Month: October 2019

22 Sep:  The campground at Guadalupe for trailers and RVs is essentially a parking lot divided into separate sites only by lines painted on the pavement, but we got a nice site in a corner next to trees.  We also happened to be next to a couple of fellow Granite Staters, with whom we traded contact info for potential future hiking or cross-country skiing outings after we get home.  For our hike, we did the 8.4-mile (round trip) Guadalupe Peak trail.  This is the highest point in Texas, and the trail is very pleasant.  The vertical climb is about 3,000 feet, but the ascent grade is not very steep.  The views are constantly changing, as the path winds up and around ridges.  Desert plants are common down near the campground, with trees and grassy meadows higher up on the mountain, and then a rocky summit.  We rated it as one of our favorite hikes.

23-25 Sep:  Big Bend is a large park, including the very different habitats of desert, mountains, and river.  We camped in Chisos Basin in the mountains, which was cooler than the low elevation areas near the Rio Grande.  The campground is in a very scenic valley surrounded by mountain peaks and ridges, with the iconic formation known as Casa Grande towering above it.  On one day we drove the Scenic Drive through desert terrain down to where the Rio Grande emerges from the sheer-sided Santa Elena Canyon.  Roadside signs at pull-outs described the geology, ecology, and history of the area.  We had thought of hiking the trail that goes part way into Santa Elena Canyon, but access to it was blocked by a flooded creek.

The next day we hiked Emory Peak, the highest mountain in the park.  The Pinnacles Trail ascends first easily through grassy meadows, then more steeply via switchbacks directly under some large rock pinnacles to a saddle.  The last part on the Emory Peak Trail climbs fairly gently along a ridge with good views south, with a final short ascent requiring scrambling very steeply up the rocky peak to the summit.  Early on the hike we finally got a close look at a tarantula, which we only spotted fleetingly the day before crossing the road while we were driving.  On the way up we hiked a while with a botanist consultant doing a special study of an endangered grass species for the park service.  He pointed out several interesting plants as we hiked.  One thing that impressed us was the quantity and variety of flowers this late in the season, probably blooming because of recent rainy weather.  There were purple, yellow, blue, and white ones, but some of the bright red ones particularly caught our attention.

26-29 Sep:  After Big Bend, we headed east across Texas, noticing a gradual transition from flat arid ranchland to gentle hills and finally greener terrain.  We dedicated a full day to San Antonio, where we biked on the Leon Creek Greenway; explored the Riverwalk; and toured the Alamo.  Compared to our bike rides in Colorado Springs and Albuquerque, Leon Creek was much more pleasant, with good shade and an attractively landscaped curvy path.  Future trail segments are planned to extend it and link with other trails to make a nearly continuous ring bikeway around the city.

The Riverwalk in the heart of San Antonio is an attraction not to be missed.  This walkway, one level below street level, follows both sides of the San Antonio River for several blocks in a loop and is lined with shops and restaurants.  It was constructed by the WPA in the 1930s and surely ranks among the top city parks in the U.S. for its beauty, incorporating fountains, sculptures, and even some magnificent old trees in its landscaping.  Tourists can ride on narrated tours aboard motor launches.  Close by is the Alamo.  The tour and film describing the events and significance of the battle there were well worth taking in.  Although the Texans lost the battle of the Alamo to Santa Anna’s vastly superior army, the event inspired the rallying cry “Remember the Alamo” and soon Texas won its independence from Mexico.

The next day we visited the two districts of the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historic Park:  the visitor center in Johnson City and the LBJ Ranch 14 miles to the west.  The visitor center did an excellent job of summarizing LBJ’s life and his many accomplishments as President.  We took the driving tour of the ranch and stopped at LBJ’s house, known as the “Texas White House,” because he often held meetings and entertained foreign dignitaries there.  Although the inside of the house was closed to the public due to “structural security concerns” (note in the photo the huge live oak limb that fell in the front yard), the film in the visitor center next to the house provided a good insight into LBJ’s family life.

