I just don’t think it’s possible for me to travel cross country and not stop for a barn photo opportunity.
Even if it’s a drive I’ve made many times before there always seems to be something that looks pretty enough to warrent a detour from the freeway.
The question is, always, is there an exit nearby and can I find my way back to that beautiful barn without spending too much time searching?
And, once I get back there, will there be a place that’s safe for me to stop and snap a quick shot?
In reality I see many amazing farms while traveling on big interstates and they’re often not possible to find again. Usually there are miles and miles of interstate before the next exit, and no obvious roads back to what I saw.
But I remember them, and they make me smile, so even though I don’t get to keep them forever in my files, I get to enjoy them for a brief moment.
And that counts for someting too.
***Don’t forget to be thinking about where you’d like to take us on your version of our annual Walktober! Take a walk, or ride a bike, or hop, skip or run and take a few pictures to share with us. Post about it and link your post to my Official Walktober post (which I haven’t written yet but I will very soon!) and at the end of October, or maybe in early November, I’ll put them all together in one giant post for everyone to enjoy.***
On my way down Lookout Mountain I saw this. Of course I had to turn around and spend some time in awe.
Well! Following those interruptions, let me show you how we spent our last day camping at Cloudland Canyon State Park in northern Georgia.
We’d been noticing signs for Lookout Mountain, pointing north from the road our campground was on. We pictured a big mountain with wonderful views and figured that could be interesting.
So on our last day of adventuring we decided to find it. I put “Lookout Mountain” in my gps and off we went. Along the way we saw very large homes perched on the edge of the canyon and we wondered what would happen if you happened to be playing catch on the deck or your basketball took a bad bounce.
Somewhere down there, we were sure, were a whole lot of lost balls.
Anyway, after about thirty minutes my gps said we were there. But where, exactly? The streets had become very narrow and curvy. The houses were large and likely built in the 30s or 40s. They were beautiful.
But where, exactly, was Lookout Mountain? More on that later.
We saw a sign for an Incline railroad going down to the valley floor, so we parked and went to investigate. It was a tram, of sorts, that ran on a rail way down into a town.
I’m not sure what town, but they said we could see downtown Chattanooga so maybe that’s where you ended up. The woman selling tickets said a very wealthy man who owned a bank down there, and a house at the top of the mountain didn’t like having to walk to work, so he had the incline built.
I tried to do some research and all I could find was something about a worker, building the incline in 1886, being killed. But at least that give us some idea of the era the original incline was built. I thought when I was there that there should be a whole display about the history of the area and the incline. But it’s just about impossible to find out anything.
We stood on the observation deck and watched one tram go down the steep incline and then the other tramp came up.
It looked kind of fun, but not $22.00 worth of fun, so we bought some fudge and wandered the neighborhood.
There was a big empty lot next to the Incline tram where obviously there used to be a home. What a view it must have had!
We were amused by a sign on a tree by the road that must have been there a long time. I guess it was the place to be if you wanted to picnic back in the day!
Wandering further down the street we enjoyed the fences….
….and gates along with the gardens.
Eventually, at the end of the street was another state park, this one dedicated to a battle during the Civil Warm. We went inside the park building and talked to the ranger who finally enlightened us about where Lookout Mountain was.
It was right there. We were standing on it. The entire ridge was Lookout Mountain and in fact our campground was on Lookout Mountain too! He pulled out a 3D topographical map and showed us how it all fit together.
And then we went into a big room which described the civil war battle that had been waged there so many years ago. The huge painting was fasinating in it’s detail.
We explored more that day, looking for a local potter who’s sign we had also seen on the main road. After making a couple wrong starts (and almost ending up in a private home accidently) we headed down a beautiful shaded road…
…which took us to a corner with another sign pointing the way.
Unfortunately the potter wasn’t around when we first arrived, so we explored the outside of his studio where there was plenty of interesting stuff.
Lots and lots of interesting stuff.
More stuff outside than what was inside we learned, when the potter arrived. He hadn’t been making anything for awhile, so we just explored the outside a bit more and then moseyed along.
We ended up at a local diner for lunch/dinner. I think people have misconceptions about camping. Yes you can bring all your food with you, and get ice for your cooler every day, or have a camper with a fridge…but you can also go out some of the time…which we have done on previous trips too. It’s a nice break and you often meet interesting people.
Our four day Georgia mountain adventure had come to a close. In the morning we packed up, glad that it hadn’t rained at all and everything was dry.
