Category Archives: State Park

State Park visited or camped here

January 7, 2014 Borrego Springs, California

November 8, 2013 Houston, Texas

On the way to Houston we stayed one night in the Sam Houston National Forest at Cagle Campground. What a nice campground! We had a large site with a concrete pad and full hookup. This is not what is usually available in a national forest campground!

We arrived in Houston for a 5 night stay at a private campground about 13 miles outside of the city of Houston. It was a nice site with a concrete pad and full hookup, but without the space, trees and privacy we found at the national forest campground. It also had some traffic noise from the interstate close by. It seemed more like a concrete jungle after the state parks we have grown accustomed to camping in. After dealing with the mud and dirt from all the rain in Dallas earlier in the week, the concrete pad was nice, but we would have really liked some trees and grass!

On Sunday we drove into Houston to visit our friend Priscilla and her husband Roy. We met Priscilla when we lived in Northern Virginia and she is now living in Houston. It was SO good to spend time with them! We had a great meal at a barbecue restaurant and after eating they gave us a nice tour of Houston and Rice University campus.

Monday we drove 45 minutes to Brazos Bend State Park to do some geocaching and orienteering. It is hard to find permanent orienteering courses and we were pleasantly surprised to see they had one in this park. While driving in we noticed signs saying the area had alligators and venomous snakes. We drove to one lake in the park and walked around and to our disappointment we didn’t see any alligators. We pretty much decided we wouldn’t see any that day because the lakes were way down from the ongoing drought in Texas. We decided to find two geocaches near an observatory in the park. As we parked our car we encountered two elderly ladies who calmly and nonchalantly told us they had seen an alligator on the trail near a small bridge over the water. We thanked them for telling us and thought they surely had seen an alligator in the distance sunning on a far bank. To our astonishment as we walked down the path we came upon a huge alligator estimated to be 7 or 8 feet long five feet away from us. We figured if those two ladies could get by him alive, so could we, so Bill told me to give him the camera in case we had to start running. He took my hand and led the way as we slowly and carefully walked past the alligator. If truth be told, he had to slightly pull me past the alligator because my feet were not so eager to walk past the creature. We found our geocaches and then headed back down the trail thinking we would once again inch our way past Ally Alligator. To our amazement, in the short time we were gone, the alligator stretched his body across the trail, blocking our way. Since it didn’t look like he was in any hurry to get on his way, we had to find another trail back to the car. Bill and I both agreed this was the closest we had ever been to an alligator of that size….a once in a lifetime experience when you least expect it! Never thought we would leave Florida to have a close and personal encounter with an alligator in Texas! On the way to the car we saw another huge alligator on a small island in the water and a little baby alligator sunning on a rock in the water. We also saw many turtles, a bunny, and a lot of birds.

While orienteering later in the day we saw another 7 foot alligator on a bank across the lake, but he dove into the water before we could get a picture so we had to be satisfied with one of him in the water as he swam away. We came home tired and happy from our fun and exciting day in the park!

October 19, 2013 Tahlequah, Oklahoma

As we passed from Arkansas into Oklahoma, the difference in the terrain became very apparent. Instead of fertile farmlands with farms, silos and windmills, we now had large areas of open land with no signs of farming. Occasionally we saw cattle grazing in the fields. We passed through small towns with magnificent views since we could see for miles around.

We were a little concerned about our next destination, Cherokee Landing State Park outside of Tahlequah, because we had been unable to reach anyone by phone. A call to another Oklahoma state park assured us that Cherokee Landing was open, so we decided to take a chance. We arrived and were happy to see the park was open and about half full. We were delighted with our site, overlooking beautiful Lake Tenkiller, with a concrete pad, 50 amp service and water. Our first day here we decided to explore the town of Tahlequah and do some geocaching as that seems an excellent way to explore a new area. Our experience has been that geocaches often take you to places you would not ordinarily discover.

Tahlequah was founded in 1838 as the capital of the Cherokee Nation. It is also the home of Northeastern State University. One of the really neat things about the town is that all the signs are written in English as well as Cherokee. If the name sounds familiar to any of you, it is featured in the book, “Where the Red Fern Grows” by Wilson Rawls. It was also voted one of the Top 100 Best Small Towns in America.

