Exploring Zion National Park In Autumn




As summer nears its end and fall is just upon the horizon, travelers are beginning to think about where to go to check out vibrant autumn foliage. One recommendation I have is to visit Utah’s oldest national park, Zion.

The end of September is usually when the temperature begins to drop to a more bearable number in the 70s. Luckily, it’s also when the flowers turn a rainbow of colors and the already beautiful park is enhanced with bright hues of purple, red, green, orange, yellow, blue and pink. If you want the best views of changing shades, hike to the higher areas where the colors tend to change first. It’ll also reward you with a more encompassing view of the park. Think about starting in Springdale, skipping the highway, and taking the SR 9 to Virgin, then up to Kolob Terrace Road, viewing every layer of the mountains, canyons, forests and rivers until you reach over 7,500 feet.

For a visual idea of autumn in Zion, check out the gallery below.

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[Images via Shutterstock]

Photo Of The Day: Early Fall In Italy

This summer’s weather patterns continue to astound me, between heat waves, hailstorms and the mighty Derecho, which was said to be the storm to end all storms before it narrowly missed New York City last week.

Today’s Photo of the Day is proof of even more global weirding: leaves changing color in Italy … IN JULY. As Flickr user Aviv reports from Venice, “One day it’s too hot to be outside, the other day it’s windy and leaves are falling.” Yup, sounds like my summer too.

Have you captured any photos of summer abnormalities lately? Upload your travel shots to the Gadling Flickr Pool and your image could be selected as our Photo of the Day.

Photo of the Day (9.07.10)

Shorter days, changing leaves and crisp cold air — all the hallmarks of a changing season. This photo from Flickr user Bonnie Bowne epitomizes the shift from summer blues and greens to autumn golds.

Have any travel photos that make amazing memories? Upload them to our Flickr pool and we just might select one for our Photo of the Day feature

A year in the life of a Norwegian forest (time lapse video)

In 2005, Eirik Solheim shot a still picture of his back yard in Norway every day for an entire year. He aligned the pictures together and created a beautiful time lapse. Since his 2005 version, he’s managed to do a higher resolution movie in 2008 and finally, during all of last year, he put together time lapse that uses video clips.

Eirik chose the amazing Canon 5D Mark II for this experiment and I think it turned out even better than his still image versions, because he used the HD video function of the 5D Mark II.

Eirik explains the 2009 project:

This time I recorded 30 second video clips each time. My idea was that it would be possible to dissolve between the videos to get the same kind of time lapse effect, but this time with motion all the way. Snow falling, wind blowing etc.

2009 is over and I have now put all the clips I recorded through the year into a couple of videos. I recorded clips with a 15mm fisheye, a 24mm wide angle and a 50mm lens. I’ve made three different versions.

If Eirik shot thirty-second scenes once a week for a year, he likely ended up with 8GB of video per version, for a total of 24GB of footage. He then had to align and process each clip to correct for the fisheye distortion and edited it all together, with some smooth transitions between each scene. Some serious work.

The results really show off the sounds and the sights from the four seasons in Norway. His efforts took a lot of work and they’re well worth the recognition he’s getting. And as if this wasn’t enough, Eirik also provides a tutorial, complete with video on how to do your own time lapse movie on his award winning blog. Give him a digg if you enjoy it.

Fall Into St. Paul

I’m going to follow after Erik, who left us a list of links, just hours ago today on some of the best spots to experience fall. Having taken a look at the two lists I must say I’m surprised St. Paul. MN didn’t make the cut. I just spent three days in the city for the first-time ever and nearly fainted from such delightful fall beauty along the Mississippi River. I could very well be deprived from my living in Florida, So. California and Hawaii the last nine years of my life, but I thought the scene in St. Paul was something right out of a fairytale book. What I’m offering is my first-hand account of the seasonal grandeur and if you so happen take my advice before things take a turn towards the cold take a walking tour of the Summit-Selby neighborhood. Long known as a meeting place for people and ideas since the 1850’s, there are rows of Victorian-style mansions as well as small cozy homes mixed together. Famous names associated with the area include F. Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, August Wilson and Garrison Keillor. Really, it’s an area beyond enchanting.

If you’ve got the chance to make a run from a nearby area or somewhere just teeny ways further off, I’d throw Minnesota on your list of autumn destinations, NOW! St. Paul is just one of many fab Minnesota spots to watch the leaves breeze down from their branches to the ground. Check the Minnesota tourism bureau online for more recommendations statewide.