Using a fallen Cottonwood tree as a natural bridge, I walked out to the middle of the Little Calumet River to check out the view up river. The end of summer is near, yet flowers still populate the distant bank.
The river was so lazy, the current could hardly be detected.
A Labor Day weekend walk along the bank of the Little Calumet River was quite peaceful and relaxing. Some Goldenrod on the far bank gave the landscape a pop of color.
This tiny turtle was found swimming in a small inland lake in LaPorte County, Indiana. Not much larger than a quarter, he seems almost too small for this time of year.
We put him back in the water, near some cover to help him hide from predators. Maybe we'll see him again next year.
A father and son arrive at Central Beach on a beautiful August morning. No wind, no rip currents, and around 80 degrees - the perfect day for children to safely enjoy Lake Michigan.
Lots of people are back in school and away at college, so the beaches are no longer packed to capacity.
Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore
The recent dry weather has lowered the Ohio River quite a bit, revealing the fossil beds of the Falls of the Ohio State Park in Clarksville, IN. Louisville can be seen a mile across the river, behind the Fourteenth Street Bridge, built in 1868. The longest span of the bridge is 644 feet over the fossil beds of the near bank and another span crosses the lock and dam on the far bank. The bridge is still used for railroad traffic today.
The Falls of the Ohio offers views of thousands if not millions of fossils embedded in the limestone bedrock. It's an expansive place. To get an idea of how large, look for the people near the center of this photograph; they're standing on the rocky bank.
On a hike around Mississippi Palisades State Park, we walked around the bend and encountered this old water tower rising up from a field filled with blossoming milkweed. No doubt a haven for Monarch butterflies flying around the Mississippi River.
Children and adults alike cool off in the Whirlpool Compass Fountain in St. Joseph, Michigan. Just steps from Silver Beach, Lake Michigan, and the downtown shopping district, the fountain provided some much needed relief from the 90 plus degree sun.
Every few minutes, the top nozzles blast water overhead. In between sprays, dozens of small fountains of water come up from the ground providing lots of opportunities to cool off.
Following some afternoon storms, the sun made a brief appearance over the lake. The trees still dripping with moisture, glistened as the fog rolled in the distance.
In 1860 John Dye lived on this 120 acre farm along with his wife , four children and six slaves. They raised corn, wheat, and hay on the nearby rolling hills. In 1862 Confederate General Simon Bolivar Buckner commandeered this house for his headquarters during the historic Battle of Perryville, which took place about a mile away. The house was used as a field hospital after the battle. Blood stains can still be seen on the floors of the upstairs rooms.
General Buckner later became Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and was the “Gold Democrat’s” vice presidential nominee in 1896. He died near Munfordville, Kentucky in 1914.
In the midst of a string of 100 plug degree days, the rolling countryside of Hardin County, Kentucky showed signs of drought. Overnight, fog would fill the fields with a trace of moisture, only to evaporate before quenching the parched ground.
This field seemed relatively healthy, possibly due to it's low-lying location. Many other fields were brown, and several creeks were completely dry.
On the way to an early morning hike to the top of a secluded, not-so-well-visited knob (prominent rounded hill), I was presented with some beautiful scenery along a small country road.
Daytime temperatures were well into the 100s, and at 6:30 am, the countryside was filled with fog - the only source of moisture in this region for weeks.
Now peaceful, these hills were witness to an important event in Kentucky History. The Battle of Perryville was fought here on October 8, 1862, marking the end of Confederate General Braxton Bragg's famous "Kentucky Invasion." It was the largest battle fought in Kentucky during the Civil War.
1426 men were killed, 5552 wounded. It's considered to be one of the bloodiest battles of the war.
A dragonfly I found struggling to get out of an abandoned spiderweb. I removed him to let him fly free, but instead, he stayed perched on my finger for about ten minutes - resting after the ordeal.
One of the first large scale uses of concrete construction in the country, the Hennepin Canal linked the Illinois River with the Mississippi River. Along the 104.5 mile waterway, locks were constructed of concrete, unlike the Illinois and Michigan Canal's limestone block locks.
Lift bridges were located in a few places to provide a place for wheeled vehicles to cross the canal. This lift bridge on Lock 21 near Wyanet, Illinois still stands, and traffic is allowed to drive over.
The location of the Hennepin Canal is much more rural than most of the I and M Canal, so a walk along the towpath is very peaceful and scenic.
The wait and stalking are over. The Prickly Pear cacti are finally in bloom at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.
Not commonly seen around Chicago or Northwest Indiana - yet not rare at all - the Prickly Pear cactus is in full bloom. Flowering in late June, the cactus blossoms last only one day. The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore's West Beach and Inland Marsh trails have scores of these growing in the sandy soil. I've also run into them (literally) near the beach in Cowles Bog and along the I and M Canal in LaSalle, Illinois.
The View from atop the cliffs along the Mississippi River is well worth the climb up. Not realizing one could drive up to the top, park the car and walk 100 feet to an overlook, Ken and I climbed up a steep, winding trail from the road below. Once at the top, we were greeted by others who drove - lesson learned, but I enjoyed the climb!
Mississippi Palisades State Park has quite a few short trails, leading to some nice views of the river valley, and some natural rock formations. It appears rock climbing is allowed - I discovered several anchor points drilled into the rock face on the top of Indian Head, a rock formation resembling a human head.
Looking out over the river and Buffalo Lake, the trees of Iowa can be seen in the distance.
Today, a rare event took place - the passing of the planet Venus between the Earth and the Sun, giving us a unique view of our neighbor silhouetted against the blazing sun. To safely view the transit, I set up a telescope, aimed it at the sun (without looking through it of course), then placed a white card about a foot away from the eyepiece. This creates a projection of the sun on the white card, and saves your eyeballs from melting!
After the sun got too low to view projections, we ventured off to the countryside to watch the sun set. With a 300mm lens, I was barely able to capture the planet against the sun, but if you look close, it's there. Venus is about 30 million miles away from us, and the sun is over 80 million miles away, that makes the distance between the sun and Venus around 50 million miles. At that distance, the Sun dwarfs the planet - imagine how small it would be right next to the Sun.
Venus will not transit across the Sun again until 2115, so this is the last time any of us will probably see this. It's an important learning event for scientists as well. A planet's atmosphere can be see when it is against a star, and, the distance from the star can be determined during the transit.
At least we didn't just read about this event after the fact.
