A Month (almost) on the Road
I arrived back in Seattle late on the June 28 and was absolutely whooped (hence the slow posting of that day’s ride). I used yesterday to take care of finances, trying to arrange a vehicle for Tanzania, and making arrangements for travels beyond Tanzania. And maybe just relaxing a bit.
Today I thought I would summarize the first month on the road. So, over 28 days I covered 6,132 miles on Blue Lightening, visited 26 National sites (parks, historic sites, etc.) in ten different states, and recorded 108 bird species in my eBird account. Thirty-nine of those species were new to me and are listed below. Several more bird species didn’t get recorded because I saw them when I wasn’t specifically looking for birds (i.e. the Great Horned Owl at my last campsite). The National sites are listed below in the order they were visited. All of the new bird species are listed below as well. For any real gluttons for punishment out there, I can send a list of all of the birds I recorded this month.
A couple of take-aways from the first month of traveling include:
1. The western United States encompasses an amazing variety of varied and beautiful landforms and I’m tickled that I can still be wowed when seeing some of them. Absolutely breathtaking at times.
2. People are generally genuinely good (or ambivalent at worst) and we all generally want the same things – to be safe, happy, and to have some hope of getting ahead. Clearly there are some outliers…
3. And, of course, writing a blog is probably one of my least favorite things to do. But, I will make a concerted effort to keep up with it at least for the next year. Posts may not be daily in the near future as I work on what is next but I will try to post daily once I get overseas.
National Sites:
Big Hole National Battlefield (MT),
Yellowstone National Park (WY),
Rocky Mountain National Park (CO),
Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument (CO),
Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site (CO),
Amache National Historic Site (CO),
Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site (CO),
Great Sand Dunes National Park (CO),
Bandelier National Monument (NM),
Manhattan Project National Historical Park (NM),
Valles Caldera National Preserve (NM),
Chaco Culture National Historical Park (NM),
Aztec Ruins National Monument (NM),
Chimney Rock National Monument (CO),
Mesa Verde National Park (CO),
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park (CO),
Scotts Bluff National Monument (NE),
Agate Fossil Beds National Monument (NE),
Wind Cave National Park (SD),
Jewel Cave National Monument (SD),
Devils Tower National Monument (WY),
Fossil Butte National Monument (WY),
Golden Spike National Historical Park (UT),
Minidoka National Historic Site (ID),
Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument (ID), and
John Day Fossil Beds National Monument (OR).
All but one of these sites is managed by the National Park Service. The lone exception was the Chimney Rock National Monument managed by the US Forest Service. All of the sites were excellently managed with friendly and helpful staff. The one outlier might have been a young park ranger at Black Canyon of the Gunnison.
States:
Washington,
Idaho,
Montana,
Wyoming,
Colorado,
New Mexico,
Nebraska,
South Dakota,
Utah, and
Oregon
I had really hoped to get to Arizona as well but it was just too hot to be out hiking around and then getting back on the motorcycle to bake some more. Next time.
Birds (new):
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Lewis’s Woodpecker
Common Yellowthroat
Northern Waterthrush
Veery
Dusky Flycatcher
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Cliff Swallow
Northern Mockingbird
Scaled Quail
Burrowing Owl
Western Kingbird
Northern Bobwhite
Blue Grosbeak
Yellow-breasted Chat
Lark Sparrow
Cassin’s Sparrow
Horned Lark
Snowy Plover
Black-necked Stilt
Brown Thrasher
Mountain Bluebird
Broad-tailed Hummingbird
Common Raven
Common Nighthawk
White-throated Swift
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Green-tailed Towhee
Virginia’s Warbler
Wilson’s Phalarope
American Avocet
Lark Bunting
Red-headed Woodpecker
Sage Thrasher
Clark’s Grebe
White-faced Ibis
Foster’s Tern
Canyon Wren
Chukar
Some of these species I had seen before but never recorded in eBird (Common Raven, Chukar).