Tagged With "Cave and Basin"
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Re: St. Martins Sea Caves, New Brunswick
Fascinating place. I love the outside shot of people about to enter the cave. My first impression was that the rock was a large tree and dwarves were about to enter a hole right above its roots.
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Re: Where in the World is TravelGumbo (#178)
Here are today's clues. The boardwalks you see above take you through wetlands on the ridge of a hill. These are some photos of these wetlands, and what grows in them....
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Re: Cave and Basin National Historic Site, Banff National Park (Where Gumbo Was #178)
Another wonderful presentation of a hidden gem from DrF. I'm surprised 5 readers found the answer. It took me a few hours, with lots of interest, researching the clues. There's a lot more to Canada than meets the eye. Especially here in Europe !
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Re: Cave and Basin National Historic Site, Banff National Park (Where Gumbo Was #178)
I spent several nights at Banff Springs, but not the cave and Basin. It is quite an experience to sit in a hot spring outdoors while snow is falling! Thanks for bring back the memories.
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Re: Gallery: Jewel Cave National Monument, South Dakota
Wow! Some amazing shapes and colors. How long was the tour? Was it cold down there?
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Re: Gallery: Jewel Cave National Monument, South Dakota
Thanks for sharing these interesting photos and for bringing back memories. I was last in Jewel Cave in 1982, when there was much less known about how extensive a cave network it was. I found the beautiful rock formations to be absolutely fascinating! Travel Luver, I seem to recall that the cave was quite cool, but maybe Still Country Photo can elaborate for us. Also, I vaguely seem to recall that the last formation in your series of photos was called the "Bacon Strip" or something similar?
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Re: Gallery: Jewel Cave National Monument, South Dakota
If memory serves me correctly, the tour was about 90 minutes. Yes, it was quite cool down there but since I had made the trip in late August, it was quite refreshing to be there. At one point, the guide turned out the lights so the guests could see what true darkness really looks like. I have been in the dark before but not like this, it even seemed to mess with your equilibrium and I felt like I wasn't going to stay upright. Yes DrF, that is a "bacon strip" formation. Water running down a...
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Re: Gallery: Jewel Cave National Monument, South Dakota
Absolutely incredible! i'm a huge fan of caves and your photos captured the details. Thanks for sharing!
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Re: Underground Puerto Rico: The Camuy River Caverns
Absolutely fascinating ! I'd love to do this journey. I've been into caves in England,Barbados and Poland but these are HUGE ! Sure beats "It's a small small world" at Disney !!
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Re: Underground Puerto Rico: The Camuy River Caverns
Las Cavernas was one of the first places I went to on my first trip to Puerto Rico. Back then the Autopista (expressway) was not yet complete and it was closer to 3 hours each way. But the caverns were on of the reason I fell in love with isalnd.
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Re: Books That Send You Packing...
There are so very many great travel tales. I am partial to non-fiction. I enjoy reading well researched, historical accounts of the human drama that is within the scenery. I enjoy writing that gives a strong sense of place and context to what I see. " The Old Patagonian Express " by Paul Theroux " The Pillars of Hercules " by Paul Theroux " Cut Stones and Crossroads: A Journey to Peru " by Ronald Wright " Basin and Range " by John McPhee " Two Years Before the Mast " by Richard Henry Dana,...
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Re: Sri Lanka: A Land Like No Other (Part 2). Dambulla
This is a remarkable place but the radiantly smiling kids make even the Golden Buddha look a little shabby. Great pics.
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Re: A visit to Great Basin National Park
Never been anywhere in Nevada except Vegas. Didn't know they had beautiful places like this. Can you get there from Vegas as a day trip? Was it hot?
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Re: A visit to Great Basin National Park
Well, for a start, make sure you visit Reno, Travel Luver. It's a much small town than Vegas but still has all the casinos, restaurants, etc that you'd expect from a Nevada City. From here it's easy to do a day trip to Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada Mountains, or down to Carson City. Reno is actually the closest major city to Great Basin National Park, say about a 3-4 hour drive. Vegas is 6-7 hour drive away. Salt Lake City is closer to Great Basin than Vegas. But you really can't do it as...
