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Excellent American Adventure - USA States |
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California
is home to some of America's most vibrant cities. Located just
over midway up the California coastline, San Francisco is the location
of the Golden Gate Bridge, spanning the mouth of San Francisco Bay.
Los Angeles is a sprawling mess with over-crowded freeways and bad air,
but home to Hollywood and even some natural wonders. San Diego,
just north of the Mexican border, has perhaps the best climate in the United
States, as well as plenty of sandy beaches and a pleasant harbor . |
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Yosemite
National Park is a three or four hour drive East from San Francisco, in
the Western part of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Carved by
glaciers, the Yosemite Valley is home to many magnificent rock outcrops,
such as Half Dome and El Capitan. Yosemite Falls, North America's
highest waterfall (and the world's fifth highest) is also in the valley,
falling 2425 feet (740 meters) in three stages. The first stage is
1430 feet high (435 meters), the same height as the tallest building in
America, the Sears Tower in Chicago.
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Large
parts of Southern California are occupied by genuine desert, with interesting
wildlife and landscapes with colorful rock formations. It's
easy to visit places like Joshua Tree National Park, the
Coachella Valley Preserve and Tahquitz
Canyon, which is right next door to the city of Palm Springs.
Naturally
there are plenty of lizards and snakes all over the desert, including lots
of reptiles
in the Coachella Valley. |
| Florida
is a mecca for American bird watchers. The warm climate and
varied aquatic environments make it a haven all year round for the birds
which call it home, and in Winter large numbers of migrating birds from
the north swell the populations to several times their normal number. |
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Snowbirds
of a different type migrate from the north each winter to enjoy the pleasant
climate in Florida's cities.
The
cities here might not be as large as elsewhere, but the character of places
like Key West and Miami make them an attraction worth visiting. |
| Florida
isn't in the tropics, but you might be forgiven for thinking it is, because
of the variety of colorful wildlife both above and below water.
The
water isn't as clear as the world's premier dive locations, but there's
an interesting variety of fish and other marine life on the only coral
reefs in the continental USA. |
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Hawaii
is America's Island Paradise, complete with magnificent scenery and active
volcanoes.
Stolen
from the natives, it somehow still doesn't seem to be part of the USA,
even if it is the fiftieth state. The Americans even stole
their recreations from the natives - surfing was invented in Hawaii long
before Europeans arrived. |
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The
waters around Hawaii are superb, with attractions for divers as well as
surfers.
The
water clarity in the best dive locations is as good as anywhere in the
world, and the large number of fish species found nowhere else makes this
a unique destination. |
| I
was reluctant to live in Illinois, mostly
because of the climate, which is tropical in summer and arctic in winter.
The
heat I can cope with, but the cold is more difficult! Severe
wind chill can test anyone's endurance, and the "lake effect" snow can
make commuting to work even more effort than usual. |
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In
spite of my reluctance to be here, I ended up spending two separate periods
of time living in the area.
It
wasn't until my second stretch of time here that I began to appreciate
the natural possibilities of the place, from Lake Michigan and its beaches
to bird and insect magnets like Moraine Hills Park and Volo Bog. |
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was also living within easy access of Chicago, blessed with a pleasant
location next to the lake, large parks, interesting architecture and attractions
like the Field Museum, the Shedd Aquarium (complete with dolphins) and
the Adler Planetarium. |
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If
you're coming to Las Vegas, then do yourself a favour and drive out to
the
Valley of Fire about 50 miles out of town heading northeast on interstate
15. Sin City is dead during the daytime anyway, but here you'll
find rocks painted in crazy colors, as well as arches and strangely shaped
formations. You'll also see petrified trees and native American
petroglyphs right by the roadside, and if you get really enthusiastic then
you can even go for a short hike to check out the flowering cacti and the
amazing assortment of lizards which live here. |
It's
hard to believe, but just on the other side of Las Vegas from the arid
desert landscape in the Valley of Fire you'll find 12,000 foot high Mt
Charleston, centerpiece of the Spring Mountain Range.
You
can go straight from the desert to the snow, and take a short walk along
one of the many trails.