We spent our last night in Texas at a rustic campground in the Sabine National Forest, where a cemetery in the clearing was proclaimed to be the “NATIONAL Hall of Fame Cemetery of Fox Hounds.”  Upon arriving there while setting up, we found that the spare tire mounted on the back of our camper had (1) lost its cover and (2) had its side wall blown out.  (No idea how that happened, but we bought a new spare the next day!)

 

30 Sep-2 Oct:  A short but pleasant hike took us around the self-guided Longleaf Vista nature trail in a section of the Kisatchie National Forest in northwestern Louisiana.  Several of the trees and shrubs were identified by signs along the way.  The woods were dominated by the distinctive longleaf pine trees, with their very long needles.  The visible growth of a young longleaf tree is slow at first, because at that stage it puts most of its energy into building a strong root system.  Above ground it looks like a single large tuft of green needles nearly a foot high (foresters call this the “grass” stage).  In subsequent years it then grows tall rapidly, and along with the shortleaf pine and the loblolly pine it is one of the most important southern yellow pines for the timber industry.  The nature trail descended to a small creek, then climbed over two bluffs with good outlooks.

On our way to our campground, highway signs invited us to stop at an attraction not originally on our itinerary:  Magnolia Plantation, part of the Cane River Creole National Historic Park.  Although it was nearly closing time, the ranger offered to give us a guided tour as she made her rounds locking up buildings on the site.  For about an hour, she told us a lot about the plantation and its people.  Plantations in this region originally grew tobacco and indigo as cash crops, until the invention of the modern mechanical cotton gin by Eli Whitney in 1793 made cotton agriculture viable on a large scale.  The cotton gin barn at Magnolia was not destroyed by the Union during the Civil War, so the machinery on display is a good example of cotton processing technology of that era.  As we wound through Magnolia’s grounds, we noticed bunches of distinctive red flowers:  spider lilies, a fall-blooming flower traditionally planted in this region.  The next day we went to two more Cane River plantations open to the public, Oakland Plantation (part of the same NHP) and Melrose Plantation (a private museum).  Each illustrated different aspects of plantation life in this Creole region, which passed back and forth between Spanish and French control at various times before it was acquired by the U.S.

3-4 Oct:  We were especially eager while in northern Louisiana to visit Poverty Point, an ancient mound and earthwork complex that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  There are many ancient Native American mound sites in the southeastern and Midwestern states, particularly in the Ohio, Tennessee, and Mississippi river bottomlands, but Poverty Point is exceptional because (1) it was a very large city for its time, (2) it was built by people who were still primarily hunter-gatherers and did not farm to provide their main food source, and (3) it was built about 2,000 years before its largest earthwork was matched or surpassed in size by any other mound in North America.  Poverty Point is considered to have been North America’s first major city, far larger than other population centers of its time (1650-1100 BC).  It was constructed in an unusual configuration, with six concentric semi-circular ridges around one side of a large plaza.  Small individual family dwellings were constructed on those ridges.  Just outside of the concentric ridges is a very large mound (“Mound A”), the second largest in North America, after Cahokia’s Monk’s Mound.  Erosion has taken its toll on Mound A for more than 3,400 years, and treasure seekers did some digging in it looking unsuccessfully for unrecovered spoils of the Jesse James gang’s spree of bank and train robberies, but the mound’s shape appears to resemble a bird in flight.  The whole Poverty Point mound and ridge complex was built entirely by human labor using millions of basketfuls of dirt.  Mound A alone required an estimated 15.5 million basket loads of 50 pounds each.  It was apparently completed very rapidly, in as little as 90 days.  Considering the huge scale of the project, this was a major accomplishment, requiring sophisticated planning and coordination of a large work force.  Millions of artifacts have been recovered at the site, characterizing the inhabitants’ way of life in detail and demonstrating that they had a wide-ranging trade network.

