Category Archives: Travel

Top RV Campsites: Chisos Basin Campground In Big Bend National Park, TX

From a Fodor’s online article:

Chisos Basin Campground Big Bend, TXSurrounded by rugged cliffs high in the Chisos Mountains, Big Bend National Park’s Chisos Basin Campground is a picturesque slice of montane shrubland, featuring Arizona Cypress and desert-hearty mesquite trees. Chisos Campground is positioned close to the park’s most popular trails, including the Lost Mine Trail and Pinnacles Trail, and its highest point, Emory Peak. Almost half of the campground’s 60 sites can be reserved in advance (November to May) and 18 of them (non-reservable) allow the use of a generator. All sites have grills instead of fire pits, and the campground is replete with flush toilets and drinking water.

Chisos Basin Campground Texas

Top New Travel Videos: “Starlight – Deserts Of Chile” By Adrien Mauduit

Filmed, Edited and Directed by: Adrien Mauduit

Ever since I started astrophotography I’ve waited to visit the dark skies of Chile. I took advantage of the total solar eclipse of July 2nd to give me a ‘good excuse’ to go there and shoot astrolapses as well. For a bit more than two weeks, Alyn Wallace and I roamed about some of the driest areas and darkest skies on the planet. This short films tells the tale of an otherworldly experience filled with many challenges and stunning scenery throughout the deserts of the South-American country.

Starlight - Deserts of Chile Directed by Adrien Mauduit 2019

Chile is unlike any other places on our beautiful planet. The climate there is very strange, especially coming from northern Europe. While the southern part of the country is colder and more humid, the northern part offers some of the sunniest and driest places thanks to the Andes blocking most of the clouds. The high plateaus (Altiplano) actually extends for miles from South to North and even in the winter time, the astrophotography possibilities are almost endless and seemingly easy to come by. During our two weeks around La Serena and Atacama, Alyn and I have almost not seen a single cloud or a major gust of wind. Moreover, despite the growing light pollution around the arid plains, the night remains one of the best on Earth. There, the nigh it is quite long (from 6:30PM till 6AM), and the air is thin and pure to allow less scattering and a clearer view on the stars. So theoretically it was possible to shoot every night.

Starlight - Deserts of Chile Directed by Adrien Mauduit 2019

Website: https://www.nightlightsfilms.com/

Top Exhibits: Empire State Building Mini Museum Opens To The Public

From a Curbed NY online article:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe Empire State Building, New York City’s most iconic skyscraper, has been reimagining its observatory experience for some time now. As part of a two-phase project, a new observatory entrance at 20 West 34th Street debuted last August, and now, a new set of immersive exhibits are open to the public.

The 10,000-square-foot galleries, part of a $165 million project which began more than four years ago, include several displays that tell the history of the building from its construction to its prominent place in the city’s culture.

To read more click on following link: https://ny.curbed.com/2019/7/29/8934703/empire-state-building-exhibit-observatory-history-nyc

 

Top New Travel Videos: “Mandala – The Wheel Of Life” Is A Spiritual Journey Through Tibet (2019)

“Mandala – The Wheel Of Life”

Filmed, Edited and Directed by: Andrada and Ion

Mandala - The Wheel of Life Spiritual Journey Through Tibel 2019

Music by: Ryan Taubert (“We Wish It Was Never Light”) and Bruno Coulais (“La Mort De Lhakpa”)

“Mandala” is a spiritual symbol representing the universe in Bhuddism. It can represent different cycles of life, or the life cycle itself. The wheel of life is a Mandala, but not every Mandala is a wheel of life.”

Mandala - The Wheel of Life Spiritual Journey Through Tibel 2019

Website: inbetweenflights.com

Newly Renovated Resorts: Desert Hot Springs’ “Two Bunch Palms” – Carbon Neutral Rejuvenation

From a Design Milk online article:

Two Bunch Palms Mineral WatersTwo Bunch Palms mineral springs flow up from Miracle Hill, a 600 year old source bubbling from under the surface and flowing hot directly into the resort’s pool. Ecological considerations also extend to the hotel using its very own solar field array, earning Two Bunch Palms the status of being the first carbon-neutral resort in America.

