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Trail 8, Ogle Lake to West Lookout Tower, Brown County State Park

Man standing on wooden bridge over dry creek bed along Trail 8 hiking trail in Brown County State Park, Indiana.

This four-and-a-half-mile trek of solitude through the southern Indiana wilderness is the perfect low-key affair for recharging your batteries. Here you’ll hike to Hesitation Point and the West Lookout Tower – two of the best views in all of Brown County State Park. You might even get to sample the largest edible fruit indigenous to the United States – the pawpaw, a.k.a. the Indiana banana.

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No Easy Answers for Restoring Mirante da Granja Guarani in Teresopolis

Woman in yellow poncho standing in abandoned Mirante da Granja Guarani in Teresopolis, Brazil.

The Mirante da Granja Guarani (aka Quiosque das Lendas) in Teresópolis , Brazil, may be abandoned and in ruins, but the historic site still draws tourists to this vibrant community north of Rio de Janeiro. ⁣⁣
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Local sports director Arnaldo Guinle (1884 – 1963) financed the building of the open air structure in 1929 and had it faced with tiles worked by the Portuguese ceramist Jorge Colaço (1868 – 1942), who painted the tiles in Lisbon. ⁣⁣

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Charon’s Garden Trail – Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge

Woman sitting cross-legged overlooking the Valley of Boulders in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.

I’d seen so many hiking blog posts, comments and videos surrounding the difficulty of the Valley of Boulders portion of Charon’s Garden Trail, by the time we’d reached the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma I’d almost completely psyched myself out.

On the other hand, I had also seen photos of children navigating parts of the boulder field with ease, so how hard could it be? We’d know for sure if we could cross it the moment the “Apple and Pear” rock formation on the west side of Elk Mountain came into view. I’d given us a 50/50 chance of making it through.

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