GoMad Nomad Travel

To many people, Macau means one thing: casinos. This little special administrative region of China that was both the first and last European colony in Asia, makes more money from gambling than Las Vegas. It’s a hot destination for rich mainland Chinese.

To me it was about visiting an anomaly: a territory with a curious history, a city of attractive architectural leftovers, and tasting a cuisine that fuses the best of Portuguese and Southern Chinese.

I got what I came for. Beautiful mosaic-like, pedestrian-only zones leading to churches named Lorenzo, Agostinho, and Domingos. I dined on Portuguese chicken—a Macanese specialty hot pot dish loaded with chicken, potatoes, onions, sausage, and boiled eggs in a mild coconut-based, curry-like sauce. I sat in nighttime squares lit with yellow streetlamps. I sipped good coffee and nibbled Portuguese pastries.

I also examined the other side of Macau tourism. A quick walk through the floor of Wynn Casino gave me the impression of a very serious gambling scene. No drinking—just straight up sobriety, with a little nicotine to fuel the adrenaline. Majority Chinese at baccarat, roulette, poker, and blackjack tables.

There is also today’s Macau, the city that’s 95% Cantonese/Chinese with noisy traffic, bustling markets, and great Cantonese food. A look through Red Market introduced me to dozens of fish and shellfish I couldn’t name in addition to almost every part of pig. Lin Fung Temple, far from the tourist zone in north Macau, was a great place to witness locals lighting insense and making offerings of fruit and hell money. Nearby, Lou Lim Leoc Garden is an exquisite urban sanctuary with ponds, pavilions, miniature trees, and arching bridges. There I saw a woman practicing what looked like Tai Chi with a sword.

St Domingos Church

Detail of Lin Fung Temple

Lighting Insense at Lin Fun Temple

Shellfish at Red Market

Shellfish for sale at Red Market in Macau

Pig’s Blood

A Butcher at Red Market in Macau

A Street Market in Macau

Roasting Pigeons in Macau

A bridge in Lou Lim Leoc Gardens in Macau

Quebec City has long been a destination I‘ve wanted to visit. Old Quebec, or Vieux-Québec, has a well-known reputation of rich history being the only city north of Mexico that has retained its fortified city walls.

I would further say that along with Guanajuato, Mexico, Quebec City is the most European of cities in the New World. This was, after all, the capital of New France, founded over 400 years ago.

Although initially settled in 1535 after Jacques Cartier landed, France didn’t establish a permanent city here until 1608, under the auspices of explorer Samuel de Champlain. They called it Kebec, from the Algonquian word meaning ‘the river narrows here’.

We started our tour of Quebec in Place Royale, the Old Lower Town’s main square. There is a huge mural depicting all the major players of Quebec’s history. We also heard a fiddler playing some traditional Quebec music.

After walking thoroughly through the Lower Old Town and Upper Old town, we climbed on top of the ramparts and exited through Porte St. Louis where the handsome Hotel du Parlament, Quebec’s Parliament Building, stands. Grande Alle Est led us to Battlefields Park, a gorgeous green that was once the site of a bloody battle between the English and French.

Close by is the Fine Arts Museum, which is partially located in an old restored prison. Following a look at the outstanding collection of Quebecois and Inuit art we headed over to the bohemian district of Rue St-Jean to try one of the many Quebec micro brews on offer at Bar Le Sacrilege.

We were lucky enough to visit during the Expo Quebec and have excellent couchsurfing hosts that helped us with recommendations and guiding us around the city, as well as teaching us about Quebecois culture and history.

The mural at Place Royale

NotreDame des Victoires

Old Lower Town and funicular

Rue du Petit Champlain

Art Decco Palais Montcalm

Art for sale in Quebec City

Le Chateau Frontenac

Basilica Notre Dame de Quebec

View from the city walls

On the Walls of Quebec City

View of the Hotel du Parlement

Hotel du Parlement

Hotel du Parlement front door

Martello Tower 2

Martello Tower 1 in Battlefield Park

Battlefields Park

Battlefields Park and Martello Tower

A maple tree

Musee National des Beaux Arts du Quebec

A sculpture behind the Musee National des Beaux Arts du Quebec

View of Quebec City from Ile d’ Orleans

Above Old Lower Town

Eating Poutine

See the whole photo set of Quebec City on Flickr.

