a former gymnast with a neverending case of wanderlust
Colorado has turned me into a winter person. I swore that would never happen, but it appears I was wrong. Growing up in Montana, I never liked winter. It's cold and dark and lasts way too long. Then I moved to Washington for college and, in addition to cold and dark, winters there are humid… Continue reading Colorado Day Hikes: Butler Gulch
As I’ve spent more time in Colorado and gained more knowledge and confidence in my winter hiking abilities, I’ve begun to push myself harder. I’ve tackled longer and more challenging hikes, and been rewarded with gorgeous snow-covered views and relative solitude. But I’ve also established some limits on just how much I’m willing to challenge… Continue reading Colorado Day Hikes: Helms Lake (the winter version)
Since moving to Colorado, Pat and I have managed to go cross-country skiing about once a year. I wish we could go more often, but we don't have our own gear (yet). Fortunately, there's a place not too far away that rents gear for a decent price, and there are some trails in the mountains… Continue reading Diana & Pat’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day of skiing
The first time I heard someone mention “the troll” I had absolutely no clue what they were talking about, but a little research quickly uncovered the mystery of this unusual hiking destination. This is one of those silly and cliché and popular bucket list items, but I still feel like it was worth it.
Isak Heartstone is a giant troll built by Danish artist Thomas Dambo in 2018 for a Breckenridge art festival. He was then partially rebuilt and relocated (due to his popularity, he needed a new home) in summer 2019. Dambo specializes in making sculptures out of materials that would otherwise be discarded; there are many wooden trolls, as well as other sculptures, in various locations around the world.
I never used to mind winter. And then I moved to New England. Winters here are horrible. The sun sets at 4:15pm. It’s usually cloudy and cold and windy. And dark. All the time. And when it snows in New England, it really snows. Two feet (0.6 m) at a time, leaving us to dig our… Continue reading Exploring Montana on Skis
At this point, you might be wondering why this blog is called Handstands Around the World when there’s such a blatant lack of handstand pictures. Well, it turns out I didn’t really start doing handstands everywhere I went until I was no longer actively doing gymnastics. Most of my handstand pictures are taken on the edge of… Continue reading Winter in Yellowstone National Park (part II)
Eventually, I’ll sort through my thousands of pictures from all of my trips to Yellowstone National Park and organize them into a few (hopefully) coherent posts. It’s a daunting task for which I just haven’t found the motivation. So in the meantime, I’m going to take a more unique approach and talk about winter in Yellowstone.… Continue reading Winter in Yellowstone National Park (part I)
Handstands Around the World 