August 2020

Red wolves are the world's rarest canine with fewer than 100 remaining in the wild; the NC Zoo, on 2600 wooded acres, is the world's largest natural habitat zoo

This gorilla looked so sad!; this is a western lowland gorilla from Cameroon; the species is critically endangered and the only species of gorilla seen in zoos

All cougars may look pretty similar but this one sure reminds me of Shasta, the University of Houston mascot during my years there; cougars have the widest range of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere

Lee, Matt and I searched for black bears on our recent trip to Gatlinburg but never saw one; surprisingly, black bears only live about 5 years in the wild

The zoo currently has animals from North America and Africa with plans to add those from Asia and Australia; the Asia section is scheduled to open in 2023

The Eastern tiger swallowtail is NC's official butterfly; the NC Zoo opened in 1974 and is less than an hour from Greensboro but I had never visited before

All indoor attractions were closed due to Covid-19 as were the many playgrounds; all sculptures were covered with trash bags so kids wouldn't play on them

The alligator snapping turtle is the largest freshwater species of turtle in North America; it's also one of the heaviest freshwater turtles in the world

Arctic foxes can often be seen trailing behind polar bears in the hope of getting leftovers; in 1978, Ham the Chimp, the first hominid in outer space, was moved to the NC Zoo from the National Zoo in Washington, D.C

The treehouse trek ropes course looked like fun but was closed due to Covid-19; the zoo was not at all crowded with guests consisting primarily of families with young children

The polar bear had to be hot with temperatures approaching 90 degrees; I was disappointed that the zoo had just the typical animals you would expect to see and few unique species

Mud dauber nests look quite artistic; I wanted to see the largest collection of Alaskan seabirds in the country but the exhibit was closed due to Covid-19

Ocelot; currently the zoo is limiting attendance so you have to buy a ticket for a specific time; admission for adults is $15

I'm looking forward to seeing some grizzlies on my upcoming trip to the Rockies; those claws look very intimidating so I'll keep my distance

The gorillas Lee and I visited in Uganda can't survive in zoos (fortunately); the male silverback in this troop eats 30 pounds of produce a day

The butterfly house cost $3 so I opted to skip it; it was the only attraction that cost extra and I wonder why they don't just raise the general admission ticket price to avoid having to charge for the butterflies

The NC Beekeepers Assn is the largest in the country with 10,000+ members; worker bees only live about 40 days while the queen bee can live up to 5 years

The giraffe reminded me of Lee experiencing the long black tongue of the Kenyan giraffes when he put food for the giraffes in his mouth and they would come take it from him

Lee and I should see plenty of bison on our upcoming trip to the Rockies; the NC Zoo is completely smoke free which was nice; most people were wearing masks even though we were outdoors with plenty of social distancing

Elk like we see when visiting Cherokee, NC; the North Carolina zoo is home to one of the largest chimpanzee troops of any zoo in America

Laurel Falls; Lee and Matt wanted to visit Great Smoky Mountains National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the most visited US national park (12.5 million in 2019)

At nearly 80 feet, Rainbow Falls is the longest plunge of water in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park; the 5.4 mile trail on the slopes of Mt. LeConte is just minutes away from downtown Gatlinburg

Abrams Falls is one of the most voluminous waterfalls in Great Smoky Mountains National Park with one of the largest natural pools in the area at its base

I had not seen Matt since last year and Lee since Bali in February so it was great to spend a couple of days catching up; Gatlinburg is roughly 4 hrs from both Atlanta and Greensboro

There are 1500+ black bears in the park and we had hoped to see one but left disappointed; Lee and Matt did see some of the elk herd on their drive from Cherokee, NC to Gatlinburg

Cades Cove is the single most popular destination within the national park attracting 2+ million visitors a year to its 11 mile, one way road lined with well preserved historic buildings, scenic mountain views and abundant wildlife

Built in 1856, the Dan Lawson Place in Cades Cove is unusual because of its brick chimney which was a rarity in the area at the time; the area post office was housed on the front porch

