Travel, Explore, and Capture--Activities
Explore Constantly follows while I travel, explore, and capture hiking, biking, skiing, sightseeing, photography activities and locations. Below are some posts from recent locations I've explored. You can also click here to see the map of all the locations.
United States Locations
Seattle Ferry Day Trip – Bainbridge Island – WA
The Seattle–Bainbridge Island ferry is a 35-minute passenger and vehicle crossing of Puget Sound, run by Washington State Ferries, the largest ferry system in the United States. Riding it round-trip out of Poulsbo or Bainbridge Island turns into an easy Seattle Day...
Beacon Rock – Columbia River Gorge – Washington
Beacon Rock is an 848-foot (258 m) basalt monolith on the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge, and there's a trail to the top of it. Not around it, not to a viewpoint below it — up the face, on a walkway of 52 switchbacks and 22 bridges bolted and cribbed onto...
Horsetail and Wahclella Falls – Columbia Gorge – OR
Horsetail Falls and Wahclella Falls – Columbia River Gorge – Oregon Wahclella Falls dropping in two tiers into its amphitheater on Tanner Creek, Columbia River Gorge, Oregon Horsetail Falls and Wahclella Falls are two Columbia River Gorge waterfalls about fifteen...
Banks-Vernonia State Trail – Portland – Oregon
The Banks-Vernonia State Trail is a 21-mile (34 km) paved rail trail between the towns of Banks and Vernonia, about 30 miles west of Portland, Oregon. It was Oregon's first rails-to-trails conversion, built on a logging railroad grade through the Coast Range...
Bonneville Dam Fish Ladder – Columbia Gorge – Oregon
Bonneville Lock and Dam sits on the Columbia River about forty miles east of Portland, and the Bradford Island Visitor Center on the Oregon side is free, open daily, and has underwater windows into a fish ladder. That last part is the reason to stop. You walk...
Mount Hood Scenic Byway and Timberline Lodge – Oregon
The Mount Hood Scenic Byway is a 105-mile (169 km) loop from Portland, Oregon that runs east through the Columbia River Gorge, turns south through the Hood River Valley, and climbs around Mount Hood — at 11,245 feet (3,428 m), Oregon's highest point. Six miles up a...
Bandon Beach and Face Rock – Bandon – Oregon
Bandon Beach is a wide sand beach on the southern Oregon coast, scattered with sea stacks — the eroded remnants of headlands that once stood further out. The best known is Face Rock, a basalt stack roughly 70 feet (21 m) tall that, from the right angle, looks like a...
Dean Creek Elk Viewing Area – Reedsport – Oregon
The Dean Creek Elk Viewing Area is a 1,040-acre (421 ha) stretch of pasture and wetland along Oregon Highway 38 east of Reedsport, managed to hold a year-round herd of 60 to 100 Roosevelt elk. You watch from pullouts along three miles of highway. There's no fee, no...
Golden and Silver Falls – Coos Bay – Oregon
Golden and Silver Falls State Natural Area holds two waterfalls over 250 feet (76 m) tall at the end of a gravel road in the Coast Range east of Coos Bay, Oregon. Silver Falls drops 259 feet (79 m) and Golden Falls 254 feet (77 m), which makes them the second and...
Cape Arago Scenic Loop – Coos Bay – Oregon
The Cape Arago Scenic Loop is a short coastal drive west of Coos Bay, Oregon, that strings together three state parks in about four miles (6.4 km) — Sunset Bay, Shore Acres, and Cape Arago — plus a sea lion haul-out, a lighthouse you can see but not visit, and some of...
International Locations
Amazing trip to the Scottish Isles – Scotland Bike and Schooner
We've done four bike and barge trips now, and they just keep getting better and better! If you aren't familiar, bike and barges are trips where you live on a boat for the duration of trip but then the boat takes you to several different locations for you to bicycle...
Scotland Bike and Barge Day 7 – Edinburgh
On the 7th day we departed early from the ship and traveled by bus to our hotel in South Queensferry, on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Queensferry is known for it's three bridges that all cross the Firth of Forth to North Queensferry. On the way into Queensferry, we...
Scotland Bike and Barge Day 6 – Tobermory to Glengorm Castle
Our last day on the bikes unfortunately started out as another wet one. Because of the weather forecast and steady morning rain, only about half of the riders made the revised ride to Glengorm Castle and back. The revised ride was only about 12 miles (19 km) round...
Scotland Bike and Barge Day 5 – Salen to Tobermory
Bike day 5 was our first rainy day of the trip. Because of the rain we waved off the side trip (10 miles round trip) to the brilliant white beach of Calgary Bay and continued directly back to Tobermory. The Flying Dutchman made the short trip in the morning to drop us...
Scotland Bike and Barge Day 4 – Mull Island: Duart Castle to Salen and to Tobermory
Our bike ride for the fourth day started with a drop off at the Inverlussa Mussel Farm in Loch Spelve on the Isle of Mull. The Mussel Farm was only one of the farming operations on the Loch with several other mussel and salmon farms apparent across the bay. This was...
Scotland Bike and Barge Day 3 – Isle of Jura to Isle of Mull
Our third biking day we cycled from the South end of Jura at Craighouse, nearly to the North end in Ardlussa, for a ride of 17 miles (27 km). The word, 'isolated' was made for Jura, it can only be reached by ferry. George Orwell, who stayed here while he wrote 1984,...
Scotland Bike and Barge Day 2 – Crinan to Island of Jura
Our second day of biking was a short circular ride from Crinan to several fascinating historical sites on the peninsula North of Crinan. We started out down the canal path and quickly passes the first of several locks we'd see along the canal. We were lucky enough to...
Scotland Bike and Barge Day 1 – Oban to Toberonochy
This was the first full day of our bike and barge trip to the Islays of Scotland, after a terrible travel experience the day prior. We had a nice combination of bikes provided by the tour company, I think it was about a 60/40 ratio of e-bikes to conventional bikes. We...
Amazing Bike and Boat Tour of the Greek Isles
We recently went on an almost unbelievable bike and boat tour of the Greek Islands. The tour was on a motor-yacht called the Panagiota. The Panagiota is a 75 foot (23 meter), two masted motor yacht with a large common dining area, and ten cabins able to house 20...
Hike to Prophet Elias Monastery – Hydra, Greece
Prophet Elias Monastery is located approximately 2.5 miles and almost 1,700 vertical feet above the harbor on the island of Hydra in Greece. The hike is a strong intermediate hike with a significant amount of climbing, but mostly on stone stairs and paths that are...