After Arches, we headed to the next Utah National Park; Capitol Reef, which is in the city of Fruita. Besides beautiful rock formations (like every park in Utah) this park is also an important Mormon pioneer historical site. We arrived around sunset again (I told you, we’re on a good groove of sunsets and mornings at the parks!) and we drove the Scenic Drive. This was simply stunning – the rock formations here are more layered with various colors…
Mike and I were in a pretty good rhythm at this point – visit a park in the morning, drive or do something indoors during the day, and then visit a park in the late afternoon and evening. This helps avoid the heat and the summer crowds. After Canyonlands, we headed to Moab which is where Arches National Park is located too. As we drove by in the afternoon, it was pretty obvious that Arches is one of the most…
Canyonlands National Park has three sections; Island in the Sky, the Needles, and the Maze. These sections are separated by the Colorado and Green River and there is no way to access the different sections unless you leave the park. Island in the Sky is the most popular (i.e the most crowded) due to its proximity to Moab, while the Needles is the next most visited section, and the Maze is extremely remote and has limited visitors due to it mostly…
This was a park that I had visited when I was younger, but had very little memory of. Ancestral puebloans lived here from about 550 to 1300 before they left for other areas – but had left hundreds of amazing cliff dwellings, history and mysteries to be discovered, and an incredibly unique National Park. Before you go, make sure to purchase your tour tickets. There are limited tickets per day and can only be bought up to 48 hours in…
I had not heard much about this National Park prior to this adventure. I am SO glad we made it here. There were multiple sights that took my breath away. Ron Swanson said it’s only acceptable to cry at the Grand Canyon, but I think he’d add this park to the list too. After the Great Sand Dunes, an attempt up Blanca Peak by Mike, a lucky find of $20 in a parking lot (time to treat yo…
This park is stunning, but with a bit of bad luck while we were there mixed with some pouting by me, this wasn’t my favorite park. We had been in Colorado for about a week before getting to this park. We had some delightful visits with friends first. In Fort Collins, we stopped at our friend Harris’s house so Mike could work on the van (of course), drink lots of beers, and get fed too much. Then near Salida, we…
Wow. I truly felt like a little kid walking though the caves here, full of wonder and imagination. Do you remember looking at clouds and seeing different animals and creatures in them? It was the same thing at Carlsbad Caverns and all of it’s natural cave formations. I was reminded of a lot of ocean critters – which makes sense since this cave began it’s life as a reef, millions of years ago. I also could NOT stop singing the Little…
Yet another park that is on the list of the least visited National Parks that shouldn’t be! We definitely lucked out with the weather but no matter what, people are missing out if they don’t visit this place. After we drove up from Big Bend, we stopped into Carlsbad to order some parts for the van. We then got to the Guadalupe Mountains campground and set up shop. It’s only $8 a night to camp here! Despite…
This one….was an adventure. We should have known that something would happen here. We had stopped at a couple Autozones on the way to this park for various things… and where else better for things to go wrong than a remote desert? Anyway, we arrived in the late afternoon to Big Bend National Park in the southwest part of Texas after a super fun drive. This park has five Visitor Centers, but since it’s the slow season for them, only…
Hot Springs National Park is extremely unique. It was the smallest National Park at 5,500 acres, until the St Louis Arch was upgraded to Gateway Arch National Park a couple months ago. These two are pretty similar in their qualities that make them unique from other Parks; small, nestled in the middle of an urban area, and not what comes to mind when you think “National Park.” Normally I love parks for having lots of great hiking and…