Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

North Carolina Travelog #13
Pisgah National Forest - Thu, 21 Sep 2023. 4:45pm

After visiting a bunch of waterfalls on the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge Mountains today, most recently Log Hollow Falls, we drove up to the ridge itself. Here the Blue Ridge Parkway traces along the crest of the mountain for an amazing 469 miles. We will only drive about 20 miles of it today, from the junction with US-276 to the junction with NC-215, then back down the mountain and looping along US-64 back to our hotel in Brevard. Elevations along this stretch of the parkway rise above 5,000 feet.

In this 20 mile stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway we're driving today there are several points of interest marked on the map that caught our attention. One was Graveyard Fields. Despite its very metal name it wasn't actually our top interest, more like maybe #3 instead... until from 1/2 mile away we caught a glimpse of a big waterfall there. Then we knew we had to stop.

So, what is Graveyard Fields? Before arriving I guessed, based on the name, it's a place where some early settlers died trying to cross the mountain in a harsh winter storm, kind of like how Donner Pass in California is named for the doomed Donner family emigrants. Nope, I was wrong. It's actually about trees. This sign in front of the namesake Graveyard Fields explains:



A strong windstorm hundreds of years ago knocked down all the trees in this area, leaving them looking like a huge graveyard. Then a fire in 1925 burned away all the fallen trees. Now, 98 years later, the area has completely regrown and looks nothing like a graveyard. I'm amused by the irony that the fix for one natural disaster was another natural disaster. 😅

Hawaii April Travelog #30
Puakō - Fri, 15 Apr, 2022, 5:30pm

We took it easy around the resort in the morning and the afternoon today in exchange for going out later. Our first plan was to visit Puakō Beach, recommended by semi-local friend, Dave. Then we saw on the map a petroglyphs reserve and decided to visit that first. So the beach would be our second plan. Well, first plan, second act. 😅 Anyway....

The petroglyphs area was near a beach parking lot. At first we wondered, "Is this really the right place?" as all we could see facing away from the beach was The Floor Is Lava.



This is part of what I described as my first impression upon landing in Kona-Kailua earlier in the week. The floor is lava. Here at least it's only a small patch of lava. There are also trees around the edge of it.

A gravel path wound through the piles of lava rock. It all looked... a little too manicured. There were a few stones with etchings on them tilted up on display. An informational sign openly cast doubt on whether these were genuine artifacts or... modern reproductions. I thought about giving up on this park as being hokum— it was clearly a concession created by a high-dollar resort nearby in exchange for permission to build— but then the trail turned sharply and narrowed as it ducked into a thicket of trees.



When I say these trees were thick, I mean they were thick like the stunted trees of the Blight in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. Their trunks and branches twisted around in crazy patterns. We had to duck and dodge in many places, and even with many of the trees being scorched by fire and mostly bare, the canopy overhead was so thick we sometimes couldn't tell what color the sky was.

Suddenly the thick stand of stunted trees gave way to a volcanic clearing.



Here the lava rocks were oddly smooth and all tilted in the same direction. Petroglyphs were carved into most of the "tiles" separated by surface cracks. And they all seem oriented toward the Kohala volcano.

What do the sigils mean? The signs say we don't know. That's really sad because it's not like the Hawaiian people disappeared 800 ago. Hawaiians still live in Hawaii. And even the last Hawaiian royal, Queen Lili'uokalani, lived until 1917. Coudln't we, uh, ask Hawaiian people what these Hawaiian symbols mean? Well, we can, but that's where the sad part comes in: they don't really know, either. Through the 19th and 20th centuries foreign powers (Britain, US, and Japan) sought to control Hawaii. One form of control was to replace their education with colonial schools. Even Lili'uokalani learned in a school run by Christian missionaries who sought to suppress her cultural heritage as being primitive and ungodly. Now we're all poorer for it.

North Coast Roadtrip travelog #5 
Crescent City, CA - Sun, 28 Mar 2021. 8pm.

We've had a busy day out here on the far northwestern coast of California. But busy in a good way: less driving to places and more doing stuff once there. Today we've taken short hikes to a few waterfalls, walked through old growth forest among huge redwood trees, and driven miles on the beach to collect rocks.

In between all that we did drive, of course. The odometer shows 120 miles for the day. But that's way less than yesterday's 305 miles and even Friday night's 155 miles. Not having to drive so much is the benefit of staying in one place on a trip. Tonight we're staying at the same oceanfront hotel in Crescent City as last night. Tomorrow, though, it's time to head home, and the miles will pile up again. We'll drive at least 400 miles tomorrow; maybe more if we take a side trip out to the Mendocino coast.

Where's the Pics?

Waterfalls, redwoods, and sand dunes sound great; So where are the pictures? you might ask. It takes time to review them, select the right ones to share, and clean them up. Doing that is the main reason why my travel blogs tend to fall days behind, even for short trips. [Already this blog is 36 hours behind - Ed.] I'm blogging the outline of the trip now; I'll come back with pictures and details later. Stay tuned!