A lot of people spend so much time looking forward and planning their next adventure that they don’t go back and savor their past experiences. Perhaps we are fortunate since we write about the places that we have visited that we get the opportunity to review our photographs and relive past moments. With that in mind, for this week’s Daily Post Photo Challenge, Reflecting, we went back to a couple of our trips to Chicago where we captured images of reflections off of they skyscrapers as well as the “Bean”.
Cloud Gate (The Bean) in ChicagoInteresting ReflectionReflections on SkyscraperSkyline and Its ReflectionOne Last View of the Bean
We are not necessarily risk takers, but we have found ourselves in some situations that have tested us. Whether white water rafting, trekking into the jungle, or hiking to the top of a mountain, we take all necessary precautions to hopefully avert disaster. We have had a couple of close calls, but fortunately are here to tell the tales. This week’s Daily Post Photo Challenge is Danger! and we immediately thought back to our trip down Death Road in Bolivia. We should have known that our trip was going to be an eventful one when we came across a skull on a stick as we started making our way down the narrow road. After driving for a short while, we saw a bird in a tree that we wanted to take a few photos of, so the driver stopped our van. As we took a few pictures, there was suddenly some loud noises on the slope behind us. We turned to see a few large boulders sliding down the hillside towards the road. We have seen the results of landslides on other roads in Bolivia, so the threat of us and our vehicle being swept over the side of the cliff was a real possibility. We quickly scrambled back into the van and continued winding our way down the extremely narrow road. The main reason that Death Road is so dangerous is that there isn’t enough room for two vehicles to pass one another, but today traffic mostly just goes down as there is a new, modern highway that most vehicles use instead of taking the treacherous route. At one point, we did come across a truck that was broken down on one of the hairpin turns where a waterfall flowed across the road. As we started to pass the truck, the back wheels of our van started to slide toward the edge of the cliff, being swept by the water running across the road. Our driver pressed hard on the gas pedal and the engine revved as we slid our way back up onto the road. We were all a little shaken, including our driver who clearly knew what a close call it really was. If a vehicle or bicyclist goes over the edge of the cliff there is no rescue attempt, it is simply too steep and dense, so it is truly a death sentence. As they say, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger or, in this case, gives you a great story to tell later. We talked all about our trip down Death Road in a previous post, al Camino de la Muerte, so feel free to see more photos from our adventure.
Skull WarningSign at the Start of Death RoadWaterfall over Road
Since this is a photo challenge, here are few other danger signs that we have encountered. We hike in bear country quite often, but you have to be careful, especially in Autumn when the bears are preparing to hibernate or in Spring when they have cubs.
Bear CountryBe AlertDefinitely Will Make You Think Twice
We flew up to Montana for work this week, which we have done about fifty times over the past twenty years. Because we go to Montana on such a frequent basis, we tend not to give much thought to the beauty of the area. The area is truly spectacular, not just Yellowstone National Park, but the entire area. It isn’t as though the beauty of nature somehow stops at the border of the park, it is just where protection of the land and wildlife comes to an end. On this particular trip, we decided to take a few photos of the landscape as we flew over northern Wyoming and then into Montana. It might be Spring throughout most of the northern hemisphere, but here in the high-country, winter is still clinging on for another month or so. We are still getting snow occasionally as you can tell from the peaks of the mountains as our plane flew over the Rocky Mountains.
We Believe this is Yellowstone LakeSnow and Mountains
Once we crossed over the mountains and entered the valley where we were to land, the scenery turned from white peaks to lush green farmland. The growing season for plants in this region is very short, so seeing all of the green grass was very refreshing. It also means that there is a reduced chance of fires, a risk that is unfortunately high in our home state of Colorado. We decided not to go into the park this trip, mostly because of the road conditions as it continued to snow in the mountains and on the mountain passes during our entire time in Montana.
Green Valley and MountainsGorgeous Landscape
We will try not to take the beautiful scenery of Wyoming and Montana for granted during any of our subsequent trips. We live in a gorgeous part of the world and seeing it from an airplane is a wonderful way to truly appreciate how wild and wonderful it really is.
