Red Rock Canyon Open Space

On May 15, 2017 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Colorado, Hiking3 Comments

The weather was absolutely beautiful this weekend so we took advantage of it to go on a short hike. This was our first time hiking the Red Rock Canyon Open Space, which is located between Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs, and we thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The scenery is very much like that of Garden of the Gods park and there are plenty of interesting rock formations to see as you stroll along the trails.

The trails are not particularly difficult and there are plenty of families and people with dogs, but the park is spread out enough that despite large crowds it is still a tranquil experience. As we walked along the trails, we came across a group of volunteers who were spending their Sunday repairing the trails and adding steps along a portion of one of the trails. We stopped to take their picture for them and took one of them ourselves and thanked them for their volunteerism and hard work.

It is hard to believe that we have lived in Colorado Springs for over twenty years and yet had not gone hiking on these trails before. We will definitely return on future occasions to explore more of the open land space and enjoy all of the natural beauty. We live in such a beautiful place and are lucky to be able to go hiking in just a few minutes and be surrounded by such natural wonders.

Flying Over Wyoming and Montana

On April 28, 2017 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Montana5 Comments

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.

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.

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.

Reaping What You Sow

On April 14, 2017 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Germany, Photo Challenge9 Comments

Some of you may have noticed that we have been a little quiet this week. We moved into our new place in Colorado Springs this past weekend, so we have been busy unpacking boxes and making it feel like home. It has been quite time consuming, especially with work, but we are almost at a point where we feel a sense of normalcy. For this week’s Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge, Harvest – Earth, we chose photos that represent harvesting earth’s bounties, but are also counting our own blessings as to being home surrounded by our own furniture once again. The first photo is of a church with a wine vineyard in the small town of Hochheim, Germany.

We saw a lot of humble farmers during our trip to Bolivia. Despite not having any modern equipment, they are still able to produce an abundance of crops.