Friday Photo Post: Mayflower Gulch

Here are more pictures taken by my brother, Scott, during his visit with us in Colorado. These are from Mayflower Gulch, just west of Silverthorne near Copper Mountain. There is an easy 2 mile walk with beautiful scenery that leads to the site of Old Boston Mine. (His other pictures were from Loveland Pass.)

If you are interested in free, or open source software, you can check out Scott's blog at MovingtoFreedom.org.

Friday Photo Post: Loveland Pass, Colorado

Looking through photographs from our year in Colorado, I found several pictures of Loveland Pass that my brother took when he came out to visit us. It brought back some fun memories, and I decided to share two of my favorite pictures with you.

I thought this shadow from the clouds looked like a monster opening his mouth to take a big bite out of the mountain.

Thank you to Scott Carpenter for the pictures of Loveland Pass in Colorado. If you are interested in free, or open source software, you can check out his blog at MovingtoFreedom.org.

Friday Photo Post: Kauai, Hawaii

My brother took this picture of palm trees in Kauai, Hawaii. It was taken with just a 2mp camera, but it reminds me of the HDR photography that Trey Ratcliff does. I can only imagine what it would have looked like if Scott had used a higher quality camera.

When I asked him if I could use the photograph, Scott told me he was also doing a Friday Photo Post on Hawaii on his blog, Moving to Freedom. Coincidences like that make me smile.

Scott Carpenter shares his photographs under a creative commons attribution-share alike license.

The Goodlands

A few years ago my wife and I drove from Minneapolis to the Black Hills in South Dakota, with a one night stop near the Badlands. It's about a 600 mile drive, so we made a day of the trip out, making a couple of stops on the way to break up the drive.

First was Blue Mounds State Park, near the border of Minnesota and South Dakota. It's just north of Luverne on Interstate 90, or at the bottom of an ancient sea, depending on your perspective. We hiked around and up the pretty rocks and saw some Prickly Pear cactus. *Cactus*, in Minnesota! The hike went longer than expected; we had to claw our way through some thick trees and brush to find a place we could get to the top of the quartzite cliff. Then a picnic lunch before moving on to...

...the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota! They were rehusking (more or less) so that the outside of the building wasn't fully decked out in eary finery, but it wasn't bad as far as tourist traps go.

We made it to our hotel in Kadoka early enough to check in and head over to the Badlands park loop for a couple of windshield stops to see the mounds in the setting sun. We resisted any stray urges to visit Wall Drug, which is lurking in that area. It had been our determined plan to *not* go there, but after countless bumper stickers and billboards, my defenses were weakened. Fortunately Kathy stood firm against it.

In the morning we ate some greasy breakfast at the hotel, checked out, and made our way back to the Badlands. I was glad we had the chance to visit the night before and see everything in shadows. It created some good visuals and pictures. The new day was overcast and grey. (Which in itself was appropriate for exploring a place called the badlands, of course.)

We like to hike/walk on our vacations. Sometimes we'll pick up an "easy day hikes" kind of book for help in finding local trails, but for this trip I relied on the Internet. We particularly liked the Notch Trail. It wasn't long, but was a fun hike with beautiful surroundings and views. Down a canyon-ish kind of trail, up a rope ladder against a cliff, around a scary ledge, and in to an alien landscape. The kind of place that's just fun to poke around and explore rather than try to cover a lot of ground.

We tried a couple of other trails and then it was time to strike out for the Hills. We never did stop at Wall Drug.

Introducing... my little brother

This is Scott and me on our first travel experience outside of Minnesota. It was a family camping trip at Firefly Lake in Vilas County, Wisconsin. This picture was taken the day we found out Elvis died.

Before this trip, our travels were limited to visiting grandparents "up at the farm" in Thief River Falls, visiting friends "up at the lake" in the Brainerd Lakes area, or camping at St. Croix State Park.

I mentioned Scott in a post last week. This morning, he is contributing a guest post for Rambling Traveler.

A Ramble about 40 year old choppers

My brother Scott has a tech blog, Moving to Freedom.org, about free, or open source, software. I confess that I don't understand half of what he is talking about, but sometimes he writes an article that I really get.

Yesterday was like that. I love that he has good memories with something as simple as chopper mittens. I also like how he uses the choppers to share his outlook on life. I envy Scott his writing skills, but I'm also so proud of him. Awesome post, little brother!

I know this doesn't have anything to do with travel, but it kind of fits with the winter theme I've got going this week, sort of. Maybe. Oh well, check it out and see what you think!