Geo-Hauntingly Good TIme!

If anything, Michigan LOVES Halloween. 

And Michigan geocachers even more! Why? Because our local hiders host amazing events! TaGeez and I made it to three of them yesterday!

A Haunting Saturday Morning At The Cider Mill GCAYJFN

First up? Team Gates hosted a Cider Mill event in Rochester! Great way to kick off in the morning with cold apple cider and warm donuts - we tailgated in the parking lot!

Saturday Afternoon Spooktacular Matinee 3 GCAXJ0H

Then Harley822 had his classic Halloween movie showing at the Brandon Public Library.

Three guesses for this year's selection! Not only did we get treat bags, but I won a year's premium membership as a door prize! Treat not Trick!

After group solving a new puzzle based on the movie we watched, we trekked over to the cache for a group FTF. No surprises who we found in the casket... er... box!

HH24 - Haunt in Halmich XIII GCAVV11

Finally, the event we look forward to all year! Hosted by Bobo's Dad, we spent an evening at Halmich Park!

TaGeez and Scrapcat, again.

Do you recognize 3/4 of Southeastern Michigan
Geocaching Community FB Admins? 

Meeting in a pavillion, we start the Haunt in Halmich greeting and sharing tall tales with friends we haven't seen in a year!

TaGeez with our host

RayQix made an appearance

Then we trek out into the darkness of the park by flashlight to find the new dozen Halloween-themed caches hidden in the park!

So did ProBob!

It's a fabulous walk and the weather held out for us. Plus 12 FTFs! That puts you in the Halloween "spirit", doesn't it? 👻

Congratulations to Team Gates on your 19,000 find last night!

Lake Michigan Circle: Natural Wonders & Lighthouses

As much fun as we have with the oddities and rarities found on our Lake Michigan Circle Tour, there is no doubt that the natural views and majestic lighthouses on Lake Michigan are breathtaking. 

Lake Michigan is home to 44 remaining lighthouses, and, lucky for ShelleyJean and I, we weather was with us on most of our visits.

First stop in Wisconsin was this beauty in Racine. Here we scored a geocache, an adventure lab, beautiful views, and pretty rocks for our collection. 

Wind Point Lighthouse - Racine GC3Q58D

Typical for us, we spied the Adventure Lab stop at Wind Point, so then we had to complete the rest of the lab in Racine. This took us to the Christopher Columbus Causeway. Racine has a pretty little marina and multiple harbor lights.

Christopher Columbus Causeway GC4CRP9

The next to cross our paths is the North Point Lighthouse. It's in Milwaukee, but it's up on a hill. You can't spot it unless you were looking for it.

North Point Lighthouse - GC5VT5R

North Point Lighthouse - Northern Milwaukee

South Milwaukee has lighthouses and adventure labs, too. That sun was intense this day!

Milwaukee Harborlights 

I know I've already shared the Milwaukee Riverwalk, but you have to appreciate it's beauty, too. There were walking paths on each side of the river, local art, spots to stop and take photos, and historical markers. Something draws us to the water...

Milwaukee Riverwalk

Milwaukee Riverwalk

When we left Milwaukee, we headed north to Port Washington and the Lessons in Modern Cartography Webcam GCH51C. Lo! This little island in the marina were home to many native birds including these little fellahs munching away at the flowers. He looks like he's posing, doesn't he? 

The funny thing is I must've taken 50 pictures of this little ray of sunshine and his friends, but it was the first one that came out the best. 

American Goldfinch - Port Washington

When people ask, "What's in Door County?", the most crooked road always comes up!

Take Highway 42 between Gill's Rock and Northport to experience this unnatural wonder. This road curves 15 times in a one-mile stretch! Tradition has it this road was designed this way from a "desire to avoid cutting down too many trees." [AtlasObscura.com]

I cannot even imagine the traffic backup during the Fall change of colors. I bet there are so many photographing tourists you can't even see the twisty road!

Crooked Road - Door County GC7P78J

Further up the shore, outside of Oconto, is this neat new Virtual literally out in the middle of nowhere. Well, actually, it's the Bay of Green Bay. 

Ever curious, SJ drove out there in the middle of a storm. So cool and you can see just how deep and powerful the water is from here. 

End of the Road Virtual GCAJFZV

Next up along the shore is Michigan and the Sand Point Lighthouse. Sweet little spot with wildflowers and sandy beaches.  

Sand Point Lighthouse Virtual GC9P63N

If you show any Michigander a picture of this road, they will recognize the underappreciated yet scenic view of US-2. 

Stretching over 300 miles from St. Ignace to Ironwood, US-2 is one of the most popular thoroughfares in the U.P. The route cuts a path through more than a half dozen counties across the heart of the U.P., past waterfalls, pasty shops (like Three Seasons Cafe in Manistique), and small towns.  [source]

Note for SJ - this is a great idea for a future road trip! We can go visit the giant Stormie Kromer hat and the World's Biggest Calumet virtual!

US-2 Michigan's Upper Peninsula

And that leads us to the aforementioned St. Ignace. The less said about our hotel the better, but the view outside my balcony was stunning!

