On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Big thanks to BigJimSlade for this wonderful week of hiking in the Italian Dolomites!
BigJimSlade
Some other time I’ll cover day 4.
The last 2 days we hiked up and down the valley between the towns, as opposed to taking a funicular, a gondola or a bus to higher ground.
Hope you all enjoyed these!
This is where we stayed. We had a one BR apartment in the top left of the main building. It even had a washing machine!!!
I just like the wood stacked at this house, and the light and shadows and shapes.
A grasshopper, or something like that.
More flowers.
Sassolungo – dominate the scenery much? This is up in hills between the towns, approaching Selva.
Looking the other way up toward Selva.
I love what they do with flowers here. One refugio (on day 2) had a wheelbarrow full of flowers, but this property had a hollowed out log.
Same flowers, different angle. And Sassolungo demanding attention in the background, as usual. I printed this one out for my mom :-)
JPL
Wow! Thank you so much for submitting the pictures. They are gorgeous.
Wag
Sassolungo Looks like spectacular fun. Did you consider doing any of the via feratta routes on the high peaks? One of my bucket list items…
p.a.
The whole series was fantastic!
Anyway
Fantastic! I want to go hike the Dolomites now …
WaterGirl
In the first pic after all the flowers, it looks like the mountain is photo bombing your photo of the land and the trees. The scenery has been amazing all week, but I am especially loving the flowers growing wherever they can.
LOVE the flowers in the hollowed out log. So absolutely charming!
SiubhanDuinne
This has been a great series!
Alce_e_ardillo
These complexes look exactly like the apartment condos we stayed in Switzerland in the Alps.
Mike in Oly
This has been such a good series! Thanks so much for sharing it with us.
cope
As a lifelong mountain fan, I have really, really enjoyed this week’s pictures and tales. Thank you. It’s easy to see how Reinhold Messner became inspired to become probably the most accomplished mountaineer ever. If I had grown up among those peaks too, I’m sure I wouldn’t be living in fucking Florida.
Thanks again.
WaterGirl
@Mike in Oly: It really has! I am hoping some other folks might be inspired to put something together for On the Road. (hint-hint)
MelissaM
Add me to the chorus of great week, and now I’m “planning” a trip to hike in the Dolomites. Maybe I can “plan” it into existence.
mvr
Good series!
BigJimSlade
@Wag: Haven’t done any via ferrata, though if I had heard about that stuff 20-30 years ago I would’ve been thrilled! My wife and I mostly keep our hikes, well, at least on the safe side. They may still be a bit tough and adventurous.
A few years ago we did climb the cables up Half Dome! I haven’t posted pictures of that trip, but here are the ones from the next time we went to Yosemite.
BigJimSlade
@WaterGirl: Yeah, it’s a total photo bomb, lol.
BigJimSlade
Thanks for all the nice comments everyone!
J R in WV
Sassolungo reminds me of Shiprock, in NE New Mexico, a monumental eruptive stone tower standing over an otherwise flat plain, and a holy place to the local Navajo people. So called because it reminded Spanish conquistadors of the galleons they sailed to the new world on, or so one story goes.
Fabulous pictures of wonderful places! Thanks again for sharing.
Yutsano
I know this wasn’t near the part of Italy Leto and Avalune lived but I hope they enjoyed this snippet of Northern Italy as much as we all did!
StringOnAStick
@Wag: We did some via ferrata routes when we were one valley over from this one; be sure to get a good route guidebook. We found the British books were best and very clear about the difficulty ratings of the routes. Be aware that some are better protected than others. There’s via ferrata’s in Austria and Germany as well (talk about protected!), and even near Telluride, Colorado and at the Jackson Hole ski resort. We did some of the last area (guide required, you are not allowed to use the routes on your own) and I noted all the spots on the routes where lightning strikes had blasted a circle of fresh, clear rock; when I asked the guide he confirmed that was what they were and that their job is to make sure everyone is off, off, OFF the rock when a thunderstorm comes by.
Now I’ve heard that the owner of Jackson Hole ski resort is an insane RW rich guy who contributes big $ to MTG and the Big Lie, so that place is off our list until that changes.
BigJimSlade
@StringOnAStick:
Yeah, that whole falling off a rock face, or having some of it fall on you, thing is why we don’t do the vias ferrata. Though like I said, if I knew about it years ago, it would’ve been amazeballs, lol.