Illumination at the Morton Arboretum

Last week we returned to the Morton Arboretum to view the 2019 "Illumination" - an after-dark sound and light show in the trees. It changes slightly each year, and we hadn't gone since 2017.

Certainly new since 2017 is "Sneaky Socks Alexa" troll near "Symphony Woods".

Next to Alexa is a symphonic light show featuring Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker" and two other classical-music-style pieces.

Projected dots on trees. (Similar projectors have become quite popular in campgrounds over the past two summers. I would prefer that they would be kept out of camping!)

It's not all natural trees. These large "lawn ornaments" change colors in a two- or three-minute cycle.

Back to the trees.

Many people think the "cathedral" is straight out of Hogwarts and Harry Potter.

Coyote Videos

What's better than cat videos? Coyote videos. The real deal - not staged.

I accidentally turned on video mode on one of our game cameras. While the videos take up a lot of disk space (and consume battery power), they do give more insight into wildlife behavior. Here are two recent coyote videos that we enjoyed.

Three coyotes running down the road. You can hear the two running before they enter the frame.

One of the three coyotes is clearly subordinate to the other two.

Coyote

Many nights we hear coyotes, but don't see them. And it's usually after sunset. And it's usually more than one. And the howls and yips rarely last more than half a minute.

This evening we had a lone coyote enter our "meadow" (aka septic tank drain field) a few minutes before sunset and vocalize for almost an hour before moving on. Although he/she knew we were out on our deck, as was our dog, the coyote did not seem to care.

I was surprised that the coyote stayed in the field long enough for me to get my camera. Our moving around on our deck didn't scare the coyote away - unusual.

The yellow eyes are particularly unnerving.

Letting loose a howl. It wasn't until I looked at these photos that I realized that this was not a happy coyote. The tail is firmly tucked between the legs. Contrast that with the usual pictures of confident coyotes on our game cameras (below).

Note the difference in the tail posture. Looking at the white stripe at the shoulders, this may even be the same coyote, captured on camera in November 2018.

Spider Webs

A morning of thick fog can magically transform spider webs.

A spider web of water-droplet "pearls" hanging under the railing on our front porch.

The central portion of the web.

Webs in tall grass really stand out when highlighted with moisture.

Same with webs in pine trees.

Hike to Mt Rogers

Saturday, 21 September 2019

Mount Rogers is the highest point in Virginia (5729 ft above mean sea level). The best way to hike to the summit is from Massie Gap in Grayson Highlands State Park. The trail to the top is 4.5 miles one-way, most of which is along the Appalachian Trail. Although long, the 1200 ft climb is relatively easy, but rocky, with a number of relatively flat stretches along "saddles" in the terrain.

The trail starts in Grayson Highlands State Park, but after about a mile it leaves the state park and enters the Mt Rogers National Recreation Area. This is one of the small hills along Wilburn Ridge.

The most challenging part of the trail was getting over this ridge of rock along Wilburn Ridge. The white paint is the trail blaze for the Appalachian Trail.

Mt Rogers is in the distance, with a cloud (fog) over the summit.

The hike is all about the vistas as you climb up through alpine meadows. The mountain in the middle of the photo is Haw Orchard Mountain, the center of Grayson Highlands State Park.

Another panoramic view as we climb the mountain.

The area is known for its wild ponies. They like to hang out around popular camp sites and shelters.

We knew to expect ponies, but were surprised that longhorn cattle are also grazing the high open meadows. Don't want to get too close to those horns!

Proof that we made it to the top!

The top of Mt Rogers is a dense spruce/fir/hemlock forest. It smells like Christmas, but views are non-existent.

Breaks Interstate Park

Thursday, 19 September and Friday, 20 September 2019

We took a short (3-day, 2-night) camping trip to southwest Virginia. Our first stop was Breaks Interstate Park that is jointly managed by Virginia and Kentucky. It features a 1000-ft deep canyon on the Russell Fork River that was a significant part of the economic (coal and timber) and cultural history of the area.

The main feature of the park is a set of canyon overlooks. The Breaks area is sometimes called the "Grand Canyon of the South", but I personally think that the New River Gorge in West Virginia is just as deep, but much longer. This view of Tower Rock and the Russell Fork River is from the Lover's Leap Overlook.

This railroad tunnel, visible from the Tower Tunnel Overlook goes under the "saddle" between Tower rock and Chimney Rock.

The rocks at the Lover's Leap Overlook have an interesting torturous pattern.