We stuffed it back into our vehicles and said goodbye at our now empty site. It’s always a little sad to wrap up a good camping trip. But for me, well, I had two days of driving through farm country ahead.
If you’ve been around for more than a year you’ve probably read about or even participated in a Walktober. It’s someting that began when Robin over at Breezes at Dawn went for a walk, took a few pictures and shared it all with us while inviting us to go out and share our own walks.
These images were taken at Kensington last week.
It evolved into an annual event with people from all over the country, and even the world, doing their walk sometime in October, taking pictures and posting about it while linking to Robin’s Walktober post.
Showing off
Then sometime at the end of the month, or the beginning of November Robin would do a post featuring everybody’s adventures.
Fall is definitely on the way.
What fun to see different places in the world! And to know that people all over are out doing their Walktobers at the same time!
Autumn light.
This year Robin needs just a little help to get Walktober organized, so I’ll be doing it for her. As it gets closer to October I’ll probably remind you once more, and then sometime in early October I’ll post the ‘official’ Walktober post that you can link to once you do your own walks.
Little orange flowers with morning dew.
Near the beginning of November I’ll collect all of your posts and do a final review of everybody’s Walktober.
Joe Pye nears the end of it’s summer work.
BUT! Least you worry that you don’t like to walk, let me reassure you it doesn’t have to be a walk. It could be a drive, or a boat ride, a kayak trip down a stream through fields filled with cows.
Caught in light.
It could be a pogo stick hop through your neighborhood, or a tour of your own backyard. It could be rural, in a forest, along a beach, or a city experience through a busy midtown.
The beginning of the leaf drop.
You can skip or ride your bike or do the tango on your walk. You can ski or snowmobile if you have enough snow. How about roller skating? Now that would be a Walktober!
It’s your Walktober to do whatever moves your heart.
Subtle.
I don’t know where I will take you this year, but here’s where I went last year.
We have a couple weeks to figure it out this year, right? RIGHT! So put your Walktober caps on, and watch for the official Walktober post. I can’t wait to see where to take us all!
In case you’re wondering what people do when they’re camping but not hiking up and down mountain ravines, let me show you!
We had a fire nearly every night. Here Beth is taking a picture of the engineering of the fire pit.
You might decide that you’d like to take a stab at a camping weekend somewhere beautiful near you. We’d love to be the inspiration if you decide to make the leap.
This is your typical bundle of firewood purchased from the park. $7.00
Or you might already be a camping sort of person and just want a new place to visit. If that’s the case, we’re your girls!
We roasted the obligitory marshmellows.
Personally, I like campgrounds where there’s some space between sites. Preferably some trees and shurbs that give you some illusion of privacy. Because let’s be real, when you’re camping you just don’t have much privacy at all.
We even ate one each.
I’m OK with that. I have no problem sitting in my chair next to my fire reading a book as people walk by with their dogs, waving hello.
We took some goofy pictures too.
My experience has been that most people that camp are really nice.
Our next door neighbor. 4 kids and two parents.
And there’s always something close by to explore. Just get in your car and drive and see what you find.
What’s in here?
We were camping at this park in the hopes it had a dark sky at night so that I could try to do a little photography. We ended up with one cloudless night, and we headed out to the park’s disc golf course to see what we could find.
Comfy on a chair, working on the settings to catch the stars.
There wasn’t much in the way of a foreground there, so I mostly focused on the stars and didn’t worry about it.
Even with the light polution you can see the Milky Way.
But then I thought maybe I should at least try to put the truck in the shot.
The adventure truck beneath the Milky Way.
I think I need more work on that sort of image, but it was fun. A cool night, but not cold. No bugs to speak of. No scary noises, nobody else around to worry about.
And we were back in our tents shortly after midnight!
Back to bed for a good night’s sleep.
Can’t go wrong when you get to sit out under the stars!
I still have to show you what we found when we went out exploring. Guess there’s one more post in this series of photos!
Way back in August, before the US Labor Day holiday when campgrounds across our country are filled to capacity, I met my sister at a Georgia State Park to camp for four nights. It took me two days to drive there from my home in Michigan and along the way there were, of course, barns.
I had two beautiful days to drive.
It was a last minute decision where to camp when we realized we didn’t have time to drive all the way to South Dakota like we had planned. For her, driving two days to my house and then two days to SD just didn’t work.
We are determined to do a better job of planning next summer.
The main view from Cloudland Canyon State Park.
