Officials in Lake Elsinore, Calif., located just over an hour southeast of Los Angeles, announced Sunday that they had closed off access to their famed California golden poppy fields after “Disneyland size crowds” inundated the city of about 66,000 over the weekend, straining resources and creating a “public safety crisis.”You go to see the flowers, which you imagine out there on a people-free landscape, but if you go, there will be people all over the scene. The authorities might as well close it, because it isn't even there, that scene you'd like to view in person. Your in-personhood is part of a superbloom of humanity, all those people who, like you, wanted an in-person experience of the superbloom of flowers.
"This weekend has been unbearable,” the city said in Sunday’s announcement, which was shared across social media platforms. “We will evaluate all options next week including ways to shut this down. . . . We know it has been miserable and has caused unnecessary hardships for our entire community.”
The post included a graphic with a prominent red X over a photo of the poppy fields and large text that read, “No more shuttles or Entrance" and “No Viewing or Visiting.” It also featured several pointed hashtags, such as “#PoppyShutdown,” “#PoppyNightmare” and “#IsItOver."
This is the problem with traveling to the greatest sights. They can't be seen. Better to travel to lesser sights — some less scenic fields of wild flowers. Where are those places where you can find beauty in nature, where you're not one of the masses of travelers besetting other travelers? Instead of going to the obvious places and being part of the problem of ruining what made them worth a trip, enjoy the trip of looking for the nature that no one else is looking at.
ADDED: A tip from William Blake:
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour...
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75 comments:
"Where are those places where you can find beauty in nature, where you're not one of the masses of travelers besetting other travelers?"
What, you think I'd tell you?
All of my travel involves nature. Seeing it, fishing, hunting and the like. I don't want to see anyone else when I'm out there and get irritated if I do.
Getting to and from the wilderness has enough peopling for me. Once I'm out there, I don't want to see them. Maybe once we move out of the city I'll feel different.
For pete's sake, why would someone go to see nature filled with other people? Have you ever seen some of the contortions people go through to get a picture of the pyramids, or the leaning tower without other people? It's Cirque du Soleil worthy!
"Where are those places where you can find beauty in nature, where you're not one of the masses of travelers besetting other travelers?"
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I'm not sure which ruined Stonehenge the most: the road and carpark next to it, the mob of other tourists, or the rope that kept us many feet away. The movie "Tess" of the D'Ubervilles hid all that.
The pasture across the road from my old office went to cornflowers one Spring, and people would stop for photos. I think the owner didn't like it, because the next year the weeds were all ugly ones.
May I suggest something more eye-catching than "Comment moderation has been enabled," which is large but appears below the page on my laptop? Say, New Policy, you !^@$#^@.
"No one goes there nowadays, it’s too crowded." --Yogi Berra
Whenever my wife and I vacation in a city we wouldn't normally go to (Barcelona is my favorite, Paris hers), we like to take a day to rent bicycles and ride to wherever we need to go. We may be going to standard tourist sites or we may just be riding, but either way, we see a lot of stuff not on the tourist maps and I've found that that stuff can be just as interesting and, because it's not crowded, far more enjoyable, than the things the guide books tell you to check out. You get a better sense of the city touring by bike than you ever would by car or train.
"Have you ever seen some of the contortions people go through to get a picture of the pyramids, or the leaning tower without other people?"
It's even worse if you want photographs. You can figure out a way to ignore people when you're there in person, but the camera won't do that.
And if what you want is photographs, why not buy books of professional photographs of these places? Then you don't need to go at all.
People trying to get in photographs alongside famous sights are especially bad-looking fellow humans. It's not just that the people make it un-scenic. It that these are especially un-scenic people.
They're just sordid sexual organs of weeds.
I would think Lake Elsinore is a lesser site, since the official poppy reserve is 100 miles away in Antelope Valley or 100 mikes south in Borrego Springs. Elsinore is in the same county I live in. I’ve lived in or near Riverside all my life and I’ve never heard of poppy fields around Lake Elsinore being a tourist draw. So I’ll has got to be a “lesser site” than those other nearby famous poppy viewing spots. Elsinore is famous for sky diving, being the gateway to a dangerous highway (74) and is the place the pop tart Arianna Grande licked a donut a couple years back.