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Fine,
then - do it if you must, goodness knows that every year hundreds of thousands
of other people with no special interest in electricity or flood control
come to visit Hoover Dam at the south end of Lake Mead. Quite
what they expect to see beyond a large block of concrete is a mystery,
but still they come. And I came, too, but only to spare you,
gentle reader, from the unnecessary torment of the journey, by documenting
this large thing so you could enjoy it from the comfort of your easy chair
and little rabbit slippers! |
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When
I left Chicago and arrived in New Jersey
I was lucky to find a very nice apartment in the quiet neighborhood of
Boundbrook, right next to the beautiful tree lined D&R canal, running
parallel to the Raritan River. |
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Four
weeks later Hurricane Floyd arrived, dropping nearly 14 inches of water
in the area, bringing the worst flooding in 200 years and turning my new
hometown into a household name around the country. All
but one road out of South Boundbrook was cut off, hundreds of people were
evacuated during the night, houses and cars went underwater, and a row
of stores on Main St went up in flames while the Raritan river flowed around
them, forty-five feet above its normal level.
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Despite
its toxic reputation, it was in New Jersey that I first started making
the most of America's parks and nature reserves, in fascinating but ill-sounding
places like Great Swamp National Wildlife Reserve. |
Upstate
New York is home to the Niagara
Falls, one of the natural wonders of the world. Anywhere
else in the world the 180 foot high Bridal Falls with its appropriately
named "hurricane deck" directly beneath would be a major attraction, but
here it's literally a side-show right next to the American Falls, which
stretch 1100 feet (340 meters) across. And dwarfing them all
are the semi-circular Horseshoe Falls, 2500 feet from end to end, and with
9 times the waterflow of the other two waterfalls combined.
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It's
also one of the most accessible sights in the world, at least if you don't
have trouble crossing the US and Canadian borders. There are plenty
of attractions, especially on the Canadian side, like trips behind and
beside the Falls, the Maid of the Mist boat trip, which takes you right
up to the Falls, a casino, the Spanish Gondola ride across a section of
the river called "the whirlpool", and bird and butterfly houses. |
Downstate
New York is also home to many sights recognized around the world.
New
York City has its own canyons and waterways, even if some of them are man-made.
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The
Battle of Gettysburg is perhaps the most famous of the American civil war,
with unprecedented slaughter of troops - over 51,000 dead and wounded on
both sides, almost as many casualties as America suffered during the entire
Vietnam war. |
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It's
also the place where Abraham Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg Address,
delivered at the Gettysburg War Cemetery.
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Pennsylvania
also has some attractive back country, particularly in the Appalachian
and Allegheny Mountains,as well as places like the Delaware Water Gap,
which has spectacular Fall foliage against a backdrop of hills, small lakes
and a beautiful river. |
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Virginia
was one of the hotbeds of the American Civil War, in fact many people consider
the attack on Harper's Ferry to be the first battle of the war.
Many other battles happened here, including those at Petersburg and the
Shenandoah Valley.
Remarkably,
Richmond, the capital city of the Confederacy, is only 100 miles from Washington
DC, capital of the Union.
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Virginia's
western side is dominated by the Shenandoah National Park, which features
part of the Appalachian trail, high hills which are blissfully mild in
summer, with interesting caves and a large natural bridge with grafitti
by none other than George Washington! |
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The
eastern side of the state revolves around Chesapeake Bay, home of boat
building and crab fishing.
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Wisconsin
proclaims itself to be "America's Dairyland", but this particular cow looks
a mite nervous - I'm not sure if it's because of the giant mouse climbing
the pole on its left, or the Burger King on its right. |
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The
Wisconsin Dells are the biggest draws for many, with interesting rock formations
on the river, beautiful lakes for fishing and photographing, and more than
enough tacky attractions and waterparks to keep the children happy!
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It's
a pretty good place for bird lovers, with the possibility of seeing bald
eagles on the river, and the certainty of seeing all 13 of the world's
species of cranes, including the endangered whooping crane, at the International
Crane Foundation, just south of the Dells. |
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