Zion National Park in Utah is one of those places that exceeds expectations and defies explanation. I might just be partial to it because I’m getting married there in June, but it truly is an awe-inspiring place. Red rocks line steep canyons and wild flowers dot the horizon. It’s difficult to imagine what early settlers of the West must have thought when they came across Zion. This video shows two days in the life of Zion in January of this year. The whole video is gorgeous, but the trip through the Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel is a highlight for sure.
Portlandia goes overboard with outdoor gear
Gearing up for a day outside should be relatively easy. Grab the necessities – proper clothing, comfortable shoes, safety equipment, etc – and hit the road. Sure, you’ll be excused if you include a few extras in your pack (especially if you bring along enough snacks for everyone), but it’s easy for things to snowball until you suddenly realize that you’ve completely filled your car with gear for a simple day trip. In typical Portlandia fashion, this sketch mocks those over-packers, hyper-planners and big talkers who just can’t seem to stop planning and start doing.
The next time you’re heading out for a day of adventure, try to keep your pack light. Just make sure you bring the snacks!
Video: cosmic time-lapse, ‘Temporal Distortion’
“Temporal Distortion” from Randy Halverson on Vimeo.
If you’re in the mood for taking a beautiful, cosmic, time-lapse break, consider this your opportunity. The gorgeous time-lapse images that make up this short film (which is part of a 23 minute expanded version) feature the Milky Way, Aurora, and plenty of other Earthly delights. An original score by renowned composer Bear McCreary accompanies this piece. McCreary has scored “Battlestar Galactica” and “The Walking Dead,” among others. We’ve featured other time-lapse work from Randy Halverson. If you like this video, be sure to check out his Milky Way time-lapse as well as his South Dakota winter time-lapse.
Video of the day: Hawaii longboarding, Big Island and Oahu
This Hawaii longboarding video, released by Original Skateboards, adds another piece of evidence to my ongoing case that skateboarding videos, as well as videos centered around outdoor activities, are one of the coolest ways to experience a travel destination through video. Although the destination itself isn’t often the focus of the shots in these videos, the destination is always there. And make no mistake, filmmakers producing videos like these take location largely into account and shoot accordingly. This video was filmed on Hawaii‘s Big Island and Oahu. From Mauna Kea to Kona, and from Waikiki to North Shore, this nearly 6 minute long video takes you through a journey that will show you gorgeous shots of Hawaii, even when they’re appearing in peripheral view. Enjoy.
Comedic team of ‘Portlandia’ set to create an off-beat Portland, Oregon, guidebook
Are you bored of the usual travel guidebooks aimed at everyday tourists? If you’re interested in Portland, Oregon, and would rather learn about funny, fictional places that could exist rather than the Oregon Zoo and the Portland Art Museum, you should put “PORTLANDIA: A Guide for Visitors” on your shopping list. Set to debut in November of 2012, the book is being created by the team who brought you the hit comedy series “Portlandia,” starring Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen, which takes you on an off-beat tour of Portland while poking fun at the city.
“It will be written like a Fodor’s or Lonely Planet guidebook, but full of fake, made-up, humorous stuff that could easily exist in a place like Portland, but doesn’t,” explains Ben Greenberg, the executive editor of Grand Central Publishing who will be producing the book. “Everything will be a bit off.”
To get an idea of the team’s humor and what to expect, check out the clip above from “Portlandia” on the Independent Film Channel (IFC).