Buenos! Welcome back to the second installment of Belize blog posts!
I’ll start off with a little bit of background about Belize, since I didn’t really cover much in the first post. It’s an itty-bitty country that shares borders with Guatemala and Mexico; roughly 400,000 people call it home. Belize is unique in that it’s the only mainland country in Central America to have once been part of the British Empire. It was known as British Honduras until the ’70s, and didn’t formally gain independence until the ’80s, though it’s still a part of the Commonwealth. For this reason, English is the official and most widely spoken language here and is taught in schools. However, there are several immigrants from surrounding countries, particularly in more rural areas, so Spanish is much more dominant there. As a small farming community, the village we’re staying at definitely falls into the rural category. One of our host families speaks only Spanish, but in our other family, the dad and the three boys can speak varying amounts of English. I’m really thankful I took three years in high school and that it came back quickly!
Some other interesting facts: currency is the Belizean dollar, which converts to about fifty cents to one US dollar (yay for easy math!). Here’s what it looks like:
One of Belize’s biggest industries is tourism; there are several resorts along the coast, and it’s well known for snorkeling along its beautiful coral reefs. Its government is a parliamentary constitutional monarchy, which is a mouthful! Basically they elect a prime minister and a Senate and House of Representatives, but King Charles III holds the title of King of Belize. Unfortunately, corruption in the government and police is pretty widespread; bribes, under-the-table dealings, and illicit favors are pretty common.
Though we’re a ways from the equator, weather is pretty toasty here; highs in the low nineties and humid, and lows in the low seventies to upper sixties. I’m praising God that I finally feel like I’m adjusting; it’s also helped that it’s been cooling down as we move into the rainy season, and we’ve had a lot of nice cool breezes too. We’re technically on Central Time, but Belize doesn’t do Daylight Savings Time, so we’re actually matching Mountain Time right now. It gets light about 5:30 and dark at 6:30.
Okay, back to our time here! Monday morning we walked around the town and invited any kids we saw to Kid’s Club – think a VBS-like program – that we would be putting on later that day. We still had a week before school started, and there’s no church on Mondays, so we took advantage of the time as an outreach opportunity. We chose a lesson and planned it after lunch, then put it on around 2. Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures, but it was fun! We played a bunch of games, performed a skit, had some discussion questions, learned a Bible verse, and colored.
While we were prepping for Kid’s Club, we got a text saying that our second host family had returned from vacation and that they were planning on picking us up that afternoon, so MK and I rushed to pack up our stuff after church and bid goodbye to the other girls.
Upon arriving, two very excited little boys came running out of the house and gave us big hugs. We soon met the rest of the family: M, our host dad; L, our host mom; and the boys, J, A, and E. Here’s M with the boys:
And here’s L with MK and A!
This family has been so sweet to us, and we’ve had a lot of laughs with them! The boys are definitely ornery, but they can be really sweet too. We frequently affectionately refer to them as the “chicos locos”!
We were treated to a beautiful sunset, along with some banana bread and coffee.
Our house measures probably about 15 feet by 25 feet. MK and I are fortunate enough to have our own room; we share a full sized bed and have a wardrobe to keep our clothes and belongings in. There’s a kitchen, a dining room, and then one bigger bedroom that the rest of the family shares. The shower and wash area are detached from the house – you can see them in the above photo – and the toilet is a pretty standard pit toilet a significant distance from the house – good from an odor perspective, a little more challenging from a middle-of-the-night-need-to-go perspective! We have clean running water from a spigot attached to the outside of the house, and while we’re a little too far off the main road to be hooked into the main power grid, we have a couple of solar panels that generally allow us to have lights at night, charge our phones, run the washer, etc. – so long as we don’t use too much or have multiple cloudy days in a row! The feature I least expected was wifi, though it seems nearly every home here has it – it’s been such a huge blessing for communicating!
While that first evening was really nice, it unfortunately got challenging pretty quickly. I woke up around midnight to find poor MK getting sick. I spent a good chunk of the next few days helping to take care of her and trying to keep her as comfortable as possible in the unrelenting heat. It was definitely a rough start, but praise God that we’re both feeling nearly 100% again! I think one of the biggest positive outcomes of the whole situation was that we became closer very quickly and more dependent on each other and more vulnerable than we would have otherwise.
The rest of my time those first few days was spent learning how chores were done and watching the boys while M and L ran errands. Dishes are done outside at the sink, since there’s no running water inside the house, and if it’s a cloudy day or nighttime, clothes are washed at the sink too using a good old-fashioned scrub board. We do try to wait for sunny days though so we can use the washer! The machine wrings the clothes out, and then we hang them on the line to dry. Here’s what it looked like after getting back from their vacation!
M has a farm on the property – he’s kind of in between crops at the moment, but he primarily has tomatoes and zucchini. Here’s a couple pictures from around the farm:
Church is usually held five days a week here, with two different services on Sunday, but we took a couple days off as MK was recouping and the family was recovering from vacation. Some of us went Wednesday, but the boys were clearly pooped!
Thursdays church is held at a member’s house; that was the first day we were all able to go as a family, and it was really nice. They served cinnamon rolls afterwards, which me and my sweet tooth really appreciated! M frequently helps with the music, and the boys love to help too.
Friday there’s no church, so we did another Kid’s Club. We had more kids this time, which was fun, but I was pretty pooped afterwards. Thankfully we had a little time to worship as a team and just take a moment to recenter. After returning home, we walked to the store with L and the boys and just enjoyed hanging out.
Saturday morning we were supposed to take a bus into town as a team, but I woke up not feeling great, so I decided to take some much needed rest at home instead. Thankfully I got better pretty quickly thanks to some medication, enough that I was able to go to church that night.
Sunday we had church in the morning, then I helped L with making lunch. The team came over for a bit and we got to have Bible study, then we all walked over to the church and helped the women prepare a bunch of food that was then sold to church and community members. It doesn’t sound like that happens every week, but we’re not really sure what the occasion was! We had a lot of fun helping with empanadas and salbutes though.
Well friends, that makes a full week! I’m feeling a little more caught up now – I’ll be in touch soon! Much love!
Hello all! Welcome to my first post of our three month mission trip to Belize! I’ll try to cover quite a bit of ground in this post, as we’ve already been in-country for over a week. Thanks so much for reading!
For a little background, I felt a calling to do missions with this specific organization (Experience Mission) back in January. There were several different options of countries, and after lots of discussion with EM staff, I decided on a three month trip to Belize in the fall and a three month trip to South Africa at the beginning of next year.
Okay, fast forward to August: after driving for five days back from Alaska (those blog posts will be coming after this trip!), I had a couple of days to see family and friends, unpack, repack and get to Grand Haven, Michigan for mission training. The Belize, South Africa, and Costa Rica teams all met at a church, where we stayed for three days. I got to meet the whole team in person for the first time. I’ll introduce you!
In the back we have E, then left to right is MK, J, L, H, and myself (I’ll use first initials only to protect identities.) L is our team leader and came here on a three month trip last summer, so she knows the ropes! She’s about the same age as me, and the other girls are all recent high school grads. I’ve had to pick up on some new Gen-Z vocabulary (bussin’ is probably the most prevalent), but overall I think we’re getting along well despite the age gap. I’ve been impressed by how the girls are adjusting, especially considering it’s the first extended time away from home for the majority of the group!
Over the course of training, we talked a lot about how to approach the trip with an attitude of dignity and respect despite differences and serve like Jesus did. There were several fun exercises, such as this one where we intensely studied a potato.
We had quite a bit of free time in the evenings, where we could hang out and get to know people from other groups; we had a worship night one night, which was pretty cool.
Unfortunately, midway through training, someone tested positive for COVID, so we were a bit more restricted and had to wear masks due to CDC policy, but everyone handled it pretty well and everyone was still able to travel, praise God!
Thursday morning all the teams packed up their stuff and hit the road for Chicago!
We all stayed at the same hotel for the night, then flew out to our respective countries on Friday. Our flight was just before 5 am, but we got there a little after 2. Turns out the Delta baggage check at O’Hare doesn’t open until 3:45… Whoops!
We had a short layover in Atlanta, then hopped on a flight to Belize. E and M caught these awesome shots from the air!
We landed in Belize City around midday…
…then took a trip by shuttle to our destination for the night.
Here we stayed at a beautiful little campground. We occupied three little cabins, two of which even had air conditioning! It also had an awesome little shelter area with several hammocks!
We had a yummy lunch of rice and beans with chicken, fried plantains, and cucumber salad, then settled in for a few hours to rest up.
Next we walked into town to grab dinner and explore a little bit.
Saturday morning we slept in a bit, then went to the market for breakfast and a little shopping.
Midday or so we were picked up and taken to the village that we’ll call home for the next several weeks. All six of us settled in with one of our host families – just a temporary measure until our other family got back from vacation! Here’s Mami N and Papi J with the group.
We ate lunch, rested, then ate dinner before hopping on a bus to Belmopan, the capital of Belize. Our host family’s church denomination was having a sort of district meeting (they called it a compañera) there that night, and we were invited to come along.
