State College, Pennsylvania is the home of Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) and it is a true college town.  The campus is beautiful and very big.  Many of the buildings are from the late 1800s and the first campus building is still standing.  If you go, make sure you peak your head in Old Main [...]

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Alluvial Fan is right off of the road to Old Fall River Road.  The hike to get up to Alluvial Fan is about a tenth of a mile so really short.  You might ask what an alluvial fan might be.  It is a debris trail that comes from a wall of water.  This alluvial fan [...]

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The best way to get to the Lava Cliffs is on Trail Ridge Road (actually that is the only way).  When we were trying to get out of the car, the wind was blowing so hard it was almost impossible to open the door on one side.  Lava Cliffs is one of those hop out [...]

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Turkey Creek Trail is right outside of Emma Long Park on City Park Road.  Turkey Creek a great hike for dogs.  Ours must have met 15-20 “friends” and it was not so pretty a day.  This is another one of those great hikes in the middle of Austin.  The round trip normal loop is a [...]

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Flattop Mountain was our first hike in Rocky Mountain National Park.  It starts at Bear Lake and goes up from there.  I must have misread something because I thought it was an “easy” hike.  It wasn’t.  It was 4.5 miles up the mountain.  There were no flat portions.  Luckily, we are in good shape otherwise [...]

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Trail Ridge Road is the main East-West thoroughfare in the park.  It goes across the pass and is the highest point you can get to via car (12,183 feet if you are wondering).  This road is far above the tree line and there are multiple stops for amazing views (Lava Cliffs, Rainbow Curve, Forest Canyon [...]

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Alberta Falls is a little less than 1 mile from the Glacier Gorge trailhead and is on the way to Mills Lake.  This falls is very accessible and the trail is very easy.  The thing that is cool about Alberta Falls is that you can walk up the rocks right next to the falls.  The [...]

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The trailhead for Mills Lake is Glacier Gorge.  The lake is about 2.7 miles from the Glacier Gorge trailhead.  It takes you past a couple of additional can’t miss sites (some of which you literally can’t miss because they are clearly visible).  The biggest two are Alberta Falls and Glacier Falls.
Mills Lake was amazing for [...]

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Bear Lake is right at the Bear Lake trailhead.  It has got to be the easiest lake to get to in all of Rocky Mountain National Park.  It is the start point of multiple other hikes including Flattop Mountain.  Bear Lake is really pretty and you can catch amazing mountain reflections off of the water [...]

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The Museo dell’Opera and Facciatone are part of the Cathedral of Sienna.  The museum has a lot of small rooms and it is not one of the best we went to; however, you have to go through the museum to get to the Facciatone.  Follow the signs to the Facciatone.  The Facciatone is a panorama [...]

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