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Fog and Nature

Relaxed Nature Tours

See below the scheduled upcoming tours.

Mt. Rushmore and the Black Hills of South Dakota

9/9/2023 - 9/13/2023 | David Bradford/Andrea Ezerins

Five Participants Only (Only Two Spots Are Now Available)

Haven’t seen Mt. Rushmore yet or want to revisit this national treasure nestled in the Black Hills of South Dakota? Then this is the relaxed nature tour for you. The plan is to fly into Rapid City, SD and spend four nights in Keystone, SD. While in Keystone, we plan to visit Mt. Rushmore National Memorial, Crazy Horse Memorial, Custer State Park, Badlands NP, and Mammoth Excavation Site. We might also tour a cave and visit a museum. Since this is a relaxed nature tour, we will not need to be up too early and hope to have some down time to relax a bit. After all, shouldn’t one be able to relax a little while on holiday? However, in 2022 we did not have a lot of down time, but we sure covered a lot of ground and saw a lot of fantastic sights.

 

The 2022 tour visited all the above major attractions plus we saw buffalo, pronghorn, coyote, prairie dog, mammoth bones, a ghost town, the tourist town of Keystone, and the vast expanse of the great outdoors in southwestern South Dakota. Of course, we spent time looking for birds, though the end of September was not a very birdy time of year. Therefore, I have moved the tour forward by three weeks, before many birds have migrated south. Please visit my website for a list of species seen and the written summary.     www.birdtoursbydavidbradford.com

Cost of the tour per person going double occupancy is $1900. For single occupancy add $550. A deposit of $500 holds your spot. We are staying right in Keystone where hotels are very expensive, but close to the action.

Deposit checks can be mailed to David Bradford 18046 Green Hazel Dr. Houston, TX. 77084. Call 281 744 6486 to leave a message or text and I will return your call.

LAS VEGAS AND THE SURROUNDING AREA

11/12/2023 - 11/16/2023 | David Bradford/Andrea Ezerins

Four Participants Only (Four Spots Are Now Available)

After birding in and around Las Vegas in September of 2021 and November in 2022 I am convinced this area is the ideal location for birds and sightseeing, the perfect Relaxed Nature Tour. Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve is the pride of Clark County birders, a gem within the desert that attracts numerous birds this time of year. There are other wetlands to bird such as Floyd Lamb Park at Tule Springs, Corn Creek at Desert NWR, and Sunset Park. In the mountains to the west is Spring Mountain Ranch SP that will provide us with some low mountain birds, the upper elevations of Mt. Charleston might be snow covered at this time. But this being a Relaxed Nature Tour means we will be sightseeing as well. We will visit Lake Mead, an incredible sight in November of 2022, when I visited. The water levels are so low it is amazing to see how much the shoreline has dropped in the past twenty years, plus there are numerous water birds present. We will make a trip to see the Hoover Dam as well.

 

Since we are going in November, we will be able to spend a lot of time in the field viewing birds and seeing the sights. Not too hot. We might stay at the Wingate Las Vegas Resort and Casino, the old Hilton where Elvis used to perform. The rooms are large and comfortable and this location puts us in a good position to strike out in all directions to see the sights and birds of the Las Vegas area.

 

The cost of this four-night tour is 1,750 with a single supplement of $400.

 

We will fly in and out of Las Vegas.

 

A deposit of $500 is needed to hold your spot on this tour. Please mail your deposit check to David Bradford 18046 Green Hazel Dr., Houston, TX. 77084

Here is a link to my three mornings of birding Las Vegas in November of 2022. I could only bird until about noon each day.

https://ebird.org/tripreport/85112

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