It was definitely an eye-opening first experience, though after attending church here for the past couple weeks it now seems to be pretty standard. Service was about two hours long, with lots of singing and clapping along, and quite a long message by a rather loud preacher. And did I mention it was all in Spanish?
It was also the first time I really understood what had been hinted at during training. There’s a lot of people here in Belize who have been really hurt by the church, mainly because of churches’ really high standards. We would really appreciate prayers on wisdom about reaching out to people who have been hurt by churches and connecting them to churches more focused on grace, while we ourselves go to a more traditional church.
After the bus ride back, we were pooped and went to bed rather quickly, which was good because we were up bright and early to work on O’s farm! O is one of Mami and Papi’s sons, and he has a good sized vegetable farm a little ways outside of town. All six of us in the group, plus O and his two kids, hopped in his truck and set off to pick as many vegetables as we could before it got too hot. And man did we have a good harvest that day! Seven big bags of hot peppers, three big bags of Bell peppers, and a couple buckets each of tomatoes and cucumbers. It reminded me a lot of the passage that talks about how some will plant and others will harvest. I’m so grateful we got to be a part of the harvest, and thankful for the hands that sowed these seeds; my prayer is that we also might sow seeds, literally and metaphorically, that others after us will harvest.
I was pretty pooped after all that, so I napped for several hours after lunch. I think that was the best sleep I’d had the whole week!
Sunday night was our first time at our host family’s church. Service was relatively similar to the compañera, though I was relieved to find that our pastor is quite a bit milder than the one from the night before.
Okay, I’ve officially covered a week, so I think I’ll cut things off here. I’ll try to have the next one up soon!
Hello all! I’m really behind on these blog posts – hoping to crank a couple out in the near future!
September of 2022 I decided to celebrate my 25th birthday by – you guessed it – booking a rental car without any underage fees! What a glorious day. Day was made even better by subsequently driving to Yellowstone National Park, which was also conveniently celebrating a birthday (plus or minus six months) of 150 years! This was a pretty big deal, as Yellowstone was America’s first National Park AND the world’s first National Park.
Yellowstone is probably most known for its amazing geothermal features. For better or for worse, this wasn’t an entirely new experience for me, as I had visited Rotarua in New Zealand, a similarly geothermally wacky place. The biggest difference? Size – Yellowstone is massive, especially in comparison with Rotorua. Rotorua can be sufficiently explored in probably less than a day, while it took me three days to get a proper taste of Yellowstone.
After making the usual Walmart run, I drove to West Yellowstone and entered the park from the west. This was really my only (convenient) option, as historic flooding earlier in the year had closed the northwest entrance. Thankfully, the park rebounded very quickly, and it didn’t end up having a huge impact on my trip!
Views were pretty awesome from the get-go:
I headed to Madison Campground and checked in…
…then set out for Gibbon Falls. I didn’t catch it in the best light, but it was still really pretty!
Next up was Artist’s Paintpots. These were pretty neat! Lots of boiling and bubbling. Here’s a bird’s eye view:
And finally was Norris Geyser Basin, which had a couple options for loop trails. I was THRILLED to catch the fumaroles (steam vents) at golden hour!
The sun was quickly setting, so it was back to my campsite for a birthday dinner of spam and mashed potatoes. What a good day!
Sunday morning I hoofed it out of camp back out to West Yellowstone, as I had neglected to pick up my backpacking permit the day before. With that taken care of, I re-entered the park…
…and set my course north for Mammoth Hot Springs, all the way near the Northwest Entrance. This was a really cool spot, and I spent a couple hours exploring the many terraces and other spicy-hot features.
I had quite the distance to travel that day, so I soon made my way down to the Canyon Village area – but not without stopping for this great view of the Yellowstone River!
After renting the necessary can of bear spray at Canyon Village, I headed to my trailhead – Artist’s Point. This happens to be an extremely popular spot, and for good reason:
What most people don’t know, however, is that you can get equally as stunning (I would argue more stunning!) views if you just hike a little further in:
My destination for the night was just a couple miles down the trail, at Ribbon Lake Site #2, but the number of large downed logs across the trail slowed my pace. I ended up having the site all to myself, which I’m normally fine with, but that night I found it a little creepy – I guess I had bears on the mind, and the eerie wailing noise I kept hearing echoing through the woods didn’t exactly help matters. (I later learned that this was an elk’s mating call – pretty common since it was rut season!)
I was up a decent hour and hiking back out. I took some time exploring the Grand Canyon’s rims, then headed to Dunraven Pass to hike Mount Washburn, one of the highest peaks in the park. It’s a pretty popular hike – I had to circle around the parking lot a couple of times until a spot opened up!
I honestly had mixed feelings about this hike. I’m glad I did it, but I wouldn’t do it again – 6.8 miles and 1400 feet elevation gain was kind of a lot for so-so views. Granted, visibility was lowered by wildfire smoke, and the elevation was kicking my butt, so that didn’t help. There is kind of a neat fire tower at the top though!
Once I reached the summit, it was a bit of a mad dash back down, as I had booked a kayaking trip on Yellowstone Lake. I made it, a little late, but thankfully before they had pushed off. I ended up going in a single kayak and stuck pretty close to the guide, who was a cool guy and a wealth of information.
I wouldn’t classify it as a must-do activity at Yellowstone, but I appreciated getting to experience the lake, and it was neat to see the West Thumb Geyser Basin area from the water, especially since land access was closed to the public.
Dark was closing in, so I was off to my home for the next two nights at Lewis Lake Campground (with a quick stop at the lake for a moonlight photo!). I ended up with a really nice walk-in site for that first night.
Tuesday morning, it was time to hit the more touristy areas of the park. My first stop was probably the most famous: Old Faithful. She didn’t disappoint!
Here’s what you don’t see in that picture:
To be fair, I had slept in some, so this was kind of prime time of the day. But still!! For this being shoulder season in the middle of the week, I was still struggling to find a good spot to sit – I can’t imagine coming to Yellowstone in-season. Don’t do it if you can help it, folks! I will say, I had to contend with some pretty large daily temperature swings: think highs in the 70s and lows in the 30s. But as long as you come prepared, it’s worth it to avoid the huge throngs of people!
I spent the next couple of hours exploring the various geothermal features near Old Faithful. There were some neat ones.
One of my favorite features of that area actually wasn’t a geological one, but an archaeological one: the Old Faithful Inn.
It was just so neat and quaint: they had a violinist playing music in the background, and a massive fireplace with logs blazing. You can see one of my favorite parts in this picture at the very top – the Crow’s Nest. Before an earthquake caused it to be deemed unsafe for heavy traffic, musicians used to play up there while crowds danced the night away on the floor below. Can you imagine??
Afterwards, it was time to visit probably the second most-famous feature in Yellowstone, the Grand Prismatic Spring – or so I thought. The parking lot was completely full, so I bode some time at this really pretty river drive.
Unfortunately, the parking lots were still full after this, so I followed the crowds, parked on the shoulder of the road, and hiked to the board walk. Honestly, I was a little disappointed with the board walk – you couldn’t really see much of the spring, though I did get a cool shot with some bison footprints.
Things got a lot more interesting from the perspective of the overlook hike – highly recommend, as it’s only about a mile round-trip!
I do have to say, Yellowstone is probably the most accessible National Park I’ve visited. I’m not sure whether this is an affect of the huge crowds, or the fact that they have to elevate so many paths so that people aren’t walking among boiling pools of water, but particularly the more touristy areas are very accessible.
I hit a couple more stops along the way back to Lewis Lake Campground, some of which were really colorful.
I was feeling kind of geysered-out at this point, and it was getting close to dark, so I returned to camp for the night. Wednesday morning I was up very early on the road to my second national park of the trip: Grand Teton, just a little south of Yellowstone. I wanted to make it to the visitor’s center as soon as they opened to try and score some ideal backpacking permits at Holly Lake, a spot along the Paintbrush-Cascade loop trail.
Unfortunately, Holly Lake was booked up, so I was forced to take a site further along the loop, higher up in the mountains. The ranger started to warn me about afternoon thunderstorms high up in the peaks, but then stopped when she checked the weather forecast and then informed me that I actually shouldn’t have to worry about weather. Oh, how wrong she was… *Cue foreshadowing music*
It was a pretty gloomy morning, so I decided to drive around and stop at all the points of interest.
One of the more famous places in the area is Mormon Row, a string of old houses and barns left over from a Mormon community. Photographers flock here to get an iconic shot of one particular barn with the Tetons in the background. Unfortunately for this amateur, the clouds were blocking the mountains, but I was still relatively satisfied with the photos I did get.
Next I stopped at the Chapel of the Transfiguration, which ended up one of my favorite spots in the park. I was more impressed with this shot than any of mine at Mormon Row!
Next up was a hike around Taggart Lake, which was gorgeous. My fears that I wouldn’t even be able to see the Tetons due to cloud cover were slowly being allayed!
Finally, after I made it back to my car and started driving again, I got to see the Tetons in their full splendor!
Reader, I had never cried before while gazing upon a corner of creation. This day, I did. I cried, and danced for joy.