After our visit to Poverty Point, we briefly visited two other ancient mound sites:  Winterville Mounds and Toltec Mounds, which are Mississippi and Arkansas archaeological state parks, respectively.  These both represent the Mississippian culture.  The Toltec mounds (no relation to the Toltecs of ancient Mexico) were occupied during 600-1050 and the Winterville mounds were built about 1220-1250.  Mounds in these and other Mississippian sites varied in their shape and use.  Platform mounds (truncated pyramid shape) were common, but others were conical, rounded, or low and flat.  Large mounds were probably ceremonial centers, some were used as burial mounds, and some had dwellings or other structures on top.  Most remains of mounds and other earthworks such as these were abandoned so long ago that Native Americans living when the first Europeans arrived did not know who built them.  They may have been abandoned because of depletion of local resources, unfavorable changes in climate, warfare, or other reasons.  Some mound building even continued into historical times and was witnessed by the Spaniards.

 

5 Oct:  We usually think of woods, mountains, canyons, and such nature settings for National Parks, but Hot Springs NP gave us a different and yet interesting experience. Rain water at Hot Springs, Arkansas, seeps more than a mile deep through porous sedimentary rock, heats up by 4 degrees every 300 feet it descends, then travels up through cracks it encounters in a fault zone to emerge in a cluster of springs about 4,000 years later.  Native Americans enjoyed soaking in water from these hot springs at least as early as the 1700s.  In response to rapid growth of tourism and commercialism after American settlers had moved into the area, the Federal government took control of the land immediately surrounding the springs in 1832 to safeguard this natural resource by managing its distribution, protecting it from pollution, prohibiting unsightly uses, and monitoring the water quality.  This makes the park significant as the oldest unit by far in what is now the National Park system, although it was named Hot Springs Reservation and not given National Park status until 1921.  It is also unusual among our National Parks because it’s in the middle of a city.  Bathhouse row is within the National Park boundary, and the National Park is within the city of Hot Springs.

The government leases building lots to commercial enterprises, which build bathhouses.  At first these were crude canvas and wooden structures, but they were later replaced by buildings with more luxurious buildings to compete for customers.  Following a couple of major fires in the city, bathhouses were required to be built of non-combustible materials after about 1910.  The popularity of bathing in the reputedly healthful spring waters increased rapidly.  Early on, it was considered primarily to be for medical treatment, available primarily by prescription.  Later, it became more and more of a luxury vacation experience.  Bathhouse businesses flourished in the 1920s and 1930s, and attained their peak in 1946.  Today there are eight of the grand old bathhouse buildings remaining, and only two of those still provide baths.  The famously luxurious Fordyce Bathhouse now houses the National Park’s visitor center and rangers conduct tours of the facilities inside it.  The hillside behind bathhouse row was developed into a beautifully landscaped park, with a wide brick-paved boulevard and several trails for walking and exercising.  Several major league baseball teams have used Hot Springs for spring training over the years.  For less well-heeled visitors, the government has provided at various times a free bathhouse in a less opulent and more communal type of facility.  A government medical facility for veterans was built in the 1890s behind bathhouse row.

6-7 Oct:  This was our first visit to Oklahoma.  We entered it from the east on the Talimena Scenic Drive, which winds along the crest of the long and narrow east-west ridges of Winding Stair and Rich Mountains, with several scenic outlooks over the Ouachita National Forest.  The next day we hiked about four miles of the 223-mile-long Ouachita National Recreation Trail and then back again.  The weather was beautiful and clear, much appreciated after heavy rain during the previous evening and night.  We also strolled along a self-guided nature trail at the nearby Kerr Arboretum, where signs identified many of the trees and shrubs.  We had occasionally seen single walking sticks before, but this day we saw many of them.

  

8-9 Oct:  After traveling north to camp in Sequoyah State Park, we spent the next day in the city of Tulsa, to see the Gilcrease Museum and ride our bikes on the Riverparks greenway trail network.  The Gilcrease has an exceptional collection of western art, with many Frederick Remington paintings and bronze sculptures, several Charles Russell paintings, a fine collection of George Catlin paintings, and western paintings by many other excellent artists.  There was a special exhibit of Dorothea Lange photos capturing the sense of desperation of Americans during the Great Depression.  A research collection of pottery and other artifacts was on display on shelves and in drawers, with information on the items available to visitors by entering catalog numbers on tablet computers.  Tulsa’s Riverparks bike path extends for several miles along both banks of the wide Arkansas River, a major tributary of the Mississippi.  In sections of the pathway where the greenway widens into substantial park areas, there are very attractive benches, lawns, and ornamental plantings.  For much of the way there is a walking and running path separate from the bike path.

