Category Archives: National Landmark

National landmark or historical place

Florence, OR AUG 26, 2018

On August 26th we headed south to Florence, Oregon (pop 8,000) for a two week stay. We wanted to enjoy the Oregon coast and wait out the Labor Day holiday and all the traffic it brings. On the day after Labor Day all the full time RVers start singing “it is the most wonderful time of the year” because all schools are in session, the campgrounds empty out and things really get quiet. No more dodging kids on bikes or fighting for campground spaces. Nine months of peace and quiet. Ahhhh.

In spite of the holiday traffic and crowds, we did get in a little sightseeing. Florence is a great place to visit the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, a forty square mile park and the largest expanse of coastal dunes in North America with peaks up to 300 feet. The area was busy with dune buggies and ATVs which are allowed on the dunes.

US-101 Siuslaw River Bridge, Florence OR

Since Florence is a river town along the Siuslaw River, we rode to both the North Jetty and South Jetty where the mouth of the Siuslaw River meets the Pacific Ocean. During our time in Florence it was both chilly and windy; we could certainly feel the cold wind at the jetties.

Another day we drove south to see the Umpqua Lighthouse. Built in 1894, it is the only lighthouse on the Oregon coast that emits a red and white light. There are eleven lighthouses on the Oregon coast.

The day after Labor Day we drove north to Heceta Head Lighthouse, also built in 1894 and located 206 feet above the Pacific Ocean. This area of the Oregon coast is especially scenic and beautiful. We never tire of seeing this view! The sea mist, which has annoyed our picture taking all summer, persisted.

Heceta Head Lighthouse in the Distance

At the scenic viewpoint where these pictures were taken, we saw down on the rocks hundreds of sea lions barking at each other and frolicking in the icy cold water.

It was a blustery chilly day and I shivered at the thought of being in the water. We could not only see and hear the sea lions, we could smell them too. Certainly not a fragrance anyone would want to bottle!

On the way home we stopped at the very unusual Darlingtonia State Natural Site. Located here is an unusual plant which traps and digests insects. It is also known as the cobra lily and pitcher plant.

Native to the bog areas of Northern California and Southwestern Oregon, insects are lured into the leaf opening under the hood by nectar on the edges of the openings. Once inside the insects are confused and unable to find their way out. They fall into a pool of liquid at the base of the leaf where the insect is digested and absorbed.

Bill and I agreed the plants reminded us of something you would see on Outer Limits or Twilight Zone TV shows. Really creepy. As we stood there we saw a butterfly, moth and fly buzz around the plants. We found ourselves holding our breath and then saying, “No! Don’t land there! Danger, danger! “

And with that, it was time to head a little further south. Oregonians told us Oregon has one day of summer a year. We thought they were kidding. They weren’t. It has been cloudy much of the time, chilly and windy (mid sixties for highs and 50 at night). Now, not all of Washington and Oregon is this cool. If we had gone inland toward Seattle or Portland, we would have had plenty of heat. Since we will be hugging the coast as we drive south it probably won’t get much warmer. But there is something psychological about heading south in the fall that at least makes you feel warmer.

Next up: Southern Oregon and our last days before hitting California

Central OR Coast, Part 2, AUG 24, 2018

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Continuing with our time in Yachats at the Tillicum Beach Campground, we were relieved to finally have the smoky haze gone and see sunshine and clear skies. We drove seven miles south to the Cape Perpetua Headland which at 800 feet is the highest point accessible by car on the Oregon coast. It was a fairly clear day and there were beautiful views extending 37 miles along the Oregon coastline. Captain James Cook first sighted the Headland in 1778 and named it after Saint Perpetua.

In 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt formed the Civilian Conservation Corps and Cape Perpetua was a base camp. The CCC’s built a stone structure which we were able to stand in at the overlook. They chose to build this structure here because of the magnificent views. The stone structure served as a lookout for enemy ships and planes during WWII.

One day we were out geocaching and whale watching and stopped to pick some blackberries. In a short time we had enough for a cobbler. Oregon produces nearly 100% of the nation’s commercial blackberries, black raspberries and boysenberries. They also grow more than 70 million pounds of blueberries a year.

We spent quite a bit of time stopping at viewpoints looking for whales, often with much success.

One day we took chairs and sat at a viewpoint watching and waiting. As you can see from this picture, it was very chilly.

We could see whale watching tour boats circling around which meant whales were close by. It takes time and patience when watching for them.

