It was mid-October 2015 and my four-month camping trip was coming to an end. I was in the mountains of southern California rounding north to head home to Washington State. With a quickly closing window on my summer gear camping, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks were in my sights. I pulled into a sweet…
Tag: Camping
Goosenecks State Park and Valley of the Gods, UT
I spent a single gusty, dusty night in Goosnecks State Park. My tent shook all night long like it was Tina Turner’s fringed skirt. I woke up through the night with dust in my eyes, sand crunching between my teeth, a gritty sheen of Utah shellacked on my skin. But, man, was it pretty! Goosenecks is surrounded…
Monument Valley National Park
I had my heart set on Monument Valley from the beginning. It was July when I set out on my “road trip to end all road trips” (until the next road trip, that is.) July in the Southwest kind of sounded like insta-sunburn while sitting in an oven. I had to wait. I kept myself…
Chaco Canyon National Historical Park
Chaco Canyon was an amazing place to be. More ruins than you can imagine, and if you hike the Peublo Alto trail, you can see almost all of the ruins from the top of the Mesa. Pueblo Bonito was the largest of the great houses and the center of the Chacoan world. It was lived in from…
Mesa Verde National Park
Mesa Verde. What can I say? That we have the opportunity to stand in a home built by Ancestral Pueblo people built in the mid-1100’s and look down the same canyon is…I don’t have the words. What’s the world that encompasses wonder, curiosity, admiration, humility, reflection, joy, stillness, connection, respect and energy? What word do…
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
Black Canyon of the Gunnison is impressive. There is just something about canyons. By this point in my trip – about 3 months in – I had seen a few. Black Canyon of the Gunnison is a straight up stunner. “…no other canyon in North America combines the depth, narrowness, sheerness and somber countenance of…
Rocky Mountain National Park
I entered Rocky Mountain National Park at the Grand Lake Entrance Station on the west side. My campsite was aaaall the way across the park at the Moraine Park campground on the east side. That meant that I had to cover nearly the whole length of the 48 mile Trail Ridge Road, cross Milner Pass at 10,758…
Canyonlands National Park
For my first foray into Canyonlands I landed on the area aptly named Island in the Sky; a mesa surrounded by canyons on the northeast side of the park, near Arches and Moab. It was gusty the day I arrived. Blustery. Having had this landscape on my mind since the beginning of the trip, I immediately sought…
Great Basin National Park
In one loooooong haul,I drove from Tahoe to Great Basin, all the way across northern Nevada. I was looking forward to setting up camp, cooking some dinner, drinking a beer and readying a book. Little did I know that all 5 campgrounds were full. The Great Basin Astronomy Festival was in full effect. Awesome for the…
Craters of the Moon National Monument
As it turns out, being in Idaho and being on the moon have something in common. That’s the whole joke…now on to the story! When I rolled into Craters of the Moon National Monument is was blowing up a gale and raining sideways. The thought of setting up my tent in that was…unpleasant. A chat with…
Oregon – from east to west
I drove into Eastern Oregon thinking that I could tackle the 7 Wonders of Oregon quickly. Not so. But I did get to see, albeit brief or obscured by smoke from the deadly 2015 wildfires, 5 of those 7 Wonders. The Wallowas: Visiting this was Wonder way too brief and marred by a 5am wake…
Grand Tetons National Park and the 19 Mile Hike
I was half way through my book, hunkered down in the tent to get out of the rain. Lightening and an immediate boom of thunder made me glad I chose to postpone my hike until the next day. It was a 19 mile hike. 19 miles in the rain sounded like…the opposite of fun and more like…
Where to? Why not? 