Late Autumn always puts me in a mood. Not a bad mood, just an introspective mood. P. These photos kind of match my mood. Not necessarily sad.
Bixby, Oklahoma’s Washington Irving Park. It’s a very old park with a lot of big trees.
Tulsa’s Mohawk Park, a sprawling 2800 acres. One of the largest municipal parks in the USA and very underdeveloped. Lots of land for roaming around. The day I shot this, I was attending a Geocaching Black Friday event. Lots of people, lots of geocaches to find and chat with friends.
Tulsa’s RiverParks Trails. I found this tree and an instagram friend suggested naming it “The Tree of Life.” Works for me. Tulsans love the RiverParks, miles and miles of trails, playgrounds, the Gathering Place, and Turkey Mountain. Plus it links to other trails both east and west going to other trails in other suburbs.
A sheep grazes peacefully at the Gardens at Philbrook oblivious to their long shadow.
A sunny/shady place to rest on my bike ride on Tulsa’s RiverParks Trails. The view includes autumn color, the Arkansas River and Turkey Mountain on the other side of the river.
Sunday morning I rode my bike up and down the west side of the Arkansas River. It was hot, and I was exhausted at the end of my 14 mile ride but I was happy. I had my trail camera on my bike capturing the scenery including lots of other bicyclists, walkers, runners, and escooter riders. Here is a collage of a few of the people I saw.
I went on a bike ride at Tulsa River Parks on a pretty clear day the other day. The trail runs north and south, I always check a weather app to see which the way the wind is blowing. I like the wind at my back wind I am heading back to my car.
It was a south wind so I started close to the north end of the trail system. I love this mural and it’s setting on the river.
I went a mile further north and crossed the river at the 11th street bridge and took this photo looking south.
We had some nice clouds that day. I love fluffy white clouds.
I crossed over to the west side of the river and went a couple miles south and crossed over the Williams Crossing pedestrian bridge. You can see that the river is still running full. The Arkansas River’s basin is huge. It starts close to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado so if is rainy there is potential for a lot of water.
I looked the other way to the refinery oil storage tanks. I was reminded of one time when I was on the bridge and group of people came by and one of them wondered what the tanks were for. One said it is for the refinery, another one said with air of authority, that those were water storage tanks for the city of Tulsa’s water system because everybody knows oil storage tanks are illegal inside city limits. Just so you know, the Arkansas River water is pretty nasty. Way back when, the city layed a pipeline to a lake northeast of Tulsa and that is where most of the drinking water comes from.
I crossed back over the east side of the river and went down to what I call the Bear Fountain at 71st street. It’s a great place to rest up a few minutes. A new friend of mine hid a geocache near here. I spent some time looking for it but couldn’t find it. So I’ll try next time.
Turned around and headed north. The kayak boat ramp is closed. The river is too high and moving too fast. You’d be swept downstream fast.
So a little less than 14 flat miles at a leisurely pace. The red marker is where I started. My knee is coming along nicely. The first half mile or so is still “ouch ouch ouch” as I turn over the pedals but after that it’s fine after that. I’m still building up strength and endurance.
Another wildlife art themed Adventure Lab Geocache popped up on the Tulsa RiverParks so I ventured out there on a cold day to figure it out.
Mountain Goat
It was done by the same guy that did another one a couple months ago. So you key on these wildlife sculptures, and you have to get some information from the accompanying plaque to prove you were there. Also, you get a clue to a real geocache in a container.
The Moose and Me – could be a book title.
Mountain Lion
So I hobbled up and down the RiverParks trails chasing down these clues.
Geese
A bald eagle. I have seen real ones cruising up and down the river and perched on logs in the river.
I did spot a hawk looking for his lunch.
And I saw white bird, maybe a seagull, I don’t know flying up ther river.
So I got my certificate that I completed the cache. I was also the “First to Find” for it. That is a big deal to us nerdy types. I found the real associated cache and was the FTF for it as well. It felt good to get out of the house after the stretch of nasty weather we had.