Sequoyah, a Cherokee who created a syllabary which made it possible for the Cherokees to read and write.

All signs in the town are in English and Cherokee. Muskogee is another name for the Creeks, a Native American people from the southeast.

We also visited the site of the Cherokee nation capital building, built in 1867. On the front lawn of the building we found a mini Statue of Liberty, which was dedicated in 1950 by the Boy Scouts “as a pledge of everlasting fidelity and loyalty”. Throughout the town while geocaching we found several beautiful murals.

When we arrived back at our campsite Bill went outside the take some sunset pictures and came back in to tell me there was a bald eagle in a tree right across from our campsite. We went outside and watched him for quite awhile. It is not everyday that you get that close to a bald eagle!

The next day we went to the Cherokee Heritage Center which included a Cherokee National Museum, a Tsa-La-Gi Village, and a Cherokee Genealogy Library. Bill spent quite a few hours researching his Cherokee heritage, without much luck to his disappointment. We took a guided tour of the Tsa-La-Gi village which was quite interesting. Among many things we learned:

the village consisted of seven clans,
how they solved conflicts using stickball competitions which is similar to lacrosse,
how to make arrowheads and blowguns.

We learned that Cherokees were very resourceful in taking worthless items such as European smoothbore trade guns which they took apart and made into many items they could trade and use in their everyday lives. The Cherokee Museum contained many interesting exhibits, including a fascinating one on the Trail of Tears.

The museum is located at the site of the original Cherokee female seminary which was opened in 1851 and destroyed by fire in 1837. These three columns are all that remain of the original building.

This monument is dedicated to the Cherokees who lived before 1907. The top of the monument has the names of the 7 clans.

October 10, 2013 Memphis, TN

We left Trail of Tears and drove towards Memphis. This time, instead of cornfields, we saw field after field of cotton. We crossed the huge bridge across the mighty Mississippi River into Memphis. We stayed at T.O. Fuller State Park, about 7 miles from Graceland. This park was about half full and we chose the first site which was an end site with plenty of green space. We were pleased to see no train tracks nearby, though we occasionally heard a train in the distance, but not close enough to shake the RV! We discovered our first night at the park that even though there was not a train track close by, we were over the nightly take off and landing path of the Memphis airport. Instead of train whistles, we went to sleep with the roar of planes taking off and landing. For some reason the worst of it appeared to be our first night there with less planes the second night and very little the last two nights of our stay.

Our first full day in Memphis we went to Graceland, which was our main reason for going to Memphis. I have loved Elvis for as long as I can remember.

I read reviews that Graceland is actually small compared to what one would expect, and they are right. Elvis bought Graceland when he was in his early twenties, and the house very much has a 60’s and 70’s feel to it. The kitchen was amazingly small. We were not allowed upstairs to the bedroom area.

Living room

Entertainment room…..when he read that President Johnson had 3 TVs so he could watch all three network news reports at one time, Elvis decided to do the same

The Jungle Room with a waterfall on the wall

They had exhibit rooms of his gold records and displays of the clothing he wore at his concerts, etc.

His music flowed everywhere from the minute we reached the parking lot. Across the street from Graceland was a large visitors center where you bought tickets and waited for a shuttle to take you across the street and up the hill to the house.

We were able to go onboard the Lisa Marie

At that same location were additional exhibits, his many cars, and his airplanes, as well as many, many gift shops. One of the biggest surprises to me was the area where he and his parents are buried. I was expecting something huge and grandiose. It was actually a small memorial area with a mediation fountain. It was nice to see something very simple and quiet. There were no huge displays of flowers and gifts left by fans that I expected.

A new fan!

In all, we spent about 5 hours at Graceland and the exhibits.

The next day we ran errands in the morning and then later in the afternoon we rode downtown to Beale Street where we walked around and had dinner. Bill had some gator gumbo with his meal…..I declined. There are no words to describe Beale Street except colorful, old, and a sensory overload of music blaring from the various restaurants and bars. On the street they had gold musical notes with the names of famous musicians who had played on Beale Street. This was very much like the stars on the streets in Hollywood. Some of the musical notes were so old and worn it was hard to read the names, but after much looking, Bill spotted Elvis Presley.

