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Home
Journal
Map
Destinations
- Historic Site
- National Park
- Nature
  - Arch
  - Bog
  - Canyon
  - Cave
  - Desert
  - Dune
  - Lake
  - Prairie
  - View
  - Waterfall
  - Wetland
  - Wilderness
- Point of Interest
  - Cemetery
- Transportation
Regions
- Mid-Atlantic
- Midwest
  - Indiana
  - Michigan
  - Ohio
- Northeast
- Southeast
  - North Carolina
  - Tennessee
- Southwest
  - Arizona
  - New Mexico
Prints & Downloads
About
Search

20070401-DSC_7546

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American Byways

February 21, 2020

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Cambridge City Park in Cambridge, #Ohio, is home t

Cambridge City Park in Cambridge, #Ohio, is home to the Armstrong Covered Bridge, also known as the Clio Covered Bridge, a restored 1849 multiple Kingpost truss that originally crossed Salt Creek near Clio. The historic covered bridge survived Morgan’s Raid during the Civil War and was moved to the park in 1966 during the development of Salt Fork State Park.

#HistoricPreservation #OhioTheHeartofitAll @cambridgeohio

The Milroy Covered Bridge has been carefully resto

The Milroy Covered Bridge has been carefully restored and now stands within the Lake County Fairgrounds in Crown Point, #Indiana. Originally built near Milroy in 1878 by A.M. Kennedy, it was relocated to the fairgrounds in 1933, helping ensure its survival into the present day.

#HistoricPreservation #RAWbridges #VisitIndiana #IndianaDNR

The walk to Whispering Cave at Hocking Hills State

The walk to Whispering Cave at Hocking Hills State Park in #Ohio began at the Old Man’s Cave trailhead, following a gentle winter route through open woods and along sandstone cliff lines. Icicles hung overhead, breaking apart in the winter sun as temperatures shifted through the day. The cave itself is a broad recess—nearly 300 feet wide—cut into the Blackhand sandstone, its scale felt before it fully came into view. A seasonal waterfall drops roughly 105 feet into the hollow, subdued by cold but still shaping the space. This spirited hike marked the close of our New Year’s winter visit to Hocking Hills. 💖

#OhioTheHeartofitAll #OhioStateParks #HockingHills #WinterWonderland

Near Miami, Oklahoma, a nine-foot stretch of pavem

Near Miami, Oklahoma, a nine-foot stretch of pavement survives as the only remaining section of old U.S. Route 66. Known locally as the “Sidewalk Road,” it dated to the early years of federal road building.

The project was approved on December 8, 1918, as Federal Aid Project No. 8. Work began in July 1919 on a road linking Miami and Narcissa, completed in March 1921. A second stage extended the road to Afton, with grading in July 1921 and surfacing finished in February 1922. Built by the Western Paving Company, the 15.46-mile highway had a five-inch concrete base, two inches of Topeka asphalt, and curbs. It became part of Oklahoma State Highway 7.

Soon after, the General Construction Company extended the road north from Miami to Commerce (3.6 miles) and to the Neosho River Bridge under additional federal aid projects.

By the mid-1920s, Oklahoma leaders sought to connect Miami with Oklahoma City through Vinita, Claremore, and Tulsa. Their plans aligned with the creation of the U.S. highway system in 1926, which incorporated Ottawa County’s section of State Highway 7. With approval from the Associated Highways Association of America, the narrow “Sidewalk Road” became part of U.S. Route 66.

The roadway remained in use until the 1930s, when traffic demands required a wider, straighter alignment. Construction began in 1935 and opened in 1937 as U.S. Routes 60 and 59, bypassing six sharp curves of the old pavement.

Today, the short surviving section near Miami stands as a rare trace of early federal roadbuilding and the formative years of Route 66.

#ghostsofamerica #HistoricPreservation #Deserve2Preserve #rawusa_sept25 #VisittheUSA #wanderingusa #RoadsideAmerica #roadgeek #Route66 #HistoricRoute66 #MotherRoad #Oklahoma #TravelOK #OKHereWeGo #DiscoverOklahoma #OklahomaPhotographer #OklahomaTourism #ThisIsOklahoma

The sun dropped low over White Domes Road, casting

The sun dropped low over White Domes Road, casting long shadows through Nevada’s Valley of Fire.

Out here, light moves differently, cutting across sandstone in hard angles and soft glows. The road winds through a maze of red rock and pale domes, the oldest state park in Nevada, stretching out in ridges and washes. At dusk, the cliffs flare up—pink, orange, gold—before falling into quiet hues.