Their pattern is usually they surface and blow or spout to replenish their oxygen supply. The number of blows depends on how many minutes they have been down, one blow for every minute down. The spout or blow shoots nearly twelve feet high, expelling 400 liters of air in a single blast. They then dive below the surface for three to five minutes and swim 300 to 400 yards. They then come up for another series of blows.

If they are frightened or sense danger they may stay down for 30 minutes. Sometimes they dive and can reappear a quarter of a mile away, so you really have to have a keen eye as you search the horizon. Some whales “spyhop” which means they lift their heads above the surface of the water to get a better view of their surroundings and spy on local whale watching tour boats. Whales have the largest brain of any animal on earth and they are very intelligent and curious. Those whales sure are quick which makes it really hard to get a good picture!

the whales pass twice a year while migrating north in the early spring and south in early winter. Those are the best time to see the whales but there are some resident gray whales who hang out in this area year round, feeding close to shore. There are volunteers at 24 viewpoints along the coast from Ilwaco, Washington to Crescent City, California to answer questions and help visitors spot whales.

Our last day in the area we drove north to Cape Foulweather which was discovered by Captain James Cook in 1778. The weather was particularly stormy the day Cook arrived with winds of 100 MPH so he named the area Cape Foulweather. Winds of 100 MPH are not uncommon here during storms.

This area is the first geographic location named on his voyage to the north Pacific coast. Captain Cook’s accounts of this voyage were published and aroused world wide interest which was followed by the fur trade. The views here are stunning.

BYE!

Next up: Florence, OR and huge sand dunes

Central OR Coast Part 1, AUG 21, 2018

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After two and a half months in Washington state it was time to continue south back into Oregon. We really hated to leave gorgeous South Beach and our campsite overlooking the ocean. As we pulled out early in the morning there was already someone waiting to grab the site.

We headed south down highway 101. We spent one night at the Elks Lodge in Hoquiam, WA and the next morning we crossed the Astoria-Megler Bridge which spans the Columbia River. It is the longest continuous truss bridge in North America. In the middle of the bridge is the state line between Washington and Oregon. And just like that, we were back in Oregon!

Unfortunately it was a foggy morning and we were unable to get good pictures of the bridge or view from the bridge of Astoria.

We stopped in Seaside for a two night stay and then drove to Tillicum Beach Campground located in the Siuslaw National Forest for a five night stay.

US Highway 101 on the Oregon Coast

Along the way we passed the 45th Parallel, the halfway point between the Equator and the North Pole. We were last at the Tillicum campground in June 2014. Our view of the ocean here wasn’t quite as nice as South Beach, but we could see the water and hear the waves crashing.

Tillicum National Forest campground is located just a few miles from the tiny town of Yachats, pop 700. Our first couple days there the sky was hazy and smoky from the Canadian wildfires and we were under an air quality alert. We drove around the beach at Yachats but it was hard to get any pictures through the haze.

We definitely prefer the Oregon coast over the Washington coast. The views driving down the coast are better, the beaches are sandy rather than rocky and the beaches are much more accessible. The beach at the Tillicum campground could be easily reached by walking down some steps.

Even though the haze was still in the area the next day we drove north to see two lighthouses. We crossed the beautiful Yaquina Bay Bridge into Newport and visited the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse, the second oldest standing lighthouse on the Oregon coast.

Built in 1871 it was decommissioned in 1874. Yes, after only three years! It is the only existing lighthouse with the living quarters attached and the only historic wooden Oregon lighthouse still standing. It was restored to a working lighthouse in 1996 as a privately maintained by the Oregon Parks and Recreation as a navigation aid for the United States Coast Guard. Today a steady white light shines from dusk to dawn.

Next we drove to Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area. The Yaquina Head Lighthouse located there, is also called the Cape Foulweather Lighthouse because when it was built they mistakenly thought they were at Cape Foulweather. At 93 feet, it is the tallest lighthouse in Oregon. It was first lit in 1873 and was automated in 1966. It is still active today.

We first stopped at the Interpretive Center where we saw exhibits on whales and watched a movie about the area.

Even the Doors have Lighthouse Silhouettes

We then drove to the lighthouse which has beautiful views.

We could see whales spouting in the distance, seals lounging on rocks and lots of birds.

As we walked up towards the lighthouse we noticed a bad smell. At first we thought it was from the seals. Then in the distance we saw huge rocks with seabirds sitting on them. The rocks were covered in white bird poop. That was the source of the smell. Yuk!

We read that the common murres bird colonies here are the most rapidly growing on the Oregon coast.

