The plains of the Midwest have a certain appeal, the earth is perfect for farming with nice dark soil, and there is much more water to be found than in the high deserts of the true West. But it does not have as many stunning locations for pictures, for that reason we have combined NaturalNatures taken in Kansas (in a cornfield), Nebraska (by a river), and Missouri (in Elephant Rocks State Park) into this single album. Enjoy!

Picture 1

The "Missing Link" Captured in the Setting Rays: In a land full of lots of beautiful greenery, it can actually be difficult to find some bare rock, but we found some at Elephant Rocks State Park.

Picture 2

Watching the Windows of Heaven: During our time in Nebraska we stayed on a piece of property that had a whole bunch of wild marijuana/hemp plants. It seemed like a good idea to build an island that would specialize in the production of this crop, then we just had to wait for the rain.

Picture 3

Reaching the End of Day: Maybe we should change that to “End of Days,” all of the corn production has gotten a bit ridiculous, as has much of human production in general. It is time to reconsider how we do things before we do see the end of our days.

Picture 4

Begging Shelter from the Little Tree: This transplanted marijuana tree was so tall it refused to stand on its own, so it had to be held, and begged to stay standing.

Picture 5

Climbing for the Last Glimpse of Sun: Sunsets are a special time, they bring out colors that would otherwise never be seen, of course sometimes the usual colors have to be sacrificed a little.

Picture 6

Setting Down Roots: William Faulkner seemed to think that humans have the tendency to send down roots and then do not wish to move any more, this was a rare moment for us to be standing still, so we thought we better get a NaturalNatures.

Picture 7

Dreaming of Waves and Clouds: In this case there are some waves in the clouds, if you look in the left portion of the sky you’ll see them. Those clouds captured our attention, and we decided we needed a NaturalNatures with them.

Picture 8

Went up Straightway out of the Water: Strangely enough, this was the first location we stayed at on our American road trip, so it was a bit of a baptism into the life of the road. Since it was early September, the water was quite warm.

Picture 9

A Relaxing Evening in the Canopy: Some make their bed on a mattress, some on a pile of pillows, some a sleeping pad, and then the strange select few end up in the branches of the trees.

Picture 10

Born of Water and of the Spirit: It seems interesting that when Christ wished to be baptized, he went to the hippie man who wore camel’s fur and drank goat’s milk and ate wild honey. I wonder if they were both naked too?

Picture 11

Farewell to Another Evening: This is not quite true, for even after we had taken this picture and the sun had gone down, we were still at Elephant Rocks park making our dinner of road trip beans. On this particular occasion we had lots of fresh vegetable to add, thanks to our farming friends back in Nebraska.

Picture 12

A Window into the Past: It turns out that if you wander deep enough and far enough off trail in any park, you will stumble on some interesting things. In this case we found an old train house that was used for a mine just a bit further away.