Roads End Naturalist

Exploring the natural world as we wander at the end of the road


Category: Trip report

  • All Roads Lead To…

    If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there. ~Lewis Carroll When they heard we were planning this trip, a few friends automatically said they knew where we were going. We insisted we had made no definite plans and would let the road lead us wherever we needed to go. Read more…

  • It’s Better in The Bighorns

    Roads were made for journeys, not destinations. ~Confucius Looking at the maps, we hoped to find another area of national forest within a days drive of the Back Hills. An article I had found online on scenic road trips had mentioned an isolated mountain range with the appealing name of Bighorn Mountains. In looking at Read more…

  • Badlands and Beyond

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    My favorite thing to do is to go where I’ve never been. ~Diane Arbus There is a lot of flat land out there in the middle of the country. And not many national forests to disperse camp in it turns out. But, after leaving IL, we drove up along the Missouri River corridor and stopped Read more…

  • Getting Started

    Look at life through the windshield, not the rear-view mirror. ~Byrd Baggett Okay, now to cover some of the highlights of our journey. We had roughly 3 weeks and dispersed camping was a high priority, but, other than that, not much else was planned. We had kicked around some destination ideas and the last thing Read more…

  • Road Tripping

    The open road is there, it will always be there. You just have to decide when to take it. ~Chris Humphrey I guess we finally decided to hit that open road. The lack of posts these last few weeks is due to our first major truck camping road trip – 18 days, 11 states, 5816 Read more…

  • Return to Pungo

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    There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want. ~Bill Waterson This past Thursday evening, Melissa participated in a Science Cafe hosted by her workplace, the NC Museum of Natural Sciences. She joined a couple of other staff that had been authors of chapters in a book released this spring entitled, 30 Great Read more…

  • Rain Man (and Woman)

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    A rainy day is a perfect time for a walk in the woods. ~Rachel Carson I am finally getting around to posting about our trip to one of our favorite backpacking spots, Mount Rogers, VA. My backpacking and camping queen (you know who I am talking about) has been chomping at the bit to get Read more…

  • Warbler Watching

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    The real jewel of my disease-ridden woodlot is the prothonotary warbler … The flash of his gold-and-blue plumage amid the dank decay of the June woods is in itself proof that dead trees are transmuted into living animals, and vice versa. ~Aldo Leopold This final post on our recent swamp trip is about one of Read more…

  • Bird Spot

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    Simply wait, be quiet, still. The world will freely offer itself to you. ~Franz Kafka Yesterday’s post mentioned the excellent birding we experienced on our recent paddle trip on the Roanoke River. When we arrived at our second camping platform, Three Sisters, the late day light was gorgeous and the sky was filled with all Read more…

  • Social Distancing – Swamp Style

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    Yes, though you may think me perverse, if it were proposed to me to dwell in the neighborhood of the most beautiful garden that ever human art contrived, or else of a Dismal Swamp, I should certainly decide for the swamp. ~Henry David Thoreau I will admit to feeling a little guilty about this, but Read more…