After our discussion on the Applachia Long Trail on another thread and as a way to get something non-political to talk about going, I thought it might be interesting to ask people to post the most beautiful out of the way places they have visited in the US - not the Grand Canyon or Pacific Coast Hiway kind of stories, but those little out of the way places discovered in the course of life that are little known. For me, there are three in particular that come to mind, let me start of by posting one of them:

Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refugee
SW corner of Oklahoma

This place is a destination for those who are into cameras and wildlife photography that offers fairly easy trails in very wild country. You can do it by RV, or do it tent style in campsite accomodations. There is also a daytrip automobile road where you can also shoot wildlife from paved scenic areas. If you want to really get down and hike into areas to do rock climbing, wilderness camping and the like, you have to get special permission first, but the best way to do the place is to stay at one of the official USF&W campgrounds. They are all adjacent to the various trail systems. If you are going to camp in a tent, bring powerful repellant and mosquito nets, and choose your site well, keeping an eye out for ant hills that you will reget staking a tent over. The campgrounds are not very large, so call in and reserve a campsite. For hunters, there are elk and deer lotteries, and there may be others as well if species get overpopulated. If you win a lottery, unless you are such a bad shot that you couldn't hit the water if you fell out of a boat, you are pretty much guaranteed your limit and you will be allowed to go into parts of the refuge that are strickly off limits to the public.

These "mountains" are really the final point that the tip of the great glacier of the last ice age reached, and are composed of the rocks and trash pushed forward onto a very,very old worn down mountain range by the glacier as it moved down the Great Plains, so they are a combiniation of 4 billion old outcrop mixed with glacial boulders. They are probably in the 1500 ft- 2000 ft range, if that, but because this is the only mountain range in the Southern Plains, the views from the mountain tops are spectacular.

The area embodies the meaning of the words "starkly beautiful". The mountains are pretty much treeless, while the lowlands are forested. If you want to see what this country looked like before we got here, this is the place. It is one of the most visually compelling places I have ever been, especially in the spring when the mountains and valleys become covered in wildflowers, many of which are the last of species close to extinction. Unless you want to prove how tough you are, it is not advisable to visit from July 1 to Sept 15. It is extremely hot in those months in the area, and the more vile creatures are in great abundance and unless you are in an RV, sleeping in the evening is almost impossible due to the heat and you may find yourself, for one example, bitten by insects that bore holes in your legs and lay their eggs to hatch. Not fatal, but very unpleasant. In general this is not a place for wimps - The spring is the best time to visit, March 21st to the end of June, but there is always a danger of extremely violent thunderstorms, tornadoes and flash floods. Winters are fairly mild, but it can also turn cold and nasty, but the violent weather subsides in that period. Even if you camp in the Fed campgrounds beware - this place is as wild as they come and there are rattlesnakes, scorpions, mountain lions, and a whole lot of nasty insects and deadly spiders, and some of the most vicious ants on earth, like those ants you see on TV that Indians staked people they didn't like over. Never sit on small rocks and such without kicking them over or you could be parking your ass on a nest of scorpions. Watch your footwear - if ya'll remember our other thread about scorpions this is the place I got bit by one that crawled into my hiking boot.

History has made this one of the most remote areas of the US because most of the land in the area is Federal Reserve of some sort or another, much of which has never been disturbed, covering a portion of Oklahoma about the size of the state of Rhode Island. The Refuge itself is teeming with the prairie wildlife ecosystem that once covered the entire Great Plains, and the wildlife is so abundant it is impossible to miss. Buffalo, elk, prairie dog towns, wild birds of all types including bald eagles make this one of the best camera safari destinations in the US. The Refuge is about 50,000 acres, and it in turn is surrounded by the Ft. Sill Military Reservation, and numerous Comanche reservations, so it has been immune to the kind of edge development and cattle raising that has hurt so many other wild places. There are two very interesting small towns nearby, Medicine Park, and Meers, both hard luck towns so be careful, but both also Old West towns stuck in 1890's time. Here are directions and such:

http://wichitamountains.fws.gov/

I used to go to a place north-west of Steamboat Springs, CO. It was somewhere on the line with Wyoming. Just awesome. Drive about 2 hours on a back dirt road to the end of the road, and start hiking along the river. Heavily forested, and several pools to cliff jump at on the river. Probably one of the cooler places I have been.
I like areas where there are no people for miles, gives you a good sense of what "reality" is. Even around here in Breckenridge if you hike for several hours you can be far from anyone, definitely one of my favorite things to do in the summer....

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1983 Mercedes 300SD
1987 Mercedes 300SDL
2001 VW Passat 2.8 AWD
2007 OM642 Jeep WK 4x4

Wonder Lake campgrounds in McKinley Park, Alaska. I will see if I can dig up some old photos of a sunset with Mt. McKinley glowing red. Lucked out one weekend, drove up from Anchorage, got our name on a list to camp at the Wonder Lake area, got a spot at the end of the day and drove up the spectacular 80 miles or so into the national park and up to Wonder Lake in my 1975 240D when it was pretty new. After setting up camp and grilling some steaks for the wife, myself and our dog (Cochise, a wild Samoyed puppy at the time), Mt. McKinley shrugged off a shroud of clouds just at sunset. It was a rare sight, looking across what must be a valley of close to 40 or more miles at this huge collection of snow covered peaks, including McKinley. There is else nothing like Alaska and the Canadian Rockies. Jim

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Own:
1986 Euro 190E 2.3-16 (291,000 miles),
1998 E300D TurboDiesel, 231,000 miles -purchased with 45,000,
1988 300E 5-speed 252,000 miles,
1983 240D 4-speed, purchased w/136,000, now with 222,000 miles.
2009 ML320CDI Bluetec, 89,000 miles

Owned:
1971 220D (250,000 miles plus, sold to father-in-law),
1975 240D (245,000 miles - died of body rot),
1991 350SD (176,560 miles, weakest Benz I have owned),
1999 C230 Sport (45,400 miles),
1982 240D (321,000 miles, put to sleep)

I went to the Rockies in Canada a few years back and was overwhelmed at the natural beauty of the area.