Strangely enough, the wild flowers along the Texas interstates are pretty spectacular. We can thank Ladybird Johnson for those. Are those still a thing?
I stopped to take pictures of the bluebonnets once and there was no one else around, just cars whizzing by on the freeway.
Anyway when I'm out hiking by myself it's comforting to have other people around, but that's just me.
Hmm, California is blocking migrants from traveling through Lake Elsinore due to a crisis?
I didn't get into WaPo but I found a local Fox tv website with pics of the crowds and the gridlock on the freeway nearby. Wow! I have never been one to follow the herd and go to the latest and most popular places.
Annie C said...Getting to and from the wilderness has enough peopling for me. Once I'm out there, I don't want to see them
Years ago, my wife and I went on a 4-day hike in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The Appalachian Mountain Club has a series of huts, each about half way up one mountain and about 6 hours apart from each other (rustic B&Bs--NOT glamping). We parked at one mountain and hiked hut to hut for the 4 days before finally coming down and taking a bus back to our car.
From a people perspective, it was an interesting experience going up the mountain. Not just that there were fewer people the higher we went, but 30 minutes from the parking lot there were lots of families, kids, sandals, picnic baskets, etc. Along the top we might see 5 people all day, all of them rough looking, carrying backpacks and sometimes axes.
Coming down the last day was the sane but in reverse. After 3 days of mountain men and hearty women, the families out for a stroll looked downright weird.
The town is obviously both transphobic and tree-hugging, an unusual combination.
"I cut down trees, I skip and jump
I like to press wild flowers
I put on women's clothing
And hang around in bars"
As was alluded to in a previous post, people (read women) just want the appearance of pristine beauty for Instagram. It's all curated fakery. We've stopped taking pictures at places we really enjoy. The Instagram look has ruined my enjoyment of photos, especially family photos of doing stuff. It all feels fake and posed now.
Seeing it, fishing, hunting and the like. I don't want to see anyone else when I'm out there and get irritated if I do
I find this with fishing, too. It strikes me that fishing people are quite greedy with a limited resource. One small group on a float trip demand miles of river uninterrupted by other humanity. It's irritating...
Great color in the California Poppies. Kudos to the artist. I recall the first garden that we planted in the backyard at a new house when I was age 7. I was allowed to pick 2of the packs of flower seeds from the pictures on them, and one was the colorful California Poppies. The other one was Morning Glories.
The societal demand humanity respect and appreciate nature, then chastising them when they do.
One of the things I will photograph is wildlife that I don't get to see too often. On a trip last fall down to the Texas hill country, we took back roads that meandered through areas where there are a lot of exotic game ranches.
Many of the animals have long ago escaped the high fence ranches and are living and breeding in the wild now. One of the reasons we are looking to move down there within the next year.
I was face to face with a Greater Kudu. I could count the whiskers on his chin. Try that with hordes of people all around.
I'm still hoping the "lesser known" will appear again right here in what used to be my small city - McKinney, Texas. (Lived here since 1987. We aren't small anymore.)
Must have been 6-7 years ago when running an errand via a route I take often, I am suddenly confronted by a huge field of sunflowers. And I mean a HUGE field. Blooming, huge yellow fringed disks cover this entire area just off the interstate. Farmland, surrounded by access roads, is still common in some areas even with our growth - although sadly much less than when we moved here.
I immediately took the upcoming exit, did a bit of backtracking and parked on a side road near the field. There were a couple of other cars nearby. We were slowly joined by a dozen or so more. These sunflowers were taller than me - I'm 5'9" - with huge heads covered in developing seeds. The flowers were all facing the same way - towards the sun. Hah. It was an amazing sight. The sheer size of the field coupled with the size of the sunflower plants/heads themselves just made me feel so darn - happy. Had the same affect apparently on everyone who was congregating. We chatted with each other, complete strangers, about this previously unnoticed example of this gift mother nature, and a cooperating human, could give.
No idea how I had not noticed before that point. That seemed to be the consensus. What? How? When?! Had my camera and snapped some amazing photos. Other people had gone home and returned, camera in hand. It was such a rare, unique gift we felt we had stumbled on.
I really hope they plant those fields with sunflowers again some day before that land disappears to development. And I hope it's only a few dozen of us who notice and make the time to get up close.