Sunset from our beach side campsite.

Next up : more time on the Oregon coast

San Juan Island, WA July 13, 2018

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We continued our stay in Birch Harbor, Washington (pop 8,400) which is very close to the Canadian border. In fact the nearby town of Blaine, located on the U.S./Canada border is the busiest border crossing between British Columbia and Washington state.

In Blaine is the Peace Arch Historical State and Province Park with a Peace Arch. It commemorates the signing of the Treaty of Ghent in 1814, the peace treaty between the U.S. and the United Kingdom that ended the War of 1812.

The Arch, dedicated in 1921, is 70 feet tall and the first such structure in the world. It was built on the International Boundary between the two countries.

School children from the United States and Canada donated money for the purchase of the land surrounding the Peace Arch.

It is located in a WA state park with beautiful gardens, including one garden representing the flag of the United States and another flower garden representing the Canadian flag.

We could walk freely between the two countries at the Arch with no need to worry about a passport.

It was interesting to see the houses and the street across from the state park are in Canada.

On this Border is a Ditch and Not A WALL

On Friday we took the ferry over to San Juan Island. This island is the westernmost island of the San Juan Islands and lies between the mouth of the Puget Sound and the Vancouver Island. it is also the second largest and most populated of the 172 isles of the archipelago (group of islands). We originally planned to just walk on the ferry and ride a bus around the island but decided at the last minute to take the car along if there was space available. We had to drive from our campground in Birch Bay to the ferry landing in Anacortes and arrived about an hour before departure. To our delight there was room for the car. Quite a surprise on a Friday in the middle of summer. The ride took a little over an hour and we certainly enjoyed the view of Mount Baker in the distance.

Since San Juan is the westernmost island we also passed the major islands of Shaw, Lopez and Orcas.

We arrived at Friday Harbor which is the island’s largest town, ferry landing and a U.S. Port of Entry. It is one of the last remaining 19th century wood-built fishing villages in Puget Sound. One square mile in size, Friday Harbor has about 2,000 year round residents and 15,000 summer residents. Friday Harbor is the touristy section of the island with shops, restaurants, etc. We knew the rest of the island was going to be remote and without restaurants. Because we just decided on the way to the ferry to take the car, we hadn’t packed any food or drinks. No worries. We stopped by a Friday Harbor grocery store and stocked up on snacks and drinks to get us through the day. Off we went!

The island is only 55 square miles of land and it only takes fifteen minutes to travel from east to west. We were surprised at the farmland and woodlands, prairies, as well as small seaside villages with miles of sandy beaches and bluffs. It was typical to see unattended baskets of eggs for sale along the side of the road.

First up was the English Camp part of the San Juan Island National Historical Park, located on the northern part of the island. Near South Beach and the southern end of the island is the American Camp. This English Camp commemorates the British and American struggle for possession of the San Juan Islands.

The dispute resulted in the Pig War of 1859. Ever heard of that war? Neither had we. The war began in 1859 when an Englishman’s pig strayed onto land claimed by an American and started eating his potatoes. The American shot the pig, who was the only casualty of the conflict. Both sides set up camps to lay claim to the land with neither side wanting to go to war, especially Lincoln who had the approaching Civil War to worry over. For 12 years there was a joint U.S./British occupation of the island while the countries argued over who owned the San Juan Islands. Finally in 1872 arbitration gave the San Juan Islands to the United States and set the boundary between the United States and Canada.

We read that this former English camp in a National Historical Park is the only place in the United States today where the British flag is raised each morning. The ranger pointed out that the park has an American flag on higher ground up the hill, therefore the American flag is always higher!

We were surprised to see a totem pole there as well. Dedicated in 2016 it acknowledges the history of the native Coast Salish people at the site of a Coast Salish village.

Later in the day we stopped by the American Camp. Not really all that much to see at either camp, but still a fun piece of history to learn about!

Next up was Lime Kiln State Park, a 41 acre state park named after the former lime kiln operations in the area. It is also called “Whale Watch Park” because it is one of the top places to view orca whales in the world. Unfortunately we did not see any whales even though several had passed by a couple hours earlier. We did enjoy seeing the 1919 picturesque Lime Kiln lighthouse.

In the distance we could see the snow-capped mountains of the Olympic Mountains.

We ended our travels at the far tip of the island called Cattle Point where we saw another lonely lighthouse standing guard.

We cut our visit a little short and got to the ferry early. Since we didn’t have a reservation for the car, we wanted to be sure we could get on the late afternoon ferry back to Anacortes. What a great day!