In March, 2010 I went to Rio de Janeiro for a UN conference. Not without reason this city is so often selected for world meetings. I spent about one week there, staying with a couchsurfer at Jardim Botânico District. The district got its name as it grew around the city’s world-famous Botanical Garden, which is very beautiful as I could see from the bus window. I did not have much time to behave as a real tourist in this city, however I found one day to walk from Jardim Botânico to Copacabana district, which is famous mostly because of its 4 km golden beach. The walk led me around Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas, known simply as “Lagoa”, and between two of the numerous hills in Rio: Candagalo and Cabritos.

Lagoa is surrounded by high-rise residential buildings and is the area of the upper-middle class. It is very nice walk, where you can see local people jogging, biking, canoeing and just relaxing, sitting on the benches around Lagoa. Cocoa juice vendors are always around to help you if you are thirsty under the hot sun.  However, when you go closer to the Candagalo or Cabritos hills you can notice that on the slope there are some random slum constructions – favelas; nevertheless, in this area of Rio they are not so spread out as in the northern parts of the city.

On the beach, there are always lots of people enjoying the sunny weather and ocean. The water here is so warm but at the same time is wavy; I could not swim far away from the beach as I usually do. There are many sand sculptures. You can pay in order to take a picture of them; however, I did it for free from the distance.

Without doubt, Rio is one of my favorite cities, even if I did not have much time to explore it. I hope to come back soon.

Text and Photos by Nell Rakhimova

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The Cinque Terre or The Five Lands are five villages in the Liguria region of Italy: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. I recently visited two of them, Manarola and Riomaggiore, during a short vacation in Tuscany and Liguria.

These towns are incredible; they have a special atmosphere of small medieval seaside settlements that have kept their historical face because of the surrounding mountain landscape. Over the centuries, people have carefully built terraces on the rugged, steep landscape right up to the cliffs that overlook the sea. Paths, trains and boats connect the villages, but cars cannot reach them from the outside. The Cinque Terre is also famous for the vineyards that surround each town which is a source of pride for local people.

Manarola is the oldest and the second smallest town of the Cinque Terre. Here you can easily access the ocean and “have a bath” during the hotter months. In Riomaggiore, there is boat rental service that gives visitors an opportunity to enjoy the sea.

The Via dell’Amore (Path of Love) is a path connecting Riomaggiore to Manarola. The paved walking path was laid over the rocky cliffs along the sea and is a little more than one kilometer. One part of the path has fences where lovers can place a lock as a symbol of their strong feelings. Another small part passes through a tunnel, where the walls are devoted to declarations of love which anyone can write on.

Text and Photos by Nell Rakhimova

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In all my travels, Turkmenistan has been, by far, the oddest place I’ve visited. Culturally, the Turkmens are “cousins” of the Uzbeks, and I found many similarities in the everyday lives and customs with their Central Asian neighbors. The languages are also similar, both routed in Turkish. These are not the reasons I found Turkmenistan odd. Those reasons have to do with the cult of personality surrounding the then-alive Saparmurat Niyazov—also known as Turkmenbashi, or Leader of Turkmens.

He had large golden statues built for himself, renamed the days of the week and months of the year, and placed himself on the national currency. He wrote a book called the Ruhnama, meant for the “spiritual guidance of the nation”. Because he felt that only the Ruhnama and the Koran were necessary for most Turkmen to read, he closed all libraries in the country outside of Ashgabat. In addition to that, he closed all hospitals around the county because he felt all who were ill should come to the capital for treatment. The list of outrageous decrees and laws continues, like outlawing the opera, ballet, and the circus in 2001.

The absurdity of empty multi-lane roads, new still-empty marble-covered high rises, and endless water fountains in an arid land were my lasting impressions of Ashgabat. I would be curious to see how and if the city has changed since I last visited in 2004, especially since the passing of Turkmenbashi.

Click through to my Flickr gallery to see additional photos of Ashgabat.

Text and photos by Stephen Bugno

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The Ruhnama

Government buildings in Ashgabat

Two monuments in Ashgabat

The large golden statue of Turkmenbashi, which I believe has been removed.