Anyway, she found this state park in northern Georgia, right at the Tennessee state line. In fact we weren’t far from Chattanooga. But you wouldn’t know it when you were in Cloudland Canyon State Park.
We had a great campsite, big enough for two tents, with a whole other space housing the firepit. We had a fire almost every night, toasting the obligitory marshmellow and enjoying the warmth as the evenings were just a little cool.
Home away from home.
This park sits on the top of Stone Mountain, a high ridge, part of the Appalachian Mountains, with a wide valley that overlooked part of Tennessee. And there were plenty of hiking trails with overlooks.
People way over there on a trail looking at us way over here.
The ranger at the park store where we checked in told us to do the yellow trail. It was a four mile loop that, he said, we could pick up right from our campsite. He said it had the best views of any of the trails and we’d see the two waterfalls that everyone comes to visit when they’re in the park.
Going for a little walk in the woods.
Well. The first evening, though both of us had driven all day, we headed right out on the yellow trail. We figured we’d see at least one of the waterfalls and have a nice walk.
Following the yellow trail.
Turns out the trail was full of tree roots and we never saw any part of a river though sometimes we could hear it. After awhile it was getting dark and we decided to turn around and figure it out tomorrow.
We’ll try again tomorrow.
In the morning we drove to the ‘main overlook’ which was technically closed due to hurricane damage. But we could still see the amazing view, for which the park was named. And at one end of the parking lot was a sign for the falls. So off we went.
So many stairs.
The trail moved down, down, down into the canyon. It wasn’t smooth, there were roots and rocks and holes and some railings that had seen better days.
This rock is holding up the stairs we climbed.
There were lots of stairways, curling around and around and down and further down too. We saw lots of pretty things, and as we finally got down close to the bottom of the canyone we could hear the waterfall.
An interesting place to rest.
The waterfall was beautiful and we stayed there quite a long time. It was well worth the walk down. (And in the back of our mind we were already contemplating the walk back up!)
A beautiful place to sit and contemplate.
Then we walked back along the path to where it joined with another trail to go to the second waterfall. Nothing easy about that walk either!
Sometimes it was a rocky climb.
We met several people along the way down into the canyon and everyone said the same thing: “Nobody told us this trail was this strenous!” We looked at the trail map and on the back was a small paragraph that waid it was a difficult trail. But seriously this was a really difficult trail! We were glad we brought water!
Never ending stairs.
Anyway, down more steps, along more cliffs, and we finally got to a deck overlooking waterfall #2. Also beautiful.
Waterfall #2.
And it had a bench to sit on while we enjoyed the peaceful spot. I even ate half of the now smushed banana I had in my pocket.
So peaceful.
After we sat there for a good long time we faced the fact that the only way to go was up. And so we started.
Beginning the long climb back to the top.
My quad muscles were already sore from all the stairs down. And it turns out my calf muscles were too. Going up was slow, with lots of breaks to examine interesting things in the rock walls.
Getting the shot from the best angle.
Or just to sit on a landing and talk to people going down. Everyone was so encouraging. Some people had their dogs with them. I never would have asked Penny to walk down all those stairs, which were made out of grating. I think they said there were over 600 steps.
Trying to hold up the rock.
Just think how uncomfortable that would be on their feet. And if they decided they weren’t going to go back up, then what? Are you going to carry your dog up 600 steps?
Watch where you put your feet.
There was a couple with a very young girl too, on their way up when we were going down. She was already whining and they were negotiating how far she’d have to climb up before they’d carry her for awhile.
There was so much beauty.
Nope, I would not advise bringing any aged children down into that canyon. No dogs, no kids, there should have been a sign at the top!
Do you see the whale?
Anyway, we slowly climbed back up to the top, resting when we wanted to, stopping for interesting things, even stopping for uninteresting things. Just stopping.
Even split rocks help hold up the wall.
And it turned out it wasn’t as bad as I’d feared, though I was really glad to finish. At the top was a young couple, she clearly very pregnant, just starting down. We showed her pictures of the rock strewn trail, the seemingly endless miles of stairs. She smiled and said she thought she could do it even though she was 7 or 8 months along.
Slow and steady on the way up.
We told her the first waterfall was prettier than the 2nd and if she didn’t go to the second she wouldn’t be missing much. We told her it would be ok to decide to turn around, the trail was beautiful and she’d still have fun.
Looking up makes you a little dizzy.