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Re: A visit to Great Basin National Park
A friend who was a park planner for the National Park Service said his favorite park was Big Bend in Texas. He's a lover of desert landscapes, wide-open spaces and, in the case of this park too, almost no visitors. Another orphan, no doubt. http://www.nps.gov/bibe/index.htm
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Re: A visit to Great Basin National Park
Thanks for the note, PortMoresby. I've visited a lot of the US parks, but Big Bend is still on my "to do" list. They do white water rafting trips there, which appeals to me. One of the things that a lot of folks enjoy about these "orphans" is that they are so sparsely peopled, with few tourists. I think the US Parks system is the USA's biggest tourist asset. I'm certainly a huge fan. Seems whenever I'm in a US Park, more German is spoken than English. The German folks certainly are aware of...
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Re: A visit to Great Basin National Park
The comments on "orphan parks" made for some interesting thoughts. How do we (as a society) choose what to save for parks? When you consider urban parkland, the point is obvious: people who have no land of their own need areas for public recreation. In other cases, individuals with wealth and influence have created parks in areas important to them personally (think of Acadia and the Rockefellers, Palisades Interstate Park and Morgan partners). But setting aside and maintaining areas like...
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Re: A visit to Great Basin National Park
Pheymont, you speak as if budget cuts are in the future when in fact the Park Service has been functioning with less and less for years now. The Service has a mission to which they're dedicated but less funding has meant "deferred" maintenance on buildings, trails, you name it. And when features of a park are deemed unsafe or there isn't personnel to oversee visitors then parts are closed. I've experienced that myself recently when a trail I've visited in years past was closed. I have no...
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Re: A visit to Great Basin National Park
Costs for the existing parks is mostly maintenance and salary. In the face of a broke federal government, I would favor increased user fees. $10-20 for a family to visit a national park for a week is the greatest bargain out there. People who love the parks would happily pay twice as much and I don't think the extra cost would be a deterent. Also, it's reasonable for those with concessions to pay up more than they are. They are given a monopoly and some of those profits should go back to the...
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Re: A visit to Great Basin National Park
No, I'm painfully aware of the past and present cuts...but I see more ahead. My concern is that there are loud voices (my own included) to speak out against cuts to parks that have a big "fan base," including Gateway here in the NY area. Because so many speak out for those parks, I fear that NPS will increasingly "hide the damage" by even more drastic cuts to others--perhaps even outright abandonment. And that's not so far-fetched an idea. For some 20 or more years here in New York, Prospect...
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Re: A visit to Great Basin National Park
PHeymont, I don't believe we disagree. I think the problem is that the park system relies on "federal handouts" and when a government is broke, there's less to hand out. As I said, I sort of favor them being self-funded by their user and concession fees. That's a lot of money already (if it was all kept in the parks) and people would be willing to pay more IF they knew the money stayed in the parks and didn't get diverted back into the Washington's general budget. Orphan parks would be...
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, Dec. 10, 2013: Zhangjiajie National Park, China
The intensity of those colors is astonishing...even in pictures! Thank you!
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, Nov. 26, 2013: Zhangjiajie National Park, China
I haven't seen Avatar (yes, some of us haven't!) but the switchbacked road and the arch at the head of the stairs made me think of another movie: Shangri-la...
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, Nov. 26, 2013: Zhangjiajie National Park, China
What a beautiful and magical place! It is like something out of a storybook or film, isn't it? Thanks for sharing this destination with us.
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, Nov. 26, 2013: Zhangjiajie National Park, China
Avatar was one of my favorite movies! Now I've another reason to go to China (besides the awesome food!)
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, Nov. 26, 2013: Zhangjiajie National Park, China
Wow! I must go.My favorite Picture of the Day yet!
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, Nov. 26, 2013: Zhangjiajie National Park, China
Glad you guys liked the pictures. Indeed, this place impressed us a great deal. Like Karl said it’s like something unreal. Stay tuned, in part II, I will show you what underneath those mountain pinnacles.
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, Nov. 26, 2013: Zhangjiajie National Park, China
Like ! the picture of the hairpin turns. That is my kind of road. The picture of Heaven's Gate is very special. thank you
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, Dec. 10, 2013: Zhangjiajie National Park, China
Oh my, I had no idea that this existed. Makes me happy to have eyes. Thank you.
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, Dec. 10, 2013: Zhangjiajie National Park, China
Thanks Paul and Louie for your comments. Glad you enjoyed the pictures. Yes, my family did have jaw cramping for a while after visiting that place
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, Dec. 10, 2013: Zhangjiajie National Park, China
That place reminds me of Carlsbad caves in New Mexico. It's beautiful! I like how the guy in the bottom right (white shirt) gives you an idea of how big it is. Wonder which one is bigger? Carlsbad or this one?