View outside my hotel in St Ignace

The last (and rainy) day of our trip brought us to the Seney Wildlife Refuge.... 

Marshland Wildlife Virtual GCK2EC

Seney has been on our list for years, and today we enjoyed the 6-mile drive through the refuge. We saw deer, swans, loons, kingfishers, blue herons, king birds, blue jays, orioles, pied-eyed grebes, sandhill cranes, and a beaver.

And, finally, Lake Superior. Yes, why are we visiting Lake Superior on the Lake Michigan Circle Tour? Because we can!

The Gales of November Virtual GC9P6B2

Ceder Waxwing. "What?"

Whitefish Point Lighthouse GC9P6PE

As the rain continued and the sky grew darker, it was time to pass over this amazing structure and head for home.

1,700 miles in 5 days visiting the Western side of Lake Michigan with my fabulous geo-partner, ShelleyJean. 

One more special post tomorrow.

Colorado Adventure 7 - Heading Home to Detroit

Day 7 - Saturday: Heading Home to Detroit

Thank you, all, who followed our Colorado adventures last week! It was an amazing experience, and we are grateful we had the ability to go

DIA has a subway!

Signal ready to head home again

This frog gets around!

Signal and his two companions had quite the Colorado adventure! 2,240 miles in the air, 1,239 miles in the car, averaging over 10,000 steps a day, and earning 4 new state souvenirs!

Signal's Colorado Adventure

Colorado Adventure 6 - Cheyenne and Denver

 Day 6 - Friday: Cheyenne and Denver.

After five very full days of sunshine and fresh air, we decided we needed a road trip day. So we packed our bags in Estes Park and left the bugling elk (who bugled all night long) behind for Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Estes Park

Heading out of town we stopped at The Ark, just a few hundred feet from our hotel. What a kooky place!

The Ark GC6AVHF

And, as TaGeez was signing the log, guess who ambled out of the nearby bushes, announcing himself?!? Wow, are they loud! They sound like pressure steam coming out of a hot water heater.

We took the scary, circuitous road out of Estes Park and then headed north to Wyoming.

This is our fourth state on this trip and, again, the landscape was so different! Golden plains stretching out for miles on either side of the highway! We passed bison and prairie dogs! And, yet, you could still see the Rockies purple against the horizon to the west.

Why take pictures of actual bison if you can just
snap a picture of the sign, right? 

Wyoming

I would say, in the over 3 dozen states I've crossed, that few Visitor Centers have impressed me as much as Wyoming's. Modern amenities, great history displays, picnic areas built to mimic local Indian structures.

Signal spending time with Butch Cassidy

And, yes, they had geocaches and adventure labs. We spent quite a bit of time here.

Our other major motivator for heading north was the Cheyenne webcam. Can you believe it? It stopped working the day we landed! And it still wasn't working almost a week later. We went into the weather bureau, but they said they can only report the issue. (Update: It took almost 3 weeks but it's back online).

We don't like claiming webcams that aren't working, but when are we going to be back this way?

Cheyenne Webcam Virtual GC51D4

Next up was a tour of the capital and surrounding historical sites. The whole area had such a community feel to it. I won't post picture here - the Virtuals weren't very exciting, but I don't want to give spoilers away.

Deadwood Stage Start GCEAF6

Is that the capital? YES!

As we turned towards Denver, we spied a First-To-Find opportunity in a nearby Wyoming Park. Looked simple enough, right? Very tall grass concealing cacti and barbed wire. What could go wrong? But we got it!

Clear Creek GCAE6W8 - FTF!

Now is time to head towards our final hotel for the trip in Northglenn plus a little sightseeing in Denver.

Welcome (again) to Colorado!

Prairie dogs just off the freeway!

We wrapped our day visiting touristy spots in the capital of Colorado. I have a personal challenge where I like to grab at least one geocache in every state capital we visit. I should make a challenge of it.

Admittedly we didn't linger downtown because there were so many homeless encampments, but sunset on the steps of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science perfectly wrapped our trip!

The Denver Mint Virtual GC7B7VK

Another capital building

Now, funny thing is we decided to drive over to one more Virtual before turning in for the night. Little did we know that it was at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. I've been carrying around this screenshot from the Denver Travel Guide for months and we wre heading there at sunset!

Isn't it a picture? Ferril Lake in front of downtown Denver in front of the Rocky Mountains at sunset!

The sun was very bright, and we didn't want to photograph right into the sun with our new phones so we moseyed out front to get the Benchmark virtual.

Denver Benchmark Virtual GC52E2

And this is what we saw when we came back. Gorgeous!

City of Denver & Rockies reflected in back of building

We headed back to our hotel in Northglenn and started looking for a place to eat. We randomly picked this Mexican restaurant and are still talking about this meal! Later, a local who is also a coworker, said we happened upon her favorite restaurant in Colorado! So wish they opened a location back home.

Fired up by my amazing fajitas and sopapillas, we decided we had just enough energy to detour to this war memorial virtual nearby before tucking in for the night!

Northglenn Veterans Memorial Virtual GCHHJY

So sad that this amazing adventure is almost over as tomorrow we leave.