Mt Baker stands out in this area of Washington, what a sight to see.

Next up: Another ferry trip!

Seaside, Oregon May 20, 2018

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After four days of heavy clouds and cool temperatures, we left Pacific City and headed further north up the coast to Seaside, Oregon (pop 6,500). Seaside first welcomed vacationers in 1850 and is Oregon’s oldest ocean resort community.

We arrived at our campground for a fourteen day stay and finally saw sun in the afternoon! We have found that it is usually cloudy in the mornings and clears up by noon.

Seaside is a charming beach community. Can you find Bill in this picture?

Seaside has a promenade nicknamed “The Prom”, a 1.8 mile concrete walking path that parallels the Pacific Ocean. There is a statue there of Lewis and Clark and Lewis’ dog Seaman. This area of Oregon was the final destination of Lewis and Clark and their Corps of Discovery after their 1804-1806 westward journey. They wintered at nearby Fort Clatsop and during that time several of the men came to Seaside to build a salt cairn to boil water from the ocean and remove salt which they used to flavor and preserve meat.

One day we drove north to nearby Warrenton to get together with an amateur radio group for brunch. It is always nice to meet other amateur radio enthusiasts around the country and learn firsthand about their community. If you want to know the best places to eat, shop or visit, just ask a local. On the way home we stopped by Fort Stevens State Park in Hammond. Fort Stevens was named for Territorial Governor Stevens, constructed during the Civil War and remained active until shortly after World War II. The Fort guarded the mouth of the Columbia River from Confederate gunboats during the Civil War and included eight concrete gun batteries. The post later was Oregon’s only coastal defense fort during the Spanish-American War and both World Wars.

The fort is the only military fort in the United States since the War of 1812 to be fired upon by an enemy during time of war when it was attacked by a Japanese submarine on June 21, 1942.

We enjoyed taking the self guided walking tour of the Fort and found several geocaches as well as nice views of the Columbia River. On the other side of the park was the Pacific Ocean with the Wreck of the Peter Iredale. This shipwreck was a ship which ran ashore in 1906 and is one of the most accessible shipwrecks of the “Graveyard of the Pacific”.

A geocache led us to this historical marker, the site of a Japanese shell explosion that was one of seventeen fired in June, 1942.

On Memorial Day we spent the day exploring Cannon Beach south of Seaside. The picturesque town is named after a cannon that washed up on the beach in 1846. As expected on a holiday the beach was crowded.

We especially enjoyed seeing the famous Haystack Rock and “Terrible Tilly”, the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse.

Built in 1881 because ships needed guidance to get around Tillamook Head, the lighthouse is located a mile offshore. The conditions there were so physically and mentally grueling that light keepers were assigned shorter rotations than other light keepers. After 77 years the lighthouse lights were turned off for good and today it is not open to the public. It looks rather lonely out there by itself.

While in Seaside we had our teeth cleaned. We were very pleased with the dentist and his friendly staff. Our dentist was very thorough in his exam and drove a pickup truck with a surfboard in the back! Fun!

One of our main reasons for visiting Seaside was so Bill could attend the largest amateur radio convention in the northwest. It was conveniently located right in Seaside at the Seaside Convention Center.

Seaside may be small but they have learned how to take full advantage of their beautiful location. In the days before the convention Bill volunteered to help with pre-convention set up. He really enjoyed attending seminars and talking with other radio enthusiasts.

He had already met members of the local Seaside amateur radio club and twice met them for breakfast at a local restaurant. Friday evening we attended their spaghetti dinner fundraiser. Bill won a big box of salt water taffy which was great since we had talked about buying some at one of the beachside shops. Since we had just had our teeth cleaned we each ate a couple pieces and gave the rest away!

We had a great two weeks in Seaside and the days flew by. The weather was for the most part sunny but still very cool with lows in the upper forties and daytime highs in the upper fifties to low sixties. Such is the late spring weather along the Oregon coast.

Next stop will be in Washington state.

Lodi & Sacramento, CA APR 12, 2018

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Leaving the Hollister area we drove to the town of Lodi for a stay at the Elks Lodge. Lodi is a major wine producing region with more than 80 wineries located in the area. The town has nicknamed itself the “Zinfandel Capital of the World”. We enjoyed doing some geocaching and found the people to be very friendly.

Beside the road was this exchange library where we found a geocache hide

Next up was the town of Nicolaus about thirty miles from Sacramento, the capital of California. Even though we drove on major highways, the roads were really rough in some places. California really needs to spend some money repairing their roads!