The monument to Lenin in Ashgabat

The Drama Theater in Ashgabat

The following is a guest post by Juno Kim of RunawayJuno.com

This is New Zealand: one of the world’s most well-known scenic places and one of the most adored countries on earth. However, New Zealand is not all about astonishing landscapes or adrenaline-rushing bungee jumping. It’s about the intimate feel of the place that warms your heart, that’s what makes New Zealand so wonderful. You’ve seen enough great scenery photos of New Zealand, so I’ll give you “Pure New Zealand” from five points of view.  These are the everyday scenes you’ll witness while traveling around the country.

Over the windshield, this is your view:

I admit; New Zealand is not one the most convenient places to drive around. You won’t find straightforward highways with lots of rest stops. Driving will take more time than you expected. Why? Because they’ve built their roads around the natural features: mountains, rivers, and lakes. Nature before convenience, just like their reputation. And you may have to stop the car for sheep crossing on many occasions. Also, you might want to slow down because the scenery will be beautiful. When you are planning a schedule for driving around New Zealand, keep this in mind.

This photo is from the northern neck of the North Island, near Auckland, taken while driving.

Natural Planetarium: Free admission, every night.

Afternoon’s clear blue sky turns into a dark blue natural planetarium. Then you’ll see the symbol of the Southern Hemisphere: the Southern Cross. Due to extremely low light pollution, New Zealand is a very well-known place for stargazers. Every night was a stargazing festival for me, an astronomy buff. But no astronomy degree is required to appreciate this amazing night sky. As I’ve heard, New Zealand’s brother country, Australia, is another outstanding place for enjoying the extreme darkness of the southern night sky. I’ll have to find out for myself by grabbing one of the numerous Australia flights from New Zealand, the next time I’m there.

For naked-eye stargazing, Lake Tekapo is especially well-known for its low light pollution. Also visit Carter Observatory at Wellington, Stardom Observatory at Auckland and Mt. John Observatory at Lake Tekapo for an organized astronomy tour.

“Oh, the mountains are my back yard.”

This is what you can say if you’re living in New Zealand. The landscape still pockets the town, not vise versa. Everything outdoors is easily accessible. Although New Zealand is well-known for extreme outdoor activities like skydiving, glacier hiking and bungee jumping, even small towns offer opportunities to explore the surroundings at your own pace.

This photo was taken on the top of Baldwin Street, the steepest street in the world. A lot of towns around New Zealand offer adventures both big and small. Even in a big city like Auckland, there is plenty of bush with hiking trails you can explore.

This is a beach

Notice anything missing? Beach umbrellas, souvenir stands, fish n’ chip shops…  development? The beauty of New Zealand beaches is that there’s still more beach than beachcombers. Depending on where you are, each beach presents its own personality: black sands, isolated coves, rocky shores, some roughness due to the proximity to Antarctica, and others boasting warm waters with fruit baring trees.

This particular photo is from Koekohe Beach which is famous for the Moeraki Boulders. As an island country, it’s easy to visit beaches in New Zealand, especially, Dunedin, Invercargill, and Picton on the South Island, and Auckland, Napier, Wellington, and New Plymouth on the North Island—all great places to enjoy the beach.

This is what you feel in NZ

Easy going. Everything here is just that.

The library at Alexandria, Egypt

When I visited Egypt four years ago, I expected frustration and annoyance. I supposed I’d be hustled by street urchins and harassed by touts. I thought it’d be a junior India of sorts. I was wrong.

Granted, you’ll get annoyed if you follow every seemingly friendly Mohammed to his cousins souvenir shop. But if you travel smart and keep a positive and light-hearted attitude, you’ll love Egypt. Just like I did.

It wasn’t Pharonic Egypt that I fell in love with (but maybe it would have been if I made it to the Valley of the Kings or Abu Simbel) but modern Arab Egypt. I’m ashamed to admit that I didn’t even make it to the Egyptian museum. So what exactly was I doing in Egypt for almost a month?

I spent time relaxing on the shore of the salty Red Sea in the Sinai, crossed the broad expanse of the Nile delta, peered across the Suez Canal, ambled along the Corniche in Alexandria, journeyed out to the Siwa Oasis, and waited out Ramadan in Cairo.

