Photo Blog with Waterfalls, Hiking, Outdoors, and other Adventures
Four years later and I have returned to Capulin Volcano National Monument to rectify my past failures and – spoiler alert? – it was worth the wait. Considering my past blunder was just not paying attention to a clock this was an easy win. Anyways, welcome to Capulin and let’s explore! Visitor Center First stop … Read more
Continuing on from the Ponderosa Loop I followed further north onto the Petrified Forest Loop trail that explores the ancient Florissant Lake bed and it’s various petrified redwood stumps. Going clockwise, very early into the trail (on clear days like today) you may be rewarded with distant views of Pikes Peak. Zoomed in view of … Read more
Outside the visitor center is a large shelter covering stumps of petrified redwood trees. One of the signs state that years ago before this area was protected as a monument, the area was littered with petrified wood; for 100 years visitors would take souvenirs and now the stumps are all that remain. Shelters protect some … Read more
My first real adventure into the Rocky Mountains was to visit Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. The drive to get here from Colorado Springs is easy compared to some other mountain passes I have been through. Temperatures are definitely dropping compared to lower elevations but I have no complaints about that – finally, it feels … Read more
I’m continuing to head south through the western part of Nebraska today as I creep slowly towards the final target of New Mexico. I’m now in the city of Scottsbluff to check out Scotts Bluff National Monument. I didn’t even have this on my original list of points of interest which frankly is an embarrassing … Read more
From the Nebraska welcome sign I continued following highway 71 all the way down to River Road and came in to Agate Fossil Beds National Monument from the east. If I had to do it again I’d pick another route as large parts of that are gravel and I had farm semi trucks blasting past … Read more
The Scenic Tour of Jewel Cave National Monument explores deeper into the cave than the short Discovery Tour which I also joined this morning by mistake. Prepare yourself to traverse up & down over 730 stairs through a 1/2 mile loop that descends several hundred feet. After starting again at the Target Room we immediately … Read more
Due to my scheduling blunders I had a break for lunch and to strategize on how to use my time for the remaining daylight hours. There are a some hiking trails in the monument that look pretty interesting, but as I sat in the shady forest eating my sandwich the ominous clouds rolled in across … Read more
The visitor center at Jewel Cave National Monument is split into two parts: a small building that has a theater and film about the monument, and a slightly larger main building with the visitor center, gift shop, and modern entrance/elevator to the caverns. I watched the film and it is definitely worth seeing to help … Read more
Took a bit of a drive today to the southwestern part of the Black Hills, and after heading west from Custer about half way to the border with Wyoming I stopped to check out Jewel Cave National Monument. Proclaimed a National Monument by Teddy Roosevelt back in 1908, Jewel Cave is currently the fifth longest … Read more