Category: Elevation

  • Utah Adventure, Part 1

    The hunt for geo-oddities in northern Utah is well underway. The family will want to visit more recognizable sights so I’ll have to mix in a few “normal” tourist activities along the way. I have to maintain a careful balance. Thus I need just enough to keep them entertained while giving me an opportunity to…

  • Cog Railways

    Many years ago my fiancé (now wife) and I traveled through northern New England for two weeks. That was long ago. We actually tent-camped our way through a string of rustic state parks with few amenities. It changed to Bed-and-Breakfasts Inns after our marriage. Then it changed again to whatever hotel happened to have an…

  • Highest Lowpoints

    There’s a tendency to wonder about the highest point of land as one examines an area from afar. People make quite a hobby out of of collecting visits to those highpoints even for remarkably small subunits. I’ve been know to do that myself and I’ve featured the results of my efforts on these very pages.…

  • Geo-Oddities of Portland, Oregon

    Every once in awhile I’m honored to share content or even an entire guest post written by a loyal Twelve Mile Circle reader. We are very lucky today. Marc Alifanz contributes his expert knowledge of Geo-oddities in Portland, Oregon. Marc is an experienced blogger both in his professional and personal life and as he demonstrates…

  • Maps from the Museum

    There is a fine selection of inexpensive and free museums available to me in the Washington, DC area. Of course those including the renowned collections of the Smithsonian Institution. The only drawback is that everyone else has the same easy access too. Crowd avoidance and timing become important consideration. I find that January weekends work…

  • Coteau des Prairies

    I poured over maps for a project that’s been slowly forming at the back of my mind — I know that must come as a surprise — and I noticed an anomaly I’d overlooked in all the other times I’d examined this particular patch. I think it had to do more with the vertical scale…

  • Appalachian Trail Counties

    For a long time I’ve wondered what would happen if a county counter hiked the Appalachian Trail. I know that’s not a normal curiosity. I’m not the type of person to move in lockstep with everyone else though. However, I am not interested in walking the Appalachian Trail. I am sure the wonders and hardships…

  • New Highpoint for the Netherlands

    My brief vacation in Vermont over the weekend must have distracted me. Somehow I completely missed the news about the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles on October 10, 2010. So it took an email message from loyal reader Greg to bring its true significance to my attention. I’m not referring to the dissolution of the…

  • Northernmost Southern Hemispheric Glacier

    I discussed the southernmost glaciers in the northern hemisphere in the last installment and found some surprising answers. Today I take the opposite tack and examine the northernmost glaciers in the southern hemisphere. Let’s start again by reviewing the worldwide glacier map I discovered on the U.S. Geological Survey site. Maybe Cayambe Again? To recap…

  • Southernmost Northern Hemispheric Glacier

    My trip to Alaska got me thinking about snow, ice and glaciation. There were glaciers aplenty on the Kenai Peninsula but that’s not unexpected at sixty degrees north of the equator. Where, I wondered, was the southernmost glacier in the northern hemisphere? It’s not the first time my mind has wandered in this basic direction.…