Schoodic Point, Maine

At 6am July 21, 2014 I arrived in this detached unit of Acadia National Park to a speckled eastern sky with the sun peeking above the ocean. The mosquitoes were fierce til sunup! The landscape is heathlands, rocks, pines, spruce and hemlock. Blue flag iris, daisies and buttercups dotted the edges as the Atlantic tide rolled into white foamy spray. A bald eagle flew by as I observed gulls and cormorants about this tableau. From US1 take Me186 to Winter Harbor, turn left in town, then right onto a one way road passing the shore along this peninsula. Enjoy!

Lick Creek

After the California national parks in May 2014 I drove northeast through Nevada, past Beatty, Tonopah, its vastness of Black Rock, Hot Creek and the Ruby Mountains near Wells into Idaho. I found the Craters of the Moon, the Lost River Range near MacKay and into the Challis NF, north of the Salmon River. Lick Creek was a welcome respite of high runoff, yellow warblers and a bugling trio of elk. Curious name for a place-lick smacking good? Salt lick? Anyway I spent three nights here, looking for grizzly bear but no sign of any; I did have bear spray and slept in back of my pickup. I was surrounded by sagebrush, aspen, willows and spruce.