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Vail
Today, we headed over to Vail to do more high altitude hiking! We headed up one of their two gondolas and hiked to the other one along a route that went a few hundred feet further up before heading back down. We hiked further today than yesterday but it felt easier, likely due to both being about 1,000 feet lower in elevation and being a bit more acclimated to the altitude.
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Keystone
We headed to Keystone Ski Resort today for some high altitude summer hiking and scenery! Like many of the ski areas in the region, Keystone operates a gondola and chairlift up to the top during the summer for food, scenery, and activities. At Keystone specifically, most of the trails on the mountain are designated for mountain biking but there is a short loop for hiking that goes to a slightly higher elevation.
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Meadowlark Botanical Gardens
It has been more than a month since we last visited the Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Virginia. It has been a rather hot and humid summer so we haven’t been out much. Luckily, today was quite comfortable with clear blue skies, reasonable temperatures, and minimal humidity! In the park, there were still many flowers to see and birds as well, though we didn’t see as many as on previous visits. But overall, it was still a great place to be!
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Middle Patuxent Environmental Area
We were in Howard County, Maryland today and decided to visit the Middle Patuxent Environmental Area. It covers a large area along the Middle Patuxent River and contains various trails. We ended up doing the Wildlife Loop Trail by the main parking lot. It was a bit wet and muddy at places but we got through it.
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Meadowlark Botanical Gardens
We decided to visit Meadowlark Botanical Gardens again today, late in the morning before heading to lunch in Fairfax. While we didn’t find any Baltimore Orioles this time around, we did see many birds and pretty flowers! We also saw our first Purple Martins, a species that we’ve never seen before!
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Lotus Season at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens
The lotus flowers at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens have begun to bloom! We made a late morning visit to check them out. Its not peak yet but there are some very beautiful examples already! Peak bloom is currently expected to occur in three weeks.
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National Arboretum and the Fern Valley
After having lunch inside the DC beltway, we decided to head a bit further in to the National Arboretum. We parked at the National Grove of State Trees and ultimately found ourselves walking along the short Fern Valley loop trail. A nice walk with a nice breeze, lots of shade, some flowers, and a few birds.
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Meadowlark Botanical Gardens
Yesterday, there was a significant chance of rain all day. Today was looking worse with thunderstorms in the afternoon. But, things started clearing up before noon and the updated forecast was for overcast skies but little chance of rain. So, we decided to head to Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Virginia! We visited for the first time last week and noticed a likely oriole nest so wanted to check it out again.
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Rural Howard & Montgomery Counties
I originally wasn’t going to write about our trip today to Western Regional Park in Howard County, Maryland, and the Brighton Dam Azalea Garden in Montgomery County. While nice places to take a walk, we didn’t see too much and the azaleas were already gone. However, we saw our first ever male Baltimore Oriole! So definitely worth writing about!
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Meadowlark Botanical Gardens
This afternoon, we decided to visit the Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna, VA. It ended up being quite a nice place to visit! We enjoyed walking the paths and encountering a number of birds as well as observing some interesting behavior. It is also apparently quite popular for quinceaños photography as we saw a number of groups going through the park.
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Here and there but not quite everywhere!