I still have my bird camera going. I get over 120 hits and day. I’m going to say literally 95% are house sparrow, 3% are juncos, 1% are dove, and 1% are squirrels. So here is a one minute video of selected birds for the past week.
That is it this week. I hope everyone is doing well.
In early December I was on Tulsa’s RiverParks trails working on an art themed Geocaching Adventure Lab. I posted about it earlier and saved the critter themed art for this post.
Wolves are always a good subject.
I’m thinking this is a great blue heron. These murals were not part of the cache project but they are also beautiful and animal themed.
I believe this also is a great blue heron.
And this sculpture. I see lots of great blue herons while out on the trail. They are beautiful animals but they make the most awful squawk as a vocalization.
And right near the sculpture is a real life great blue heron.
And an American White Pelican. I see them sporadically. They are kind of touchy about people. I’ve learned I’ve had to sneak up on them.
Geese are everywhere, all year long on the RiverParks, and the whole town for that matter.
So yep, I completed the cache and got the coordinates for a nearby physical cache, and found it, so yep a good time.
If you want more information about geocaching check geocaching.com.
I went on a bike ride the other day. I didn’t bring along one my “good” cameras mainly because I wanted to get the ride over with and I fuss and fidget with my good camera. But hey, my phone works great on this sculpture of a pelican and in the background to the left you can see a sculpture of a great blue heron.
Speaking of pelicans, there is a group of American White Pelicans way off in the distance. Sure missed by superzoom on this shot.
And ducks paddled by. A zoom would have been nice here as well.
The Bear Fountain is always a favorite. No zoom needed here!
On another day I was in Woodward Park and spotted this squirrel.
And I finally checked out our new Scheel’s Store. Very nice, very crowded and overwhelming. I liked this diorama with a moose and turkeys the best. The store is cram full of very nice outdoors goods. I’m kind of an Academy guy myself.
I went on a hike at Oxley Nature Center. The birds were out in force but they were moving fast in the brush so I couldn’t get a photo of them. I couldn’t hardly see the smaller birds.
Somebody published a geocache within walking distance of the house. Well, i’ve walked over there twice and can’t find it. It’s in a tree just to left of this scene. I didn’t find the cache but I’ve got two walks over to look for it and a not bad photo.
A full moon in October. Not the greatest I’ve done but here it is.
And a better rendition of a half moon, also in August.
I got a new action camera recently. It’s a GoPro clone at literally one tenth the cost. About seventy percent as good as a GoPro, so I’m ahead the way I figure it. I attach it to my bike’s handlebars and set it to take a photo every ten seconds. Most of the photos are of nothing memorable so I delete them. I love vintage power plants and this is Public Service Company of Oklahoma’s Tulsa Power Station. It hardly ever runs but it still on the rate base making money for PSO whether it runs or not. I used to work for a sister company to PSO that supplied the gas to all the power plants. We had a systems that would show us graphically all the gas the power company was burning to make electricity. It was cool watching the load go up during extremely hot or cold weather. Lots of people worked hard to make sure the lights stayed on.
Here is another action camera shot of this person riding an escooter on the RiverParks trails.
And somebody else walking their dog and a guy in an electric wheelchair crossing the river on the new pedestrian bridge. A big variety of people use Tulsa’s RiverParks. I’m always amazed.
A sunset drone shot from 50 meters above my back yard.
And a stormy weather drone shot about 30 meters above my back yard. Stormy means windy and my little microdrone doesn’t like wind.
That’s sall this week folks. Sorry I don’t have a theme besides skies.
From a week or so ago. Part of a series of photographs showing that it was raining all around us except where we live.
And a cheerful morning sunrise
And an optimistic Labor Day. I fly my flag right side up!!
And a long last, the new Dam and Bridge across the Arkansas is done. They had a whole multi day party to celebrate over the Labor Day weekend called the “Big Dam Party.” I missed it all. I got out there Tuesday morning and checked it out myself. I had my own dam party.