On Saturday we drove into Sacramento to visit the state capitol building. It is our quest to visit every capitol building in the country. I will start with the bad comments first. You may have heard on the news that California has an alarming number of homeless people living on the streets. That fact was very evident in Sacramento. I am not usually frightened by this, but in Sacramento wherever we were there seemed to be several people arguing loudly, cursing, and in one instance approached me for money. It is common to see people wandering the streets with suitcases or carts with all their belongings or sleeping along the roads and in parks. In and around the city, bathrooms in restaurants and stores are locked and you must ask to use the facilities. Their situation is very sad, very disturbing and a little frightening.

California has a lovely state capitol building and we took their tour with an exceptional tour guide.

He clearly loves his job. California became the 31st state in 1850 and construction on the capitol building began in 1860 and concluded in 1874. Sacramento was chosen as the capital during the gold rush era because it was located near the highly populated gold rush areas. The capitol is modeled after the U. S. capitol building and has a beautiful 120 foot high rotunda.

A page boy, Queen Isabella and Christopher Columbus

We loved the statue of Ronald Reagan and seeing the legislative chambers.

George Washington portrait overlooking the State Senators

We heard an interesting story about the portrait of former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. He had the portrait commissioned by an artist in Austria, his birth country. The artist chose not to give it an ornate frame or nameplate like the portraits of other past governors and it was hung that way. Not having a nameplate may not be a problem now, but 100 years from now will people recognize the governor without a nameplate?

We went into the gift shop and this bumper sticker caught my eye.

The capitol building is located on a 40 acre park. We always look for the Liberty Bell located at all state capitals.

Next we visited nearby Old Sacramento, a four block area that was the city’s commercial district during the gold rush era and pony express.

The area has cobblestone streets and wooden walkways which give it a feeling of yesteryear. It is very much a tourist area today with restaurants, souvenir shops, carriage rides, paddle boat tours and train rides. We visited the Wells Fargo History Museum.

The Sacramento River is crossed by this yellow bridge

Watch their train here:

We finished the day at Sutter Fort State Historic Park, site of the first European outpost in California.

It was established by Swiss immigrant John Sutter with a land grant from the Mexican government and was known as New Switzerland.

After the discovery of gold the land were taken from Sutter by prospectors. We were surprised to find that the original structures were made by men from Hawaii.

On Monday we made the long drive from Nicolaus to visit Donner Memorial State Park. In order to get there we had to drive over Donner Pass using I-80 and the Lincoln Highway, elevation 7,227.

The snow was beautiful on this bright sunny day.

The state park had a very nice visitors center with displays and a movie about the Donner party, a group of pioneers who set out from Missouri for California in May 1846 in a wagon train.

The trip usually took four to six months, but due to mishaps and bad decisions they found themselves snowbound in the Sierra Nevada Mountains during the winter of 1846-1947, a record breaking snowy winter.

Of the original 87 pioneers, only 48 survived. It is one of the most famous and tragic tales of pioneer journeys, which included cannibalism to survive.

On the state park grounds is a monument to the Donner party.

Next stop: Paradise, CA to see a former co-worker from my teaching days

Death Valley National Park, CA MAR 23, 2018

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Death Valley National Park has been on our bucket list for a long time. After three days of wind and rain, we woke up to sunny skies as we left Ridgecrest and traveled to Death Valley. It was not far, but not an easy drive as we passed over two mountain passes, with the second pass at an elevation of almost 5,000 feet. It was then quite a drop down to sea level, a real workout on the brakes!

Death Valley National Park is made up of 3,336,000 acres, making it the largest national park in the lower 48 states and one of the biggest expanses of protected warm desert in the world. There are four National Parks in Alaska which are larger.

Death Valley is the lowest point in North America and the hottest, driest weather in the country. It is officially the hottest place on Earth and holds the world record for the hottest air temperature of 134°F. The valley’s steep mountain walls trap the rising hot air and recirculates it down to the basin for further heating. It has the lowest average rainfall of any place in the country with less than two inches per year, with some years no rain at all. Once again the mountains are to blame. The mountains capture moisture from passing storms before it can reach the valley.

Several people have asked us what the weather was like while we were there. This was a great time of year to visit with daily temperatures in the low 70’s with a nice breeze. At night we slept with the windows open.

One day we stopped by the Visitors Center and saw a twenty minute movie about the park. We then drove through the south end of the park, stopping at Zabriskie Point with beautiful views. There are many times in our travels over the past five years where places have surprised us with their beauty and exceeded our expectations. Death Valley was definitely one of those places.

