Heading out from camp at Wyalusing State Park we quickly encountered some ominus rain clouds. We often joke that it wouldn’t be one of our normal outings if rain wasn’t involved (oh, if you only knew how true this is). Today we were actually welcoming precipitation to keep down the dust on gravel roads.
Crossing from Wisconsin into Iowa I snapped this quick shot while parked on the Black Hawk Bridge as traffic was backed up for a minute or two. Showers were isolated in straight lines and didn’t impact us much at all.
Here’s the Toyota convoy lined up at Mount Hosmer Park in Lansing, Iowa. The parking lot was the exact right size to fit 17 trucks! Not pictured here is the steep road grade entering the park – if you’ve never been here, be prepared.
Atop the bluff there are some spectacular views across the Mississippi River. There are several different designations of features: I believe the entire river is covered by the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge; Lansing Big Lake directly down below, Wisconsin across the river to the right, and possibly even Minnesota on the far left side of the frame. Supposedly you can see 50 miles here on a clear day.
Now of course this wasn’t a clear day but you can still see for a very long distance…where it isn’t occluded by the rain showers. Still, I always enjoy photographing during storms – clouds add so much more drama than clear blue skies.
Down below is the Black Hawk Bridge that we drove up earlier. WI-82 that crosses the river is quite interesting in that it goes across the large island and is extremely close to water level at times.
Here’s the same shot but tilted up to capture the skies. You can see where the rain starts and ends. Guess which direction we are headed next?