While downtown we also walked through the lobby of the Peabody Hotel where they have ducks parade down from the rooftop in the morning where they stay in the fountain until 5:00 PM and then they are paraded back upstairs to the rooftop. We arrived shortly before 6:00 and therefore missed the parade. Bill asked one of the employees about the Orlando Peabody and he said that hotel is no longer a Peabody.

We enjoyed our time in Memphis.

October 3, 2013 Carlyle Lake, Illinois

Our plans to camp at an Army Corps of Engineers campground at Carlyle Lake were derailed with the shutdown of the federal government. Instead we went to an Illinois state park, Eldon Hazlett State Recreation Area at Carlyle Lake. This campground, illini, is one of the largest in Illinois, and is located on the largest manmade lake in Illinois. The campground was almost deserted this time of year in the middle of the week. We had a choice of a site, which was an electric only site.

We hiked on the Cherokee Trail and really enjoyed the nice trails, which included several bridges and steps. The views were beautiful and they had benches at overlooks along the way. At times we felt that squirrels were throwing walnuts and acorns at us from the trees overhead, and we saw many empty walnut shells along the paths.

September 25, 2013 Oglesby, IL

After a great time visiting Chicago, we traveled to Starved Rock State Park, Illinois. It is a lovely park and we were happy with our level site. Since Labor Day, the campgrounds have been pretty deserted Monday thru Thursday, and this park was no exception. The park lies along the Illinois River and is known for its fascinating sandstone rock formations. There are 18 canyons in the park formed by glacial meltwater and stream erosion. The waterfalls in the canyons are dry this time of year with the best time to see the waterfalls being in the spring during the end of winter thaw. The area has been home to numerous Native American tribes. The Park gets its name, Starved Rock, from a Native American legend. In the 1760’s, Chief Pontiac of the Ottawa tribe was killed by a member of the Illiniwek tribe. During the ensuing battles to avenge the killing, a band of Illiniwek under siege, sought refuge on the top of a 125 foot sandstone bluff. The Ottawas surrounded the bluff and stayed there until the Illiniweks died of starvation, thus the name “Starving Rock”. In 1673 French explorers Louis Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette passed through here on their way to Illinois from Mississippi. When the French claimed the region, including most of the Mississippi Valley, they built Fort Louis on top of Starved Rock during the winter of 1682-1683.

Chief Pontiac

Model of French Fort Louis in the Visitors Center

When we decided to come to this park we had no idea of the variety of fascinating things we would discover. When driving to the park we noticed a sign for a Scout Museum. Of course Eagle Scout Bill had to tour this museum. It gave a fascinating history of the Boy and Girl Scouts, and also housed a Civil War exhibit and an exhibit on the history of Ottawa County. The Scout Museum had a special geocache

We found these statues of Lincoln and Douglas while geocaching in an Ottawa city park.

and of course we had to hunt that down. We loved all the places the multi cache took us in the area.

Inside of the Scout Museum, Ottawa, Illinois

This man created the boy and girl scout movements that we know today.

William Dickson Boyce, who brought the Boy Scout movement to the United States.

Ernest Thompson Seton

Bill wore this a uniform like this in the 1960’s.

Badges honoring Boyce, founder of the Boy Scouts.

A memorial to William Dickson Boyce. We found this strange because it was in a cemetery but appeared to be more like a memorial than a grave marker, even though his daughters and sons are buried nearby.

The second day we hiked up to Starved Rock and did some more geocaches of the area. Starved Rock State Park has a lodge, and while geocaching in that area we discovered many trees that had been carved with eagles, Indians, and even a Boy Scout sign.

View of the dam on the Illinois River from the top of Starved Rock

Starved Rock

PLEASE don’t take my picture!

We had to climb MANY steps to get to the top of Starved Rock!

More eagles winter in Starved Rock than anywhere else in the lower 48 states.

This carving was dedicated to the Native American Indians. It was done by Peter “Wolf” Toth who carved and donated statues in every state. This donation is his 62nd carving.

Our time here went by too quickly and soon it was time to move on. We certainly did enjoy our time at Starved Rock State Park!