We took a drive down the Twenty Mule Team Canyon Road which was named for the twenty mule teams which pulled wagon loads of borax across the desert. The mule teams pulled loads weighing up to 36 tons. The rear wagon wheels were seven feet high and the entire mule team was more than 100 feet long.

We also drove the Artists Palette Drive with magnificent colors that are impossible to catch with a camera.

We visited the Borax Museum where in 1881 borax was found nearby. The Pacific Coast Borax Company mining was done in the area from the 1880’s until the 1920’s when mining slowed down and the area started to become a popular tourist area. Death Valley became a national monument in 1933 and a national park in 1994.

We hiked a nice trail to Natural Bridge. It seems like almost every park we go to has a natural bridge!

A highlight of the day was visiting Badwater Basin, which at 282 feet below sea level is the lowest elevation in North America. Up on the mountainside was a sign showing sea level.

As we drove around the park we would see signs showing sea level and various places below sea level.

Badwater Basin is made up of salt flats. Sodium chloride, or table salt, makes up the majority of the salt at Saltwater Basin.

Another day we continued exploring by visiting the Harmony Borax Works, the site of one of Death Valley’s first borax operations from 1883-1888. While searches for gold yielded little success, borax became known as the “White Gold of the Desert “ and was the valley’s most profitable mineral. Borates, or salt minerals, were deposited in the ancient lake beds where water dissolved the borates and carried them to the floor of Death Valley. Here they recrystallized as borax which was used by blacksmith, potters, dairy farmers, housewives, meat packers and morticians. Many Chinese laborers were recruited from San Francisco to scrape the borax off the salt flats and carry it to wagons to be sent to the refinery. They were paid $1.30 a day minus the cost of lodging and food. They lived in crude shelters and tents.

Next we walked the beautiful Gold Canyon Trail and enjoyed every second of the hike.

Because we hiked at least two trails in the park we each earned a Death Valley decal.

After lunch we stopped by Salt Creek Interpretive Trail where we walked on the boardwalk through the marshes. Imagine our surprise to find a stream with numerous pupfish. The water originates from brackish springs and marshes more than a mile upstream. The water becomes increasingly salty due to evaporation as it flows downstream. The stream flows alongside the boardwalk in winter and spring and is more salty than seawater. Soon the stream will be dry up until next winter.

The water is too salty for human consumption but manages to sustain life for many plants and animals, including the pupfish. The pupfish have a lifespan of one year or less so they use this time to quickly feed and breed. They are one of the toughest of all fish and are able to survive in salinity several times that of seawater as well as extreme temperatures.

On our last day we drove in the northern section of the park to the amazing Ubehebe Crater which is only about 2,000 years old. The Crater is a half mile across and about 500 feet deep. If it hadn’t been late in the day we would have walked the trail around the rim.

We had a wonderful time in Death Valley and can now mark it off the bucket list. We are currently back at the Elks Lodge in Ridgecrest. Thursday we travel to a recreation area in Taft, CA.

Titan Missile Museum, AZ NOV 13, 2017

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Continuing with our time in Tucson, on Monday we drove to nearby Sahuarita to visit the Titan Missile Museum.

After watching a short video, we took a guided tour of the underground control center and saw the 103 foot tall Titan II missile in its underground silo.

We had an excellent guide who gave an in depth description of the missile facility. This was once an active intercontinental Ballistic Missile complex. Of the Titan II sites in the U.S. weapon system, this is the only one not destroyed. At one time there were 54 missiles sites, with eighteen each distributed over three locations (Little Rock, Arkansas, Wichita, Kansas and Tucson, Arizona).

The Missile Silos Around Tuscon

Site in 1962

Site in 2012

The elevator into the underground silo was under maintenance so we took the 55 steps in and then back out, not too strenuous. Anyone over six feet tall was required to wear a hard hat because we were entering low areas and they didn’t want to risk anyone injuring their head. For sanitary reasons each hard hat had a hair net, giving the wearer an unusual look! Bill didn’t seem to mind. He is always such a good sport.

The Titan II is the largest ballistic missile developed by the United States. It can carry a warhead of nine megatons, equal to nine million tons of TNT. The amount of TNT needed to equal the explosive power of the Titan II warhead would require a train of 90,000 boxcars. The train would be 1,534 miles long, stretching from Tucson to Lexington, Kentucky. While we were in the launch command center the guide simulated what a launch would have been like. It was sobering and rather scary to think what might have been.