I tried to assemble some of my favorite photos from my time in Egypt, part of a longer 6-month overland Middle East trip, from Istanbul to Cairo. Unfortunately, I didn’t capture the nighttime bustle of Cairo’s Islamic quarter, or the near vacant streets that daylight hours of the Muslim holy month witnessed. Photos couldn’t recreate the innate hospitality I experienced one evening while walking through a Cairo neighborhood as fast was broken.

Hopefully I have given you a sense of the raw beauty of the Sinai, the peculiarity of the Siwa Oasis, a glimpse of the famed Suez canal, a peek at one of the ancient wonders of the world, and the vast emptiness that is the Sahara Desert.

Text and Photos by Stephen Bugno

This post brought to you in association with Holiday Inn Cairo. If you’ll be heading to Cairo on business anytime soon, consider holding your meeting at the Holiday Inn Cairo, one of the premier accommodations in the city, with consistently high levels of service and quality.

Soft Beach at Tarabin, Sinai

The beach in Tarabin, Sinai

Soft Beach, Sinai

Sunrise from Mt Sinai

The Burning Bush, St. Catherine’s Monastery, Sinai

The Pyramids at Giza

The Great Sphinx of Giza

Stephen at the Pyramids

Resting with camel, near the pyramids of Giza

The tourist police at the pyramids

Cairo

Alexandria’s Corniche

The Suez Canal at Port Said

Tire tracks in the desert near the Siwa Oasis

Sands dunes near the Siwa Oasis

Mud brick buildings in the Siwa Oasis

Sailboat in the Nile Delta

Click through to see more photos from Egypt.

A few years ago I spent a couple months in Israel and the West Bank. For one of those months I volunteered in the city of Nablus for a month, teaching English and participating in other community projects. Living in the region was an invaluable way to understand the current events in the region and also gain an appreciation to the incredibly long and complex history of the Holy Lands.

The photos I have collected here are from Nablus, a Palestinian city of commerce and culture located about 40 miles north of Jerusalem. It’s predominantly Muslim, but has a minority of Christians and Samaritans living nearby. Nablus has a two thousand year history and a fascinating old town. In recent times, Nablus has seen clashes between Israeli Defense Forces and Palestinian militant groups, but remains safe for travelers.

Read more about opportunities to volunteer in the West Bank: Volunteering in the West Bank

Check out more of my photos from the West Bank on Flickr.

Text and photos by Stephen Bugno

Stephen Bugno has been working, volunteering, and and traveling abroad for the past 10 years. Now he’s blogging about it. Read more at http://bohemiantraveler.com

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The streets of the old city in Nablus.

Martyr posters in the old city i n Nablus.

More martyr posters.

An olive oil plant that has been bombed out and closed down.

Children with toy guns in Nablus.

Palestinian youth in Nablus.

A child walking past a medical clinic in the old city of Nablus.

Spices for sale at the market.

Roasting and preparing nuts to be sold.

The Greek Orthodox St Photina Church at Bir Ya qub, or Jacobs Well.

Inside  St Photina Church at Jacobs Well.

Outside St. Photina’s Church.

Jesus drinks at Jacob’s Well.

Nablus at night.

This week’s Photo of the Week come to us from Berit Renser who blogs at avantourists.com

It was in October of 2010 when Merapi of Central Java, Indonesia, erupted again, this time bigger than it had in over 100 years. Now the danger zone has been removed and the villages are welcoming for a visit. Small boys open the bamboo gates and let us go up five km from the crater in exchange for a coin in their donation box.

The view that opens from the slopes of the mountain can most precisely be described as moonscape. The lines of the destruction are so well cut, that if on one side of the road villagers are handling their everyday lives, the other side still rests under a thick layer of mud and ashes. In some places one can hardly imagine where the houses used to stand, in other places one can blow away the ashes from a doorknob and enter a house which is frozen in time.

Some villages, where tourists are more often seen and the donation box is getting heavier, people have started to put their lives together again. Between the burnt ground and trees, between the gray houses, one can find colorful clothes drying in sun, an old lady washing her windows and her grandson cleaning carpets. There is no time for mourning.