One of the theories on why the Tetons are so iconic and instantly recognizable is that they don’t really have foothills, giving them the appearance of suddenly jutting straight up from the ground. Whatever the reason, they are stunning. Make sure you add them to your bucket list.
I continued driving around, stopping at a few more places, but mostly ogling the Tetons whenever they were in sight. When it got close to sunset, I found a nice pullout to watch the show and “cook” a yummy dinner of corned beef hash. Lucky for me, a group of gentlemen had chosen the same pullout to watch some wildlife, and they eagerly pointed out animals and loaned me their binoculars for a few minutes.
After a long day, it was time to set up camp and bed down at Colter Bay Campground. Thursday morning I packed up and hit the road, attempting to head back to Mormon Row for another shot (or 20) at the barn with the Tetons in the background. As it turns out, clouds foiled me again, so I didn’t make it all the way back out there, but I did get a neat shot of the Tetons with a huge cloud at the base.
I moseyed my way over to the String Lake trailhead, taking my sweet old time. I packed up my pack and finally hit the trail sometime after 10. It was a beautiful day, and all I had to do was just hike – easy, right?
The further I trudged uphill, however, the more the clouds seemed to roll in and look almost ominous. I had foolishly not checked the weather for myself that morning, depending solely on the ranger’s forecast from the day before. My uneasiness continued to grow when an older man coming down the mountain asked if I had knew the forecast, clearly concerned about my itinerary and timing. Sure enough, it started to drizzle, then rain, and the wind picked up. Before long, I was soaked through. I told myself I would push through the next mile or two to Holly Lake (about 6 miles in), where I would stop and take a lunch break.
I finally made it to Holly Lake and found a place to hunker down and try to figure out what to do. There was some sporadic lightning happening, and I was pretty concerned about heading any further up the pass, which I was (correctly) guessing would be significantly more exposed. At the same time, I didn’t have permits for Holly Lake, and it was supposed to be all filled up for the night.
After about half an hour, the lightning had died down some, and I had just anxiously decided to try continuing on when two men bounded into camp. I quickly learned that they had just come down the pass and had an extremely harrowing experience doing so. They soon talked me out of going further, so I began to look for a non-puddled spot to bed down. Thankfully, my clothes inside my pack were still dry, so I was soon pretty comfortable. After a couple of hours, the rain had cleared out, so I decided to explore a bit and make dinner.
It was really quite pretty, when you weren’t worried about hypothermia or getting struck by lightning! I got quite a kick out of the fact that I ended up staying at the place that I had originally intended, and the fact that we ended up being the only three people to camp there on a night it was supposed to be fully booked. Oh, the irony…
The next morning, I was faced with another choice: continue up the pass to finish out the loop, or go back down the way I had came. After weighing numerous factors, including some blisters that had cropped up on my feet, the uncertainty of that day’s weather, and the fact that I had a flight to catch the following morning, I ultimately decided to go with my two new friends back down the mountain. I learned that they had been hiking the Teton Crest Trail, and that this was the last leg for them. They were quite anxious for a good burger and soon had me salivating with them. After a couple of hours, we had reached the trailhead. Whether you’ve backpacked 12 or 50 miles, it’s such a relief to reach your car, and these guys were no exception!
We parted ways with the intent of meeting back up to grab a meal, but unfortunately our timing was off and it just didn’t happen. I went to go get a hot shower at one of the campgrounds (oh glory be!), then headed for the National Museum of Wildlife Art. I quickly learned that I quite enjoy this art style and was a little bummed I hadn’t allowed myself more time there.
I got the classic picture by the park sign…
…then headed into nearby Jackson Hole for some real food. I found a neat burger joint in what looked like an old drug store, and dug into a bacon jam burger and a huckleberry milkshake, washed down with a Moscow Mule. Man, it tasted so good, but I definitely had to unbutton the pants!
My original plan had been to stake out a free campsite for the night, but I had decided after taking my shower that I didn’t really want to go back to my wet tent, and I start fantasizing about reading Lord of the Rings from somewhere warm and cozy. Lucky for me, I found a hostel just a little ways out of Jackson Hole! To make it even better, I got a pretty sunset on my way out of town.
Doesn’t it look so inviting?
It definitely had its quirks – no 5 star resort here. But it was just the spot a sleepy Sheraya with a full belly was looking for.
And to top it all off, it had a fire sunrise view the next morning!
I hit the road back to Bozeman pretty early so I could catch my flight. Of course, as a software developer, I had to make a stop at the American Computing and Robotics Museum! I didn’t have much time there, but what I did see was pretty neat.
Before long, I was back in the air to Indiana, with parks #25 and 26 crossed off my list!
I’ve got one more post coming featuring park #27, and then a post with a big announcement! Stay tuned!
Hello all! It’s been a crazy season of life recently, and I’m quite behind on these adventure posts. I’m hoping to use January Break as a chance to catch up a bit!
Last winter, we discovered that my brother was going to have six weeks between his graduation from Rose Hulman and his start date at Milwaukee Tool. This got the gears turning, and we started brainstorming places to go on vacation – our first full-family, extended vacation in about 15 years! We soon settled on a road trip out to the Dakotas, as nobody in the family had been there before, and it would help me check three more National Parks off my list.
July rolled around, and we took off from Crawfordsville early morning on Saturday, July 2. Mom and Dad had rented a nice big mini-van so we could spend our 40+ hours of driving in comfort, which we were all quite grateful for. We drove straight through to Palisades State Park just inside South Dakota. After getting settled in to our little cabin and fixing dinner, we began exploring the small but beautiful park, just in time for sunset. Those pink rocks are so unique!
In quaint state park fashion, there was an outdoor showing of Charlie Brown educational films at the amphitheater. We stayed for a little while and enjoyed 25-cent popsicles before turning in.
Sunday we packed up and hit the road again. Our first stop was Sioux Falls, which had some pretty interesting history (including a nineteenth century scammer’s successful efforts to fund and build a mill) and neat falls.
Can you spot the turtle?
Next up was the Corn Palace in Mitchell, famous for its corn-covered facade, decorated with a new theme annually. What we thought would be a quick stop at a tourist trap turned into a decently long stay once we realized there was a lot of history displayed inside! I particularly enjoyed their exhibit on Oscar Howe, who designed the palace’s corn murals for decades.
An example of Oscar Howe’s work
Our final touristy stop of the day was at the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site. From the Cold War through the present, this area of South Dakota has housed a large percentage of the country’s nuclear missiles, numbering 1000 at its peak. We arrived close to closing time, so our tour of the museum was rather quick. It was shocking to hear how many times the USSR and the US came close to launching missiles; I was thanking God for the people that had intervened in these times, often facing punishment for their actions.
Practically next door was Badlands National Park, our first of three parks on the trip. Immediately after entering the park, we reached the Big Badlands Overlook and of course stopped to grab some photos. A storm was brewing on the horizon, which made the pictures that much more striking.
We set up camp at Cedar Pass campground and made dinner. My hopes for a good sunset were slowly diminishing due to the ever-darkening clouds, but to my delight, beautiful pink patches started appearing in the sky! We had already planned to squeeze in a short evening hike to avoid the crowds and heat tomorrow would bring, but the threat of impending rain and the allure of sunset hurried us back into the van and onto the road.
We ended up at the trailhead for the Door, Window and Notch trails and decided to traverse the former two, leaving the Notch for tomorrow. The Window Trail was scenic despite being very short, but the Door Trail was the highlight of the night, as it led us out into the badlands with just the occasional marker to find our way. With lightning flashing nearly continuously in the distance and the winds picking up, it became an awesome experience we won’t soon forget.
We arrived back at camp, but Braden was the only fortunate enough to make it inside the tent before the rain finally unleashed. Monday morning (July 4!) we awoke very grateful that our site was on slightly higher ground, as many of the nearby sites were submerged.
I was hoping to catch sunrise out at the overlook that morning, but complicating things was our rental car, which was only under Mom and Dad’s name. This reduced costs but meant that they had to “chauffeur” Braden and I everywhere. I got lucky this morning, as Mom was gracious enough to wake up early with me. The results weren’t as stunning as I had hoped for, but the Badlands still looked beautiful in the early morning light.
After packing up camp, we piled back into the van and returned to the same trailhead as last night to check off the Notch trail. This trail was longer than Door and Window and even more exciting – we were climbing ladders and shuffling along ledges to reach the end. Definitely a challenge for those who dislike heights, but Mom made it through!
After we were done playing around on the formations, we stopped for a quick lunch outside the Ben Reifel Visitor Center, then “overlooked” our way through the rest of the park. There were some pretty neat stops, such as the Yellow Mounds Overlook. We even saw a mountain goat at one stop!
Before long we were out of the park and onto our tourist trap of the day: Wall Drug! If you’re not familiar, it’s a chintzy, ginormous, old-fashioned rest stop, complete with hokey animatronics, arcade games, a soda parlor, shops, etc. They first gained traffic when they started offering free ice water, which they still do to this day, though now there’s a lot more to draw in visitors.