Lee and Matt enjoyed escaping Atlanta for a few days; despite the pandemic, the campgrounds and hotels around Gatlinburg were generally full; we opted not to mingle with the crowds at Dollywood

The clear waters of 60 mile long Little River start on the slope of Clingman's Dome, the highest point in Tennessee, and eventually feed into the Tennessee River near Knoxville

The Little River near Townsend, TN was packed with tourists paying $20 to float a couple of miles; the water was generally quite shallow so that you occasionally hit bottom

The hikes we did, including to 80 ft high Laurel Falls, were all pretty easy with plenty of shade; rhododendrons were abundant so the area would be gorgeous when they bloom in May and June

With Matt resuming teaching next month (albeit virtually), Lee and I will fly out West to hike the most popular national parks in the Rockies; our route will start in Missoula, MT and end in Durango, CO

Grotto Falls; the park has 850+ miles of hiking trails, including 70 miles of the Appalachian Trail, but they were still crowded even during the middle of the week

Grotto Falls; a glance at the license plates showed that many visitors traveled from the Midwest or Northeast to see the park; unlike the rest of TN, Sevier County has a mask mandate for indoor spaces

Lee and Matt are admiring the strength of Abrams Falls while I went for a swim; it wasn't hot but with the humidity I was dripping wet so the water was very refreshing

The town of Gatlinburg is full of tacky, touristy spots like Ripley's Believe It or Not with nearby Pigeon Forge, home of Dollywood, having practically every chain restaurant in America; pancake houses are especially popular

Corona Arch; Arches was declared a national monument in 1929 but didn't become a national park until 1971; it is only 4 miles north of Moab, UT

Delicate Arch is featured on traditional Utah license plates; there are 2000+ arches in the park - the largest known concentration in the world

Landscape Arch measures 306 ft across and is the longest arch in the park; a great, lyrical book about Arches is Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey (first superintendent of the park)

Double O Arch was one of my favorites since it is so different; I went off the trail to capture this photo and then couldn't get back to the group resulting in a long and treacherous hike alone back to the car

Civil War veteran John Wesley Wolfe started a ranch in 1888 in what is now Arches; he added this one room cabin in 1906 for his daughter Esther and her family

Partition Arch was one of our favorites; it is one of seven arches featured on the Devil's Garden hike and offers incredible views across the Colorado Plateau

Double Arch formed differently from most of the arches-it formed by water erosion from above rather than more typical erosion from the side; the larger opening has a span of 148 ft and a height of 104 ft

North and South Windows were among the many features that could easily be seen just a short walk from a parking area; admission to the park is $35 per vehicle and is good for a week

Ribbon Arch is one I found using my AllTrails app since there is no signage in the park for it; it may look impressive in the photo but actually sits high atop a ridge and has to be enjoyed from afar

Turret Arch; the park lies atop an underground salt bed that is responsible for the arches, spires, sandstone fins and eroded monoliths that have made the area a mecca for photographers

Hikers could walk under Landscape Arch until a 180 ton section of rock fell from it in 1991; luckily, visitors heard the rock cracking and no one was injured

Balanced Rock is one of the most famous sights in the park; the rock is 55 ft high and sits precariously on a 73 ft high pedestal

Delicate Arch may be the most poorly named arch in the park despite its fame; a 4 story building would easily fit underneath

Skyline Arch is one of many arches easily seen from the park's scenic drive; Arches can be overrun with tourists on the weekends so it's best to visit on weekdays

Lichen is actually a partnership of two organisms: fungi and algae; these colorful splotches dot the exposed rock in the park and are often hundreds to thousands of years old

Dark Angel is a 150 ft high, free-standing sandstone pillar at the end of the 4 mile Devil's Garden trail; this was the most strenuous hike we did in the park but definitely a highlight of the visit

This window at Partition Arch looks as if someone has a oddly shaped landscape painting of SE Utah on their wall; there are no services in the park so bring food and drink for all day (and fill up with gas too)

The hike to Delicate Arch is the most popular in the park but had steep drop-offs near the end; like most of the park trails, there is virtually no shade to be found so bring plenty of water, sunscreen and a hat