Some other families are not doing so well. An old grandmother who we meet on the road has lost her house indefinitely. “All gone!“ she is shaking her head looking towards her ex-house, but still coming back to the village, because selling food to the tourists is her only income now. When the sun sets, the woman returns to her siblings in a safer place. And so do we.

Photos and Text by Berit Renser

Berit Renser is also writing for the  blog www.avantourists.com . She is an anthropologist/traveller/writer from Estonia who is currently living in Indonesia.

These photos were taken in December 2010, and by now the situation has probably changed slightly, the most famous village turning more into a tourist spot where one can see all the broken houses and the way of the lava. The other villages probably continuing their normal lives in the houses which were not completely destroyed my mud and ashes. Many have moved, but there are still many who refuse to move.

This week’s Photo of the week comes from Juno Kim of RunawayJuno.com

 “Do you have any window seat left?” is the typical question I ask at the ticket check-in counter. Like many other travelers, I prefer a window seat. Maybe because it’s slightly more private than an aisle seat, or I don’t have to move unless I desperately want to go to the toilet, but mostly I like it because of the view. The view outside of the tiny window frame could be less inspiring and looks similar after several flight experiences. I mean there are always houses, farming areas, mountains, rivers and the ocean.

However, the flight from Auckland to Christ Church, New Zealand was more than just looking outside and enjoying the fact that I’m flying. The Southern Alps—that’s what make this flight very special. As soon as we flew over the point where Wellington would be, snow-covered shiny Alps were showing their faces between the clouds. It was just stunning. The pilot and flight attendants pointed out and admired the view with us the whole time. It was July, in the middle of the winter in southern lands, and already it snowed a lot before I had arrived.

The Southern Alps are one of many things that cannot be missed in the South Island of New Zealand. But don’t worry; it’s not easy to miss because the Southern Alps can be seen from many places in the South Island.

Text and Photos by Juno Kim

Juno recently became an ex-mechanical engineer, a perpetual backpacker and of course, a full-time travel blogger. She is currently traveling and writing her own way in the United States. Follow her at twitter @RunawayJuno  and Facebook Fan page. 

When I posted my Vientiane images to my Flickr album, my father commented to me by email that “Vientiane was often in the news in my college days, but there were never pictures.” Well, Dad, here are some pictures. None are spectacular, but my point is to give you some visuals so you have a sense of what the city is like.

If I had to chose one word to distinguish Vientiane from other world capitals, I would say: quiet. There’s very little traffic and not much in general happens there. It lacks the hustle, bustle, and motorbike buzz of nearby capitals Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City. And besides the Arch de Triomphe-like Patouxai, the architecture is not all that captivating. This is mostly due to the fact that the city has been razed several times by the Burmese, Chinese, and most completely by the Siamese in 1828, when the whole of the city was flattened.

When the French had arrived in 1867, what once was Vientiane was nearly reclaimed by jungle. Today, the few crumbling colonial building that remain were constructed by the French from 1899 to 1945 when they rebuilt the city and laid out a system of roads.

Text and photos by Stephen Bugno

Stephen has just returned from three months in southeast Asia. Check out his blog: Bohemian Traveler.

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That Luang, Laos’ most important religious site

Lane Xang Avenue, Vientiane’s Champs Elysees

At Vientiane’s night market

Monk’s laundry

Grilled frogs at the Vientiane night market

“Humans sleep through the best part of the day,” the world famous nature photographer, Hannu Hautala, told me last week in an interview. “The best light is between sunset and sunrise.” And he’s not wrong. At 1am last week this was the view from my bedroom window. Needless to say, I couldn’t sleep with a view like that outside. So I threw a coat on over my pajamas, slipped my feet into my rubber boots and trotted down the garden, camera in hand.

It’s not just the light that makes these bright summer nights in Lapland so special, it’s the whole atmosphere. The air is still and there is no sign of human life at all; not a noise, electric light or car. It’s just trees as far as the eye can see, the still water of the lake reflecting the golds and reds of the sky, and the occasional bird call or swish of a horses tail to break the silence.

It is these early morning scenes that capture the true essence of Lapland: peace, beauty and stillness.