10 Oct:  Since we had stayed in the Cherokee camping loop of Sequoyah State Park, it was fitting that our next stop was the Cherokee Heritage Center in Tahlequah, the headquarters of the Cherokee Nation.  The main exhibit at the center’s museum told the story of the “Trail of Tears,” the forced relocation in the late 1830s of five southeastern tribes from their ancestral territories west to Indian Territory:  the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek (Muscogee), Cherokee, and Seminole.  To say that the U.S. soldiers treated them harshly during the hurried relocation would be a major understatement.  Many men, women, children, and elderly died along the way.  One subject that the museum highlighted was the importance of education and literacy in the Cherokee culture both before and after relocation.  During about 1809-1821, Sequoyah invented a Cherokee writing system, and after its official adoption in 1825, his people soon began to learn to read and write in their own language.  One of the first priorities of the Cherokee after relocation was to build their own schools, and for a time literacy among the Cherokee was higher than it was in Texas or Arkansas.  No photos were allowed in the museum, but their entrance sign includes a brief sample of Cherokee writing.

11-12 Oct:  Back in Arkansas, this time in the Ozark National Forest.  After a rainy night with warnings of severe thunderstorms (they fortunately didn’t come our way), we drove up Mount Magazine and went for a loop hike up Signal Hill on a self-guided nature trail in drizzle and fog.  The summit (Arkansas’ highest point) is wooded, so we weren’t missing any views there.  After our hike, however, the weather cleared beautifully and we had a great view as we sipped hot chocolate at the nearby restaurant at the state park’s lodge.  Our next campsite was at Long Pool, a popular kayaking and rafting section of the Big Piney Creek National Scenic River.  A river level gauge is fixed there so that people paddling or floating downriver can judge the difficulty of the approaching rapids under current conditions.

The next day we had a delightful hike on the Pedestal Rocks and King’s Bluff trails.  These two loop trails start at the same trailhead, so they can be done in one continuous hike (as we did) or just one or the other loop for a shorter hike.  Both loops follow the top edges of cliffs looking across and down on picturesque pedestal formations close by.  This region in what is now northern Arkansas and southern Missouri was once an uplifted plateau of sedimentary rock (the “Ozark Plateau”).  Weathering has been the main force creating the Ozark Mountains, whereas the Ouachita Mountains farther south, where we hiked a week ago, were formed primarily by folding and faulting.   

13-14 Oct:  As we began traveling from west to east through Tennessee, we were driving past farms in the relatively flat and fertile Mississippi River bottomlands.  In contrast to our earlier trips across Midwestern plains states, where corn and soybeans dominate the fields, this time we have been seeing a lot of cotton fields passing through five former Confederate states.  Nowadays, with mechanization and large-scale agribusiness having replaced hand labor by slaves and sharecroppers, cotton still appears to be a big industry in the South.  Some of the vast fields of cotton were white with cotton bolls still on the withering plants, while others were bare except for dozens of huge cylindrical cotton bales ready to be hauled away.

Agriculture was already established in this region around 2,000 years ago, as documented at the Pinson Mounds State Archaeological Park’s museum that we visited.  The Pinson site includes at least 30 mounds of varying sizes.  The 17 mounds that have been archaeologically examined were determined to have been built during about 100-300, in the Middle Woodland period.  The tallest mound is Sauls’ Mound, billed as the second highest surviving mound in the U.S., at 72 feet (the much older Mound A that we saw at Poverty Point is also 72 feet tall and is larger by volume).  Although burials and cultural artifacts have been recovered at Pinson Mounds, the population does not seem to have been very large—the site may have been principally used as a ceremonial and trading gathering place.  Radiocarbon dates also indicate some occupation at the Pinson site both earlier (Early Woodland period) and later (Mississippian period) than during the time the Pinson mounds were built.