Maine's Amazing Coast

 

I've gotten to see several examples of fabulous coastline during my current visit (just look at a large-scale map of southern Maine's coast if you want to see the most complicated meeting of land and water anywhere!). The water, the islands offshore, the fog, the seaweed (it will get its own post later) and of course this lovely, lovely black slate...it's quite a feast for the eyes.

We've been to Kettle Cove twice so far, once in fog and once on a clear day. That's where the picture above was taken, on the sunny day. Here's a look at it in the fog...

The Cove is a popular beach spot and has several nice amenities (like bathrooms!) such as this cool bridge over a stream draining into the cove...

...as well as some late summer flowers that provide very photogenic foregrounding...

(You know I'll have more to say about Maine flowers in a later post!)

Another really spectacular spot we visited was Two Lights State Park. We picked the particular day to visit because the first (there was eventually another!) hurricane that threatened our area, Henri, was swinging by and we thought there might be some spectacular surf.

And there was! The photo above doesn't really do it justice. I could have sat on the rocks watching the waves pound for hours. So very cool!

Even the Adorable Granddaughters enjoyed the view. Here's one of them taking in the stormy environment...

As it turned out, neither Henri nor Ida did much violence around here; Henri didn't even give us much rain. We were of course very lucky not to have been hit like they were lower on the Atlantic coast.

Another gorgeous day found us at Fort Williams beach in Cape Elizabeth. The tide was low enough that there was plenty of beach for playing on... 

...but except for lots of good seaweed photo opps, I was most interested in the rocky sides of the cove...

The expert climber Adorable Granddaughter and a friend also love the rocks, for more active interaction. But here they are sitting together and resting after a strenuous workout on Ft. Williams' boulders...

Good company, good weather, good scenery, and rocks to climb...what more do you need?

Of course, Maine has lots more to offer, and I'll show you some more of its wonders next time.

Rockhound heaven

 

I know I've told you about the Rio Chama's gorgeous rocks before, and on this trip I told myself I wasn't going to take that many pictures of them. I mean, I have a million (est.) already! But I couldn't resist snapping a few. Here are some of my favorites...

Typical spectacular canyon view

rocks as bird apartment blocks

"desert varnish" on display

another typical day in the canyon

up close and personal

dodging rocks at Aragon Rapid

rock shelves at Big Eddy

not a bad view

Rocks, rocks, rocks!

You don't always think about it at home, but we don't really see very many, if any, impressive rocks in our neck of the woods. That's one of the things that makes visiting Colorado so much fun.

And a rock exhibition place extraordinaire is the somewhat unfortunately-named Colorado National Monument, which I last visited ten years ago!

This time we took a different (and slightly shorter) trail and was it ever spectacular! The formation at the top of this post was the "Devil's Kitchen," our destination.

The photo above might not give you the best idea of the scale of these beauties, but as you can see here, they are BIG!

That's my sister at the entrance to this amazing natural space. And here she is again, inside, along with our other hiking companion...

It was shady and cool when we were there, in the morning. But apparently in the afternoon, when the westering sun shines directly into the entrance, it really heats up...therefore, the colorful nickname.

Of course looking through the rocks back out onto the countryside is one of the big attractions, photo-opp-wise, of such formations...

...not to mention the oddly-shaped stones, some of which you'd swear were the work of a human sculptor...

isn't that an eagle on his perch?

The Monument isn't the only place I got to see some great rocks last weekend. On my way "home" to Garfield from Grand Junction, I took a recommended scenic route and was treated to some wonderful views of the canyons adjacent to the Black Canyon National Park. (The link will show you how much more amazing the Park scenery is.)

It's been even longer since I've been to that place (I think it wasn't even a Park back then!) and I didn't have time to visit it this time, either. 

But the nice scenic pullouts along Colorado 92 (handily furnished with potties as well!) provided glimpses of the same sorts of canyon scenery. Isn't this view, on the right, stunning?! I took it at Pioneer Point, not far from the Blue Mesa reservoir's dam, but it looks like it's miles away from any such artifacts of civilization.

Here's another view from the Point, showcasing the "Needle," a formation that you might be able to distinguish from the background canyon rocks.

Colorado really rocks!

After a long absence

Cold weather, low water, various ailments, visiting grandchild, etc., etc. Some of the reasons I haven't been paddling in a long time. 

Even though the water levels on the upper Guadalupe weren't that great last Saturday, we decided it was time to get back in the saddle, so to speak. The result was a lovely paddle on my favorite stretch of this river, from Zoeller Lane to Sisterdale.