September 18, 2013 Zion, Illinois

We moved to Illinois Beach State Park in Zion, Illinois. We have a nice level site with electricity but no water or sewer on site. From our windows we have a nice view of Lake Michigan. There are very few campers here so we practically have the campground to ourselves. We heard they will fill up again on the weekend. Our first night here we had two pretty severe thunderstorms that lasted all night and into the morning hours. At one point we saw a big flash of light and we lost power. The next morning Bill went out to inspect the electrical box and found the fuse had blown but the surge protector had protected the RV from electrical damage. With a flip of the switch he was able to get the power back on. We spent the day pretty much inside doing paperwork and chores since the weather was still threatening rain. Later in the day the skies cleared enough that we rode our bikes on a bike trail along the lakeshore. The wind had been gusty all through the night and day, and Lake Michigan looked angry with waves that made it appear to be more ocean than lake.

On Friday we drove to Waukegan and had lunch with Bill’s Aunt Emily. Friday evening we had a lovely dinner and visit with Aunt Emily’s son, Gary and his family. It was so good to see Gary and Carla and their son and grandsons. Thanks Gary for preparing a delicious meal!

Saturday we rode the Metra into Chicago.

Bill had been there before, but it was my first visit. We were able to purchase a weekend pass for unlimited riding on the Metra for only $7.00. There was so much to choose from and we had only planned on spending two days in the city. We also purchased a 2 day pass for the Chicago Trolly and Double Decker bus which turned out to be a great decision since it was a great way to see all the city sites and got us to our chosen destinations without a lot of walking. Most of the time we rode on top of the double decker open bus, and Chicago lived up to its name as a cold and windy city! Among the many sites we saw while riding around the city included Millennium Park with “The Bean”, the Art Institute of Chicago, Buckingham Fountain, Michigan Avenue’s Magnificent Mile, and Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears.

33 foot artwork in Millennium Park, locally called “The Bean”, made of mirrored material so it reflects

The reflections from The Bean were fascinating!

Self portrait of Bill reflected in The Bean

Famous for fabulous shopping

Our first stop was The Field Museum which was established in 1893 and ranks among the world’s foremost museums in natural science. It houses over 25 million artifacts and specimens. We saw the Hall of Gems, a fabulous exhibit on Ancient Egypt which was one of my favorite things there, a wonderful exhibit on Native American cultures, especially those of the Pacific, Northwest Coast and Arctic regions; a Hall of the Ancient Americas which included 13,000 years of human history focusing on the Incas and Aztecs. There was also a Hall of Conservation called “Restoring Earth” and a DNA Discovery Center. Bill’s favorite by far was the dinosaur exhibit, featuring Sue, the largest and most comprehensive T Rex ever discovered. That evening we caught the Metra back to the station closest to our campground. We were pretty exhausted but looking forward to returning the next day to Chicago.

The Field Museum

Real mummies

From the Conservation exhibit hall

A dinosaur named Sue….found in South Dakota….actually the age and sex is unknown, she is named Sue after the person who found her

Hello, Sue!

Sunday morning we once again caught the Metra in to Chicago with our first stop being Willis Tower, formerly known as Sears Tower with its famous SkyDeck. After going through security and waiting in line, we took the elevator up to the 103rd floor where we had a 180 degree view of 4 states and 50 miles. The highlight of our visit was walking out on The Ledge, a 1.5 inch thick glass enclosed cube extending more than 4 feet, where you could look straight down. It was like standing on air. We are not afraid of heights, but we agreed it was a little hard to take that first step out into what appeared to be nothing but air 103 floors up. A part of our brain told us it was safe and okay, we our eyes also was sending messages to our brain not to do it. It was amazing!

Gorgeous 180 degree views of Chicago…we were fortunate to have such a clear day

Bill’s foot on the glass ledge, where you could look straight down 103 floors to the sidewalk

Took more nerve than we expected

A side view of the cube, or ledge

We caught the trolley outside the tower to head to the next destination. On the way the tour bus took us on the south side of Chicago through the Hyde Park and Kenwood areas. President Obama’s home is in Kenwood. We also went by the home of Muhammed Ali.

