Author: Ms. R.

Tucked away just inside of I-495 is a 40-acre nature lover’s paradise, anchored by a beautiful Georgian Revival-style mansion. Famed architect John Russell Pope was commissioned by Captain Chester and Marion Wells to design the home. Pope was the master architect behind some of Washington D.C.’s most iconic buildings—DAR Constitution Hall, the Jefferson Memorial, and the National Gallery of Art. Traces of these magnificent buildings can be seen in Woodend, which was constructed between 1927-1928. Mrs. Wells wanted to ensure the……

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Thousand Creek Gorge is an improbable slot canyon, eroded through hard volcanic rock, in the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge in far northern Nevada, next to the Oregon line. In places, the canyon walls are nearly 500 feet tall, while the canyon itself is barely wider. The whole canyon is only a few miles long as the crow flies. Although the trail through the canyon shown on old topographic maps has long since washed out, a day hike through the……

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The short marshrutka ride from Chişinău out to the village of Butuceni feels like traveling back in time, as drivers overtake locals in donkey carts on steep, frequently unpaved mountain roads. But the clock turns back even further in the impressive Orthodox cave monastery of Orheiul Vechi, which was dug into these rocky cliffs by local monks in the 13th century. The medieval icons below are illuminated only by candlelight and by jagged windows chiseled out of the cliff face, giving……

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It looks like a random Star Trek set plopped in the middle of a secluded meadow. Cycle or walk the Humber River Recreational Trail in Toronto and you’ll come across this curious saucer-shaped rain shelter on stilts, with an oculus opening cut out of its roof, from which a circular beam of light shines down onto the concrete. It’s actually a public washroom—or was—designed in 1959, when the city of Toronto had space-age fantasies and a love for modernist……

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Ala-kul Lake is one of the most beautiful places in Kyrgyzstan. It is located 20 kilometers from Karakol, in the mountains at an altitude of more than 3,500 meters above sea level. The glacial lake surrounded by high rocks has an unreal blue hue. The lake was formed by tectonic movements. The ascent to Ala Kul is quite difficult. And it is easier, and best done in mid-summer in July or August. The trail is rocky and steep all the time…….

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