Steven Dutch, Natural and Applied Sciences, Universityof Wisconsin - Green Bay
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I will respond to questions and comments as time permits, but if you want to take issuewith any position expressed here, you first have to answer this question:
What evidence would it take to prove your beliefs wrong?
I simply will not reply to challenges that do not address this question. Refutabilityis one of the classic determinants of whether a theory can be called scientific. Moreover,I have found it to be a great general-purpose cut-through-the-crap question to determinewhether somebody is interested in serious intellectual inquiry or just playing mind games.Note, by the way, that I am assuming the burden of proof here - all youhave to do is commit to a criterion for testing.It's easy to criticize science for being "closed-minded". Are you open-mindedenough to consider whether your ideas might be wrong?
The road is narrow and slow, which would be great if you could see the coast, which you hardly ever can. For the most part, you might as well be 50 miles inland. Two picturesque ship hulks that used to grace Wiscasset have been removed. Bottom of the pit is Rockland, where a flashing red light stops every single car on a major U.S. highway.
You'd think New York's premier mountain getaways would have great scenic overlooks. Wrong. Most of the roads are thickly lined with trees and when there are open views, there are no turnouts. What turnouts there are tend to be in valley bottoms under the trees. And New York pioneered the no-trash-can rest stop.
What could be better than a highway over the Bighorn Mountains? A highway that actually overlooks mountain scenery. For the most part the engineers picked the most bland route over the highway. Great for crossing the range economically, a total bust for scenery. Two pluses, though. They have geologic markers on the east side of the range, and Tensleep Canyon on the west side is lovely.
There are some really nice waterfalls along this route, but between Duluth and Grand Marais, you hardly ever see Lake Superior. One bit of good news is that as of 2007, the scenic overlook for Split Rock Lighthouse had been cleared to open the view, an all too rare occurrence on "scenic" highways.
When I moved to Wisconsin, I was told Door County "looked just like new England." Speaking as someone who grew up in New England, it looks like the rest of the Midwest to me. It does have a decent supply of State and county parks, which is a good thing because the shoreline is otherwise mostly inaccessible and not visible from the highways.
Mount Timpanogos is a spectacular peak, but this highway moseys along just below timber line, with almost no turnouts. At the west end the road winds through a nearly vertical-sided canyon, again with virtually no turnouts and with roadside trees hiding the view as well.
A highway along the crest of a high Appalachian ridge, with no scenic overlooks, although the highway is relatively new, and some may be built in the future.
Narrow with few safe view points, and a National Forest fee for parking for any extended period along most of the road.
For $15 each, you get access to a visitor center, a theater, and a restaurant. No hikes around the crater rim except for a short guided hike, no hikes to the crater floor. Because, heaven forbid, you might find a meteorite fragment that a hundred years of searching has missed.
If you're coming up from South Carolina, you'd better know which way to turn (right, or east) because the signs on the Interstate are no help. Once there, you get a tour of the lavish interior, with no photography allowed, which in my estimation makes a place not worth visiting. (Pictures are allowed outside.)
I have mixed feelings about this listing. Regardless of how cynical you get about American politics, a visit to Mount Rushmore puts it in perspective. But the place has been turned into a shopping mall, distant views have been disfigured by a huge parking structure, and roadside parking is banned to protect the revenues of the price gouging parking concession. And there was plenty of available land nearby to construct overflow parking lots.
National Park? World Heritage Site? Why? The sandstone cap on the plateau has prevented the formation of cave formations for the most part, so the cave is mostly a long series of plain tunnels. If you want to see stalactites, go to some of the smaller caves on the periphery of the park, or better yet, go to Carlsbad. And once upon a time, the park was a great place to see karst topography, but the growth of trees has rendered the karst landscapes all but invisible. There are better views of sinkholes on the Interstate.
And one thing that really steams me about caves in general. Mammoth Cave isnot several hundred miles long. It is seven miles long, that being the distance between the furthest points in the cave. Saying Mammoth Cave is hundreds of miles long is like me saying I'm ten miles tall if you lay all my blood vessels end to end.
When I was there in 1971, it looked like the Spanish had just left. Thirty years later it was Disneyfied to death. Now it looks about as authentic as a Taco Bell.
The attached museum is a wonderland of schlock, but if you can't find something in there to amaze and amuse you, you're dead. But the vaunted house with its jutting Infinity Room and original architecture (built, I've heard, as a deliberate affront to Frank Lloyd Wright, who lived just down the road, and it couldn't happen to a more deserving guy) cannot be seen from any accessible outside vantage point.
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Created 12 March 2007; Last Update 11 January, 2020
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