Yellowstone is always good for tasty timelapse, and this one from Christopher Cauble renders the wonders of the oldest National Park in new ways. Then again, maybe it's the music. See, and hear, for yourself.
* * * The Sunday Morning Chillax? Here's the idea. It's Sunday. You're up early. You're enjoying a cup of coffee in the quiet morning while your kids sleep in. No need to read, this is always a video; something to give you happy thoughts about mountains, fresh air, stoke, fun, or being outside. Enjoy. Relax. Not guaranteed to be weekly . . . hey, you get what you pay for.
Last I heard, Jackson, Wyoming is enjoying a lovely 10-degree low and taking on an inch or two of fluff during some awfully pleasant snow flurries. They say the skiing's not that great this year, either. So prepare yourself. Corners of the American Sonoran Desert are invoking cliché lyrics to Jimmy Buffet songs at 74 degrees during the day and chilling the bones at night around 45. Those are facts, so pack the bikes and come on down. 38 Photos . . .
A year ago, the Disney movie Tangled landed in theaters and stole the hearts of little girls and their weepy, misty-eyed dads. The old folk tale of Rapunzel and her locks shouldn't be too foreign to you. The most famous version, before Disney's, was likely the one that's found in Grimms' Fairy Tales, the compilation of German folk tales assembled by the Brothers Grimm in the 19th Century. As you can expect it's not quite the same as the movie, but the nuts-n-bolts are the same . . .
You don't have to be all that hardcore to be out in the Sonoran Desert in winter. During the day, the ol' mercury could easily rise to to a steamy 80 degrees. At night though, it's not uncommon for the shiver point to begin around 55 or 54 and bottom out at 35. You'll get just a light frost in the morning. It ought to be a crime.
It has some downsides. Like scorpions and a lot of . . .
The most likely main attraction to adventure travel is that is has so few boundaries, only the ones you put in place. Notwithstanding the joyous red tape of border crossings. Rise as early as you please, or don't. Ride a bike to see the Louvre if you want. Drive nothing but dirt roads from Montana to Mexico. Pub crawl. Piggyback ride to the park. And so on. While creating memories along the path of your own adventures is the ultimate point, hearing the stories, seeing the pictures, and watching the videos of the wild or mild adventures undertaken by others fuels inspiration, laughter, and connectivity. This here is a hat tip to folks of the Adventure Travel Film Festival because they bring all three of those things together in this presentation of short films.
The old man you see in this photo arose on a typical sultry Southern summer morning in 2009, put on the coffee pot and waited for it to brew a kettleful in the kitchen of his small-town Louisiana home while he worked up a plan for his day. The house is modest yet so full of joy; for evidence, there's a rather old and yellowing crayon drawing taped to his cabinets that was made by one of his granddaughters who's now 27 and working on her Ph.D. The picture is of two figures in a rowboat with fishing poles. The little girl had written across the bottom of her drawing, "PeePaw is special because he takes me fishing."
Once the coffee was brewed, he picked up the pot, filled a mug, left it black and walked it into a dark bedroom in the back of the house . . .
A handful of young ladies go on a road trip to the Mediterranean coastline in a VW bus and they bring their longboards. Remember road trips with friends? These 10 minutes of stoke and good times from Juan Rayos and the Longboard Girls Crew peers into the love of longboarding and the sense of freedom that comes with a mighty fine road trip with good friends.
* * * The Sunday Morning Chillax? Here's the idea. It's Sunday. You're up early. You're enjoying a cup of coffee in the quiet morning while your kids sleep in. No need to read, this is always a video; something to give you happy thoughts about mountains, fresh air, stoke, fun, or being outside. Enjoy. Relax. Not guaranteed to be weekly . . . hey, you get what you pay for.
Pay not a dime as you drive (or walk or bike or levitate) on through the entrance gate at any National Park this weekend November 11-13, 2011. But a wave and a smile to the attendant would be nice, remember your manners. It starts Friday and lasts through Sunday. Pack up those kids and charge up the camera batteries. What's your flavor? Yosemite, Carlsbad Caverns, Bryce Canyon?
Last school year, we hosted and became family with a 16-year old girl from Ukraine who wanted nothing more than to see Grand Canyon. I've written about her a few times already, but because this website increasingly gets more readers every day (and we're grateful for it), I feel like I need to preface this properly. Her name is Ania and she lived with us for almost a year (more). Today, Ania attends a university in Lithuania studying English and business. During her spring semester here, she took a guitar class and a photography class. Truthfully, she taught me a lot about photography. And I taught tried to teach her how to rock a C7 chord, but she resisted trimming her fingernails.
Photography class started with the history of image making, so it was weeks before she came home with a pinhole camera and a project to shoot. When the class moved on to 35mm cameras . . .
If it were every little boy's dream to grow up to live on a ranch in Wyoming, the world might be a different place. But I don't know that for sure.
*** What is "The Sunday Morning Chillax?" Here's the idea. You're up early. You're enjoying a cup of coffee in the quiet morning while your kids sleep in. No need to read, this is always a video; something to give you happy, relaxing thoughts about mountains, fresh air, stoke, fun, or whatevs. Enjoy. Relax. You deserve it. Uh . . . except this is not guaranteed to be weekly. If only free could also mean consistent.