Studio MAI, the firm responsible for designing the popular Venice restaurant mainstay, Gjelina, remained cognizant and careful to retain the resort’s storied “quirkiness and authenticity” while adding enough colors, textures, and modern motifs in acknowledgement of the new generation descending into the region drawn by the desert’s charms. The resulting makeover feels fresh without cloyingly contemporary, retaining a textural charm that has mostly abandoned nearby Palm Springs.

To read more click the following link: https://design-milk.com/mineral-springs-modernity-bubbles-anew-at-the-two-bunch-palms/

Top RV Campsites: North Rim Campground In Grand Canyon National Park

From a Fodor’s online article:

Grand_Canyon_North_Rim_Campground_Registration_Office_0097One of America’s most iconic national parks, it’s no surprise to learn that the Grand Canyon is often crowded. Most visitors, though, stick to the park’s South Rim, leaving the less populated North Rim open to campers in search of wildlife and a little tranquility. The North Rim Campground is a whopping 8,200 feet in elevation bordering the Transept Canyon, an offshoot of the main canyon, of which some sites have fantastic views. The 90-site campground, open May through October (reservations only), is located a mile south of the Grand Canyon Lodge and visitor center.

North Rim Campground Grand Canyon National Park

To read more click on the following link: https://www.fodors.com/world/north-america/usa/arizona/grand-canyon-national-park

Top Travel Experiences: Remote Lakeside Camping In The Adirondack Park Reached By Floatplanes

From a New York Times article by Zach Montague:

The Adirondack Park In Upstate New York MapAway from Lake Placid, Lake George and other more crowded regional hubs, are several smaller hamlets that provide access to a handful of exceptionally remote lakeside campgrounds reachable only by pontooned floatplanes. With round-trip charters typically priced at $150 or less per person, some of the most secluded frontiers of the Adirondack Park are accessible even to travelers on a limited budget. Over the years, this little-utilized route into sequestered backwoods sites has become a prized secret among my close friends and family, and since my maiden trip with my father six years ago, I have been back every year with a rotating cast of companions.

An Adirondack Wilderness All Your Own New York Times July 2019
A floatplane arrives at the isolated Pine Lake camping site in the Adirondacks. Credit Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

To read more click on following link: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/22/travel/an-adirondack-wilderness-all-your-own.html

Top Hikes In West Virginia: Harpers Ferry National Historical Park Has 20 Miles Of Scenic Trails

From a NPS.gov online article:

Harpers Ferry National Historical Park Hiking trailsHarpers Ferry National Historical Park (NHP) is considered one of the best walking parks in America. The views are sublime, the history compelling, the restored town a work of historical art. The variety of trails coupled with nationally significant history and the scenery of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Potomac and Shenandoah river valleys adds up to a unique hiking experience. Harpers Ferry NHP encompasses almost 4,000 acres in West Virginia, Maryland and Virginia, and several units of the national park system intersect here. As the mid-point of the 2,178-mile Appalachian National Scenic Trail (AT), Harpers Ferry is home to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC), the headquarters for the AT. Visitors can also walk along the 184.5-mile-long towpath of Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park by crossing the footbridge over the Potomac River. The Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail overlays the C&O Canal and continues north all the way to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

https://www.nps.gov/hafe/planyourvisit/hikes.htm

Top Travel Experiences: The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad In Colorado Passes Thru Spectacular Scenery

From an Atlas Obscura online article:

Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Train SceneryAs it leaves Durango, the train’s multiple-chime steam whistle can be heard reverberating throughout the town and along the Animas Valley. As it proceeds north, the train winds alongside the Animas River as it traverses the verdant green pastures of the Animas Valley and then crosses through the spectacular and breathtaking San Juan National Forest. The remote and treacherous route through the mountains includes a dramatic and stomach-churning stretch along the edge of a narrow shelf carved into the sheer granite cliffs 400 feet above the river. 

As one of the United States’s most scenic historic railroads, the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad (D&SNG), with its jet-black steam-powered locomotives and 1880s-era coaches, travels along the same tracks that miners, frontiersmen, and cowboys journeyed nearly 140 years ago.

All Aboard!

To read more click on following link: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/durango-silverton-narrow-gauge-railroad?utm_source=Atlas+Obscura+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=d5355b27d3-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_07_25&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f36db9c480-d5355b27d3-63029309&ct=t(EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_07_25_2019)&mc_cid=d5355b27d3&mc_eid=9baf474570