Sidewalk in front of the residence of President Obama, barricaded off and protected at all times by Secret Service

Not possible to get a clear view of the house

Home of Muhammed Ali

The tour bus let us out at our next stop, The Museum of Science and Technology, the largest science center in the Western Hemisphere, which includes more than 35,000 artifacts over 14 acres of displays and exhibits. We saw 80 at 80, which showcased 80 amazing artifacts from the museum’s 80 years of existence. The highlight of the museum for us was taking an onboard tour of a real U-505 submarine, the only German submarine captured in World War 2. Unfortunately the museum closes early on Sundays so our visit was shorter than we had hoped and expected.

My favorite astronaut

Bill operated a telephone switchboard like this in the main office of his high school

The specially made room to house the submarine which was floated here and lowered into this room….sub is on the right of the picture….impossible to grasp how big it really is. They had a time lapse movie showing the sub’s move from Lake Michigan into the museum.

Forward torpedo room and also served as sleeping quarters. We were told that each bunk was rotated among three men as each got off duty, so they shared their dirt, fleas and sweat. Bunks were located throughout the ship

Galley that prepared food for 59 men

Radio room

Twin diesel engines

Rear cabin

Enigma machine

Front of the submarine showing a launched torpedo

September 15, 2013 Baraboo, Wisconsin

We awoke to the sound of rain, never a good thing to hear on moving day! Luckily we were in no hurry since we had a short distance to travel that day. By the time we were ready to leave, the rain had eased up. We arrived at Devil’s Lake State Park in Baraboo, Wisconsin. This is supposed to be one of the most beautiful, biggest and most popular parks in the upper Midwest. It has 500 foot bluffs that look out over a 360 acre lake. The hiking ranges from easy trails to those that are very difficult.

We were somewhat disappointed in our campsite. The majority of the sites in the park are hilly and it was difficult to level the RV. We changed sites and still did not have a site in which we could completely level the coach. That rarely happens to us. We had heard about the flies in Michigan before we left Florida in June. We had been pleasantly surprised not to find the flies or mosquitoes to be much of a problem. That changed once we arrived here. The flies are horrible for some reason and we have to race in and out of the door to avoid them dashing inside.

One day we took a scenic drive through the park with 15 stops and a written commentary to follow.

It wasn’t the most scenic drive we have found in our travels so far, but we did find some ancient native mounds dating back over 1,000 years. These were done by a group of Native Americans called the Effigy Mound Builders. Not much is known about this group of Native Americans but it is thought they used the mounds for burial grounds, festivals and special rites. The name Devil’s Lake originally came from Native American names which translated to Spirit Lake, Holy Lake, Mystery Lake, or Sacred Lake. It was the Winnebago tribe that gave it the name which when translated means Devil’s Lake.

One mound is in the distance. Not as tall as we expected and easy to miss without the signs.

The majority of the parks we enjoy were built many years ago by a wonderful group called the CCCs…Civilian Conservation Corps. Devil’s Lake is no exception. From 1934 to 1941, during the Great Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps operated a work camp for 200 young men at Devil’s Lake. Many of the trails, roads, picnic tables, signs, etc were thanks to them.

In honor of the young men who helped build the park

Interesting tidbits about Devil’s Lake include the fact that the Ringling Brothers once owned a lakehouse here and elephants bathed in Devil’s Lake. Ulysses S Grant and Abraham Lincoln’s wife also visited Devil’s Lake.

Tuesday we drove 15 miles to Reedsburg to ride our bikes on the 400 Wisconsin Trail, a former railroad track that has been converted to a beautiful bike trail. The trail opened in 1993 and was named after the Chicago-Northwestern passenger train that at one time traveled the 400 miles between Chicago and Minneapolis/St Paul in 400 minutes. As we rode along the trail we had pastures with farmland and cattle on one side and the Baraboo River on the other. We pretty much had the trail to ourselves and found 28 geocaches.

A view of the bike path

A very pretty mural on the side of a building near the entrance to the bike trail which commemorates the bike trail

September 2, 2013 Hartford Wisconsin

Labor Day we traveled 2 hours south to the Pike Lake Kettle Moraine State Forest campground in Hartford, WI. Another campground of electricity only, so we will have to be careful with our use of water and dump tanks for the next 4 days. It is a beautiful, heavy forested campground, and we have a very nice level spot.

During our stay in Hartford we had a very nice dinner with Bill’s friend John and his wife Shari. Bill and John enjoyed catching up on the 2013 Jamboree.