I bet they went all the way to the first fall, but I hope she turned around there. It was already afternoon and I sure wouldn’t want to do that trail with fading light.
Luckily we didn’t see any falling rocks.
We were glad we did it, but neither of us suggested doing any more trail hiking the next two days!
There were lots of rhododendron, this would be beautiful in the spring.
We did do a little exploring in the surrounding area the next few days but those pictures will have to wait for another post.
Every summer we are lucky enough to have orioles visit our feeder. They never stay long enough, many adults leave sometime in mid to late August which seems too early.
This lady serves gormet grape jelly!
The juveniles stick around a couple more weeks, eating the jelly as fast as they can.
What do you mean I have to feed myself?
Even though the youngsters are pretty, I always miss the adults.
You’d think the lady would put a roof over our lunch!
But last year and this year, after quite a long break without seeing any adults, I’ve had adult males and on occassion an adult female stop by the feeder in late August!
You shut up! No YOU shut up!
I’m always excited when, long after I think they’re gone, they show up for a few more days.
I need to grab a snack before those two come back!
I guess they’re fueling up for their trip south to Florida, or Central America. That seems like such a long flight I can’t imagine.
I thought I’d check out the finch food. Not as good as jelly.
And it seems even harder to imagine the youngsters being successful at the trip on their own. I wonder if families reunite once everybody is down there or if once they leave they’re leaving their family forever.
You’re not my mom!
I know they’re gearing up to leave me. But I bought a big jar of jelly this week, hoping they’re around long enough to finish it all.
Sometimes I go camping just to have a few days away from everyday responsibilities. Time to nap and read and snack and daydream.
Just one exit up the road from home.
Sometimes I go camping with a specific goal in mind. I’m hoping to get that perfect Milky Way image, or find a new bird to photograph, or see a part of the state I haven’t seen before.
My favorite site at this campground.
Last week, at the last minute, I got to reserve 3 nights in my favorite campsite at the local state park. It’s a spot where Katie and I camped many times. This trip I hoped to introduce Penny to campground noises.
“Did I hear something over there, mom?”
She’d been there for a couple visits last year, but it was all overwhelming to her, and even with her dad and me right there she was pretty nervous about all the people and cars and noisy trucks with trailers driving by.
“Hey! What’s my tent doing out here in the woods, mom?”
This year she’s older and wiser and a little bit calmer. Though she still looked when noisy things including people with their dogs walked by, she didn’t automatically come undone.
“I’ll just stay real close, OK mom?”
She was only visiting me for a few hours each day, and while she was there we took plenty of walks around the campground, letting her sniff the vacant spots…
“I approve of this one, mom.”
…and moving swiftly past those occupied.
“Nothing to see here, just protecting my bikes.”
She even got to walk past a couple of pitbulls and their flustered dad. She was a rockstar.
See them coming around the corner up there? Penny’s tail was already up in alarm and I didn’t notice them until they were much closer. She knew right away. She never barked, she just heeled with me right by them.
We spent about an hour on her second visit inside the tent as evening fell. I think she would have been fine spending the night in the tent if I had insisted. But she was a little restless after an hour and if I’m honest, I wasn’t looking forward to packing up in the morning with her on site.
“I guess this is OK mom. But daddy has air conditioning and a bed. Just sayin.”
It takes me an hour to pack up without the distraction of a curious dog. But next time, if she’s willing I think we’ll spend the night in the tent. Maybe she’ll begin to understand it’s all an adventure and mom’s got her back.
“Umm, excuse me mother, let me be clear. I’m not taking a shower.”
The other reason I jumped at a chance to camp at this site is the opportunity to photograph birds. Every time I’ve been at site 16 there have been birds flitting around. Their images are hard to capture, they’re not like Kensington birds, posing for treats.
A really poor image of a cardinal that swooped in and then out.
These birds are never happy when they stop by and you’re at their site. I sat for hours, still in my chair, camera ready, and didn’t catch a good look at one bird, though I heard redstarts and vireos and wrens all around me.
Mostly I got bird imposters like these brown leaves.
Then this guy bounced out of the underbrush.
A gorgeous brown thrush.
After looking at me he hopped up on a vine with his back to me. In a moment, though, he turned his head to make sure I got the shot, and then he took off.
“Did you get my good side, lady?”
I smiled, at least I got one decent image of a bird!
And then I noticed this little red squirrel looking a bit worse for wear. She skittered around the campsite and then disappeared.
A skinny little red squirrel.