During the Cold War the facility, and others like it, was manned twenty four hours a day, waiting for the command to launch. While they waited, men and women worked keeping the extremely complex system of hundreds of electronic and mechanical systems which must interact perfectly with each other, safe and ready to fire.

There was an accident at a Titan II missile site in Little Rock, Arkansas.

A movie made for television, called “Disaster at Silo Seven” was filmed here. Also in 1996 part of the movie “Star Trek: First Contact” was filmed at this facility.

The power of the Titan wasn’t all potentially devastatingly destructive. When no longer needed as a weapon, the Titan also launched the Gemini Program’s astronauts into orbit, sent the Viking probes to Mars and launched Voyager into the outer solar system. While it can be said the Titan missile prevented a possible catastrophic war with the Soviet Union, it also advanced the exploration of space.

After our tour we walked around outside. We saw the cover over the missile which allows satellites from other countries to see the missile silo is inactive. Our guide told us we had to explain to our potential enemies why we wanted to keep one of the missiles instead of destroying them all.

Bill was also excited to find an amateur radio antenna where ham radio operators can bring their radios and talk to people around the world using this very large antenna.

Alamogordo, NM OCT 26, 2017

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Leaving Lakewood on Thursday we headed west towards Alamogordo. We again passed by the pumps pumping oil.

We had to drive over the Cloudcroft summit, elevation 8,650 ft. Due to the high elevation and the steep grade on the way down from the peak, we disconnected the car and I drove the car down the mountain. I was able to snap a quick picture of Bill driving the RV through a tunnel on the way down.

We arrived in Alamogordo and set up at the local friendly Elks Lodge where they have electric, water and sewer RV sites. Alamogordo is home to the Holloman Air Force Base and much of the city’s industry is related to the Air Base and space travel.

After getting settled in we drove to the nearby New Mexico Museum of Space History. It is appropriate that the museum is here since this area of New Mexico is known as the cradle of America’s space program. It was not the most extensive space museum we have ever been to, and some of the museum was under renovation and in disarray, but we enjoyed our visit.

This is the Elevator

On the grounds was the burial site of HAM, the first “Astrochimp”. (Previously dogs and other animals had been launched by Soviets and NASA as merely passengers.) HAM was launched in a Mercury capsule on January 31, 1961. Three months later the first manned flight was launched into space with Alan Shepard becoming the first American in space.

We both enjoyed the Star Trek collection.

Bill was especially interested in the Daisy Track. It was used from 1955 to 1985 and was converted from rocket to air powered sled track. It was used to study the effects of acceleration, deceleration and impact on the human body of different equipment systems. It was used for biological and mechanical research and testing for NASA’s Mercury space flights and the Apollo moon landings. It was used to test the idea of seat belts for automobile use.

Thursday evening was Wing Night at the Elks and we went over and had some wings in hot sauce, very hot sauce!

Friday we drove to White Sands National Monument. Here, rare gypsum sands form beautiful white dunes that rise up to sixty feet above the Tularosa Basin floor at the northern end of the Chihuahuan Desert. How were they formed? Basically when the Permian Sea retreated millions of years ago, it left behind deep layers of gypsum fields. Mountains rose and carried the gypsum higher. The dunes were created when rain and melting snow dissolved gypsum from the surrounding mountains and carried it into Lake Lucero. Desert heat evaporated the water, causing gypsum crystals to form. Dry southwest winds exposed the crystals, eroding them into sand size particles that were blown to form the dunes.

Today, wind, snow and rain continue the process. Inches below the surface is water which prevents the dunes from blowing away. At 275 square miles, White Sands is the world’s largest gypsum dune field. It is truly like no other place on earth and one of the world’s great natural wonders. People are allowed to go dune sledding here. President Herbert Hoover declared it a national monument in 1933.

We saw an interesting movie in the Visitors Center on how the dunes were formed and are ever changing. Of particular interest was a description of how the animals such as lizards and rodents have adapted to the harsh, white environment by evolving to a white color to camouflage themselves from their enemies.

This can be a surprisingly dangerous environment where it is easy to get lost and lose your bearings in all the whiteness. A couple years ago a family visiting from France became disoriented on one of the trails on a hot day. They had failed to bring enough water with them on the hike. The parents died and their son survived because the parents gave their water to their son.

