Lois' Adventure Travel Blog

Are you going to be one of the more than 60,000 Harley riders and their families expected to attend this weekend's 4th annual Thunder in the Rockies Motorcycle Rally at the Ranch in Loveland Colorado? The jam-packed schedule includes Comedian Joel McHale, star of E!'s The Soup, a live satellite feed to Iraq to reunite families with with loved ones in the military, motorcycle stunt shows and a lot more. Check out the action at Thunder in the Rockies

Quite simply, this may be the most luxurious ranch you'll ever visit. Owned by billionaire Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, the Teton Ridge Ranch 10,000-square-foot lodge sits in the middle of 4,400 wild acres, next to National Forest Land.

More about visiting the Jackson Hole region

Jackson Hole - An Adventure Traveler's Paradise

Think you have to be in the circus to swing on the flying trapeze? Wrong! Push your personal limits taking a lesson at the flying trapeze schools that are open from New York to California. If you'd like to see how easy it can be, check out this video on learning to swing on a flying trapeze .

Photo © Carol Haynes

Kids play with toy bulldozers and excavators in a sandbox. At Dig This, in Steamboat, Colorado, you get to spend a half- or a full-day using real bulldozers and excavators building roads, digging ditches and moving rocks, in the first heavy equipment arena in the United States. If you'd like to see how much fun it is to play with the heavy equipment check out Dig This?

If you've ever wanted to try some of the more extreme sports you watch during the summer or winter Olympic games, there are places where you can find out for sure. Ready to ride a bobsled downhill at 80 miles an hour, or would you rather just look at images of Olympians careening down the track? Visit Play On Utah's Olympic Venues.

The uncertain economic environment has triggered an early avalanche of really good deals at winter resorts. It doesn't matter whether you want to go skiing, snowboarding, snowmobiling or ice climbing, because many of these deals revolve around a night free, upgrades in lodging and other amenities. Ski.com is already listing lots of great specials. Don't let the name "Ski.com" deter you if you don't ski or ride. Many of the specials are simply good lodging package and the Ski.com concierges will help you plan winter adventures that appeal to you.

Christmas to New Year's week at resorts often books up early, so if you're starting to think about planning a trip over these holidays, here's a calendar listing what day of the week Christmas is this winter, and for the next several years. Check it out, to see if Christmas falls near a weekend and you can add on an extra vacation day this year.

About.com's travel guides have put together the first Eye-Popping Travel Blog Carnival. It's chock-full of eye-popping travel photos from my own taken while in Machu Picchu, Peru, to the weird Bungle Bungles in Australia, to the sand dunes in land-locked Colorado, to the Bomarzo Monster Park in Italy. This photo carnival is on About.com's Senior Travel website, and you can reach Nancy Parode's blog directly by clicking on Eye-Popping Travel Photos. You can also reach is via a link in Machu Picchu, recently voted one of Seven New Wonders of the World.

Machu Picchu is one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, and also one of the most popular tourist sights in the world. Visit Images of Peru's Machu Picchuto see why. If you want to go, many adventure travel companies offer trips to Peru, which can include a hike over high mountain passes or a train ride from Cusco to this remote site.

If you're a vacationer who loves adventure travel, do you know if your travel insurance policy covers sky diving, camel riding, hot air ballooning or the types of activities you enjoy? Many regular travel insurance policies don't cover adventurous activities, but a growing number of insurance companies are offering adventure travel insurance for people like you. Here's more about Getting Adventure Travel Insurance When Regular Travel Insurance Isn't Enough

Mountain Hardware, the Steamboat, Colorado-based outdoor gear and rugged outdoor clothing company is giving away a pack every day from August 1 to August 31. Visit the Pack-A-Day Giveaway website enter in the drawing. Winners can choose from the new Urban Reality series: Paladin, Guardian, Defender, Sentinel, or the Natural 22, a limited pre-release destined for stores in Spring 09.