A Jeep Tour Through Colorado’s Million Dollar Highway And Highway To Heaven

by Jessica Festa on

When traveling through Colorado, one city I highly recommend visiting is the little known Ouray. Here, you’ll not only get to take part in various adventure sports, sip beer at quirky breweries and eat scrap cookies at Mouse’s, you’ll also be able to take a scenic jeep tour through Colorado’s Million Dollar Highway and Highway To Heaven.

When visiting Ouray, I took my jeep tour with San Juan Scenic Jeep Tours, a company I highly recommend. Our guide was funny, knowledgeable and full of interesting stories about the area and its history. The tour began with a viewing of part of the famous Million Dollar Highway, a scenic road thought to be one of the most dangerous in the United States due to its narrowness, steep cliffs and lack of guardrails. The road supposedly gets its name from a woman known as Queen Anne, who once said, “You couldn’t give me a million dollars to ride on that road again!” About halfway through the route, the tour makes a turn onto the beautiful Highway To Heaven, a picturesque path that takes you to an elevation of 13,000 feet. For a final stop, the tour visits an old ghost town in Ouray County.

For a more visual idea of the experience, check out the gallery below.

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[Image above via Vagabondish. Gallery images via Jessie on a Journey and Davepaper]

Celebrate July Fourth On The National Mall

by Kraig Becker on

If you’re looking for a unique and fun way to celebrate Independence Day today, and you’re fortunate enough to live close to Washington D.C., you may want to drop by the National Mall to take part in the annual festivities. The iconic monuments and memorials that make up the Mall should make for an inspiring backdrop to a full day of events.

Among the more memorable attractions on the National Mall are the Washington Monument and the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials. The three presidents to which those sites are dedicated all played a vital role in forging the U.S. as a nation and today they will each be remembered for their leadership.

Activities on the Mall begin with a parade along Constitution Avenue that gets underway at 11:45 a.m. and runs through 2 p.m. Following the parade a group of park rangers will gather at the Jefferson Memorial where they’ll present a portrayal of life in America circa 1776. The nearby Sylvan Theater will play host to activities for the Junior Rangers from 3-8:30 p.m. and a live concert featuring the U.S. Army Band will begin at 6 p.m. Each of these activities will help set the stage for the impressive fireworks display that will take place between 9:10-9:30 p.m.

Directions to the Mall can be found on the NPS website and visitors are encouraged to arrive early. There are no entrance fees to any of the events or monuments and it is sure to be both a fun and educational way to celebrate the occasion.

Happy Independence Day!

[Photo credit: Leafsfan67 via WikiMedia]

Earliest Map Naming America Discovered

by Sean McLachlan on

A copy of the earliest map that names America has been discovered.

The map was created by German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller in 1507 based on explorers’ accounts. Only four copies are known to exist, but a fifth has just been discovered inside a 19th century book at the Ludwig Maximilian University library in Munich.

This map is slightly different than the others and appears to be a second edition.

Waldseemüller named the vaguely drawn land after Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci. His map is important because he shows America as being separate from Asia. Until this time the common assumption was that it was part of Asia.

The map is actually a globe gore, designed to be cut out and pasted onto a globe. It never was, and how it ended up in a book published three centuries later is a mystery.

To celebrate the Fourth of July, the library has put the map online.

Image courtesy Badische Landesbibliothek.

12 Stunning Desert Landscapes Around The World

by Jessica Festa on

There are many beautiful landscapes to be seen all over the world. Sparkling oceans, lush flora, tall mountains, barren tundra and unique rock formations cover the Earth, giving contrast to its many destinations. One of the most interesting types of scenery to take in, however, is the desert.

While many automatically think of sandy, infertile, colorless areas of land, there are actually many vibrant and unique desert landscapes to be visited. Vast expanses of salt plains in Bolivia, curvaceous sand dunes in Jordan, enormous rock pinnacles in Australia and unworldly vegetation in Yemen make up some of the planet’s must-see deserts. For a more visual experience, check out the gallery below.

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[images via Big Stock]

Ancient Road Found In Greece During Subway Construction

by Jessica Festa on

In the northern port city of Thessaloniki in Greece, workers of Metro’s construction company found ancient ruins during the building of a new subway. Archaeologists say the 230-foot section of uncovered road was built by Romans nearly 2,000 years ago.

The site was shown to the public on Monday, when it was announced the artifact would be raised and put on permanent display when the subway officially opens in 2016. People were able to see not just the street that was once a hub for travel, but also children’s board games and horse-drawn carriage marks etched into marble stones, tools, lamps and the base of marble columns.

And if that isn’t exciting enough, another road built by ancient Greeks 500 years prior to the first one was also discovered.

“We have found roads on top of each other, revealing the city’s history over the centuries,” explained Viki Tzanakouli, an archaeologist working on the project. “The ancient road, the side roads perpendicular to it appear to closely follow modern roads in the city today.”

[image via Tired time]