This is now my favorite park for wildlife. I was lucky to get a photo of this moose and her calf on the 1 mile Nature Trail in Windigo just before my boat left. Despite seeing loons, mergansers, swans, geese, and even a bushy tailed fox parading near my shelter on Washington Creek, I had neglected to take any decent wildlife photos, so until these two approached me, all I had was one photo of two ducks: a paradox.
I hiked a dozen miles and enjoyed the pitcher plants and boardwalks through the swampy areas and the mossy boulders on the north shore. The island is larger than I imagined, so be sure to download the park map in advance and charge your phone. This Biosphere is one of the least visited National Parks but most re-visited. Many folks hike the length over several days, and early in the season there were many volunteers hiking off-trail doing scientific research on wolf-moose predator-prey. A few were carrying a canoe for inland lakes. It’s an idyllic place, with hours of silence and solitude, a wonderful trip into the wilderness.
Isle Royale is in Lake Superior, and the shortest ferry ride is a couple hours from Minnesota to Windigo. The island is part of Michigan, and there are also ferries from the Keweenaw Peninsula in Upper Michigan to Rock Harbor. Most visitors are experienced hikers who backpack to their campgrounds, and it’s 40 miles between Windigo and Rock Harbor. Some arrive by private boat, and several campgrounds have docks. Lodgings are limited to Rock Harbor and a couple cabins in Windigo, and rooms are both very expensive and typically sold out many months in advance. The season roughly runs from early June to early September, so it’s a good idea to plan your trip a year in advance.
To visit 16 of Mexico’s World Heritage Sites in a zero emission vehicle, I drove round trip from Texas to Mexico City, through 13 Mexican states, and, while a bit bumpy, I enjoyed the trip very much. All my trip report links are at the end of this post.
If you read online comments in the US, you might get the idea that traveling in Mexico is impossible or foolhardy at best. Well, you can’t believe everything you read online (except this blog of course). Over the entire trip, I was only asked for one ‘bribe’ of $1, to park briefly in a student parking lot without a student id. The state police, national guard and military were all very professional and waved me through either without comment or after glancing at my car permit. While I saw crime on the TV news in Mexico, I observed none.
After driving in Mexico, I finally understand driving in Texas. Instead of overpasses, underpasses and clover leafs, just use ‘retornos’ or U-turns. Folks leave the nice highways, well, they’re on their own, immediately. Want to slow traffic, without relying on folks to obey signs? Just use lots of speed-bumps or topes. Although, there are even more techniques to learn. First, always be alert. Pothole! Second, drive halfway in the breakdown lane to avoid head-on collisions with oncoming passing traffic. Third, always be alert, seriously, you need to pay attention and think while driving. Drivers are generally nice, but get out of the way of speed demons and quickly pass vehicles that wouldn’t be allowed on the roads in the US.
All Mexico is divided into three parts. Mexico City is best navigated by metro, with its one way streets, traffic and lack of parking. Traffic can be stultifying. Of course, electric cars are exempt from the Hoy No Circula—‘no driving today’—restrictions, which otherwise limit your access to the city according to the last character of your license plate. Circumnavigating the city on the ring road requires tolls: take your ticket and be prepared to pay cash (although a few places take credit cards). Remember the metro is 5 pesos or ~30 cents.
The mid-sized cities and tourist areas outside Mexico City are still crowded, but passable by private car. I was frequently fortunate to find parking very near World Heritage Sites in mid-sized city centers. Of course, the more touristy, the more likely that the roads are cobblestone. San Miguel de Allende may be magical, but I scraped the bottom of my car several times on medieval stones. Better to park outside the historic zones and walk. Still, driving your own car gets you to places that are otherwise challenging to reach.
And then there are the mountains and remote villages. Ah, lovely! But no signal to navigate. I got lost three times near the butterfly reserve. Once, my navigation asked me to drive between two trees on each side of a hiking trail. But I must admit, some of the most beautiful places in Mexico are just off the grid. Horse-driven ploughs, indigenous costumes, and forest-covered volcanoes await. Long drives are best on toll roads with frequent $5 to $15 tolls.
On this trip, I used Superchargers exclusively, and I only saw half a dozen Teslas in Mexico, including my own, mostly at chargers. Unlike the US, there isn’t a government subsidy for most electric cars, so my car was not just unusual, but uneconomical in the short run. I got few comments or looks, and the valet parking attendants had never driven one before (and didn’t like them). There are a few other electric models that I saw on TV, which we don’t have in the US, and I spotted a few of those in Mexico. But overall, electric cars are an elite affair, with parking and charging in the most expensive malls in expensive neighborhoods. I found the supercharger network from McAllen to Puebla accessible and without gaps, although it’s better to charge whenever you can, just in case you need a lot of air conditioning or have to detour.
While Mexico might seem intimidating or unrefined, the truth is that it’s worth the trouble. There are European-style cathedrals, ancient pyramids (photo from Anthropology Museum), glorious art, scrumptious food, and natural wonders that are well worth driving a couple days with the trucks on the long highways. An unexpected side benefit to driving was passing through three UNESCO Biospheres along the way: Cumbres de Monterrey, La Primavera near Tequila, and Los Volcanes near Mt Popocatépetl. I reviewed the State Department warnings and used them to plan my trip, but, again, the best way to avoid crime is to avoid drugs and be careful. Americans should take advantage of the wonderful travel opportunities just south of our border, and I’m not talking about all-you-can-whatever resorts that you fly into. See the real Mexico, and drive electric!
