United States – Page 9

October 22, 2022

Great Falls and Meadowlark Botanical Gardens

We started our day at the Maryland side of the Great Falls, a section of rapids on the Potomac river that separates Maryland and Virginia. This area is part of the C&O Canal National Historic Park. It was foggy when we arrived but rather nice when we got to the viewpoint in the middle of the river. Afterwards, we headed to an early lunch and then onward to Meadowlark Botanical Gardens. We were there to see what birds were around and to check out the fall foliage. But it seems we’ve missed much of fall already!

September 17, 2022

Meadowlark Botanical Gardens

It has been around a month since our last visit to the Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Northern Virginia. We headed over in the early afternoon for a walk through the park. As usual, we saw quite a few birds though the swallows were absent. And as usual we saw quite a few flowers!

August 30, 2022

Arapahoe Basin

We headed to Arapahoe Basin in the morning and arrived just in time for the 9am opening time. We took the Black Mountain Express chairlift up to mid-mountain and started hiking upwards. The plan was to make it to the new Steilhang Hut but we ended up going all the way to the Snow Plume Refuge.

August 28, 2022August 28, 2022

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.

August 27, 2022August 27, 2022

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.