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Re: Gumbo's Pic of the Day, Dec. 10, 2013: Zhangjiajie National Park, China
Thanks Theo for your comment. That was exactly the intention to include a person in the picture Have not been in Carlsbad caves yet, perhaps should be added to the next destination list. The mountain pinnacles in Zhangjiajie stretch mils and mils, kind like Yellowstone. I was told the underneath cave system is the same. However, only a small fraction is explored and even smaller ones are currently open for visitors.
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Visiting Versailles
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Dry Falls – Home of The World’s Largest Waterfall!
Imagine a waterfall with a precipice over three and a half miles (5.5 km) long and a drop of over 400 feet (120 m)! By comparison, Niagara Falls is about 1/10th as wide. Think of the millions of gallons of water pouring over it each...
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The Living Desert Wildlife and Botanical Park, Palm Desert
Palm Desert's LIVING DESERT offers a place to see several desert ecosystems, as well as an interesting assortment of animals from the Americas and Africa.
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Visiting Western Greenland. Part II – Western Greenland on Foot!
Part I covered three Greenlandic towns I have visited but my real passion is being out in West Greenland’s wilderness. So this part is about what it has to offer those willing to get out there on foot and under canvas! I...
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That's sick! Rocker writes first barf book
Headline get you? Wasn't easy to think what to say, so let's start here. Rocker Nick Cave of the Bad Seeds, spent a lot of 2012 touring the U.S. with the band. On flights between concerts, he began writing notes, doodles and poems on the backs of...
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Why You should visit Nevada's Valley of Fire
Tired of the hustle and bustle of Las Vegas? Had enough of the concrete canyons and smoked filled casinos of Sin City? Not sure if it's day or night (there are no clocks allowed in Vegas casinos)? Then you should do...
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Underground Puerto Rico: The Camuy River Caverns
If Old San Juan and the El Yunque rain forest and the beaches have been drawing visitors for hundreds of years, that's certainly not true for this hidden attraction: a vast, and still-not-fully-explored system of caves, carved out by the world's...
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Gold Country, California: Auburn
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Yellowstone National Park in Winter
Seeing all fifty-nine national parks was never a dream of ours--especially not in fifty-nine weeks. We'd call it more of a whim, an impulse or an inspiration. Going to Yellowstone National Park in the winter was something we had...
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Yellowstone, Finale
PortMoresby's tale of a visit to Yellowstone comes to an end with an appreciation of six days she'll never forget.
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Yellowstone: Old Faithful Inn & Geyser
PortMoresby arrives in Yellowstone and begins her visit at the logical place, Old Faithful Geyser and its companion, the Old Faithful Inn.
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Yellowstone: Upper Geyser Basin
PortMoresby begins her geothermal education with a walk around Yellowstone’s Upper Geyser Basin.
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PortMoresby's Yellowstone
April 29, 2017: The Road to Yellowstone May 6, 2017: Yellowstone, Old Faithful Inn & Geyser May 13, 2017: Yellowstone, Upper Geyser Basin May 20, 2017: Yellowstone Lake May 27, 2017: A Yellowstone Gallery: Midway Geyser Basin June 3, 2017: Yellowstone HQ, Mammoth Hot Springs June 10, 2017: A Yellowstone Gallery: Mammoth Terraces June 17, 2017: Yellowstone, the Finale Find more of PortMoresby's contributions here .
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A Yellowstone Gallery: Midway Geyser Basin
PortMoresby discovers Yellowstone’s Grand Prismatic Pool, a contender for the world’s most beautiful place.
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The Burgess Shale, Stanley Glacier, Kootenay National Park (Where Gumbo was #211)
Gumbo was visiting the fossil rich deposits of the Burgess Shale. These are at a newly discovered site in the Stanley Glacier basin of Kootenay National Park.
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Where in the World is TravelGumbo (#212)
Gumbo is constantly moving and for WITW 212 ,he ends up here. Follow the daily clues and take a guess!
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The Road to Yellowstone
PortMoresby sets out on a closer-to-home-than-usual trip of a lifetime, a first visit to Yellowstone National Park, with her Montana-born pal, Deb, as guide.
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July 27, 2017: Lake Tahoe, California/Nevada
While attending a family function in the Carson City Nevada area, Ottoman took advantage of a free afternoon and drove to Lake Tahoe.