Another coronocruise to check out a wild life refuge. Grays Lake National Wildlife Refuge a wet land about 3 hours north of us up in Idaho. A beautiful day well worth the drive. We saw a wonderful assortment of birds, the sounds of the Sandhill Cranes were joyous. Our big treat was when we were heading down the west side of the marsh and we came across a great herd of elk!
Heading north for some bird watching I spied porch full of potential Art-o-mats sitting on the porch of dilapidated building in the tiny town of Bennington,ID. One has to wonder where they all came from and why they are there! What a great reminder that it is time to send in my latest submission.
And a second travel treat, spying the nest of a Red Tail Hawk, in very viewable spot!
This weeks coronacruise took us way out around the west side of the Great Salt Lake, where we got to hit a few places that have been on my list for quite some time, the Sun Tunnels and the ghost town of Lucin. The Sun Tunnels are a 1970's art installation by Nancy Holt, the wife of Robert Smithson, the creator of the Spiral Jetty. Constellation adorned concrete tunnels that line up with the sun during solstices. Way out in the middle of nowhere (and I mean middle of nowhere!), what a crazy, interesting and beautiful (and remote!) place for an art installation. It would be really cool to go see this during the solstice...
Lucin was a bit surprising. I didn't expect to find a oasis in the deserts, but the ponds created by piping in water from the far off mountains were indeed an oasis. Lucin was a railroad stop, and back in the day they need the water to fill the steam engines. The train still runs by, but not much is left of the town, just a few root cellars and an odd concrete structure, which after doing some googling we discovered was actually a railroad company phone booth. The ponds make for a nice little wildlife sanctuary, ducks, lots of song birds ( I saw some beautiful warblers!) and a pair of red tailed hawks where living there.