This petroglyph was carved by Ute Indians, likely in the 1700s; bighorn sheep (I never did see one on this trip) and figures on horseback are easily recognizable

Bowtie Arch (along with Corona Arch) is not in Arches National Park but is one of the many arches you can see in the area around Moab; the town is known as the adventure sport capital of Utah

Massive school of bigeye trevally; Blue Magic is often listed as the favorite Raja Ampat dive site of veteran divers so we did our last two dives here

Juvenile crocodilefish; it's interesting that the adults are camouflaged so they can surprise their prey yet the juveniles are black and stand out so much

I had never seen a sea cucumber walking until this one; notice the small black appendages which appeared to be working much like feet; I'm simplifying the action but the appearance was astounding

Bubble coral; the bubbles are grape-sized which increase their surface area according to the amount of light available: they are larger during the day, but smaller at night

Giant moray eel; Jakarta is supposedly the fastest sinking city in the world which is one reason a plan to relocate the capital to Kalimantan on the island of Borneo was developed last year

Blackfin barracuda; this was the only blackfin barracuda I saw; they supposedly can stay at the same site for months or years at a time

Here's another tasselled wobbegong that I swam right over and didn't notice; I'm not used to big creatures that are stationary and so well-camouflaged

The currents can be tricky with the Blue Magic dive so we did negative entries where you start immediately swimming down when entering the water; divers run the risk of getting caught in a current and missing the dive site

Phyllidia elegans nudibranch; there are huge reference books that have nothing but species of nudibranch; they are small but with such vivid colors that I can see why divers love them

I loved this photo because it looks like the map puffer is either chopped in half or half buried in the sand; of course, it's just an optical illusion due to the way the fish was swimming

Bumphead parrotfish; this guy was quite curious and swam right up to me which helped greatly in getting his photo; this vulnerable species can grow to 5 ft long

The bigeye trevally is commonly found in large slow moving schools during the day, becoming active at night when it feeds, taking a variety of fish, crustaceans, cephalopods and other invertebrates

Our group of 6 was joined by a father and son from Boston on the all day adventure; it was an hour and 40 minute bus ride to the start and an hour and 10 minute bus ride from the end back to Moab

National Geographic called Westwater Canyon the West's Best Short Whitewater Trip; the rapids weren't all that challenging with no rafts flipping and no paddlers ending up in the river

Supposedly this section of the Colorado River has class III and IV rapids but I don't think they were that severe; there are no dams upstream so water flow varies greatly by month

Do you see the evil monster jutting out from the rock?; the inner gorge of the canyon is made up of black Precambrian rock which is some of the oldest on Earth

With these two on board the rafting trip was non-stop entertainment; while in Moab I'd definitely recommend rafting since it's a refreshing alternative to long hikes

Bob and I aren't lunch eaters so we just relaxed during the break; apparently the Colorado River is always cloudy due to the sediment being swept downstream

Our rafting trip coincided with my birthday so having the group together was extra special; given David's knee and hip surgeries, he opted to stay in Moab since sitting in the raft all day would not have been pleasant

We covered 17 miles on the raft starting from near the Utah/Colorado state line; our guides were all Mormons who graciously answered our many questions (no coffee, no smoking, 2 years for mission work, no say in assignments, rotating partners, etc)

There are plenty of rafting tours offered in Moab but we chose to use the Moab Adventure Center due to their excellent reviews; the guides were all excellent and provided plenty of information during the journey

The rafting cost $198 each plus tax and tip which included the long bus rides and lunch; the geology through the canyon was fascinating and allowed us a perspective only seen from the water

Our river guide had just graduated from BYU and was studying to take the entrance exam for medical school; he had grown up rafting the river since his father had also been a guide

Due to the low water level, there were stretches where the 4 rafts of our group were roped together and motored through the flats; if we had to paddle those stretches it would have taken days

Before the rest of the group arrived, I visited this swimming hole at Mill Creek one afternoon; I stayed an hour and there were dozens here when I left; kids would carefully jump from the top into the very shallow waters