We walked on a couple of the easier trails. In the parking lot of one of the trails we noticed a vehicle with Virginia license plates so of course we had to stop and talk with them. They were from Henrico County and had been traveling full time in their RV for four months. We stood in the parking lot and chatted with them for about an hour, sharing our experience over the last four years. Always excited to meet someone from my birth state. We exchanged contact information so hopefully we will meet up with this nice couple sometime down the road.

Nearby is White Sands Missile Range where the Trinity Site is located. It was here on July 16,1945 the first atomic bomb was detonated. From 1945 to 1949 the German V2 rockets and their engineers assembled and tested their rockets here. In the 1960’s, testing for the lunar module engines that propelled Apollo astronauts off the moon’s surface was done here. Today the facilities are used for radar, laser and flight research.

On Saturday Bill helped some men from the Elks replace some electrical power cables. Some of the electrical outlets at various campsites were not working. When the men came on Saturday morning to fix them, Bill went out to ask if they needed help. They accepted his offer so he spent several hours helping them pull power cables underground. Their next step will be to connect up the RV sites to the new cables.

Next up: Willcox, Arizona

Carlsbad Caverns NP, NM OCT 24, 2017

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We left Valley of Fires and headed towards Carlsbad Caverns. We hadn’t planned on visiting Carlsbad but decided since we had some extra days to spend in New Mexico and the Caverns were fairly close, now was a good time. In November, 2015 we stopped there on our way back home to Florida. We discovered the elevator was broken and it is a very long uphill climb out of the Caverns if you can’t take the elevator! We decided to skip the tour and visit another time. We usually are up for the challenge but back then I had a chest cold and didn’t feel like the exertion it would take to hike out.

Along the way we passed oil pumps pumping oil before pulling into an Escapees RV Park called The Ranch. Located in Lakewood, it is about 45 minutes from Carlsbad Caverns. Without a doubt Escapees are the nicest and friendliest people you would ever want to meet. Immediately upon our arrival, someone rang the big bell outside the office and people starting walking up to greet us and invite us to the afternoon Happy Hour.

The next morning we drove to Carlsbad Caverns which required us driving through the city of Carlsbad. The traffic was really tedious with lots of traffic lights, none of which appeared to be synchronized.

Carlsbad Caverns, located in the Chihuahuan Desert of the Guadalupe Mountains, is one of the largest caves in the Western Hemisphere. It is also one of deepest, longest and darkest caverns ever found. It is considered to be the Eighth Wonder of the World.

We decided to take the self guided tour and our Golden Age Pass prevented us from having to pay a fee to enter the Caverns. We did rent a headset in the bookstore with a narrated tour. We began by hiking 1.25 miles into the cave through the Natural Entrance.

We descended 800 feet which was very steep in places and gave our legs and knees quite a workout.

The chambers of the Caverns were beautiful, though not as colorful as caverns we have visited in other states. The prevalent color was brown and it felt drier than other caves. The highlight was The Big Room, which at 8.2 acres is one of the world’s largest and most accessible underground chambers.

The ripples are from water dropping into the pool

This one is called “Rock of the Ages”

Carlsbad Caverns is a sanctuary to several hundred thousand Mexican bats. During the day they congregate together in a section of the Caverns called the Bat Cave. As we passed through this area we could hear them. Since they have started their winter migration, we did not see their nightly flight from the Caverns which can be seen at other times of the year. Back in the 1800’s settlers explored the Caverns and used the huge deposits left behind by the bats, called guano, as natural fertilizer.

In the early 1900’s a cowboy named Jim White was the first person to extensively explore the Caverns and led the first tours. It is hard to comprehend what it must have been like for them to enter such a huge, dark abyss. Today there are paved walkways and electric lights. It is also hard to grasp the labor that went into putting in those walkways and lights. After first becoming a national monument, it became a national park in 1930.

After spending about three hours walking through the Caverns we took the elevator back up. We were very happy to see it working this time!

The 1959 movie, “Journey to the Center of the Earth” was filmed here.

Next up: Alamogordo, NM

Through the Eyes of the Selphs

Bill and Diane's travel notes and pictures

Category Archives: National Landmark

Florence, OR AUG 26, 2018

Central OR Coast, Part 2, AUG 24, 2018

Central OR Coast Part 1, AUG 21, 2018

San Juan Island, WA July 13, 2018

Seaside, Oregon May 20, 2018

Lodi & Sacramento, CA APR 12, 2018

Death Valley National Park, CA MAR 23, 2018

Titan Missile Museum, AZ NOV 13, 2017

Alamogordo, NM OCT 26, 2017

Carlsbad Caverns NP, NM OCT 24, 2017