When another "Top 10 Best" feature in a magazine lands in my paws, I'm probably just as put off and pulled in as anybody with a moment of disdain and wonder: did my beloved _____ make the list? The perfect formula to spark your curiosity strokes both love and hate. We hate to see our little home town or favorite Sunday breakfast restaurant overused and under appreciated by the public but a part of us also loves to see recognition for the places, people and things that shape our personal lives. Right?
It's just not likely that I have the words available to me that would convince you to click play. So just click play.
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The Sunday Morning Chillax is just a weekly series, always a video, always on Sunday morning. Even though my wife's friends don't like it all that much, it's just here to give you happy thoughts about mountains, fresh air, good views, stoke and fun as you take in the week's most relaxing morning. Enjoy. Relax. Come back every week for more.
Anyone who's pulled off a long term camping road trip with the family understands that it's not always high on stoke and low on tantrums. Thankfully, the most thrilling parts of a trip actually come decidedly as the answer to a problem.
Believing we had more choices and time than possible, last summer in Baja we tinkered around far too long one day before looking for a beach to camp on. That's kind of typical in the Stephens Family, which is probably why our friends get headaches when we invite them on a trip with us. A few days before, a pair of surfers grabbed us by the shoulders and peered square into our eyes and declared "You like fish tacos, bra? Let me tell you where the best fish tacos in Baja are . . ."
The two little girls hiking in front of me are far from bumming. They're beaming. For the moment, I'm just here to silently supervise and swat the flies and watch for snakes. My own flesh-and-blood daughter has discovered a short piece of a cottonwood branch and declares that this new hiking stick makes her the leader. She's 3 years old, jamming down a footpath trail next to a desert river with a stick in her hand. She's unstoppable. Of course she's the leader. Even her 8-year-old cousin yields to the demands, looks at me and . . .
Boil down the miracle of rainbows to their physical properties and you learn they're just a trick of refracting light. Yet they're still amazing to spot and behold. Tell me, who's backseat full-o-kids hasn't lit up with racket at the sight of a rainbow after a storm?
Since rainbows are nothing more than just bending light, you just need the right circumstances and you can see a rainbow almost anywhere. It doesn't always have to be after a storm. Example? Squirt your garden hose into the air at different angles and you'll get a rainbow eventually.
Now turn your attention to the waterfalls of Yosemite Valley. At night, during certain full moon cycles of late spring and early summer, the sunlight reflecting off of the surface of the moon is not only enough, but also . . .
It's road trip season, so raise your hand if you grew up in the back seat of some car bound for a National Park or Disneyland or your long lost aunt's house across the country in which you witnessed a few throwdowns between your parents who were trying to navigate with a paper map on a Summer road trip.
Of all the ways to experience Grand Canyon, from browsing with the tourist herds on the South Rim for a day to riding the Colorado River for 10 days, nothing could be as chilling as flying below the rim. Enjoy this ride . . .
As Colton says of his work here, "Camping every night, smelling like the animals we are, we came back with a handful of photos and a timelapase video that I hope you all will enjoy. I tell you, though; the beauty you see through your own two eyes is still untouchable. That is why we travel and explore to these magical places.Let pictures and videos of these magical places be inspiration to go there."
Instructions inside pit toilet at Spider Rock Campground, Canyon de Chelly. I earned 300 points during my stay. I'm hoping to earn more points next time so I can get a slinky.
The inside of this pit toilet had more, too. One sign probes your soul with the proverb,
"How you treat the toilet is how we know what you think of yourself in general."
And another note taped to the wall reads like a poem, and I'm especially thankful for the title:
Untitled Please Be Courtesy with Tables .... one table to each Campsite
You don't get to experience gems like this by staying at home.
Thanks for the laughs, Spider Rock Campground: website
"A little about the van. He got it for a steal, but I soon found out why . . . A little electrical work here, reupholstering some seats there . . . But, the restoration wasn’t enough. The van was just the beginning, just a taste of the possibilities. Soon he was talking about traveling around the world. Yes, of course I thought he was crazy at first." - Angela Rehm
Launching a drive through South America by way of a loop around The United States in a camper van with your family - even with little ones you love so much that you ache at the idea of them growing up - is both easy and hard. Easy in this sense: all you have to do is decide, pack your junk, and go. You don't even need a plan or a map. But it's harder on the emotional side, and that's really the part that puts the brakes on for most of us. Once you start thinking about the consequences of your big trip, such as the hit to your savings account, an uncertain financial future, time away from your friends, guilt trips (lovable) from family, and all of that, out come the joyous mid-day nightmares. Right or wrong, that's just the way it is.
On my way home from the Mojave National Preserve, not one, not two, but three strangers eyed my truck, slid their sunglasses down their noses, grinned in a funny way, and said, "Well, it looks like you had some fun." Each one, word for word. Must I say it? Yes. Road trips are all about weird encounters. Take the scenes in My Cousin Vinny - a New Jersey-Italian pair thrust into the American South with "mud in da tie-yuz."
Welcome. A girl named Sally likes hiking and spending time in the mountains. Her friend Joe has a helicopter tour business in the same mountains. And the drama unfolds from there. Enjoy the song. Hope you like acoustic music.
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Ummm, The Sunday Morning Chillax? Here's the idea. You're up early. You're enjoying a cup of coffee in the quiet morning while your little turds sweet children sleep in. We'll share a video, something to give you happy, relaxing thoughts about mountains, fresh air, fun, or whatevs. Enjoy. Relax. You deserve it. Uh . . . except this is not guaranteed to be weekly. Hey, that's the price of free.
