hiking – Simply Intentional

* Jedd Thoughts, * Life Updates, Other Travels

Swiss Panoramas

October 11, 2014October 11, 2014 simplyintentional

How to describe Switzerland?

What makes it special? The chocolate? The cheese? Both great but it’s Switzerland’s natural beauty.

Switzerland is breathtakingly stunning. Unbelievably beautiful (and we only saw part of it).

I made the comment this past week to Michelle and her parents that the whole country should be preserved and considered as a world treasure. No joke. That beautiful. We only visited a couple of major towns and cities and those were ok. The true magic of Switzerland are the pristine rolling green hills, the massive mountains, and the glacier fed lakes. If you hate natural beauty and don’t like the outdoors then this may not be the country you want to visit when traveling to Europe.

But for everyone else, take a train ride through the mountains. Walk through the countless, endless vineyards. Hang out by one of the lakes. Stare at the many snow-capped peaks. Feel like you could almost touch the stars.

You will understand.

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(click on any of the pics below for a larger view)

Haute-Nendaz-Switzerland-Condo — Nendaz, Switzerland. The view from the balcony or where we were staying.

Basse-Nendaz-Switzerland — We were high up, but only half-way up the mountain. You can see the valley below in the background.

Nendaz-Hike-Switzerland — We took a lift up to a popular hiking area. Tons of trails in the summer for bikers and hikers.

House-Mountain-Switzerland — A typical Swiss chalet on the side of a mountain looking at the valley below.

Martigny-Switzerland-hiking-vineyards — The vineyard hike in Martigny. A beautiful 4-mile hike through what seemed like endless vineyards.

Zipline-Martigny-Switzerland — I wish that was me, zip lining across the Martigny valley. It went over the valley/city.

Sion-Chateau-Vallere-Switzerland — The city of Sion, from a 10 century Church on the top of a hill overlooking the valley.

Bern-Bridge-Switzerland — The interesting city of Bern. The river is far below from the city.

Spiez-Thon-Lake-Switzerland — Spiez, overlooking Thon lake. This whole area is crazy beautiful. Wish we had spent more time here on the lakes and in the surrounding mountains.

matterhorn-zermatt-switzerland-flowers — The world famous Matterhorn mountain from the town of Zermatt.

* Michelle Thoughts, Other Travels, Videos

Yosemite!

June 26, 2011November 16, 2013 mcmeeshi

Many say Yosemite is one of the most beautiful places in the country, so we decided to spend five nights there. After an arduous hike, the view from the top of Yosemite Falls was well worth the climb. Another hike took us to an unforgettable waterfall at Hetch Hetchy Resevoir in a section of the park that has fewer visitors and allowed us to escape the weekend crowds. One of Jedd’s college friends, Tyler, was able to fly out to meet us to experience this leg of the epic road trip together. We’re appreciative that he made the effort to join us! As in many of the other parks, we also took advantage of the Ranger programs, which always provides deeper insight to our experience (and usually good laughs from the cute things enthusiastic children contribute to the talks).

* Michelle Thoughts, Other Travels, Videos

Sequoia and King’s Canyon

June 25, 2011November 16, 2013 mcmeeshi

We had a great three nights camping in King’s Canyon where we could explore the canyon, rivers, lakes, huge trees, neighboring Sequoia National Park, and- of course- encounter more wildlife! The highlight of this part of the road trip was definitely the bear on our hiking trail.

* Michelle Thoughts, Other Travels, Videos

Bryce and Zion

June 11, 2011November 16, 2013 mcmeeshi

(Added late:) Bryce and Zion were certainly two of the most spectacular parks we’ve seen- so unique and intriguing. We loved our hikes on the Navajo/Queen’s Trail (Bryce) and Angel’s Landing (Zion).

Our next stop was the Grand Canyon, followed by Las Vegas of all places, and then Sequoia and King’s Canyon National Parks. Although Las Vegas was nowhere to be found on our list of places to see, we stayed there a weekend because it was on the way and my parents and brother were able to come meet us there to see some fantastic Cirque du Soleil shows. Though definitely not a National Park, Vegas is a spectacle all it’s own and will likely warrant another video post. (By the way, I probably won’t be able to finish any more videos until we’re in “civilization” again- another week or more. Stay tuned!)

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