#RAW_landscape #RAW_seasons #RAW_allnature #rawusa_aug25 #VisittheUSA #wanderingusa @visittheusa #roadgeek #Nevada #TravelNevada #VisitNevada #ExploreNevada #NVstateparks @travelnevada

A late-winter hike through the Red River Gorge Geo

A late-winter hike through the Red River Gorge Geological Area in #Kentucky in 2009 offered a quiet day on the trail with my dad, moving through bare hardwoods and lingering patches of evergreen and rhododendron. We followed well-worn paths to Princess Arch, a modest sandstone span, and continued on to Rock Bridge along Swift Camp Creek.

The gorge, carved into eastern Kentucky’s sandstone plateau, is defined by its natural bridges, cliffs, rock shelters, and seasonal waterfalls, features that have long made it one of the region’s most distinctive landscapes.

#OptOutside #Appalachia #appalachian_explorers #TravelKY

Sometimes the best nights on the road begin withou

Sometimes the best nights on the road begin without a plan—just an open highway and a rough idea about a stand of Joshua trees in northern Arizona. That’s how we found ourselves heading south of Boulder City, chasing the last light into the Mojave.

The road turned black near town, headlights cutting through the dark along U.S. Route 95. We turned off onto quieter roads toward the Grapevine Mesa Joshua Tree Forest—a stretch of high desert where the trees grow thick and old. Miles from pavement, we pulled onto BLM land and camped beside aging radio towers. From that knoll, the Joshua trees fanned out in tangled silhouettes beneath a sky full of stars. We chalked the tires, opened the rooftop tent, and slept.

Dawn came slowly. Pinks and soft blues gave way to sunlit cholla and creosote. The Joshua trees turned golden at the tips. We walked among them for an hour, stopping often to photograph and listen to the wind. No other visitors. Just a few signs and open land—a place that felt nearly forgotten. Years ago, a group called Friends of Arizona Joshua Tree Forest pushed for protections, but it has since disbanded. Quiet efforts still continue.

By late morning, we crossed into the Hualapai Indian Reservation. Our destination: Guano Point, a rocky outcrop with broad views of the Grand Canyon and a curious history. In the mid-20th century, miners blasted a tunnel 2,500 feet into a cave rich in guano—bat droppings once prized for fertilizer. A cable tram stretched across the canyon. The effort was short-lived. By 1960, the mine was abandoned.

We stood at the edge, watching the Colorado River carve the canyon below. It was awe-inspiring—but incomplete. The Hualapai have preserved access to this landscape, but the experience felt limited: worn overlooks, few signs, no trails. Aircraft buzzed overhead, a constant presence compared to the quiet of park-managed lands. Still, the land spoke in stone and shadow.

#VisitArizona #CaptureArizona #arizonaisgorgeous #OnlyInArizona #ArizonaPhotographer #ExploreArizona #ArizonaLife #ArizonaCollective @visit_arizona @capturearizona #GrandCanyon #GrandCanyonState #rawusa_aug25 #VisittheUSA #wanderingusa @visittheusa #RAW_landscape

Concrete pouring is underway on the Sunken Garden

Concrete pouring is underway on the Sunken Garden fountains at Garfield Park in Indianapolis, Indiana. This is part of a large-scale renovation project began to restore the park’s historic Sunken Garden fountains. Construction and testing are scheduled to continue through spring 2026.

Thank you to @fogpindy, @indyparks, the donors, and the laborers for making this work possible.

#Historic #HistoricPreservation #Deserve2Preserve #rawusa_june25 #VisittheUSA #wanderingusa #bestoftheusa_urban #SeeYourCity #Indiana #VisitIndiana #igersIndiana #ExploreIndiana #myIndiana #Indy #loveIndy #igersindy

Forty Mile Point Light stands on a low bluff along

Forty Mile Point Light stands on a low bluff along Lake Huron in Presque Isle County, #Michigan, about midway between Alpena and Cheboygan. The station was completed in 1896 after Congress appropriated funds in 1893 to close a long, unlit stretch of shoreline that had concerned Great Lakes mariners. Its square white tower rises from a two-story red brick keeper’s dwelling, a practical design used widely by the Lighthouse Board in the late nineteenth century. The original fourth-order Fresnel lens gave the light a range of roughly 15 nautical miles, guiding ore carriers, lumber steamers, and passenger vessels moving along Michigan’s northeastern coast.