Our next stop was at South Dakota’s most famous spot: Mount Rushmore. I have to say, it was pretty neat being there on July 4, even if there wasn’t a fireworks show this year.
We honestly weren’t sure what to expect visiting Rushmore – though iconic, we had heard others call it small and unimpressive. After we had experienced it, we all concluded that we disagreed pretty strongly with this perspective! Spending time in the museum is a must, however, to truly appreciate the massive undertaking this memorial required.
It was fascinating to me the perseverance required to see it through multiple obstacles: Jefferson’s original head, carved on the other side of Washington, had to be blasted off after the rock was found to be too soft; Roosevelt was carved much deeper in than planned to escape hard rock; Jefferson’s face had to be rotated up multiple degrees after a crack in the rock threatened to run through his nose; and so on.
We also thoroughly enjoyed the trails around the monument, which allowed us to get closer. Overall, we would highly recommend – a highlight of the trip!
One similar attraction we did not make it to was the Crazy Horse Monument – we simply ran out of time, and we were pretty tired at this point in the day. We did make it a point to drive past it and snap a quick picture.
As we started traversing the windy roads towards our lodging for the night, we were suddenly surrounded by granite spires, and the sunset just became more and more vivid. We finally found a pulloff, so Dad and I leaped out and started scrambling up the nearest rocks to try and get the best views we could. It was all just absolutely stunning.
We finally pulled ourselves away and continued into Custer State Park, our destination for the night. Tonight we were tent camping at Sylvan Lake Campground, which is perched on a hill. We took shifts setting up camp and cooking dinner, and those not on duty traveled up the hill to watch fireworks being set off in some town below. The Badlands, Rushmore, insane sunset, and fireworks made for a pretty epic Fourth of July!
Tuesday I rose early again, not too exhausted yet to catch a sunrise. I traveled a little further up than our firework-viewing post from the night before, and with just a little scrambling I had myself a pretty scenic perch for watching the sunrise.
By the time I went back down to camp, the others hadn’t woken yet, so I managed to catch a little sleep before we were all up and going again.
I cannot say enough good things about Custer State Park – in fact, it’s rivaled and even exceeded some of the National Parks I’ve been to! One of the biggest highlights is Black Elk Peak, the highest point in the State and the highest point east of the Rockies. One of my good college friends had summited it on a trip to SD, and I was eager to follow suit. Unfortunately, the weather looked a little sketchy for this afternoon, so we decided to do a driving day.
First, however, we did a small hike around Sylvan Lake, which is just a gorgeous spot. Dad and I spotted anchors in the granite boulders and made mental notes to look into guided climbing should we ever come back.
Sylvan the night before
Iron Mountain Road is another highlight of Custer. Designed to keep drivers at a speed less than 35 mph, this road is an architectural delight: it contains four tunnels – each perfectly positioned to frame Mount Rushmore – pigtail bridges that gracefully lower/raise drivers through elevation changes, not to mention countless curves weaving through monstrous granite spires. On top of this, it has multiple letterboxes!
The Needle FormationWe made a quick stop at the Game Lodge to find a letterbox.Can you spot Rushmore?Our first attempt at a lunch spot before ants drove us outRushmore again!
We drove the whole road, stopping a few times at overlooks and letterbox hiding spots, then turning around and driving back once we reached the end. It turned out to be a gorgeous day with almost no rain in sight. After a busy previous day, it was nice to sit back a little.
Once we got back to the park, we decided to keep driving and try to find some bison, which none of us had seen in the wild before. A park ranger directed us to the southern part of the park, where some had been reported not long before. We soon traded the paved roads for gravel, and after a few minutes, we came across a whole herd!
We knew they would be big, but man, even from several feet away and within a car they seemed mammoth. Most barely seemed to react to our presence.
A few more places on the map piqued our curiosity, so we finished out the loop to check them out. A letterbox was waiting for us in the French Creek Nature Area. Badger Hole was a neat cabin tucked back into the woods (I would gladly have lived there!) Coolidge Fire Tower was unfortunately closed. After these mini-adventures, we headed towards our lodging, tonight a cabin at Blue Bell Campground, and settled in.
Wednesday morning we rose bright and early and ate breakfast on the road so we could reach Wind Cave National Park and purchase cave tour tickets (FCFS) before they sold out. Fortunately, we were pretty much the first in line, so there was no question of getting tickets.
Wind Cave is most known for its boxwork formations – in fact, more boxwork is found here than in all other known caves in the world combined.
In addition to its scientific importance, it’s also the backbone of the Lakota people’s creation story: its biggest natural opening is a hole 10 inches wide, and since it’s a barometric cave, air flows in or out as the pressure changes, giving it the appearance of breathing. Of course, settlers didn’t exactly treat it with the same respect as the Lakota: the first known person to enter the cave shimmied down this hole and told his buddy where to plant dynamite to blast a more convenient entrance, and later cave managers built a shack over it to provide themselves with some all natural air-conditioning.
After the tour, we returned to Custer. I had hoped to hike a trail or two on the surface at Wind Cave, but our plans to hike Black Elk Peak necessitated we start soon. We grabbed a quick lunch, then set off towards the trailhead. All four of us initially started out on the trail, as there was supposed to be a letterbox near the trailhead. After a while searching, however, we gave it up, and Dad, Braden and I continued on the trail.
We first hiked to Little Devil’s Tower, which actually bore little resemblance to its namesake. It did have great views and a pretty fun scramble at the end, though it was a little sketchy in the slight sprinkles that had accompanied us.
Next we continued on to the Cathedral Spires, which were also really neat.
Dad decided to turn back at this point, and Braden and I continued on. We grabbed one letterbox on the way and reached the peak in decent time, which was good because I was starting to dread the thought of any more uphill. Views from the peak were absolutely stunning, and the 1930s CCC fire tower was also beautiful and fun to explore. Plus our weather had cleared up!
This site also happens to be sacred to the Lakota people, and the name was just changed in 2016 to reflect that heritage. It wasn’t until we got back to camp and were showing Dad pictures that he pointed out the massive, eye-shaped cloud in the last photo and half jokingly said the Lakota gods were watching us. The only god I believe in is Yahweh, but it was definitely still eery!
The descent didn’t take super long, maybe 1.5 hours, and then Braden and I met Mom and Dad back in the trailhead parking lot. We headed back to the cabin, made dinner, and lit a fire for a little while before turning in.
Thursday morning was another bright and early morning, as we packed up and bid goodbye to Custer and South Dakota. Our next stop: Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. (Or if we’re really being technical, a neat letterbox of Devil’s Tower and then Devil’s Tower itself!)
One of the most interesting aspects to me were the several climbers ascending the tower! And it wasn’t just me – you could practically see the wheels turning in Dad’s head in regards to the logistics of climbing out here. We walked the loop around the base of the tower, then hit the road again for our final National Park: Theodore Roosevelt NP, or as we nicknamed it, “Teddy”.
Teddy is the only US National Park to be named after a person. Though Roosevelt wasn’t the first president to sanction a National Park, he was pivotal in the early years of creating National Parks and is often known as the Conservation President. He doubled the number of National Park Sites during his term and signed the Antiquities Act, which allowed Presidents to establish National Monuments. He spent significant amounts of time ranching out in North Dakota, years he later called formative in his journey to the Presidency, and returned there after experiencing personal tragedy.
The park is split into three units: the north, the south, and the Elkhorn Ranch, where Roosevelt once lived. We started out in the South unit and arrived at the Visitor’s Center just in time to grab a backcountry permit, our first one of the trip! With differing abilities/experience throughout the family, we were more interested in finding an interesting place to camp than racking up a ton of miles, so we settled on the Jones Creek Trail. It helped that the park rules were pretty lax – we just had to hike in a 1/4 mile from the trailhead! The trickiest part would be finding a flat spot to pitch tents.
Dark was still several hours away, so we went overlooking and were quite pleasantly surprised at the gentle beauty of the park.
We decided to eat dinner before backpacking so we could avoid packing in kitchen gear and food. All that was required was a pretty place to dine, and we soon found it!
We were even lucky enough to spot a mustang!
Soon enough it was time to start on the trail, so we filled our packs and headed for Jones Creek. It was really pretty, even with the clouds.
I had packed my 1-person tent with me in anticipation of sleeping by myself for the first time on the trip. There are definitely perks to traveling with others, but the solo traveler in me was quite ready for a break!
We found our spot probably 3/4 of a mile in, pitched our tents, briefly convened in Mom and Dad’s tent for dessert (knock-off Honey Grahams for the win!), then turned in for the night.
Friday morning we awoke to not a single soul outside our family, only a lone buffalo in the distance. It was blissful!
We hadn’t really packed breakfast, so we didn’t dawdle in packing up. I did “caboose” the pack for a little while to get some pictures of the fam while they were hiking back.
We were entertained on the way back by walking through a prairie dog farm, though a little more wary after hearing a story of a man who had died after being bitten by one.
