Travel Blue Book

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On the Hunt for the Forrest Fenn Treasure

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On the Hunt for the Forrest Fenn Treasure

Near the Chama River

(Editor’s Note: While we are away at a blogging conference, please enjoy this encore post which originally appeared on June 20, 2014. Also, please make sure to enter for your chance to win a $100 gift card using the Rafflecopter widget following the post!)

At some point during the course of our childhood, every young boy dreams of going on a treasure hunt. We pretend to travel through caves and shipwrecks, mountains and jungles, solving clues and battling evil forces on our way to finding treasure chests stuffed with riches. Countless movies and stories have been made and told around just this premise (Indiana Jones and the Goonies, anybody?). But, as we grow up, we usually let go of these silly boyhood dreams, realizing that there are no hidden treasures to be found. Well, Forrest Fenn has given us all a chance to relive our boyhood fantasies and made a hidden treasure a reality.

For those of you who may not have heard, Forrest Fenn is the eccentric New Mexico art dealer and gajillionaire who decided to hide a treasure chest filled with approximately $2 million worth of rare coins, gold nuggets, gemstones, and jewelry somewhere in the mountains north of Santa Fe. After receiving a cancer diagnosis in 1988, Fenn came up with the idea to hide this bronze chest in the mountains and die along side of it. Mr. Fenn survived the illness and waited until he was about 80 years old to move forward with his plan to hide the treasure.

Our hunt for the Forrest Fenn treasure begins

Upon reading Forrest Fenn’s book The Thrill of the Chase a few years ago, my brother-in-law Brian became interested in the treasure. He told my wife Holly about it, and she interviewed him for a couple of different websites – after which, the two of them became friends. Brian decided that he was going to search for the treasure himself and asked me if I would come with him to New Mexico. Always up for an adventure, I happily obliged, and we started making plans. After weeks of studying poems, books, and maps, we determined our precise search area and hopped a plane to New Mexico. [Read more…]

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park

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Wrangell-St. Elias National Park

Photo Credit: By Sewtex (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons

With National Park Service’s birthday coming up on August 25th (one of the days the National Park Service waives it’s entrance fees), this is a great time of year to plan a visit to any of our national parks! Summer also makes it a great time to check out Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, America’s largest national park and a United Nations World Heritage site, in the gorgeous state of Alaska. Larger than Switzerland and just slightly smaller than West Virginia, Wrangell-St Elias comes in at an impressive 13.2 million acres, boasting 9 of the 16 highest mountain peaks in the United States. One of the parks glaciers alone, Malaspina, is larger than Rhode Island. [Read more…]

Carve out Time to Stop at Mount Rushmore

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Carve out time to stop at Mount Rushmore

By Dean Franklin [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Driving through the Black Hills of South Dakota, it’s easy to be taken in by the natural beauty of your surroundings. Of course, you’ll need to keep your eyes on the road, because traffic can really pick as you approach Mount Rushmore, one of the country’s most iconic national memorials. Approximately 3 million people visit this site each year, many traveling by car or RV. It’s definitely one of those must-see spots for anyone on a road trip through the Midwest. [Read more…]

Queenstown, New Zealand: Breakfree The Waterfront

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Queenstown, New Zealand: Breakfree The Waterfront

Photo credit: By Lawrence Murray via flickr and Creative Commons

Nestled beside the banks of Lake Wakatipu’s crystal clear waters and the scenic The Remarkables mountains, Queenstown, New Zealand is one of the most popular four-season tourist destinations in the Southern Hemisphere. Located in the southwestern corner of New Zealand’s south island, the city is home to just over 30,000 residents. Although the population may seem a bit small, don’t let that fool you. According to the city’s official tourism website, Queenstown plays host to about 1.9 million visitors each year. From downhill skiing to golf, art museums to nightlife, there is something for everybody in Queenstown.

Being a major travel destination, Queenstown is packed with different hotels, motels, and B&B’s. However, the Breakfree The Waterfront hotel certainly stands out among the crowd. [Read more…]

5 Best Ski Resorts You May Not Have Heard About

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5 Best Ski Resorts That You May Not Have Heard About

Photo Credit: Me (Méribel, France) [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC-BY-2.5], via Wikimedia Commons

The skiing season is in full swing, and with the Winter Olympics still on everybody’s minds, it may be time to make one last trip to the slopes. Even non-skiers are familiar with some of the most famous ski resorts in the U.S. Who hasn’t heard of Aspen, Vail, or Jackson Hole? Yet, the greater the name recognition, the more crowded the slopes.

Not to fret. Just because you don’t love crowds doesn’t mean that you can’t find great skiing elsewhere. In fact, some of the best skiing in the U.S. can be found in some of the least discovered locations. Here is our list of 5 of the best ski resorts that you may not have heard about. [Read more…]

Discover Sochi!

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This week, the Russian city of Sochi will open its doors to all of the world as the games of the 22nd Winter Olympiad begin. The Russian resort city is the first subtropical city to host the winter games, yet all the buzz has been about security concerns and stray dogs. Lost in all of the bad press lies a jewel of a city just waiting to be discovered. [Read more…]