Automation came in 1969 under the U.S. Coast Guard, ending the era of resident keepers. In 1996, ownership transferred to Presque Isle County, and the property gradually reopened as a museum while remaining an active aid to navigation. Visitors today can walk the grounds, view exhibits in the former keeper’s quarters, and follow the shoreline north of the station to see timbers from the 1905 wreck of the steamer Joseph S. Fay, still embedded in the sand. The setting is open and exposed, shaped by wind and water, much as it was when the light first went into service.

#HistoricPreservation #GreatLakesLighthouses #LighthousePhotography #PureMichigan

The Michigan City lighthouses mark one of the most

The Michigan City lighthouses mark one of the most distinctive harbor entrances on the southern shore of Lake Michigan in #Indiana. Together, the old shore light and the later pierhead light reflected the city’s growth as a working port, while their survival into the present gave Indiana one of its best-known maritime landmarks.

Michigan City’s lighthouse history began in 1837, but the surviving shore light was built in 1858 to replace the earlier structure on Lake Michigan. It remained in service until 1904, when its lantern and lens were moved to a new pierhead tower at the harbor entrance. Harriet Colfax, one of the station’s most notable keepers, served both the shore light and the harbor light before resigning in 1904 at age eighty.

A separate pier light was first established in 1871, but storms repeatedly damaged the exposed structure, and one tower was swept into the lake in 1886. The present Michigan City East Light was completed in 1904 on a concrete pier and built of steel and brick above a fog-signal building. Automated in 1960 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988, it remains paired with the old shore light, now a museum. Together, the two landmarks preserve a continuous story of navigation, harbor engineering, and lighthouse keeping from the 1830s onward.

#HistoricPreservation #GreatLakesLighthouses #LighthousePhotography #VisitIndiana

I woke before daylight in my rooftop tent along th

I woke before daylight in my rooftop tent along the Cheat River in West Virginia, wind shaking the fabric as fresh snow fell through the night. By morning, the riverbanks and forest floor were covered, and winter had stripped the landscape down to its essentials. It was bitterly cold, unsettled weather—the kind that slows movement but sharpens attention.

Snowshoeing into Coopers Rock State Forest, trails softened or disappeared beneath fresh drifts. The forest was quiet, broken only by wind and the compression of snow underfoot. Deeper in the woods, the Henry Clay Furnace emerged from the trees, its stone stack standing as a reminder of early Appalachian industry. Completed in 1836, the furnace once employed hundreds and produced iron that was floated down the Cheat River. In winter, it felt isolated and exposed, emphasizing the labor and endurance required to operate here.

Later, I followed ridgelines toward the cliffs above the gorge, passing stonework built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. Near the overlook, the Almost Heaven swing stood empty, chains shifting slightly in the wind. Gusts swept the exposed rock and kept me back from the edge. Snowshoeing along the cliffs slowed the day and deepened the experience, turning a familiar place into something quieter, harsher, and shaped by weather, history, and restraint.

📸 Key:
1 - Coopers Rock overlook
2 - Henry Clay Furnace
3 - CCC-built picnic shelter
4 - Along the ridgeline
5 - Coopers Rock overlook
6 - Almost Heaven Swing

#AlmostHeaven #VisitWV #GoToWV #WinterWonderland #OptOutside #stayandwander #folkscenery #Appalachia #appalachian_explorers #wanderingusa #VisittheUSA #WestVirginia #WVPhotographer #wonderfulgrams

Driving east on US Route 40 through Putnam County,

Driving east on US Route 40 through Putnam County, Indiana, the evening light struck a farmstead in warm gold.

Barns and grain silos rose against the sky, their shapes darkening at sunset. Strings of LED lights spelled out “Jesus Is The Reason” and “Noel,” a quiet roadside glimpse of local faith and rural life.

The farm, known as Shields Farm, includes a two-story brick house built around 1843. Its five-bay façade, gable roof, modest porch, transomed doors, and segmental-arched windows reflect Greek Revival and Italianate styles typical of mid-19th-century Indiana homesteads.

The farm holds historical significance. Locally known as the Shields Farm, it features a two-story brick residence built around 1843. The house combines Greek Revival and Italianate elements, including a five-bay façade, gable roof, modest entry porch, doors with transoms and lights, and segmental-arched windows, characteristics typical of mid-19th-century homesteads.

#RAW_landscape #AmericanRural #rawusa_nov25 #VisittheUSA #wanderingusa #SmallTownValues #LiveAuthentic #ThisIsHome #RoadsideAmerica #Indiana #VisitIndiana #igersIndiana #ExploreIndiana #myIndiana #putmeinputnam

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