The trailhead was in site shortly, and we were off again. We stopped near the visitor’s center to view Roosevelt’s cabin, transplanted from the Elkhorn Unit…
…then at nearby Medora for some ice cream, letterboxing attempts, and this gem:
We stopped briefly for lunch and a letterbox at the Painted Canyon Overlook/Visitor Center…
…then headed for the North Unit of Teddy, an hour and change drive Medora. We were immediately greeted by a herd of carefree bison as we tried to enter the gate and had a good chuckle again at the rule to get no closer than 200 feet from them – within the safety of our car, of course.
We found the views as we went overlooking quite a bit more drastic in the North Unit, though definitely more remote.
Of particular interest was geological formations known as cannonball concretions – as I understand, large balls of sediment glued together by minerals formed by pockets in the earth. As the earth around dissolves, the concretions are left behind.
I had heard about the Caprock Coulee Trail from EarthTrekkers, and we thought it looked really neat, so Dad dropped Mom, Braden and I off at the River Bend Overlook. It took us a while to find the trail, but once we did, it didn’t disappoint.
The whole trail is a 4.1 mile loop, but we just hiked the section along the ridge, and Dad met us coming from the other way a mile or so down the trail. Though it was a little tricky to follow at times, I thought it was a lot of fun!
Sadly, it was time for us to bid adieu and start the long journey home. We didn’t have that far to go tonight, as we had reserved a hotel just down the road in Dickinson. After cleaning up, we treated ourselves and went out for pizza!
All of the next day was spent driving home, so this seems like a good place to cut this post off. Overall, I highly recommend visiting the Dakotas – what they lack in terms of big cities is more than made up for in beautiful, interesting places to visit.
May your next adventure be wonderful, wherever it is!
…on such a winter’s day. Today’s high is in the 30’s, so this classic song seems especially appropriate as I pen this post.
To begin this epic trip to Death Valley, Joshua Tree, and the Channel Islands, I flew into LA early Saturday morning. The flight cruised at pretty low altitude, so I got to see some gorgeous landscapes when I wasn’t asleep.
I picked up my rental car, bought groceries, grabbed a shrimp taco from Del Taco, and headed out for Death Valley that afternoon. It was pretty crazy going from the second largest city in the country to a very isolated desert landscape that tested my 4-wheel drive within just a few hours.
I planned to explore the less developed part of the park in the Panamint range (circled in blue below), then make my way over to the valley and hit several main attractions (circled in purple).
My original plans were to camp at Mahogany Flats Saturday night and hike to Telescope Peak, the highest point in the park, on Sunday, but that idea was dashed when I discovered that the last 1.5 miles of the road to Mahogany Flats was closed. I instead camped at Wildrose Saturday night.
And BRRR, was it chilly! The campground pretty exposed, and since it’s at a higher elevation, it got down in the 30s that night. I’d say it was all worth it, though, for that sunrise view the next morning. Pretty sure I took this from my tent.
Since the 14 miles to Telescope Peak in the snow sounded daunting before adding the 1.5 miles of closed road each way, I ultimately settled for the less intimidating 8.4 mile RT hike to Wildrose Peak. The trailhead is by the Charcoal Kilns, where miners used to burn piñon pines to turn into charcoal.
The hike to Wildrose was gorgeous, though definitely a buttkicker, rising 2200 feet in 4.1 miles.
One of the best parts, however, was the lack of people. I counted fewer than ten people the entire hike, which would prove a stark contrast to the rest of my Death Valley experience.
I did end up meeting an awesome couple near the summit and spent some time with them up there just soaking in the views. You can see Telescope Peak in the bottom photograph.
After lunch, my new friends settled in for a brief nap in the warm sun, but I decided I’d better get going again, so we bid farewell.
I made it back to the trailhead in a little less than 2.5 hours and started towards the main part of the park. That drive was just gorgeous.
I had plans to stay at Stovepipe Wells Campground (green on the map), but I wanted to do some things on the west end of the park first, so I headed that way once I hit 190. First stop was the Father Crowley Vista Point, which overlooks Star Wars Canyon. The name is somewhat ironic because, while some features of Death Valley made it into Star Wars Episode IV, this was not one of them.
The view was beautiful, but to top it off, there was a letterbox nearby! It has to be one of my favorite stamps I’ve found yet.
Since I was so close to the west entrance, I drove there and got a picture with the sign.
I caught sunset on the way back to Stovepipe Wells. What a gorgeous park.
I snagged a campsite and set up for the night. Stovepipe is definitely one of the strangest “campgrounds” I’ve seen – it was essentially a large gravel parking lot with room for tents around the edges.
I can’t really complain though – it had flush toilets and it was cheap! Only $7 a night, since it was off-season.
I packed up early the next morning and hit the road. I filled up first thing and nearly gagged at the price of gas – $5.30. If I only knew…
My first stop was the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. It was neat, but I decided not to stay very long. I had several things I wanted to see, and after experiencing the Great Sand Dunes in Colorado, these dunes seemed rather small.
I made a few quick park-on-the-side-of-the-road-to-run-and-catch-a-great-shot stops along the drive. Sunrise was just too pretty to resist.
I was just amazed at the amount of vegetation on the valley floor. For a place that gets an average of two inches of rain a year, there was so much greenery in little pockets here and there.
Next up was the Harmony Borax Works site. Apparently Death Valley was once primarily used as a mining site. It wasn’t very productive, however, and its owner soon determined it was more profitable as an attraction and started building infrastructure to support tourism. One of the materials most mined was borax, and it was famously hauled out of the valley with 20-mule teams, which went on to become the namesake and symbol of a borax brand.
My third(ish) stop was a short one at Zabriskie Point…
…And my fourth was Dante’s View, which requires a 30 minute drive off the main drag. I thought it was well worth it for the views of the valley floor.
I drove back and stopped at the visitor’s center, which had some pretty neat exhibits and interesting information. Death Valley is many things: the hottest place in the world (134 degrees back in 1913), the lowest point in the country (200 feet below sea level at Badwater Basin), and one of the driest places in the world (an average 2 inches of rain per year). I enjoyed the outdoor thermostat, which showed the temperature change between different elevations.
Next up was the drive down Badwater Road, which winds through multiple interesting park features. My first stop was the Golden Canyon trail, which is on the other side of Zabriskie Point. This trail was short and a pretty neat hike, especially the further you went in! I hiked back to the Red Rocks Cathedral and was not disappointed.
Next I did the drive down Artist’s Road and stopped at Artist’s Palette, known for its many-colored hills, due to the chemistry of the soil.
The next feature I visited was Devil’s Golf Course, which made me chuckle. It’s essentially a bunch of salt formations, which look cool but are understandably pretty difficult (and painful) to walk on, so I didn’t spend much time there.
My final major stop in the park was Badwater Basin, the lowest place in the country. It was pretty neat, despite being packed full of tourists. I got a kick out of the sign pointing out sea level – can you spot it?
My time in DV had run out, so it was time to hit the road again. I drove back towards LA and snagged one of my favorite travel partners from the Ontario airport for the second leg of the trip, Joshua Tree.
Of course, our first stop was In’n’Out. SO good.
Dad and I drove the rest of the way out to Joshua Tree that night, set up camp at our site in Ryan Campground and promptly crashed. We were up a few hours later to catch sunrise at the Chollah Cactus Garden. Man, it was as beautiful as everyone said it would be.
After I had finished running around like a madman taking photos, we slowly made our way back to the campground, taking photos of other cool plants we found on the way. Again, the desert is amazing.
We also played on rocks a bit near Skull Rock. Much to my amusement, Dad decided to masquerade as an eyeball.
Back at the campsite, we mused over a neighbor’s interesting vehicle over a late breakfast. I saw the website listed on the side (https://exploring509.de/) and guessed they were from Germany.
Just a few minutes later, we saw one of them out and about, so I went over to strike up a conversation. Of course, I was right in the middle of brushing my teeth, so first impressions probably weren’t stellar, but oh well…
Turns out, they were from Germany! Michaela and Peter are a married couple who have been traveling the world for the last four years. We had just a quick introduction that morning, as Dad and I were eager to go hike some trails, but we parted with the hope of seeing them later that night.
First we hit Chasm of Doom, which is best described as an exhilarating, claustrophobia-inducing passageway through a massive group of boulders. Dad had sojourned through this once before with a group of Scouts, and based on his stories, I was eager to try it. Not going to lie, it ended up being kind of outside of my comfort zone, so I was really glad Dad was with me.
There are multiple ways to start and end it, but the defining element is known as “the coffin” or even the “birth canal”. If you look at the picture below, you can see why:
You essentially have to squeeze between these two rocks, pushing off of other rocks, until you get far enough back to reach a vertical shaft that you can climb up. Good thing I’m not claustrophobic.
After you top out of the shaft, you enter a narrow hallway between two massive boulders and make your way through.
After we made it out of the hallway, we took some celebratory photos by these cool rocks, thinking the hard part was over.
Ha! Getting down proved to be one of the hardest, sketchiest parts of the whole thing, but we made it out okay.
Next up was a hike to the Desert Queen Mine. Much like Death Valley, mining was a big part of Joshua Tree’s history, although it ended much more recently here in JTree than DV. The park service has covered over all of the shafts we encountered on the way out, but they were still neat to see.
