I Can See For Miles

What you see above is a nice looking nature scene from atop the hills of Stone State Park in Sioux City, Iowa. But looks are a little deceiving. Look all the way to the back in the photo. It's kind of hard to see, but there appears to be something other than nature back there.

I did a post just like this one awhile back, but I just like the whole idea, so I'm going to do this again. You may recognize what I'm talking about as you read, but maybe this is all new to you. Either way it's kind of a fun little idea with a zoom camera.

You really have to zoom in a lot, but all the way back in the distance is another city and another state. All the way past the state park, all the way past the cornfields is North Sioux City, South Dakota. This place is across the river from Sioux City, Iowa.

It's kind of fun that I can get such good detail on the buildings from so far away. I can read the writing on the water towers in the original pictures. You can almost make it out in these. They both say the name of the city.

Here above I zoomed back a little bit to show you that it really is the same scene. You can see the two water towers in the same place. They're just a bit farther away. Those fields are a lot bigger than they look in the pictures. I think the Big Sioux River is hidden behind the trees.

I like coming up here on this hill and looking out over everything. That's one of the appeals of this place. The thing most people like to do at Stone Park is drive through the hilly forest roads. But stops along the road like this one makes it even better. Talk to you later.

One Of My Favorite Places

I keep taking this picture above over and over. I take a picture from that spot every time I visit this place. I've posted these similar pictures a few times already. So why do I do it? Why do I keep sharing this so many times?

It's because I think it's such a beautiful scene. It shows me a beautiful scene of what's to come. As I take the picture I'm standing in the middle of the forest looking out into a beautiful valley, and even farther out to the wonderful Loess Hills, that seem to stretch on forever. It seems as if I'm looking at this through a giant picture window.

I'm looking out at the place I call home, the place I come from. I spent most of my life away from this place. I wasn't even born here, and I didn't grow up here. But my entire family is from here. I only got to see this place from all too brief visits to see my family. I always knew I belonged here. Now I get to live here.

The next part of the trail obscures the view from within the trees, but that view is back when you travel around a few more turns in the path. I haven't gone much farther than this place lately because I'm still a little too out of shape to get back up the hill after such a long hike. There are so many birds down in that valley, and I miss seeing them.

I haven't been able to even get to this place for the past several days because of the flood. The waters have receded a bit, revealing all of the ruined crops, but we get thunderstorms every night that refill it all quite a bit. I'll be back on the trails when the weather lets me.

I don't want to end things on a down note so I'll talk about a few other things. I've been seeing a lot of good nature things that I'll be writing about soon. I still haven't visited a few other good places that are close by, like the nature center that is just down the road from me, the whole time I've been here, really. And I also have a visit scheduled to the Sioux City Museum. That's going to be fun. I'll talk to you later.