My cousins who live there feel the same way about Miami Beach and the Florida Keys. People always want what they don't have? Maybe for a little while.

I often look at pictures of the North Pole and I am sure that would be breathtaking and have wanter to go to Europe forever. Maybe this winter, flight are cheap.

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Enough about me, how are you doing?

November 13, 2004 Lemhi Pass at the continental divide between Montana and Idaho. Here Lewis and Clark realized that there was no easy portage between the headwaters of the Missouri and Columbia rivers. Did not see another person for a few hours, but my cell phone rang.

Mark

Most every time I return to such a place I see real estate development signs. There is so much in the west that I’m afraid most people don’t see. Driving vacations and camping is something everyone should do, but I don’t think this is that popular anymore. Just getting a little off the main road almost anywhere I’ve been can give you an almost wilderness experience. One of the easiest areas I’ve found is in southern Utah above the Escalante Range and around 1,000 Lake Mtn. This is between Capital Reef and Bryce Canyon. I’ve driven the Bus back into many trails marked on the detail maps as hiking and horse trails. Spent days on end without ever seeing anyone. We did run into a guide one time that was taking some people back into the lakes on packhorses, and he became totally sold on what VW’s were capable of. Told us about a little lake that we got back too. Taking a pack trip was on our to-do list, but since we seem to be able to drive in and then walk a little, maybe just Bajaing out the Bus will do.

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89 300E
79 240D
72 Westy
63 Bug sunroof
85 Jeep CJ7
86 Chevy 6.2l diesel PU

"The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."
Marcus Aurelius

I spent a couple summers as a teenager with my grandparents up in the mountains not far from Bryce Canyon, Utah (kinda near Navajo Lake for anyone that is familiar with the area). They had a cabin on a sheep ranch, and worked the summers herding sheep for a big ranch. Was, and still is, my fav place on earth. Was a good hour drive from civilization. No electricity, no phone, no TV. Just beautiful country, the wildlife, and of course stinky 'ol sheep. I could hike for a half hour in almost any direction before hitting a fence line. (Some directions I never did find the fence) A wonderful place to just meditate and ponder life.

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past MB rides:
'68 220D
'68 220D(another one)
'67 230
'84 SD
Current rides:
'06 Lexus RX330
'93 Ford F-250
'96 Corvette
'99 Polaris 700 RMK sled
2011 Polaris Assault
'86 Yamaha TT350(good 'ol thumper)

Eldorado Springs Canyon, CO -- a well-known locale to U.S. rock climbers, but not well-known to others. World class rock climbs, pristine white water stream which cut the canyon, clean air, beautiful, well-spaced homes on mountainsides along the stream...... I'd love to retire there some day.

Do you have Office XP ? There is a photo resizer included with some versions that is easy to use. Look for Office Picture Manager in your Programs Menu.

Is that anywhere near Grand Lake? I have a radiologist friend who is building a multi-million dollar retirement home there.

Not exactly around the corner, but not too far. Grand Lake is more mainstream CO -- Eldorado Springs is more outta the way -- not on the tourist maps.

it is criminal what is happening in the Rockies. All this edge development going on on the fringes of the National Forests screws the whole thing up. They need some zoning and buffer laws to prevent this. In Santa Fe, the worst offenders, I hate to admit, are those god damn Hollywood celebreties. You go to the Santa Fe National Forest, and the most prominent feature is Jessica Lange's house. Screw those guys. That's why I like the wildlife refuge in Oklahoma. It is surrounded by fed land, a lot of which is used for artillery practice. Keeps the riff raff out.

That would work. Then just save them to your "My Pictures" folder, and click on them - they should open in Picture manager automatically. Then just click Tools, Click Resize, and you get a box on your right where you can enter the percentage you want to reduce it. It shows you how it looks, and if you like it, hit "OK" and "Save" to make it permenant. Takes a couple of seconds. You can also size it by pixels as well if you want to make an avatar out of it. Just check the forums specs ( I think this forum is 60x60 ), and put in 60x 60 in the pixel resize boxes, and it will shrink it to the correct avatar size for upload.

Nahanni River, Northwest Territories. Rewarded myself for the completion of my Ph.d. with a month long canoe trip down it in 1990. Great whitewater, spectacular mountains (climbers go there for the Cirque of the Unclimbables) and amazing wilderness wildlife. It's a United Nations World Heritage Park--that should keep the militia types away!

More local: Commanche National Grasslands, SE Colorado and NW Oklahoma. Went spider hunting there in October. Tarantulas were out looking for mates. No one around for miles, interesting canyons and petroglyphs.

Niobrara River--Nebraska. I know no one will believe that Nebraska contains this wonderful gem. It's a wild and scenic river. And if you ask me before you go, I can tell you the location of the only spot in the West where the US Cavalry burned a wagon train for violating a treaty and entering Indian Territory.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Stockholm WI, on Lake Pepin. beautiful place, population 92. Right on the lake, backed by tall granite cliffs where bald eagles live. Gorgeous and friendly, on second thought, stay away!