Going to Extremes

On April 7, 2020 By Living The Q Life Travel AdventuresIn Travel Tips3 Comments

There are so many beautiful places throughout the world, but it isn’t always easy to reach them. Some of these locations are easily accessible, but others require an effort to reach. Whether it is hiking up a mountain, taking a canoe into the jungle, or just visiting a remote location, the scenery that you see can be quite rewarding. We have been fortunate to see a variety of different scenery throughout the years and look forward to seeing more in the future.

IMGP9353 — Andes Mountains in South America

IMGP8587 — Moon Valley in La Paz, Bolivia

There are so many different types of scenery in various parts of the world due to the various climates and geological forces that exist. From rainforests, arctic tundra, tropical islands, vast deserts, and dramatic canyons, each has its own charm as well as its own challenge to seeing their natural beauty. Sometimes you can find these amazing scenes near where you live today and other require traveling to a far off country. Regardless of where we travel, we always look for opportunities to find one of those places that can’t be found anywhere else.

DSC_0188_day3 — Lava Fields in Iceland in Winter

Hikers Heading Up an Exposed Rock Face in Utah

Even though we’ve gone to some extreme locations, we are not ones who take incredible risks to see these beautiful places. You don’t need to climb up the side of a mountain with ropes, cross a desert on a camel, or bobsled through the arctic to see the scenery that the world has to offer. We certainly don’t go to those types of extremes. Even the time of year can change the way that a place looks, so seeing it in different seasons can also effect your perception of it as well. How far are you willing to go to find the places that aren’t like anything that you’ve ever seen before?

View of the Quilotoa Caldera and Lagoon in Ecuador

Beautiful Scenery from a Mountain Peak in Ninh Binh Province, Vietnam

Mount Falcon Park in Colorado

On March 24, 2020March 24, 2020 By Living The Q Life Travel AdventuresIn Colorado, Hiking5 Comments

A while ago, we decided to head up to go hiking near Morrison, Colorado, which is a small town just outside of Denver. It is the home of the famous Red Rocks Amphitheatre, but we were there to get up into the mountains and enjoy some of the last days of summer. Any trail that is close to Denver is always likely to be crowded with hikers and mountain bikers and this was definitely the case at Mount Falcon Park. We decided to avoid the main trail, Castle Trail, which was packed with families, and take Parmalee Trail instead. It turned out to be a wise decision as we ended up having the trail almost all to ourselves.

It was a beautiful day and the air was cool enough to make hiking thoroughly enjoyable. As with almost any hike in the mountains, there were gorgeous views and the wildflowers were still in bloom. The trail itself was steep at times, which is probably one of the reasons that there were fewer people on it, but not steep enough to be difficult. This happened to be one of the last hikes before the cooler, autumn weather arrived and it turned out to be a perfect hike to end the summer season with.

We don’t usually head north to go hiking, mostly because of the crowds, but we were glad that we decided to give this trail a chance. We use an app call AllTrails (or you can go to their website, alltrails.com) to find different trails to go hiking on. We have had many guide books over the years, but in this digital age it is easier to use the app, which also has ratings and comments from other hikers. In a sense, it is like TripAdvisor for hikers. However we find the trails, it is nice to find new trails like the ones at Mount Falcon Park, to go hiking on.

People Never Look Up

On March 13, 2020 By Living The Q Life Travel AdventuresIn Photo Challenge2 Comments

It is a proven fact that people generally don’t look upwards and tend to keep their eyes forward or down. It is a shame sometimes as they are likely missing out on some beautiful scenery. We’re not saying that we are better than others at it, but we do try to look up at times, especially when we go hiking. We have seen a variety of birds and other animals by scanning the tree branches above us for anything that might be moving. Although things don’t appear to be looking up in general, here are a few images to help us all look up.