Technically, the name of this UNESCO World Heritage Site is Agave Landscape and Ancient Industrial Facilities of Tequila. But that’s a mouthful. For at least 2,000 years, folks around here have been making pulque, a milky agave wine. A wealthy Spanish aristocrat, working around a royal ban on new vineyards, started distilling blue agave, inventing a new drink named after the town of Tequila in Jalisco state. Above are Tres Mujeres oak barrels aging tequila for years, to the sound of classical music, which is thought to improve the taste.
But wait, trendy folks claim they don’t like tequila and only drink mezcal, which is silly since tequila is a type of mezcal. Mezcal is a very broad category of alcohol, including home brews, stuff sold in plastic containers out of the trunks of cars, and a few quality refined spirits, like tequila. Some mezcals use extra wood burning to add more smoke flavor, but good tequila just uses the cooked agave fruit and the smokiness from the barrel. Some tequilas add food coloring, but good tequilas similarly gain their color naturally.
Another misconception is that like champagne, all tequila must be made near Tequila in Jalisco. That’s not true. Tequila can be made anywhere in the state of Jalisco and also in designated areas of half a dozen other states in Mexico. We did a tequila tasting many years ago out of Puerta Vallarta, and it was as authentic and delicious as the ones near Tequila. Even the heritage site covers several different towns west of Guadalajara.
Between Tequila and Guadalajara is a UNESCO Biosphere, La Primavera or ‘springtime’, which includes a pine-oak forest, springs, orchids, birds and more, and it’s a popular recreation area. Tequila is my last stop in Mexico for a while—quite an enjoyable one—, so now Mondays switch back to US park units, affiliates, trails and heritage areas. Thanks for reading!
Visit several World Heritage Sites in Mexico and Canada—Done, will post by year end.
Complete the North Atlantic & Midwest regions—1/2 done, in progress.
While I haven’t posted all my visits yet, I’m officially up to 380 out of 429 park sites, plus most of the heritage areas, trails & about 1/2 the affiliates. Next Monday will be the end of my Mexican World Heritage Site roadtrip, so after that Mondays will switch back to US parks, including affiliates, trails and heritage areas. Thursdays will continue to be eclectic, with various regional summaries, logistics and opinions. Look for some new zero carbon vehicle announcements. I’m cutting back on the Saturday state photo posts to every other week for the rest of the year. Turns out there are a limited number of states—who knew?—including some I haven’t completed yet. Thanks for reading!
Originally designed to be a hospital, like Les Invalides in Paris, and named after the bishop, today the World Heritage Site in the historic heart of Guadalajara is a museum, with modern art outside and exceptional murals by Orozco inside. The central masterpiece on the ceiling of the rotunda is ‘The Man of Fire’, a modern version of the myth of Prometheus (in photo on right). I had seen Orozco’s earlier version in the Pomona dining hall in California, considered “the greatest painting in America” by Jackson Pollack. Orozco lost his left hand making fireworks at 21, and he was fascinated by the story of a man who risked his life and suffered to expand human knowledge and civilization, only to be punished by the Gods. He felt the myth was an allegory for artists, explorers and reformers who were punished by conservatives for their efforts to bring enlightened change to the people. Every alcove and wall tells a story of both progress and betrayal, of historic accomplishments and dark consequences.
Prometheus stole fire from the Gods, but today we struggle with the consequences of burning carbon. Fossil fuels helped us achieve great things, but there are always consequences. Struck by the inescapable conclusions of the art here, we see that conflict over ‘progress’ often results in suffering, especially among the poor. Murals require us to step back, to try to see the bigger picture. We can build hospitals, and we can also destroy whole cultures. We can choose sustainable fuels, or we can let powerful men perpetuate destructive fuels. We may believe ourselves invincible and deserving of the powers of the Gods, but our actions come with destructive consequences that we must try to see, understand and prevent. We must give up fossil fuels, or our world will burn.
Absolutely no sponsoring or commercial involved here, but Mom recently introduced me to the free, updated Merlin Bird App from Cornell’s Ornithology Lab, and it’s pretty amazing. I see a lot of birds in my travels, including Sandhill Cranes just recently, but the app takes it to the next level. I went on a couple short hikes in a park last weekend, and I counted a half dozen birds or so. But the app identified over a dozen by their birdsongs alone, including separating several types of sparrows, differentiating three different yellow birds, identifying an uncommon Willow Flycatcher and even recording a rare Indigo Bunting. Mom says that now I need to go back and visit the first 300 parks again, because I probably missed half the birds I heard. That’s not going to happen, but here are some bird photos from my travels for you to enjoy.
I arrived at this World Heritage Site on Sunday late morning, and with a minor miracle I found parking one block from the cathedral above. When I stepped inside a beautiful mezzo-soprano voice echoed through the high ceilings and alcoves. What a spectacular and moving service!
The city and state are named after José Morelos, born a block behind the cathedral (now a museum), a priest in the cathedral, who answered the cry for independence and supported multi-racial equality. Morelos also demonstrated remarkable skill as a military strategist, and after Hidalgo was executed in 1811, Morelos became the leader of Mexican Independence. After dozens of victories that roused the insurgents, Morelos was eventually captured in Puebla, tried by the Inquisition, defrocked and executed near the end of 1815. He is remembered as one of Mexico’s founding fathers.
Three historic trails pass through the state: Butterfield, Santa Fe and the Trail of Tears. A small part of Fort Smith too is on the Oklahoma side of the Arkansas River. Oklahoma may not have as many parks as other states, but it is beautiful and moving.
Zero Carbon Travel 