Do You Exit the Highway?

When was the last time you exited the highway? Took the back roads, the scenic route, and explored nature?

I'll be honest, we don't do it nearly as much as we should, and living in Colorado Springs, we really should take a greater advantage of the beauty around us.  We spent almost every weekend this past winter driving to Keystone to ski, yet it was 25 to the 470 bypass in Denver, then 70 out to the resorts.  We drove through beautiful mountain scenery, but didn't stop much en route to our favorite ski resort.

F&B at the top of one of their Garden of the Gods climbs

But this is something we plan to fix this summer.  This spring, we took the kids hiking at Garden of the Gods (just a hop, skip and jump down the road from our house on Fort Carson) and realized how truly beautiful where we live is.

I also found out about the "Exit the Highway" campaign, sponsored by Toyota and the National Audubon Society. They are teaming up this summer to ask Americans to Exit the Highway and pledge to spend more time taking scenic roads and exploring nature.

Ben climbing high to catch up with Faith at Garden of the Gods

Launched June 28th, the Exit the Highway website offers potential itineraries, with nearly 100 nature sites in 60 different cities.  Just browsing through, I saw some favorites from Dallas (home to us, till the Army brought us to Colorado), as well as Austin and San Antonio, two of my favorite places in Texas, where we eventually hope to make home one day.  I'm hoping to see some more Colorado itineraries soon, I know we need some new ideas (and Faith is voting for a South Dakota itinerary since she wants to see Mount Rushmore).

Love the orange rocks, perfect for climbing

Toyota is also rewarding nature seekers with a chance to win a brand new Toyota Prius v for pledging to spend more time in nature and sharing pictures of nature highlights along the way on ExitTheHighway.com.  Since I rather covet a Prius of my own, I've added a few of my favorite pictures  from Garden of the Gods, and plan to add some others from the nature hikes the puppy and I took all last week while Ben was at Cub Scout camp.

Will you take the pledge and try to exit the highway? I can't wait to see more of the user submitted photos of people's adventures.

Disclosure: I was selected for participation in the TWIN community through a program with Clever Girls Collective. I did not receive any compensation for writing this post, or payment in exchange for participating. The opinions expressed herein are mine, and do not reflect the views of Toyota.

Comments

  1. I'm a firm believer in exiting the highway and discovering the beauty around us along our country's back roads. :)

    Fellow #ToyotaWomen stopping by. Love the pics!

    ReplyDelete

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