Longpoint Provincial Park

The next day we took a taxi to our rv rental company in Brampton and picked up our campervan.

The drive to Lake Erie down the 401 was hectic; twice we missed our turnoff and had to drive down to the next exit and make u-turn.  Eventually we turned off to quiet country roads past farms and nicely kept villages.

I was just saying, maybe we'll see some Mennonite buggies, and sure enough two boys came down the road in a horse-drawn farm wagon.  All the Mennonites we subsequently saw were driving pickups.

Our destination was Longpoint Provincial Park.  Longpoint is one of three peninsulas we visited that jut out into Lake Erie.  During migration flocks of birds head north across the lake at night.  In the morning they land on the first piece of land they find and stop to rest before they head off again later in the day.  

Our secluded campsite turned out to be in a sand dune.  It was the only campsite in the park with soft rutted sand; fortunately, the van was always able to power out of the site.

We took a tour of the campsite, it was full of birdsong and we saw lots of birds on our first afternoon.  No shortage of birdwatchers either, here for the migratory season.

We ran into this guy at the outhouse.

Chipmunk

And a red squirre

I feel like the Eastern red squirrels are bigger and look much more like cartoon characters than our squirrels at home.

We also saw this handsome snail.

I was excited to see wild grapes for the first time!

We were also excited to see a green heron sitting near its nest in a tree as we'd only seen them at the edge of a marsh before.  

Green heron in a tree

Birds of Etobicoke Creek

Gray Gnatcatcher

Xx

Mallard Family

Merganser

Baltimore Oriole

Warbling Oriole

Northern Cardinal

 

We're in Ontario for Spring Migration!

One of our "bucket list" items has been to visit Point Pelee National Park during spring migration so this is the year of travel for us.

We arrived at Toronto Airport and checked in at a Comfort Inn near the airport and near to the rv rental in Brompton where we would pick up our campervan the next day.  It turned out to be a rather dismal light industrial area in greater Toronto.  

But we checked out the nearest parks and found we were a ten minute walk from the Etobicoke Creek Greenway.

So off for a bird walk right away. It turned out to be full of birds.  Yellow warblers and Baltimore orioles (lifer for both of us), catbirds, black capped chickadee, cardinals.  We also saw blue-gray gnatcatchers, a surprise to me, as I knew them as a winter bird of the southwest.

We also saw common mergansers and mallards in the creek.

There were lots of bicyclists, runners and walkers using the trail.

The area also turned out to be a hot spot for ethnic restaurants and we ate supper at a Turkish restaurant -- baba ganoush and excellent Turkish bread as an appetizer and we shared chicken shashlik for an entree.

We took out this dessert for later though I haven't figured out what it is -- a custards filling topped with caramel, yummy.

Posts will be spotty as wifi is limited.  I will add Leo's bird photos when I can. It's rainy today so we are holed up in the Port Rowan library using wifi.  Big day for warblers.

Homeward Bound

Somewhere in Oregon

We liked Snow Canyon so much that we investigated staying another 4 days but then the weather forecast called for colder temperatures and snow.  We figured we might as well spend those days on the road and head for home.

The first night we stayed in the Walmart parking lot in Grand Falls, Idaho.

The next day we drove to Pendleton, Oregon, and stayed at the Wild Horse Casino on the Umatilla Reservation.  Our first time overnighting in a casino parking lot.  No we did not gamble, but we could also have gone bowling or gone to the movie theatre.

The weather was pretty miserable, rain and sleet most of the way.  The next morning we woke up to a frosty windshield.

On our third day the weather cleared up and we decided to stop in the early afternoon and camp at Sun Lakes Dry Falls State Park in Washington State.

We looked down at the lakes from a viewpoint above the canyon.

It's called Dry Falls because there was once a 30 mile long waterfall coming over the cliffs as the icecap melted. 

Dry Falls

There were only a few people in the campsite.

We met a couple from Washington who were celebrating her 62th birthday by visiting all the State Parks on her recently acquired Senior's pass.

California Quail, Bird of the Day

We enjoyed walking along the lakeside.

Leo and Mark about to dive off the cliff.

Not about to dive off the cliff.

We enjoyed the day so much we thought we'd investigate camping for a few days in the (Canadian) Okanagan.

But the weather turned cold and windy the next morning so we just drove all the way home the next day.

2024 Trip to Arizona, done and dusted!

More Snow Canyon

View of Campground

 We spent 4 days in Snow Canyon and checked out many of the trails.  Here Leo is inspecting the names of pioneers scratched into rock in the 1800s on the Pioneer Names Trails.

We checked out Jenny's Canyon, a short walk to a small slot Canyon.

Welcome In

It was a fun little hike

And very cool inside the narrow canyon.

We hiked up to the White Rocks Amphitheater at the North end of the park.

There were scrub jays calling around the campground.

And Antelope squirrels.

One morning Leo and Mark drove to the north end of the park, hiked to the Cinder Cone and then walked the length of the canyon back to the campground

We were told that the Toniquint Nature Center was a birding hotspot so drove into town to check it out.

But there wasn't much action there though we did see a wood duck.

And this red bud tree just bursting into bloom.

California red buds are native to Southern Utah, but I suspect this is a planted eastern red bud.

Snow Canyon

We were looking for a warm place to camp in Southern Utah and, despite its name, Snow Canyon State Park near St. George, fit the bill.  Snow Canyon refers to the layers of white sandstone that contrast with the more abundant red sandstone.

It doesn't look like it here but the rvs were all lined up a few feet apart.

The campground has a number of private, spacious, non-electric sites that butt right up agai st the rocks but we didn't reserve on time so we were stuck in the electric sites all lined up right next to each other. The view was still beautiful.

There was a Cooper's hawk nest in the pine tree next to our site. 

Here the Cooper's hawk is perched in a nearby deciduous tree.

We went for a hike on the Nature train just across the road. We weren't expecting much, but it turned out to be  a great hike creeping among the boulders, with very interesting information stops.

Eventually it came out in the open with great views.

Xx

Not surprisingly, given the amount of rocks, there were lots of rocks wrens singing away.

The next morning we hiked the main canyon loop.

First we scrambled up the petrified dunes.

Then we came to a lava flow where we explored two lava tubes.

Mark peeks out from the lava tube.

The second tube was a larger Cavern.

At the entrance.

Photo Op