"People trying to get in photographs alongside famous sights are especially bad-looking fellow humans."
That touches on a pet peeve-I have a friend who recently traveled around Europe and posted multiple photographs on FB of some very interesting places and things, all with him in the picture having the exact same facial expression. So he returns from Europe with 100+ selfies to show for it.
I hate to say it, but I saw this coming.
Super-blooms and such are what happens when you discourage dirt bikes and 4-wheelers from making full use of California's natural areas.
The enviros have only themselves to blame for the crowds of annoying, pasty, anemic, noodle-arms who just want to look.
Yup. We summer and sail in a secluded spot along the ocean in Nova Scotia. Very beautiful. ZERO tourists. We are everyone's "pet Americans". Two hours up coast is Peggy's Cove and it is completely overrun by tourists, tour busses, autos, and "people from away" in the local parlance. Utter tourism chaos. Yet just down the empty road... No one. Ever.
Twice in the last year, my wife, daughter and I were just watching a sunset along a uncrowded trail and someone taking pictures tromped into our midst and began taking pictures. Some people don't trust their own judgement when it comes to beauty and seem parasitic on other people's taste. Or ruining the experience of quiet enjoyment is just their thing.
Try the Great Smokies. Stand at the foot of a hillside covered in wildflowers and let the scent pour down over you. Create a lifetime memory.
I've found other tourists are generally considerate when traveling. And it's helpful to have someone take your picture for you then you can take their picture for them. I've never needed a selfie stick or to put myself in a dangerous position for a photo.
There is a house in the South End of Boston that is famous as a photo site. People have actually knocked on the door and asked the owner to move his car so they can get a better picture.
Sometimes the less famous sites are actually better. The North Rim of the Grand Canyon has one tenth the people of the South Rim and more interesting formations (though the South Rim gives you more of a "Oh my God this is gigantic" feeling).
I felt that way as a young kid visiting the Louvre. You couldn't see anything. People were always in the way. The atmosphere was claustrophobic.
A much better museum experience was the Jeu de Paume. Less known, and fewer people. You could actually spend time appreciating the art work.
Tragedy of the Commons.
If these views were privately owned, the owners could sell access at market rates, reducing the crowds and generating the revenue necessary to provide any needed services. Higher rates during ideal periods so that those willing to pay for a more exclusive experience can enjoy that, for a price.
Instead, we get this socialistic nature should belong to everyone crap until the whole thing collapses.
Socialism ruins everything.
Officials in Lake Elsinore, Calif., located just over an hour southeast of Los Angeles, announced Sunday that they had closed off access to their famed California golden poppy fields after “Disneyland size crowds” inundated the city of about 66,000 over the weekend, straining resources and creating a “public safety crisis.”
A "public safety crisis" because of day tourists?
But there's no "crisis" at the border? It's manufactured crisis?
Trump should Twitter this one.
And if what you want is photographs, why not buy books of professional photographs of these places? Then you don't need to go at all.
I think people like to take and look at their own photos when they go somewhere because it gives them more ownership of their experience of the trip, as opposed to looking at beautiful professional photos. They feel a connection to their time there. That being said, I have looked back at the ridiculously high numbers of photos I’ve taken (especially easy since I just use my phone and whip it out and snap) and thought “perhaps next trip, a little more presence in the moment, more thought into fewer photos would make for a better time.” I’ve been trying!!
Nobody drives to see corn or soybeans, useful plants.
The Greeks were fond of comparing beans to testicles, if you want sexual overtones and gender fluidity.
When you go to see the Mona Lisa you enter at the back of a room.What you see is the backs of the heads of a hundred people taking photos (Why...I have no idea) of that 20"x30" painting. You might even manage to catch a glimpse of it in the distance.
A few years ago my wife and I drove around iceland counter-clockwise. Once you're about 2-3 hours outside of reykjavik it becomes incredibly free of humanity (we were there slightly early in the season, so that might have been a factor). There are pull-offs every few miles where you can view some of the most impossibly beautiful scenery: waterfalls, hot springs, bizarre volcanic formations, deep fjords, etc. We spent a week driving around, and I think we saw another car at one of these spots, maybe once.