What most people don’t know is that if you continue past the main mine shafts, you can hike to the Boulder House, an ingenious little dwelling constructed presumably by an area miner. It’s not marked on any NPS maps, and there’s no signage on the trail – Dad stumbled across it online and thought it sounded interesting, so he printed out directions.
After about an hour or so of picking our way along a tricky-to-follow trail, we made it to the general area of the house, but we had no idea where it was. That’s when we stumbled along David, an older man who was exploring the area.
We struck up a conversation with him, and before long we were talking about all of the adventures he’d had hiking around the world. Such a sweet and interesting guy! We have him to thank for showing us where the house was – it’s right behind him in the above photo.
The ingenuity of whoever built this is just astounding. Luckily, its distance from the trailhead and obscurity mean that it’s stayed relatively unchanged, and a lot of artifacts still remain. Highly recommend if you have a few extra hours to spend at JTree and aren’t afraid of going off the beaten path.
As the sun started sinking lower, we decided to head back to try and catch sunset. We drove back to our campsite, grabbed our headlamps and set out for Ryan Ranch, behind which is the large rock formation known as Oyster Bar.
Dad and I decided to scramble to the top to get some good views. It was pretty awesome, but unfortunately it was just not peak color that night.
We scrambled back down in the dark, eager to go eat dinner. After filling ourselves, we went to go catch up with our neighbors around the fire, sharing Girl Scout cookies and a beer. The stories they told about their travels were just incredible. It’s so exciting to see people live out their travel dreams, and they made me excited for the years to come.
Eventually we bid adieu, as Dad and I had to be up early the next morning to go rock climbing.
And what a grand adventure that was: my first time climbing outdoors! We met our guide at Intersection Rock, then drove to Cap Rock and did a few climbs around there. It was so much fun, our guide Jarad was great, and we had near perfect weather.
After each doing a couple climbs toprope, we decided to close out the day with a lead climb summitting Cap Rock. We scrambled up to the route, then Jarad lead-climbed it and Dad and I followed. It was pretty sweet.
We ate lunch under Cap Rock, then crawled up to the true summit and hung out while Jarad set us up for rappelling back down.
What a great day. Definitely will be doing outdoor climbing again!
Full recommendation to Jarad from Vertical Adventures, by the way. He was so chill, knowledgeable, encouraging, and helpful. Genuinely a great guy and guide!
We parted ways, and Dad and I passed time by going on a drive through Joshua Tree. In case you’re wondering, the perfect sound track for this is obviously U2’s Joshua Tree album. What a dream come true – couldn’t help but get teary-eyed hearing “Where the Streets Have No Name” blasting over the speakers.
The sun was dropping in the sky, so we drove to the Boy Scout trailhead and got our packs ready. Dad had the genius idea of backpacking our last night so we could have a section of Joshua Tree to ourselves. JTree’s only requirement for backcountry camping is that you be a mile from the main road and not within a day use area, which leaves so many easy possibilities.
We had a location in mind, but Jarad had recommended we instead go to Mustang Ranch off of the Boy Scout trailhead. We took him at his word, and I’m so glad we did – it was the perfect location, and the hike out was gorgeous.
We admired the site for a few minutes, then I dropped my pack and prepared for sunset. With all the clouds in the sky, I was really hoping for a killer show, especially since the night before had been kind of lackluster. Man, it did not disappoint.
AUGH THAT PINK. This picture just doesn’t do it justice. It was there and then gone so fast.
After I had finished running around like a madman, I made my way back to Dad and we set up camp. We climbed up on a rock for a bit and talked until we started feeling hungry enough to climb down and make dinner.
I set my alarm an hour early for the next morning so we could enjoy our last morning in JTree without being hurried. Dad and I explored for a bit before making breakfast and taking down the site.
We hiked back, put our packs in the car, and bid adieu to Joshua Tree.
We got Dad a shower at a local campground and then headed for Ontario Airport, with a stop at El Pollo Loco for lunch. No photo evidence because, well, we were hungry.
I dropped Dad off and continued on to LA. I had a reservation at the Freeland Hotel downtown for that evening, and with a few hours to kill, I decided to head for Griffith Park. I know, I know – after all this hiking, I head to the second largest city in the country and do what? Yep, you guessed it – more hiking!
Feeling tired but happy, I trekked back to the car after reaching the summit of Mt. Hollywood and braced myself to enter rush hour traffic. Thankfully, it wasn’t too bad, and I lucked out even more by scoring a street parking spot right outside the Freehand.
I had chosen the Freehand because it was ranked really highly on HostelWorld and because I was eager to have a hostel experience in such a big city, but it quickly became clear that it actually was a hotel that offered some hostel-style rooms. That’s my guess at least – I’ve never seen a hostel this boujee!
I grabbed a shower, which felt indescribably wonderful, and then went next door to Shake Shack to grab dinner. Man, it tasted so good…
I went up to the roof to check things out, and if I hadn’t had to be up early the next morning, I would have totally stayed and had a drink or two at the bar. Maybe another time.
4:00 rolled around too early, especially since I was leaving an actual bed as opposed to a sleeping bag, but I couldn’t risk getting caught in LA rush hour traffic when I had an 8 am ferry to catch. Thankfully I made it to Ventura with plenty of time and a gorgeous sunrise to boot.
Before I knew it, I was off to the Channel Islands! Santa Cruz Island, to be specific. We were lucky enough to encounter a pod of dolphins along the way – I about could have cried of happiness.
After about 1.5 hours, we docked and disembarked. First impressions were stunning – so green, especially after having been in the desert the last week.
While walking to the campground, I struck up a conversation with two older men who were leaving the island that day. They started giving me suggestions on some hikes to do, and of course from there we started talking about the various places we’d been. Turns out, they were old mountaineering buddies who, even though they now lived across the country from each other, would still travel together. I was bummed that our island time hadn’t overlapped more, but still glad I got to meet them.
The campground was just beautiful. I set up my tent and just breathed for a moment.
Each site had a “fox box” – identical to bear boxes in other parks, except intended to keep out the tiny but fearless island foxes, endemic to the island. They patrolled the campground, so I saw quite a few!
I had heard a lot about the hike to Smuggler’s Cove – one of the few accessible beaches on the island – so I decided to knock that one out that afternoon. It was absolutely gorgeous – 7.5 miles RT with sweeping views of the ocean and nearby Anacapa Island.
Even better, I had the whole place nearly to myself! I explored Smuggler’s Ranch, ate lunch, then laid on the beach for about an hour, soaking up sunshine and listening to the waves. Life was grand.
I headed back when more people started arriving, eager to catch a good place for sunset. I caught the ranger at the campground, and she recommended heading towards Potato Harbor, so I grabbed a headlamp and off I went.
Unfortunately, the winds had really picked up at this point, so it was slow going along the exposed cliffs. I gave up before making it to Potato Harbor – being pelted with dirt and pebbles blown by the wind was just not fun – but I still got some great views.
I chose mashed potatoes for dinner since they required the least amount of cooking time, but even then I was fighting the wind to keep my stove going. I climbed into my tent immediately after cleaning up and passed out.
I slept in the next morning, and it felt so good. I swear, there’s hardly anything better than waking up in a tent warmed by the sun – bonus points if it’s in a beautiful place. On top of this, winds were strong enough that they had cancelled all ferry trips, which meant we campers had the whole island to ourselves!
I took time to explore Scorpion Ranch that morning. Ranching is a huge part of the island’s history: the island at one point was used almost entirely for raising sheep and cattle and had 10 ranches and offranches. Santa Cruz island even had the largest telephone system in the country at one point as wires, as wires were laid between each of the ranches. Stock wasn’t the only product of the island, however; olive orchards and vineyards were also planted, and the island boasted the most productive winery in the US for a while.
Today, the western 75% of the island is managed by the Nature Conservancy, and the eastern portion is managed by the NPS. Hiking on the Nature Conservancy side requires a permit, so I stuck to the NPS side; however, I felt there was more than enough to do for the time I had.
For my second day hike, I decided to do a loop hike connecting Smuggler’s Cove Road to Montañon Ridge to Potato Harbor to the campground. The guys I had met said it was even better than Smuggler’s, so I was excited to check it out.
I don’t know if I agree that it’s better than Smuggler’s (hard to beat the beach!), but it was still pretty stunning!
In some high spots on the trail, you could see ocean in nearly all directions – just gorgeous. The only downside was the wind – I kept hoping to stop somewhere scenic to grab lunch, but the gusts were up to probably 45 mph, so I eventually gave up and just snacked.
I made it back to the campground to find my tent had blown over. Luckily all my poles were fine, but it did give me a good scare. I readjusted the angle and reanchored with rocks this time.
Before long, it was time for sunset again. I stayed closer to the campground but still got some good views.
The rest of my evening consisted of another quick dinner of mashed potatoes soon followed by sleep.
I was relieved to find the next morning that the winds had cleared up enough for the ferry to come pick up campers; however, the winds were apparently still too strong to go sea kayaking, as my guided tour was cancelled. I was a little bummed, but honestly, my island experience has been so good that it just would have been icing on the cake. I’ve heard rave reviews, though, so it may be worth coming back for.