Lover's Leap Overlook: The rocks have a basically horizontal bedding, but there's an overlay of circular strata that seem totally out of place.

The trail to the Tower Tunnel Overlook went through a rhododendron forest.

On Friday we took the "Chestnut Ridge Trail", which is a loop trail that combines the Geological Trail, the Laurel Branch Trail, and the Ridge Trail, Here the Geological Trail goes in a crevice where the sandstone has fractured.

Geological Trail. The top of a natural arch has fallen. Lon is at the base of the fallen boulder, which is about the size of a typical pioneer log cabin.

Cliffs along the Laurel Branch Trail.

August Wildlife

Last month's highlights from our game cameras (mostly).

Bears continue to be occasional visitors.

Coyotes come by nightly, but this is the first time there were three in the frame.

It's grainy, but two days after seeing a new-born fawn, a coyote was carrying a fawn it had caught.

I come out nightly to read our electric meter. One evening I was surprised by a sizable black rat snake. We see them from time to time around this house, but having one outside our bedroom window was a bit unsettling!

Spiders

August is "Spider Month". It seems that spiders go hyperactive making large webs in late summer.

I found this spectacular "Arrowhead (or Triangulate) Orbweaver" (Verrucosa arenata) dangling from the brim of my hat. Most of the orb weavers I encounter (quite literally) while walking the paths through our woods are "Spined Micrathena" spiders. This was a new species to me.

An example of the large web of the Spined Micrathena.

Every once in a while, I manage to bump my camera into the "creative" mode and it takes a series of bizarrely colored photos. This time, I liked how it caught the web details. I did, however, change the photo to black-and-white rather than the strange deep blue hue the camera give. (This is the same web as the previous photo.)

I finally got this wren house hung in a tree last spring. Wrens never found it, but a funnel-web weaver spider sure did. Yesterday the large spider was half-way out of the bird house, but today I couldn't coax it out.

(Old) Chain of Rocks Bridge

My mother grew up in St. Louis, so every summer we headed south from Chicago on Route 66 for a week of visiting relatives. Crossing the one-mile long Chain of Rocks Bridge over the Mississippi River was definitely a highlight of the drive. In the mid-1960s Route 66 was replaced by Interstate 55 (in Illinois) and Interstate 270 (the New Chain of Rocks Bridge), and the old bridge was abandoned. It turns out it was too expensive to demolish, so it remained, and in 1998 was turned over to a local group to renovate and operate. You can get all the details from Wikipedia. Once I learned that it was possible to walk or bike over the old bridge, I had to make the trip!

The eastern portion of the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge as seen from I-270 on the New Chain of Rocks Bridge.

The New Chain of Rocks Bridge (as seen from the old bridge) is an unremarkable modern highway bridge. No one even calls it "New Chain of Rocks Bridge", it's just the "I-270 bridge".

Entering the Illinois (east) side of the bridge. It's really difficult to imagine that this narrow roadbed carried heavy two-way traffic, including trucks.

The most notable feature of the bridge is the 22° bend in the middle, allowing for easier navigation through treacherous currents and around two water intake towers that supplied water to St. Louis.

The bend.

It's not apparent at first, but the roadbed rises significantly to the middle of the bridge.

The St. Louis skyline is visible downstream.

The two water intake towers just downstream of the bridge. These predate the bridge and made the "Chain of Rocks" stretch of the Mississippi River tricky to navigate, especially so after the bridge was built. Eventually, the Army Corps of Engineers built an 8.4 mile long canal to bypass the hazards.

High Trestle Bridge at Night

Sunday, 4 August 2019

Two years ago, we rode bikes over the High Trestle Bridge between Woodward and Madrid, Iowa, during the day. We wanted to come back and see the bridge at night. So this year we got to see the bridge at night, followed by riding the entire High Trestle Trail the next day A 50-mile round trip from Ankeny to Woodward and back again.

We got to the parking lot just after sunset, and the brilliant red sunset dimmed as we walked the 3/4 mile to the bridge.

A crescent moon hung above the bridge. The illuminated section is half-way across the bridge - the blue arch in the middle of the bridge deck. The bridge is a half-mile long and about 130 feet above the river.

The illuminated section. The bridge had quite a few visitors. Most were walking, but there were quite a few cyclists, as well as rollerbladers and skateboarders.

Another view of the illuminated section.

The west end of the bridge has an observation platform where the whole bridge can be seen.