For extraordinary flower displays, here are two of the most spectacular. The first is in Nagaland, India, where a lily found nowhere else grows in the Dzukou Valley. The valley itself is a wonderful sight, cloaked entirely by a short dense bamboo, annually shot through with pink. The second display in on the Sandhof Farm, close to the town of Maltahohe in Namibia. Here in the desert a pan is flooded annually and millions of a spectacular lily rise through the water. The glory of both powerful displays are the circumstances.
And if what you want is photographs, why not buy books of professional photographs of these places? Then you don't need to go at all.
I think people like to take and look at their own photos when they go somewhere because it gives them more ownership of their experience of the trip, as opposed to looking at beautiful professional photos. They feel a connection to their time there. That being said, I have looked back at the ridiculously high numbers of photos I’ve taken (especially easy since I just use my phone and whip it out and snap) and thought “perhaps next trip, a little more presence in the moment, more thought into fewer photos would make for a better time.” I’ve been trying!!
Karen, the field was probably planted with sunflowers for dove hunting. Hunting leases come and go so it may not get planted again anytime soon. Especially if they couldn't sell enough spots during dove season.
Tim, the AT was really great when I lived out east. But it was most fun during winter. A lot fewer people. I hear it is only getting more and more crowded though. The culture shock of going from backpacking areas to day hike areas like you did is crazy though!
Rehajm, have you ever seen photos of trout season in the UK? People are butts to nuts in a stream trying to cast a fly rod without hooking the guy next to you. Sigh. We ran into that on the South Platte last year. Never again.
I have always avoided crowds. There is a great park on the bluff overlooking the Mississippi at Lansing. Flowers? Try the Lavender fields in the Loess Hills in Western IA, You will most likely run into the owners and spend 30 minutes talking to them about their operation.
Sort of reminds me of when I saw the Mona Lisa at the Louve last tear. It was definitely an experience, pushing through what was basically a mosh pit to get a not-very close-up glimpse at a smallish painting I’ve seen depicted literally thousands of times before.
In a way, the experience was sort of worth it, but not in a way that had anything to do with the art.
If the earth were flat, the edge would be a tourist destination.
- Armstrong and Getty just now
One thing that is entertaining at tourist sites is watching people taking photos of the attraction. Chinese tourists are the most amusing. Invariably their photos comprise some member(s) of the group standing rigidly, arms at side, in front of the statue or whatever. Once in Taiwan I wanted a dramatic photo of a particularly tall pagoda. So I lay on my back in front of it and shot upwards. That *blew* the crowd's mind. I became the attraction!
Something similar happened up here in Canada - sunflower farm just outside Toronto was getting inundated with visitors and they had stop allowing people who went there to take photos.
Too many people trying to all experience something at the same time in a small town that just doesn't have the ability to accommodate the crowds is a problematic thing.
The massive, continual, rains we have had this year soaking areas that are normally more arid..... and now (finally) warming up, is a blessing. Blessing to the wildflower seeds which have lain dormant for some time and to the people who want to absorb the beauty of nature and the glorious colors lavishly painted on the landscape.
Like others, I avoid a lot of people and prefer to enjoy nature in a more solitary setting.
The wildflowers haven't bloomed yet here, but soon. It should be fabulous this year. Swaths of orange, purple, blues and yellows all across the areas that are normally dull browns and tans.
Can't wait!
It was so much better back when the average person couldn't afford to fly.
The earth is flat, space-time is an oblate spheroid.
The wildflowers haven't bloomed yet here
They are starting to bloom in Central Texas. They are not to full peak yet, but still several swaths of blue, red, and yellow.
Oddly enough, the thing that had vehicle traffic pulling to the side to gawk at is a new cricket facility (signs say it will be the largest in the US) being built in Hempstead Texas. In case it isn't clear, cricket as in the sport played almost everywhere else but the US. It is like the demographics have changed, and the facility now sits where once large fields of wildflowers once bloomed.
It reminds me of going to popular locations... at times when they aren't particularly popular.
Specifically: Central Park in the dead of winter (up in the middle, say mid-70s-80s street, not at Central Park South)
I used to take my girls to the Park in the last week of December. And they would go to every dang playground and have a ball. To them, going to the City was about getting pizza, going to the 5th Ave Apple Store, and then hanging out in a very empty Central Park.