I packed up, squeezed in one final short hike, and boarded the ferry back to the mainland with a wistful smile. Island time is such a special thing.
We were lucky enough to spot gray whales on our way back, though I wasn’t able to get any pictures of them.
Back on the mainland, I visited the park visitor’s center, which gave a nice overview of all five islands.
I was hungry and excited to experience my first fish taco, so before long I found myself at the locally famous Spencer Mackenzie’s. And BOY, were there tacos good.
I had some time to kill before heading back to the airport, so I ambled down to the Ventura Pier and people-watched for a bit.
And of course, when at the beach, you at least have to take a stroll, so I walked a ways and caught some surfers at sunset.
I finally tore myself away and trekked back to the car so I could pack up my stuff. Within a few hours, I drove back to LA, grabbed a delicious chocolate malt from Melo Burger, dropped off the rental car, and boarded a redeye back to Indianapolis.
That wraps it up for this trip – stay tuned for a Dakotas road trip with the fam in July! Thanks for reading!
Hello all! Excited to share about this adventure – it was a good one!
Colorado is a state that is – if not near, at least – dear to me. I fell in love with its mountains on a ski trip a couple of years ago, and I was considering moving out there before COVID hit. I decided in March to check off the National Parks there, and I was lucky enough to score some pretty awesome backcountry permits in RMNP and campsite reservations in the three other parks.
Despite my early bookings, things didn’t really come together until the week of the trip, in typical Sheraya fashion. I was really hoping to share the trip with someone (and avoid paying for a $750 rental car!), and I found an amazing travel partner and friend in Stephanie! Long story short, I know her mom, and she offered Stephanie up as a potential companion.
I flew into Denver on Friday, and we stayed in a hotel there before heading out to RMNP on Saturday.
The original plan had us backpacking up to Boulderfield Saturday, and we would summit Long’s Peak, the highest point in the park, Sunday morning. Unfortunately, the weather looked downright nasty, so we decided to forgo the summit and backpack to a much lower elevation campsite, Goblin’s Forest. Since the hike in to the site was just over a mile and we couldn’t get into the main park area until 3:00, we killed time by running errands, including, of course, stopping at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Once the park opened, we procrastinated on hiking in the rainy, cold weather by driving around.
We decided to drive the somewhat treacherous Old Fall River Road, a 11-mile, one-way gravel road. Unfortunately, clouds made it difficult to see much, but we still encountered some deer and a pretty waterfall.
By the time we reached the end of the road and drove back down, we decided it was probably time we hit the trail. Somewhat reluctantly, we packed up our stuff and left the dry warmth of the car for the cool, drizzly outdoors.
As we climbed up to the campsite, we quickly became grateful that it was only a mile in. Colorado’s elevation is no joke!
We ended up having Goblin’s Forest all to ourselves, so we had our choice of sites and picked the closest one to the stream. It was really pretty, despite being overcast.
Thankfully, the rain stopped shortly after we got there, so we were able to set up camp without getting too wet. We chatted a bit and made plans for the next day, then turned in.
Sunday we whipped up some oatmeal, then packed a daybag and began the 3 mile hike up to Chasm Lake. And man, those views were killer, especially once we got above treeline.
And that doesn’t even include the actual destination: Chasm Lake!
Stephanie and I agreed that we liked the views on the way just as much as Chasm Lake, though it was all beautiful. We ate a snack by the lake, then started the hike back before afternoon storms rolled in.
We got back to the campsite early afternoon, and Stephanie decided to hike back to the car for a phone charger, while I stayed behind and sat on the banks of the stream and read Lord of the Rings (still working on Fellowship of the Ring!).
It looked for a while like we were going to have the whole place to ourselves again, but a hiker Stephanie met on the trail ended up dropping by and decided to stay for the night. We had a great time with him and were happy to share our dinner with him, especially since he volunteered to sleep under the stars and be bear bait!
We couldn’t stay up too late chatting, however, as we had an early Monday morning coming. Since we didn’t have timed entry passes to the Bear Lake section of the park, we had to enter before 5 am, which meant waking up at 3, packing up, hiking the mile back to the car and driving a half hour to that side of the park. We might have been crazy, but we made it!
We crashed in the car for about an hour before we roused again and began the hike to Sky Pond. Unlike the image below, we hiked over by Nymph Lake and Dream Lake so we could make a bit of a loop. In retrospect, we thought this was the best way to hike it, as it added some beautiful views without too much more mileage.
It was so pretty.
The terrain never got old, especially because there were so many lakes to stop at and several little side hikes you could do.
After a couple of hours, and some decent switchbacks, we made it to the base of Sky Pond. What we didn’t realize is the final climb to Sky Pond was actually a climb, up through a small waterfall no less!
I decided to go on ahead while Stephanie stayed back and recuperated a little bit. I was pretty glad when I got up and saw Sky Pond pretty much immediately!
….or so I thought. I overheard a family talking and realized that this was in fact Lake of Glass, and that Sky Pond was a little further. So I got back up and followed them the rest of the way there.
I liked them both about equally, but it was nice to say I made it to Sky Pond. Really, the whole area up there was beautiful.
After a little while enjoying the views, I scrambled back down to where Stephanie was waiting, and we got a picture by the waterfall before descending.
Thankfully, the way back was almost entirely downhill. There were some pretty spots, though less scenic than the way we came in.
After we got back to the trailhead, we headed for Glacier Basin Campground to see if they had any last-minute openings, as we were pretty pooped at the thought of backpacking to a site that night. We were in luck!
We set up camp and ate a late lunch, then drove into town for some supplies. We walked out with what I’d call some high quality dinner…
It was raining by the time we got back, so we holed up in our tents and fell asleep to a soft pitter-patter. It would have been nice, except that we also woke up to a soft pitter-patter. We quickly broke camp, stuffed the sopping tents in the back of the car, and headed out for Great Sand Dunes NP.
We made a stop for a couple hours at a Panera in Colorado Springs so Stephanie could knock out a test, and I got to try a bread bowl for the first time. Yummy.
We had some really good conversations on the way to GSD, ranging from silly to serious. We were pretty slaphappy by the end of it, and got really giggly when we saw this sign:
Like, okay, lots of things could exist on the road, right? We giggled even more when we saw this sign:
So water may exist on the road, along with a host of other things, but you know there definitely won’t be snowplows between 7-5.
Much to our amusement, a few miles later, there really was water “existing” on the road!
There had been so much rain that the road had flooded! Thankfully, within about 15 minutes, it had receded enough for us to drive on. We were still pretty tickled though. For the rest of the trip, we made it a point to look for silly signs, and we weren’t disappointed:
We finally got to the park, and though the weather looked awfully ominous, we got some awesome rainbows!
And we caught our first glimpse of the dunes!
We drove straight to the campground so we could dry out our sopping tents, and low and behold we found at our site…
The conversation went something like this:
Me, the first one to see it: “Uh, Stephanie? You might want to see this…”
Stephanie, walking up to see it: “Oh no…”
Me, trying to find some positive in the situation: “Well, at least…”
Stephanie: “At least what??!”
Both: Dissolve into giggles
Thankfully there was enough space for us to pitch our tents around it.
We made dinner, which we also giggled about because it was chili and it had beans in it (can you tell we were pretty slaphappy?).
At sunset, we walked down towards the dunes to get a better glimpse. This picture really doesn’t do it justice.
There we met a women named Glenn. We quickly hit it off, and spent several minutes chatting before we took her back to our campsite to see our “built in pool”. To our chagrin, it had soaked into the ground, but we had something else to giggle about now.
Wednesday thankfully broke warm and sunny. We packed a day bag and headed for the dunes.
The whole time we were at this park, Stephanie and I just couldn’t fathom how all this sand got here. It’s literally these massive dunes (the tallest in the country!) that just show up randomly in the middle of the mountains.
Our goal was to get to the top of High Dune, the second tallest dune in the park. After an hour or so, we made it up, and the views were incredible!
To our great surprise, Glenn was also at the top of High Dune!
We decided to hike back together. As it turns out, Glenn was not a huge fan of going down the ridgelines, so we ended up taking a much more circuitous route than we would have otherwise. It definitely gave us time for good convos, more sights of the dunes, and lots of laughs!
We parted ways when we got back, as Stephanie and I had to go pack up the campsite. For our second night there, I had heard about camping on the dunes and really wanted to do that, so we headed to the visitor’s center and sorted out permits. We were pretty tuckered out from the morning hike, so we decided to eat, rest up, and then head out for the dunes closer to sunset so we wouldn’t need to take as much with us.
We got another really good laugh when we discovered that the two inches of skin between my socks and leggings (which I’ll admit, Stephanie had told me earlier to apply sunscreen to) were a bright fiery red from that morning. Hiker chic, amirite?
Hiking back up in the evening was a bit more challenging, as the wind was blowing pretty strongly. It was just as beautiful though.
The rules said only one group was allowed per dune hollow/pit, so it took us a while to find an unoccupied spot. We pitched our tents, put our packs inside them to keep them from flying away, and climbed the nearest dune to watch sunset.
