🌟🍪 Calling All Cookie Heroes for a Nationwide Challenge! 🍪🌟We're on a quest with a heartwarming goal: to spread the joy of #GirlScoutCookies across the entire United States! 🇺🇸💖 Help Jessie make her #50StateChallenge a sweet success!
digitalcookie.girlscouts.org/scout/jessic...
Maroon Bells, outside Aspen, Colorado. Granite mountains with small lake and wildflower meadow.
Lovely grove of Aspen trees, Difficult Campground, near Aspen, Colorado.
View from near the top of Long's Peak, near Estes Park, Colorado, Rocky Mountain National Park. Large snow-capped mountain range not too far away, with large boulders in the foreground.
Near the top of Trail Ridge Road, near Estes Park, Colorado. Beautiful snow-capped mountains in the background, a fertile valley in the center, and a rock wall alongside a highway, which continues in the distance. A bicycle loaded with camping equipment leans against the wall. My bike, and I continued on down that road.
Colorado, 1983. Maroon Bells, Aspen Trees, view from Long's Peak, top of Trail Ridge Road, near Estes Park. #50statechallenge #week5colorado
In the foreground is a mountain lake. Beyond it, we see evergreen trees, beyond them are snow-covered mountains, and above, a beautiful blue sky with some thin clouds.
📷 Another panorama for #50statechallenge #Week6Colorado from Rocky Mountain National Park. I've posted several, but I don't think this one has made an appearance yet. #scape #photography
A pretty bird with white body and neck, green head and green and black (with some shades of blue) wings and back is on a tree where bark is missing.
🪶 Violet-green swallow seen near Denver, so I'm counting it for #50statechallenge #Week6Colorado
#birds
Wooden sign in a nature setting, large mountains in the background. Sign reads 'Natural Screened Privy, Holler Hello'. About half way up the trail to the top of Long's Peak (14,259') there is (or was, in 1983) indeed a privy situated on the edge of a cliff with a spectacular view. Open air, literally screened on 3 sides by thick brush.
Two people, walking across a snowy trail. This was my first (and last) time hiking up a big mountain. I was in Colorado traveling by bicycle, met these two people in the campground. The man had hiked the mountain before and offered to lead, the woman was with her parents and her father offered to drive us to and from the trailhead. We made a very early start for what was a 10-12 hour hike.
A small stream and waterfall in a mountain meadow, with the snow-capped Rockies in the background. Long's Peak is a steady, but easy walk until you near the top. From there, over the crest, is a tad more difficult (or so I was told). I was advised not to try it because I only had sneakers, no boots, so I wandered around while they went over.
The top of Long's Peak. The trail over this left from somewhere to the right and came down somewhere to the left. I can't place it in this photo more exactly. It was a fabulous hike, but clouds were rolling in and we wanted to get off the mountain before the afternoon thunderstorm arrived so we hustled back down and reached the parking lot and a dry car just as the bottom fell out. Lovely day.
Long's Peak, Rocky Mountain National Park. Colorado
#50StateChallenge #Week6Colorado
Commodore Tompkins and his crew, headed to the finish line, beating out his boss, Lowell North (North Sails) to win this Soling race. Probably 1972, as that was a huge Olympic year for the Bay. Three of the six class Olympic trials were held out there, and we had boats from all over the country coming to our little local Olympic class races. Conditions on the Bay were similar to conditions on the Olympic course that year. This photo appeared on the cover of SEA magazine that year, and used in trade shows blown way up.
This is a Dragon class boat, there for the Dragon Olympic trials. Boat was from New Orleans, bright red in color.
These are Star boats, also still an Olympic class at that time. Always fun to watch.
Solings just starting a race. Lowell North (North Sails) on the right. The Soling was new to the Olympics that year and really the hot boat of the moment. It looks like they will run me down, but I wasn't in their way -- telephoto in use on a race committee boat.
San Francisco Bay is generally filled with white sails on the weekend. Racing is deep in the heart of sailboat owners, any size. These are, or used to be, all Olympic Class boats. These are from 1972.
#50StateChallenge #Week5California
One of the hidden jewels of the Napa Valley is Jade Lake, hidden behind Chateau Montelena Winery in Calistoga. Pagodas are authentic, and back in the day we could walk out on those bridges. Last time I was there, which was this time, they were closed. But the path around the lake was open.
Winegrapes just beginning to turn ripen, turning red against green vines and a bright blue sky. I remember taking this at a riverside shopping district -- purely for decoration, not a working vineyard.
Looking Northwest from a friend's house high in the eastern hills of the Napa Valley. I stayed there for a couple of weeks in June 2016, while they were out of town. Unfortunately, the house was destroyed in the 2017 Atlas fire.
A bright orange sunset with silhouetted trees above and layered mountain ridges. This was also from my friends' house in 2016.
More, but different, Napa Valley photos. These are all from recent years (since 2012, as opposed to when I lived there 1979-1986).
#50StateChallenge #Week5California
Thick tree trunks, redwoods and ferns. This is from Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, which was one of my favorites. It's hard to catch the true size and magnificence of these trees in a photo.
Morning sun beaming through the redwoods and ferns. Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. These trees are really quite young. So many were logged and are regrowing.
Two wonderful giants, with their shaggy bark. This was somewhere on the Hiouchi Trail that skirts Jedediah Smith State Redwoods Park and the Smith River. It's probably in or near the Stout Grove, which is at one end of the trail.
It's hard to get a real sense of size here. This is not a small opening -- the Hiouchi Trail runs right through it. Several people could have fit inside, standing up.
There's nothing like the majestic redwoods of northern California. I've walked many miles of trails there, always happy amidst the giants and frequently, the fog.
#50StateChallenge #Week5California
Well, I sure as shit didn’t see this one coming, but I’m heading to Anchorage in a few weeks.
That will make 50 out of 50.
I didn’t realize my #50StateChallenge would be ending so soon, but I wanted to finish it before I turn 40 and it looks like I’m gonna do just that! #Wanderlust
This photo was taken in the Japanese Gardens at Bellingrath Gardens in Theodore, Alabama (outside of Mobile) in 2019. A red bridge and its reflection in the water forming a perfect circle and surrounded by lush greenery.
I have an idea for a #50StateChallenge in 2025. Each week, post photos (or just memories) for each state. The 51st week would be D.C. & 52 would be a wild card. What say you? Any interest? It would be a chance to share both the beautiful and the quirky in this country. Week 1 would be Alabama. 📷