It's got its own magic - being in a place that is crowded in the summer, and feeling like you own the park as nobody else is there... it helps that the park was designed so that one has limited views (obviously, there were other people in the park... I just couldn't see them)
For similar reasons, I like going to east coast beaches in the winter.
Ice Nine said...
"One thing that is entertaining at tourist sites is watching people taking photos of the attraction."
One time I was at popular tourist beach in Thailand. There was young blond woman, absolutely gorgeous, wading topless in the surf up to her her thighs. Holy smokes, she was a vision.
I noticed two boys, about 12, who I'd guess were from India, watching her. They put their heads together for a moment, then one ran down and stood halfway between his buddy and the topless goddess where he posed while his buddy took pictures of him with the woman in the background. Clever kids.
I used to live in the Laurentian mountains in Quebec. The fall leaves on a mountainside were spectacular, or course. But the many shades of green in the spring were equally spectacular in their own way. Like an impressionist painting.
Saw my first Spring robin this morning while walking past Arbor Hills Park; it was just the five of us: the sun, my two dogs, the robin and myself--inspiring quiet moment.
Cameron @ 8:19: My daughter and I had the exact same experience in Iceland. Just get outside of Reykjavik, and it's incredibly easy to find areas of incredible beauty with little or no people. We would just park the rental car pretty much anywhere at a river overpass and hike upriver away from the road for a half mile or more and have spectacular panoramic ocean/glacier/water fall views with nobody but ourselves. Truly amazing.
Who goes visit the artichokes?
Monterey is a beautiful spot.
In Athens you can see the Acropolis Poppy Apocalypse.
I loved the Louvre. But not the crowded parts. We walked through empty rooms and rooms of marble sculptures. It was beautiful.
Brings to mind the International Falls( Canadian side of Niagra) in the summer of 1961. There were 8 or 10 cars in the semi-circular road with parking. And there were maybe 20 people at the rail.Today there are 5,000 cars in large parking lots and 10,000 people at the rail of which maybe 20% are Americans.
Now you can understand why the super wealthy want the world's population decreased by 90% for fake reasons. Actually they don't share well.
Forgot to mention an important thing. If you visit the ultra rare Dzukou Valley lily, the next day you can go to Mount Japfu and walk through a rhododendron forest where the trucks are like oaks, and the blooms are in 20’ clusters. The world record rhododendron is here, at 108’ tall.
When I first visited the Acropolis, I walked on it. You can't do that now. When I first saw the Pieta, I was two feet away from it, behind a velvet rope barrier. I could have touched it; I walked completely around it (Incidentally, I'm a fairly hard case and the Pieta, one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen, actually brought tears to my eyes. The proximity was surely part of what elicited that.) Now it is behind a bulletproof glass barrier that you can look through from about twelve feet away. Yeah, I know, some maniac took a sledgehammer to it - and I hate that that guy. I've been a lot of places and have revisited many of them. The cheap air fare tourism boom has absolutely ruined so many of them. The "observer effect" of quantum mechanics writ large.
The most continuous display of colour from a worthy plant I’ve ever seen are the 20’ tall Fuscia magellanicas that border the Carreterra Austral south of Puerto Montt, Chile. Mile after mile of them overhanging the road. At their base are huge Gunneras, and further south, if your a climber fan, are two varieties of Mutisia in abundance.
Not just sight seeing. Minor league baseball is way better to go to than major league. Cheap, better seats, and a more festive atmosphere.
We drove through this yesterday on our way home for mountain bike racing in Temecula. The poppies were amazing on the side of the freeway and covered all the mountains. Yes, there were a lot of people in some areas, but most of the poppy fields were clear of people.
I'll be the second to second Iceland - spent a few days at the Hotel Budir, a few hours outside of Reykjavik, one of the only buildings as far as the eye could see - spectacular views of snow covered mountains meeting the sea. Took a snowcat up the glacier in a whiteout - if you want isolation, you'll never feel more alone than that! Went to Stykkisholmer on the north side of the peninsula, a tiny fishing town of slightly more than 1000 people, great food beautiful scenery. Highly recommended.
You get the phenomenon everywhere. Go to the Louvre and everyone's lining up to see the Mona Lisa or the chick with no arms, meanwhile other great paintings have no one. And Key West is jammed with people, but the other Keys are just as interesting.
