother moose with her calf in far distance. That was probably a good thing. Never get close to a calf or a cub. Supposedly, there are more people killed by moose every year than by bears. They seem to be tame therefore people let their guard down but they can have fits of temper, especially bull moose. They are big and fast; and their antlers can be deadly.

We saw another female moose grazing off a roadside in Kananaskis, Alberta. Again when we stopped to look at her, she didn’t seem to mind, just kept up her business of eating. We were within 10 yards of this moose so we were careful. This area was another beautiful place. I think moose have great taste, always living in beautiful places. The moose moved back into the forest when a few other motorists pulled off to look at it but we had our near moose encounter.

We still haven’t seen a wild bull moose yet. Perhaps we will get lucky on our next trip driving trip up to Alaska.

 

Lightning

When we camped at Mammoth Cave National Park, we encountered a lightning storm. We were cooking dinner at the time and we felt the tension in the air and heard the thunder from afar. We knew a storm was coming so we tried to hurry up before the inevitable, rain. We were in a heavily forest campground with a picnic table and benches made of stone. Soon we could see flashes of lightning as well then the rain came. I stayed out to finish cooking while everyone went inside of the tent. When I finished cooking, I brought the food inside and we ate inside of the tent.

We don’t get much lightning out in California. But I knew that one shall not hide under a tree in a lightning storm. But here we were, in a forest where trees were everywhere. I looked around the trees near the tent and noticed they weren’t the tallest around. That made us feel safer; at least we shouldn’t be the most prominent target. I also knew that staying inside our van could be safer and where we would go if we were in an open area with no other places to go. Lightning can strike anywhere; no place is absolutely safe but we always try to minimize our chances.

The next morning I spoke with a ranger about lightning safety. He mentioned that to stay at least a few feet from any tree trunks as lightning can travel down the tree and spread out. I read a book once about some birds were smart enough to lift one leg off a wire when the wire was electrified to avoid being shocked. I wonder if that would be true if we were to stand with one leg to avoid the current on the ground. I did some research without lucks but someone indicated to keep feet closer together to limit the voltage difference between the two feet.

A few months later we were hiking in Glacier National Park (see right), Montana when we encountered an approaching lightning storm. This time we were in an open area with no trees around us. There was no place to hide. I picked up Kadia and put her in the backpack and we started running away from the storm toward the Visitor Center we started the hike from. It took us 90 minutes to hike up toward the mountain but only about 15 minutes to get down, in the rain too. We got inside the building and waited until the storm passed. I thought once in a building, we would be safe but later on I learned that was not true; we should still stay away from water sources, telephones, any wiring and plumbing, etc. Luckily nothing happened that day.

Lightning is spectacular but deadly; take it seriously. Stay away and stay alive. Don’t become a statistic.