Archive | November, 2012

How Much Does Long-Term Travel Cost?

US Pasport and Money

Wannabe wanderers initially have just one question on their minds: How much does long-term travel cost? The classic response to this question may be informative, but is not completely helpful.

The web abounds with the personal budgets of folks who have taken off to explore the world. Through the magic of Google it is easy to find detailed financial histories for backpackers and RVers chronicling weeks, months and even years of their spending. These individual budgets are often posted as definitive answers to the headline question. What they miss, though, is the most important cost component of all: you!

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Photo of the Day: Idaho Falls

Idaho Falls, Waterfall, Landscape

Go Speed Racer

Bonneville Salt Flats Landscape Mountains Utah

This 30,000 acre salt pan in northwestern Utah is probably best known for an entirely unlikely reason. Given the slickness of its salty surface, it’s not the best place to achieve fast acceleration of wheeled vehicles. And yet if these Bonneville Salt Flats are known for one thing it is for land speed records. What gives?

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A Lunar Landscape at Craters of the Moon

Craters of the Moon National Monument Landscape Volcano Cones

618 square miles of magma. That is the size of the lava field at Craters of the Moon National Park in south-central Idaho. Large enough that it stretches as far as the eye can see in some spots, giving the impression of a barren, black world.

The entire field isn’t just one lava flow, but 60. At least 25 different volcanoes contributed to its construction some 15,000 to 2,000 years ago – a mere blink of an eye in geologic terms.

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Putting the “Fall” in Twin Falls, Idaho

BASE Jumper in Freefall Perrine Bridge Idaho Parachute Adventure

I walked across the expanse of the Perrine bridge in Twin Falls, Idaho, with the intention of photographing the beautiful gorge and the Snake River that serenely and quietly flowed some 500 feet beneath my shoes. What I never expected to see was someone jump from the bridge. Over the course of the next day, I watched a dozen or more people make that same leap.

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