Driving the Dream: America the Beautiful

Lake with a Grand View

2007-11-07T00:38:00.000-08:00

Grand Lake, Colorado

Grand Lake sits at the Western entrance to the Rocky Mountain National Park. A dozen lodges rest along its edge, but travelers beware, there aren't many to pick from in the off season. We ended up staying at the Big Horn Lodge, which Aaron nicknamed The Stinky Goat.

High Elevations

2007-11-07T00:30:00.001-08:00

One of the most spectacular experiences at the Rocky Mountain National Park is the drive up to the top of the world. At least it felt like the top. Above the treeline, in the alpine tundra, visitors are cautioned to stay on the paved roads and paths, as the sparse grasses grow so slowly that a footprint can take a hundred years to heal. The air is so thin that a 200 yard walk can make you breathless, and the view is enough to take your breath away.

Aaron swears he wasn't actually asleep.

A bird's nest at 12,600ft elevation. Possibly an eagle's?

Autumn in the Rockies

2007-11-07T00:04:00.000-08:00

Just one of the vistas we saw in the Rocky Mountain National Park. The leaves were turning beautifully on the plateaus, but up in the higher vistas, deep green pines and furs dominated that brilliant yellow-gold of the sparse deciduous trees.

The Cliffs of Insantiy

2007-11-06T23:59:00.001-08:00

OK, well it might not take Andre the Giant to scale these puppies, but when you're driving along this little road in Colorado, between cliffs that shoot straight up several hundred feet, the view is rather impressive.

Buttes

2007-10-22T06:14:00.000-07:00

Buttes of South Dakota

These upthrusts of rock really do look like one edge of the earth just shoved another edge up toward the sky. Some of them are mind-bogglingly tall and huge. Others are almost delicate looking in the near-distance. Looking at them today, I can really see why settlers, and the Souix and other tribes before them, chose to embrace the wild beauty of this land.

Psst. Buttes are pronounced with a long-U sound. No comments from the peanut gallery. :)

Buttes of South Dakota

The Glorious Road

2007-10-20T10:47:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, the road itself can be beautiful. Photos like this one are among my favorites. They speak to me of possibility, freedom, and the thrill of discovery.

Road to Bear Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

Colorado Vistas

2007-10-20T10:07:00.000-07:00

The following pictures were just a couple of the amazing horizons we saw while driving the loop from Denver to Colorado Springs, to Breckenridge and up to the western entrance to The Rocky Mountain National Park.

Birds on the Potomac

2007-10-19T08:39:00.000-07:00

When we went to Washington DC in February 2005, the Potomac River was frozen over, and many fish were trapped in the upper layers of ice, a fact that these birds were taking advantage of as we looked across the river toward the Jefferson Memorial. Notice that the birds are standing on the river. While we watched, many of them skated on the ice and others flapped their wings to give themselves push for little hops.

Birds feast on the frozen Potomac at the Jefferson Memorial, Washington, DC. Feb 2005

The Smokies Aren't

2007-10-18T09:35:00.000-07:00

Smoky Mountain National Park, TN

A beautiful, clear day in the Smoky Mountains which oddly, weren't smoky at all. This vista is found along the driving trail that begins and ends near Gatlinburg, TN.

Garden of the Gods

2007-10-18T08:59:00.000-07:00

South of Denver, CO, somewhere near Colorado Springs, is a little park called Garden of the Gods. I must admit, it had some of the most sheerly impressive natural rock formations I've seen. This is but on of them. The space under the pendulous rock formation is large enough for several people to crouch below, though I don't recommend it and the park service forbids it. That didn't stop several ninnies from doing it while we were there, however.

Iwo Jima

2007-10-18T08:51:00.000-07:00

In February 2005, we took a little four-day trip down to Washington, DC to celebrate my birthday. I'd tell you how old I was, but math is too much effort and I was never very good at remembering things like that. In any case, one of my hubby's amazing discoveries was what he calls "the poor man's filter" - a way to take very neat pictures using only a cheap pair of polarized sunglasses and a camera. The monument and day were both beautiful, but the amber sky scene he created below still blows me away.

Iwo Jima Memorial, Washington DC, Feb 2005

Iwo Jima Memorial through polarized filter

Beetling

2007-10-18T08:46:00.000-07:00

Our Beetle at a scenic overlook in the Rockies

It's a tradition. Every cool place we go with my hubby's 2004 New Beetle Convertible, we take a pic of the Beetle in front of something cool. On the Oct 2007 trip, we took more than a few. Here's one of my favorites. The fellow in the shot is my hubby and the pilot of our adventures, Aaron.

Bull Elk

2007-10-18T08:23:00.000-07:00

A bull elk in the Rocky Mountain National Park, CO

We spotted this group of elk soon after entering the part from the West side. The park west of the Continental Divide is much less traveled than the eastern side, with approximately one-sixth the visitors yearly. If you are looking for Rocky Mountain wildlife, this seems to be the place to go. Before we crossed to the eastern side, we spotted three herds of elk, a solo male mule deer, numerous birds, and several smaller forest dwellers.

Sunrise over the Rockies

2007-10-18T07:55:00.000-07:00

Sunrise over the Rocky Mountains and Grand Lake, CO.

Sunrise was glorious this morning. Thanks to the dreadful accommodations at the Bighorn Lodge (aka The Stinky Goat), we got an early start on the morning and witnessed this brilliant sunrise.

St Louis Arch

2007-10-18T07:49:00.000-07:00

The St. Louis Arch, Gateway to the West, Monument to US Western Expansion

On the first leg of our Oct 2007 journey to complete our honeymoon, we stopped off in St. Louis again. The city looks to have been cleaned up, particularly along the riverfront, where I spotted bullet holes in one stop sign on our last pass through in 1997. This time, we decided to make the ascent to the top of the Arch. The trip up was quite the adventure. As you can see from the photo below, the egg-like contraption we rode up 630ft in was rather cramped, and the door opening at the top was very much like being hatched.

The view from the top was lovely, but let's just say it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and we're rather pleased with that.

Ninnies - the rant

1997-10-15T09:04:00.000-07:00

I will indulge myself once, and merely link back here when ninnies are encountered.

When we put "Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses..." on the base of the big lady, we didn't quite realize what we were getting ourselves into. I suppose it's an absolute fact. In any nation, race, or creed of people, there are bound to be those who are complete and utter nincompoops. In my book this fact is exemplified by people who deface national landmarks, who willfully violate park service guidelines, or who think the big signs that say things like "don't climb rocks" and "don't feed the animals" must apply to someone else.

If any of you has ever found yourself in a national park or near a monument or even driving down the road in your car, wondering if the no littering, no graffiti, or no climbing rules apply to you or your children, trust me, they do. Here's a clue, folks. Those signs apply to everyone. To me, to you, to Bob Segar, to Hillary Clinton, and even to Brittany Spears (heaven forbid we call her our own).

My favorite part of being a Cub Scout mom is that I get to teach my son and the boys of his pack that to "Leave No Trace" is divine. My hubby and I embrace that philosophy in our own personal travels as well. It is my fondest hope that each of you do/will, too, rather than join the ranks of the ninnies who continue to deface and damage our national treasures and blunt the beauty of America.