Something similar happened up here in Canada - sunflower farm just outside Toronto was getting inundated with visitors and they had stop allowing people who went there to take photos.
Here in New England, we have people who plant sunflower fields deliberately as tourist attractions, with various ways to make money: farm stand, admission charge, cutting fee.
https://www.bostonmagazine.com/property/2017/08/22/sunflower-fields-in-new-england/
Back in 1985 or so I found this little book (pocket-size but 450 pages), Footloose in the Swiss Alps by William Reifsnyder. It tells you everything you need to know about going on hut-to-hut hikes in the Swiss Alps, with detailed enough descriptions of about 7 long hikes (e.g., from Chamonix to Zermat) that—supplemented with some good maps—you can use this book as your guide. I have done hikes from that book many times. On those hikes there are occasional stretches with lots of people. But, for the most part, we or I walked blissfully alone.
One time I flew from NY to Switzerland, did a five day hike (called the Lötschental Loop in that book), and flew back home. (None of my friends were free to join me so I went alone.) That was one of the most restful and edifying vacations I have ever taken. Other than the kind of brief exchanges required to negotiate a room for the night, or a few groceries, or a short greeting on the trail, I had exactly three conversations that whole week. One was with a father and daughter from the Netherlands over dinner in the hut at Kummenalp. One was with a lesbian couple and their dog, all three of whom were fitted out with packs, near the top of the pass going from the Lötschental to Leukerbad. (The dog carried its own food and water. Never have you seen such a happy dog.) Leukerbad is a bustling spa town, but you can rest up and have a soak before you hit the trail again. The third was with a Filipina woman on the plane back to New York. I don't usually like to make chit-chat on a plane; and I don't remember what we talked about. But I do remember enjoying my conversation with her.
In Good Will Hunting Robin Williams comments that Matt Damon is just a kid. He could talk about art, but wouldn't be able to describe the smell inside the Sistine Chapel. I can, it was pretty crowded. I distinctly remember B.O.
This was exactly my experience at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Each room was so stuffed with people that one couldn’t even get a view of the paintings in the room. On the other side of town, at the less attended Pitti Palace, the artwork was actually finer and the viewing was excellent. I found the road less traveled and my soul was nourished.
Althouse comment reminds me of my visit to Canyonlands National Park. Up river from the Grand Canyon. Still magnificent scenery and Vistas, but empty because near the Grand Canyon.
Its nice in the spring in Texas when the flowers get going. You can go nearly any place outside of a city and get spectacular views.
This is my home town. The poppies happen every year, but this year they are beyond spectacular. They are not only showing up in wide, brilliant swaths in all the usual places, but everywhere, in little nooks that don't usually see them.
I don't hold a great deal of animus for the thousands who have shown up to gawk, even though they've made it impossible to get to Costco and Home Depot. I just wonder what motivates people to say to themselves,"Oh boy, I'm going to go wait in traffic and make myself part of a huge, unwieldy crowd!" I also never drive anywhere on Memorial Day weekend.
Because my kids are at an age where they can't miss school, I've had to vacation during the peak season. Places I've visited in the off season are so packed that it is not nearly as enjoyable, Paris, Venice, Lake Bled, Zion. Go in the off season if you can.
Oh. I thought this was about the lovely Poppy Montgomery. She causes an apocalypse in my pants.
I've traveled that freeway through Lake Elsinore thousands of times over the last 35 years and never noticed those flowers until three weeks ago when my wife and I drove through there. It is a beautiful sight from the road, but we were not interested in stopping precisely because of the size of the crowd that had gathered there.
We bought a used, 20' RV on a ford F350 chassis so we could go boon docking. So far, we have never stayed at an RV Park and never used a hookup except here at the house. We like to go where there are few people and relax. Dispersed camping in a nice, little RV is great.
The National Park Service used to have a booklet called something like "Lesser Visited Parks". We used it on both our big cross-country trips with the kids. So instead of Yellowstone, we went to Lassen and Lava Beds. Not exactly the same but very cool. Because of the crowds, I'll never go to Yosemite but I've been in the middle of a thousand bison in the Nature Conservancy's Tallgrass Prairie Preserve outside Pawhuska, Oklahoma.
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