#NatureWritingChallenge - Gateway towns

Where is your favorite gateway town outside of America’s public lands and what makes it so great? Any memorable experiences?

Join us on Twitter with the hashtag #NatureWritingChallenge to discuss and share the topic Thursday at 8:30 CST. This post was created in one hour specifically for this challenge.

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I’m going to be honest, I don’t know much about gateway towns. I know some people rely on them, as frequent visitors to these glorious parks, but I’m such a “travel far and wide” to get the park that I rarely have time to stop and see anything but my destination. That being said, I do have a few small towns through some of the various public lands I love that do stand out. I’m going to approach this topic a little differently by highlighting a few of them here in the next hour of writing and creating. I am also creating this essay outside of the normal time frame of the challenge due to a busy March. I wanted to participate, so I figured they’d be good writing prompts later on and they are. Enjoy!

Olympia, Washington

I know, this town probably isn’t TECHNICALLY a gateway town, it was a home base for me on one of my trips to the Olympic Peninsula to see both Olympic National Park and Olympic National Forest as well as meeting a friend in a neighboring suburb to head out to Mount Rainier. Olympia was everything I needed. The town felt small, yet had all the good stuff to make any trip better. When I fly in to the airport, I want to head south and get as close as I can to where I need to be. Usually, I don’t even stay anywhere but my rental car but I had some time on this trip and needed to visit both areas so a middle ground was best. I got a decent hotel, for a good price in downtown Olympia, found a brewery, and was able to meet up with a local outdoor writer/runner/all around cool dude who may or may not have created this writing challenge. It was the perfect distance for a quick morning drive up to the peninsula or over/down to Rainier or St. Helens.

Crescent City and Arcata, California

The Redwoods will forever be something I think about almost daily. As much as I love the desert or other forests, these babies are the original real deal. Two cities that really welcome you to the area are Crescent City and Arcata. I have stayed in both, found delicious meals in both, and consumed good beer too. If you stay in or visit Crescent City, head out of town and take the Howland Hill Road through Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. You’ll get spit out on CA-199 and that drive through the mountains is worth it, so take that route. We did, and followed the BEAUTIFUL wild and scenic Smith River to Oregon and subsequently spent the better part of the day exploring Oregon Caves National Monument. Talk about a Gateway town!

Arcata was a little more chill, it’s not a mainstream place, with plenty of unique flavor. If you’re there you have to check out the various breweries and restaurants in the heart of town. Arcata is positioned perfectly between the various areas of the Redwood National and State Parks. It’s a great base for exploring north or south, or venturing to the Lost Coast, one of my personal favorite places ever.

Honorable mentions is Ferndale, CA. This is a cute little town that is well kept and seems mysterious. The houses are gorgeous, the cemetery is really cool, and it’s on the way to the Lost Coast.

There are a ton of great gateway towns, I’m sure, but these are a few that stand out in my mind. I hope to explore more as my time opens up. Maybe I’ll find some great towns outside of some public lands this summer.

#NatureWritingChallenge - The Lone Bison and the Army of Spiders

Tonight's topic: A memorable animal encounter on America's Public Lands

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On our way to Fern Cave

I'll start this story by saying I do not have any photos of the situation, as we were scrambling to keep ourselves and the dog safe in avoiding the lone bison out for a stroll on the hiking trail.  It was the end of September, the perfect time of year to be camping in Texas, and my other half, dog, and I were out at Caprock Canyons State Park in the panhandle of Texas.  Caprock Canyons is known around the state because of the bison herd they have roaming the park.  We had adventured to this park in the spring, the other acceptable time of year to camp in Texas.  In the spring, we became acquainted with the bison and the layout of the park, but didn't see everything.  Our late September visit was set in motion for one main reason - to hike to Fern Cave.  Fern Cave is in the northwest corner of the park and is a cavern with ferns growing wild due to the natural runoff and the coolness provided from the rocks.  It was just over two miles back to the cave, so we took our time as the scenery was beautiful with red rocks mixed and green bushes thriving along the creek.

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Fern Cave!

We arrived at Fern Cave in the late afternoon, with an expected return time to the campsite being around sundown.  As we exited the cave, which had a narrow passage way in and out, we passed a couple and made the usual friendly greeting.  We were hiking back the way we came, towards the trailhead and passed two women who were enjoying a snack that we had passed on our way in the cave.  The sun was beginning to dim in the distance, with light fading and the golden hour upon us.  We walked about a mile or mile and a half, I can't be certain, and there he was - the lone bison.  In the middle of the hiking path, there was a younger male bison separated from his herd hanging out.  He was rolling around, scratching the ground, and seemed to be dancing as though no one was watching.  He didn't see us, so we back tracked to put a safe distance between us - he wasn't going anywhere.

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The view from the path...one of the last photos before stumbling on the lone bison

The main goal was to get back to camp alive and unharmed, so we had to be smart.  We looked at the brush on either side of the trail, thick with grass and thorny mesquite plants.  To the left, we had a valley and an abundance of mesquite, to the right was mostly grass and low mesquite bushes and in plain sight of the bison.  The two women had caught up so us and we caught them up on what was going on.  They said they heard that there was a bison on loose from the ranger as they checked in to the park, but didn't know exactly where - good to know, now.  We brainstormed and attempted a few trials at passing far enough away from the bison.  One try led us into bushes too thick and one to a valley too deep and treacherous.  At one point, the lone bison veered a little off course and we thought we'd get by on the trail but that didn't last long.  We thought we could distract him in the bush, but that didn't seem to work either.  Eventually, we had to just bite the bullet and go through those bushes that were too thick the first time and put some distance between us and the creature.  We made it far enough around him and eventually returned to the trail.  Hearts racing, legs scratched up, we were safe and back on track with only an hour delay.  The sun had set by now, the sky was purple, and we still had a couple of miles to go until we made it back to the campsite.

The walk back grew darker and darker with each footstep forward and then I remembered that I always keep a headlamp in my day pack!  Who knew that being prepared for everything would come in handy? The answer, everyone who suggests being prepared.  The headlamp leads to the other part of this story.  Once we made it to the main road that leads to the campsite, my headlamp was catching what looked like hundreds of diamonds in the darkness off the road.  Upon further inspection, they were spiders.  HUNDREDS of spiders had us surrounded - the entire way to the tent including around our cement pad where we had to take our shoes off and eat our late meal.  It can be assumed the spiders were harmless grass spiders, but we weren't sure at the time of that and still aren't completely convinced.

These encounters were firm, yet appropriate, reminders that animals have the right of way when you're in their home.  We had respect for that bison, and gave him the space he required to live his life.  The lone bison dictated our moves and we had little choice in the matter.  The spiders were just hanging out, as they do, because they live there.  We were guests on their turf and sometimes we need to be reminded of that simple fact.  I hope that lone bison found his herd and I hope he keeps on dancing like no one is watching.

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Home free - safely around the lone bison

*This post was created in 1 hour for the Nature Writing Challenge found on twitter using the hashtag "naturewritingchallenge"