The Arizona desert seduces. When I was a kid, my grandparents collected a magazine called Arizona Highways, which featured honest-to-God, awe-inspiring vistas of the Grand Canyon State. (As you can see from the link, the periodical still exists.) I wouldn’t get to Arizona until I was 25, barreling down 93 from Las Vegas and crossing into New Mexico quickly. Those highways didn’t look like the highways of Arizona Highways. It would take a few additional visits before I got to see the intense beauty that filled the pages of my grandparents’ back copies.
Flickr user Styggiti captured this curious geological object on a hiking trail in Camp Creek Falls, Arizona.
Oh the San Francisco Supermoon. It is so big in this image that it almost looks Photoshopped into this otherwise delicate depiction of the City by the Bay. Flickr user jrodmanjr documents San Francisco‘s recent encounter with the rare supermoon – the coincidence of the moon’s closest approach to the earth with a full moon.
How bright or big is the moon where you are? Take a photo of it tonight and upload it to the Gadling Group Pool on Flickr. We choose our favorites among the pool to be Photos of the Day.
As of today, the World Trade Center is back as the tallest building in New York City. Construction crews erected steel columns that reach over 1,250 feet high, just edging out the observation deck at the Empire State Building. The skyscraper isn’t expected to reach its full height for at least another year. When finished, the giant monolith will be capped with a 408-foot-tall needle that soars straight into the clouds. If you count the crown, the building will be the tallest in the United States and the third tallest in the world-however, many architects and experts argue against counting spires, antennas and masts that extend far above actual roofs of buildings. These purists will still hold the 108-story Willis Tower in Chicago as the tallest in the United States.
The time lapse video above by EarthCam gives us an idea of the construction so far (click here for a gallery of earlier pictures). When the tower is finished near the end of 2012, it will stand at a symbolic 1,776 feet tall in order to match the year the United States declared its independence.
Recycling – with all of the environmental issues the world is facing as well as the upcoming Earth Day holiday – is a hot topic. However, while most people think of recycling in terms of paper, plastic and aluminum, there is another type of recycling that is becoming a growing trend across America: re-purposing travel destinations.
Imagine eating in a restaurant that was once a church, immersing you in an atmosphere of stained glass windows, an alter and Biblical murals. Or, what about sleeping in a hotel that not only housed foreign diplomats after Pearl Harbor and served as an Army Hospital for wounded soldiers, but also held a classified secret government bunker used by Congress? Instead of getting rid of history, these types of places are refurbishing them and allowing travelers to experience them in a new way.
To help celebrate Earth Day, we’ve put together a list of recycled travel sites from around the United States. For a visual idea of these unique places, check out the gallery below.
The United States Travel Association (U.S. Travel) has rolled out a new plan to spread the word on the importance of tourism in America: A big blue bus that is now making its way across the country on a 20,000-mile tour. The bus is a roving advertisement for U.S. Travel, an organization that is on a mission to highlight the economic benefits of travel. The association makes some pretty good points too, citing that travel contributes $1.9 trillion to the US economy and supports more than 14.4 million jobs here on our home turf. Looks like they’re also having some fun while playing off the current political campaign climate.
If you spot the bus, stop by to learn how to urge your elected representatives and candidates to sign a pledge that supports policies that “safely and effectively reduce barriers to travel to and within the United States,” according to a press release by the U.S. Travel. The bus also has some swag to give out, such as t-shirts and squishy, stress-relieving buses. Of course, you don’t have to search for the bus in order to help, just visit the Vote Travel website where you can fill out a simple form.
Images (top to bottom) The “Vote Travel” bus inside the Tuscahn Canyon in Ivin, Utah [Photo courtesy the United States Travel Association]; Promotional travel postcards ; [Photo courtesy the United States Travel Association]; and officials from the US Travel Association and employees at the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce to kick off the “Vote Travel” national wide bus tour on April 12, 2012 [Photo by Darrin Bush]