And, as usual, there are more benefits than just lazy floating and upper-body exercising to recommend this wonderful activity.

Flowers, for example, like these fine examples at our put-in...

poppy panorama

poppy close-up

lowly but lovely thistles

...the rocky cliffs and overhangs on this stretch are spectacular...

Henry and non-leader Sandra

...and of course those cypress trees. I can't ever get over the sculptural quality of their trunks and, especially, their roots...

Isn't it amazing how the roots just grow every which-a-way, wherever they need to be to get their nourishment...

Yes, there's a lot in favor of this retirement hobby. But with summer coming and even lower water on the horizon, it will probably be another long while before I partake of it again.

A weekend with Lady Bird, part 2

My second encounter with the legacy and memory of Lady Bird Johnson, while in Austin recently, was at a place that I'm ashamed to say I had never visited before: The Wildflower Center in south Austin.

It's a little out of the way and it seems that a visit there just never had fit in with our Austin plans. But fortunately the group of women I was meeting this time had a place for it on the schedule and I was so happy to finally get to see it.

Perhaps a little late to see the big stars—bluebonnets and such—there were still plenty of lovely sights, and some quite unexpected. Like the newly fledged, and still fuzzy-feathered, owlet that our guide was able to show us. You can see him/her perched on left.

The Center also has a great family area with plenty of cool things for kids to see and interact with, like water features decorated with these amazingly-porous hunks of limestone...

...and culminating in a waterfall that can be walked behind...

I liked this handsome interactive Fibonacci spiral sculpture...

...which is there to show kids and their parents how this mathematical concept relates to the growth of flowers nearby...

Here are a few other snaps of interesting scenes at the Center...

verbena were looking lovely

I don't think you can find a tree with a more beautiful trunk than a madrone

the Center's buildings blend attractively with their natural setting

what else would you expect in a Wildflower Center loo?

In spite of the somewhat alarming signage spotted occasionally, our visit came off with incident or injury and was most enjoyable. I'd like to return at another season!

Side trip: der Donaudurchbruch

While our lovely Viking longship continued to sail down the Main-Danube Canal, we took an optional tour on the Danube itself.

The Danube Narrows (German: der Donaudurchbruch, or, literally, "Danube breach/opening") is a wonderfully scenic gorge. Although it's not quite as gorge-like as we are used to, given our puny little southwestern rivers. For a stream, though, that's already traversed almost 450 kilometers* (through regions that actually get reasonable amounts of rainfall) you couldn't expect anything more narrow than what we saw on this tour.

This is the tourboat that took us from the town of Kelheim up the Narrows to Weltenburg Abbey (I'll show and tell about the Abbey next time)...

As you'll see, the weather for this excursion was less than ideal. Most of our fellow travelers stayed in the cozy enclosed bottom decks, but we wanted to spend as much time as possible up top, in spite of the cold drizzle...

One good thing about the weather: I was able to wear every piece of outerwear (and long underwear) that I had packed, and this made me happy; it's always a goal not to leave unused anything you've carried for thousands of miles! Another plus: this was really the only day with sub-standard weather on our whole vacation...and it could have been a lot worse!

The views from up there were well worth a few shivers...

Oddly enough, especially given the weather, ours wasn't the only boat on the river!

He was going downstream, while we motored up, but it was windy and we didn't really envy him. Especially since we were treated with customary Viking-excursion-luxury, like a free beer (although some of us opted for Spezi, since it was, after all, only mid-morning) and pretzel...

But the rocks were the big attractions... and I mean big! The shot has a human walker in it for scale...

But we did see a couple of man-made attractions that were worth a snap. On an particularly commanding height is the Befreiungshalle ("Liberation Hall")...

it looks super-mythic in the mist, don't you think?

We knew to be on the lookout for this monument to victories over Napoleon, as we'd seen it from the bus on our way to Kelheim...

If we ever make it back to this part of Germany, we want to hike up to the Befreiungshalle (on a clear day) and look down at the Narrows.

Another non-natural structure was the end point of our short cruise, the Abbey at Weltenburg, which we saw emerging from the mist and curves in the river...

The Abbey and its grounds were fun to explore, and I'll show you what they are like next time.

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*I had a lot more trouble than I expected finding this number. That is, until I located this fabulous Danube map, complete with mile-markers. I'm sure I'll be using it for all the rest of my Danube posts.