Photo and text by Heather Sunderland

For more pictures and tales from Lapland visit www.rukakuusamo.com or follow @ruka_kuusamo on Twitter.

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After crossing the border from Thailand we immediately boarded the slow boat bound for Luang Prabang. Riding a slow boat in Laos is one of those things you don’t want to miss while traveling in this land-locked country with over 4,600 miles of navigable waterways.

Because slow boats are the traditional form of transportation in Laos, I was initially disappointed by how touristy our boat was. Of the hundred or so passengers, only two were Laotians! But I slowly forgot while falling into a trance as lush forests, tiny villages, and ancient mountains drifted past.

Photo and text by Stephen Bugno

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No visit to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is complete without visiting the Skybridge of the Petronas Towers. When the towers were completed in 1998, they were the tallest buildings in the world at 451 meters, holding that title until 2004 saw the completion of Taipei 101 reach a height of 509 meters. Malaysia was understandably proud at this engineering triumph and the twin towers remain a symbolic achievement of Malaysia entering the  modern global economy.

If you arrive at the towers early in the morning you can get one of the few allotted tickets for each day to ride the elevator to the Skybridge on the 41^st floor. The two-story bridge is 170 meters off the ground and spans the 58 meters between the towers. The bridge is not attached to the structures, but is instead designed to slide in and out of the towers to prevent it from breaking during high winds.

Under the towers is the Suria KLCC Mall which features mostly high-end retailers. It also includes an art gallery, a philharmonic theater, an underwater aquarium and a science center. Encompassing 17 acres below the buildings is KLCC park with walking paths, fountains, wading pools, and a gigantic children’s playground.

The Petronas Towers remain the world’s tallest twin buildings.

Text and photos by Stephen Bugno

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My first afternoon in Bangkok I wandered around the back streets of Chinatown. Here Bangkok looks much as it did 100 years ago. Markets abound in the side streets and alleyways in between and around the two main parallel boulevards of Yaowarat and Charoen Krung. In Chinatown you’ll find everything from herbalists and gold dealers to restaurants serving specialties such as bird’s nest and shark fin soup.

Meet some of vendors of Chinatown in my photos below.  See the complete set of Bankok Chinatown photos in my Flickr album.

Text and images by Stephen Bugno

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Here is some street art from the Columbia Heights and Adams Morgan neighborhoods of Washington, DC.

The District of Columbia is one of the most underrated cities in the United States. Besides several great museums, most of which are free (the ones of the Smithsonian, anyway), there are the various neighborhoods, each with its own essence.

Head to Mount Pleasant for lots of Latin flavor, the U Street corridor for great music and African-American history, and Georgetown for historic buildings. Scattered around the city are some of the best Ethiopian restaurants this side of Addis Ababa.

Text and images by Stephen Bugno

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These photos were taken at the khachkar field in Noratus, Armenia. It is the largest such concentration of these carved memorial stones, known as khachkars, anywhere in the country. A few years back I was lucky enough to visit an Armenian-Russian friend of mine’s extended family living in Armenia.

The Armenians are some of the friendliest, most hospitable folks I’ve met in my travels. They are a proud people with an ancient culture. So few tourists make it to Armenia, that almost everyone I came in contact with was curious about where I came from and what I was doing there.

The Noratus khachkar field lies close to the shores of Lake Sevan and truly is one of Armenia’s most remarkable sites. The huge cemetery is filled with nearly 900 of these beautifully caved stones, spanning a period from the 10^th to the 17^th century. No two khachkars are identical.

See more photos from Armenia.

Text and photos by Stephen Bugno.

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Khachkars are carved memorial stones.

The Field of Khachkars in Armenia

Looking west off Highway 285 in south-central Colorado

Big skies, wide open spaces, imposing mountains; this is Colorado. These photos were taken in or around Great Sand Dunes National Park—the most underrated National Park in the United States.

I’ll never forget the image of the glowing orange sun in my rear view mirror as I drove down from Poncha Pass into the valley with the commanding Sangre de Cristo Mountains rising to the east.

See more images from my road trip through Colorado on Flikr.

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Great Sand Dunes with the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in the backgroud.

A gas pump just outside of Great Sand Dunes National Park.