Joshua Tree National Park

I went to Joshua Tree for a few nights in between Christmas and New Years last year and took all my pictures on Kodachrome slide film. When I got back to New York, I took the film into be developed and found out that the only place that still does it these days is in Kansas and it's owned by a guy named Dwayne. I finally received the pictures in the mail this morning and holy hell did I take some bad photos of a place that's impossible to take bad photos of.Joshua Tree is a real special area of this country that I could go on for hours about, but it's easy to get there, so I'm sure you'll be able to say it better than me.Above is our campsite off the Boy Scout Trail.

Wind Cave National Park

Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota:

American Indian stories dating back centuries speak of a "hole that breathes cool air" in the Black Hills. Cowboys came across a breathing hole in 1881 and the exploration of Wind Cave began. In 1903 Wind Cave became the first cave anywhere in the world to be designated a national park. Cave explorers are still finding new rooms and passages in Wind Cave, the fourth longest cave in the world. The cave is well known for its outstanding display of boxwork, an unusual cave formation composed of thin calcite fins resembling honeycombs.

Mount Washington

NYT story on the mighty Mt. Washington:

Our destination on this cloudy mid-December morning was the top of Mount Washington in the Presidential Range of New Hampshire. At 6,288 feet, Mount Washington is the highest peak in the Northeast. Thousands of hikers make the ascent in warmer months, most often starting, as we did, at the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Pinkham Notch Visitor Center on the east side of Mount Washington. In winter, the four-mile hike to the summit, which gains about 1,000 feet of elevation with each mile, attracts a hardier lot.But it’s not the height or the steepness of the mountain that impresses most people — it’s the weather. The mountain has a long and infamous reputation: Hurricane-force gusts are typically recorded several times a week in winter, with the winds topping 100 miles an hour at least weekly. In 1934, the Mount Washington Observatory measured the fastest wind speed recorded on the earth’s surface, a stunning 231 m.p.h.

Capetown To Cairo Caravan

2009 marks the 50th anniversary of the famous Capetown to Cairo Caravan. Led by Wally Byam, the man behind the Airstream,  the event was an overland, 221-day, 14,307-mile journey embarked upon by 106 Caravanners in 41 Airstream travel trailers. Byam led many of these caravans around different parts of the world, but the Capetown to Cairo trip has become the most legendary.Short video of the event Wally Byam Caravan Club International