While I’m looking for her, tossing a few blueberries in the direction she ran, a opportunistic chipmunk showed up, very happy with the blueberry offering.
“Hey lady! You got anything to spare?”
Meanwhile Ms. red squirrel, apparently a tired mom, was up in a tree at the edge of the campsite, happily chowing down on a nut.
Nom, nom, nom…
She was happy until she noticed the chipmunk was feasting on blueberries.
A special treat!
That seemed to make her very unhappy. She watched the chipmunk more carefully. I tossed a few more blueberries. She was conflicted.
“Wait! Those blueberries were for ME!”
And then she ran as fast as she could down that tree and back out into the site where she scored a blueberry of her own.
“That chipmunk got one, but he’s not going to get the rest!”
It all made me smile.
Camping generally makes me smile, even when it rains, which it inevitably does at least one day on every camping adventure. At least this time it was overnight. And in the morning the sun rose again.
Another beautiful morning.
Time to get packing and head home. A little fuzzy girl was waiting for me to provide her next adventure. She’s kind of demanding that way. I don’t mind.
Another adventure in the books.
Till next time, site 16. Thanks for the new memories.
Almost a week ago now we had clear skies, no moon, and moderate temperatures. It was all perfect for a Milky Way photo shoot. So a photographer friend and I along with her daughter took a run up to the thumb of Michigan to find somewhere to spend the night under the stars.
Best to know where you are.
There’s a special barn up there, and I’ve always thought it might make a good Milky Way foreground.
This barn is “in” the town of Pigion.
We checked it out, both sides. The owner of the barn must have a sense of humor.
Open to interpretation.
But physically it wasn’t really faced in the correct direction for a Milky Way shoot that night. Maybe earlier in the season when the Milky Way will be further to the east. I’m keeping it in mind So we headed up toward Port Austin, near the point of Michigan’s thumb. We found a little roadside park with a small sandy beach.
The last light illuminates the log resting on the beach.
We decided to watch the sunset from there and then decide what to do. While we were watching the sun a small flock of cedar waxwings showed up, sitting in the dead tree near us and then flying out to catch bugs. The light was low and they moved so fast it was hard to get a good image.
A cedar waxwing keeps watch for a tasty bug.
But they sure made me smile.
There seemed to be an unlimited source of very thin rocks, perfect for stone skipping. So my friend and her daughter skipped stones and I took pictures.
So fun!
It was so much fun.
Meanwhile the sun began to set. And, though we didn’t get a great sunset it was pretty enough for us.
A quiet sunset.
We went back to the car to get our real cameras and when we came out to the beach hundeds of lightening bugs rose from the beach grass. I tried so hard to get a picture of them, but it was hard.
See the yellow fireflies? Now multiply that by 100s.
Just imagine standing there with all these glowing lights flitting around you. It was magical.
And then it began to get dark and my friend told me there was an aurora alert and we should take a test shot to the north and see if anything was happening. And guess what.
A pink dome, supported by a green base with a couple pillars in for good measure.
There was!
So we spent a lot of time shooting the aurora. It wasn’t a spectacular show, but there was plenty of pink and green and light pillars.
Crazy beautiful.
Then we turned our cameras south to see if the dark horse was leaving the protection of the trees yet.
Hiding behind the trees.
It was still, unfortunately, partially behind the hill. We weren’t in a prime location for Milky Way, looking to the south it was behind the trees for much of the night. But the aurora made the site worthwhile.
The aurora was moving out further into the bay.
Across the way you can see retangles of golden light. I think, after studying a map, that must be Tawas, a large town on the other side of Saginaw Bay. I also wondered if there’s a bank of foggy mist out there.
We looked back to the south. The dark horse in the Milky Way was moving further out from behind the trees.
The dark horse is headed west.
So that’s how the night went. Shoot a little to the north, shoot a little to the south. There was something spectacular no matter where we looked.
It was hard to believe we’d gotten so lucky!
The whole night was so wonderful. Fireflies, aurora, Milky Way, stars, a slight breeze, warm temperatures, the lapping of a quiet lake. You can’t beat it. And I felt lucky that we were there.
Milky Way AND firefly!
We left the beach a little after 1 a.m. as the mist from the bay started to move over the Milky Way and the aurora had fadded.
Notice all the light pollution from Caseville.
We had a 2.5 hour drive back home. I smiled the whole way.
Nothing but stars and the tail end of the Milky Way overhead.
Change Is Hard 