We left the rain flies off our tents that night so we could see the stars. Unfortunately, my phone can’t take night pictures worth anything, but it was the kind of night where you couldn’t pick out constellations because there were so many stars. I counted five shooting stars. It was absolutely magical.
Thursday we got up in time to watch the sunrise, which was also beautiful.
We enjoyed watching various sand bugs for a bit, then packed up and started heading back.
We ended up on top of High Dune again, which had some nice early morning views.
There we met Ashton, another dunes backpacker. We hit it off and ended up walking down the dunes together. Ironically enough, he was supposed to have camped at Goblins’ Forest in RMNP one of the nights we were there, but his flight got delayed.
We parted ways at the parking lot, and Stephanie and I headed out for the next park: Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Stephanie had actually been to this park earlier in the year but didn’t get to spend a whole lot of time there, so she was really excited to go back.
If you’re adventurous, one of the biggest draws of Black Canyon is getting to hike down into the canyon. The fact that less than 30 people per day are issued permits to hike down in only makes it more covetous. We got to the park about about 2:30 and immediately went to the visitor’s center to claim our permit for the next day. Within the half hour, all 15 permits allowed for the Gunnison Route, the “easiest” route down, had been taken!
The route down is actually part of a designated wilderness area, meaning that there is no signage or trail markers. This isn’t much of a big deal on the way down, but it makes it more of a challenge going back up. Partly for this reason, we were required to attend a ranger-led orientation on going down.
After the orientation, we drove to the campsite and pitched camp, then drove around to catch all the canyon overlook views. Not going to lie, it was pretty stunning.
While driving between overlooks, we met two guys our age and hit it off with them. They were testing which overlook had the best echo, and we happily joined in.
Sunset, of course, was gorgeous, if a bit smoky.
We finally pulled ourselves away from the views, drove back to the campsite, and made dinner before turning in.
Unfortunately, some animal tormented Stephanie in her tent for hours that night, while I managed to sleep through the whole thing. Looking back, we think maybe it was a deer, but it was hard to tell in the moment.
Friday we packed up in the dark so we could get an early start down. Within 20 minutes or so, we had passed into the wilderness area!
The way down was a little treacherous at times, mainly because of the steepness and the amount of loose scree on the trail. The only man-made object from the top down to the bottom was an 80 foot chain on a particularly steep section.
In a little over two hours, we reached the bottom. Oh, it was so worth it!
We had a good time walking along the riverbank and exploring. If you’re wondering, the river is much too cold to do anything besides stick a hand in, though some people fish in it. After we’d gotten our fill of exploring, we sat down at the campsite to rest and refuel. Our friend Ashton from the dunes had mentioned backpacking down here on an even harder route and spending the night, and we just couldn’t fathom lugging a pack up and down that steep trail.
We finally decided to start heading back up, though not before grabbing a few more pictures.
Even though we had been careful to turn around frequently on the way down and look where we were coming from, we still managed to get off-route on the way back up. Thankfully, we spotted a landmark after a few minutes and were able to get back on track. Even with that mishap, it took us less time to get back up than it did to go down!
We refilled our water, then set out for our final park, Mesa Verde, the famous home of the Cliff Dwellings. This is the only national park in the US that’s primary purpose is to preserve Native Americans homes and communities; thus, we were disappointed to find out that several of the sites were closed due to construction, renovation, or COVID. I also hadn’t purchased tickets to tour one of the larger houses, and they were all sold out by the time we got there.
Nonetheless, we made the most of it. After picking out our campsite, we drove to High Point, where we got some awesome views of the park.
Next, we drove out to Chapin Mesa and explored the Mesa Top Loop. Apparently, the people were in the area for hundreds of years and started out in smaller, underground dwellings called pithouses.
There were two more stages of housing, each bigger and more communal than the next, before the people began to construct the cliff dwellings. Stephanie and I were amazed at how skilled, creative and resourceful they were.
A few other items of note:
I didn’t realize that the cliff dwellings often are literally on the side of the cliff not near the valley floor. Wow, these people had guts! Lots of times they would farm on top of the mesa and use ladders or handholds to climb up and down.
It amazed me how much archeologists had deduced about this group, and yet still had no idea about some aspects of their life.
Natives throughout the region were part of an extensive trade network that stretched hundreds of miles, and they traded not only goods but ideas.
People would often leave their homes, only to come back a few generations later and build on top of them.
As it started getting dark, we decided to try and enjoy our last camping dinner up at High Point while watching the sunset, but a fussy ranger crushed our plan. So we rebelled and drove to the next closest overlook and enjoyed our dinner there instead. Not quite as good of a view, but we still enjoyed it!
One of the best perks of the park was SHOWERS! Stephanie decided to take one that night, while I held out until the next day – I couldn’t get past the though of crawling back into my stinky sleeping bag after being all clean.
While we were driving back to the campground, we had a bit of a surprise: I spotted a mountain lion sitting on the side of the road. We turned around to get a better look at it, and it ran off. Towards the campground, of course. Gulp. We didn’t spot it again, thank goodness, but it was a little nerve-wracking.
Saturday morning we awoke to smoke. There was a fire just outside the park, though as far as we could tell, we were safe. There have actually been several fires at the park within the last 30 years, and it was amazing how long it took foliage to grow back.
Another thing we were surprised at was the amount of wildlife we saw here. On top of the mountain lion, we encountered deer, wild horses, a turkey family, and a coyote. The most we saw at other parks was deer.
We packed up our site…
…then headed out to Wetherill Mesa, specifically to see Step House, a self-guided cliff dwelling. It was neat, but we were bummed that part of it was closed off. Oh well.
We also walked around the Badger House Community, which was pretty neat, though not cliff dwellings.
At this point, our brains were about full of information, and we had a long drive to Denver ahead of us, so we decided I would grab a shower and then we would hit the road. I can’t tell you how nice it was to be clean…
Thus, we began the seven hour drive back to Denver. It was a long one, but we made it! And even better, Stephanie’s mom Lisa had decided to fly in and join us for the evening.
We checked into our hostel, which was absolutely gorgeous…
…then set out to find a place to eat. We found a good burger place a few blocks away, and I got a breakfast burger because it reminded me of NZ. We were all pretty tired, so we went back to the hostel after dinner. I hung out in the common room for a little while because I missed being in a hostel, but there weren’t many people, so I went to bed before long. And oh how good those beds felt! It was like sleeping on a cloud.
Sunday we drug ourselves out of bed to get breakfast at a cute little place called Jelly. We got a fun little donut sampler, and I really enjoyed the vintage cereal boxes on the walls.
Our last stop in Denver was a letterbox grab at a local cemetery. It was an awesome carving of John Denver, which I thought was pretty fitting considering I’d had “Rocky Mountain High” playing in my head the whole trip.
Stephanie and Lisa dropped me off at the airport after saying goodbye, as they had a 10 hour drive ahead of them back home. I had planned to check my bags and then go back out to explore Denver a little more, but I found that Southwest doesn’t allow you to check your bags more than 4 hours ahead of a flight. So I ended up spending the day at the airport, but I got to meet some cool people that way!
All in all, it was a pretty amazing trip. I was so so glad to have found Stephanie to go with me: I really don’t think we could have hit it off any better! Hoping we might be able to plan some future trips together.
Thanks for riding out another really long post! Not sure where the next trip will be – trying to decide between Florida, the Virgin Islands, Mexico, or SoCal – what would you choose? Until next time!
Happy summer all! It’s so nice to have warmer temperatures again – perfect time for a national parks road trip!
On this trip, I hit four parks: the Great Smoky Mountains, Congaree, Shenandoah, and the country’s newest park, New River Gorge! After a wonderful semester volunteering with student ministry on top of my job, this solo trip was a much needed retreat.
I left after work on Friday and made the seven-hour drive to Cosby Campground in the northern Smokies, where I basically pitched my tent and crashed for the night. My original plan had me ending the trip in the Smokies, but then I realized that being in the nation’s most visited park on Memorial Day weekend was probably not going to be very relaxing, so I flipped the trip around.
Say hello to Agnes! My little tent sheltered me every night except one on this trip. If you’re interested in specs, it’s a Big Agnes TigerWall UL1. Packaged weight is a whole 2 lb. 3 oz., so it’s perfect for backpacking! It’s semi-freestanding, which for me is probably the biggest downside, since I have to stake it down to get the full amount of room. It performed beautifully on this trip though. It’s definitely on the pricier side, so I may invest in a cheaper tent for car camping in the future, just to save some wear and tear on this one.
Saturday morning, I made oatmeal for breakfast and packed up decently early so I could hit the trails before traffic got bad. I passed through Gatlinburg on my way to the Paradise entrance. Good grief, I knew it was touristy, but just driving down the main street was a whole other level of tourism.
I stopped to get a picture of the sign…
…and then stopped at the Paradise Visitor’s Center to grab a quick letterbox.
My next item on the agenda was the Chimney Tops Trail, which I’d heard had amazing views. It was about a four mile round trip hike and had about a 2500′ elevation gain, so it was no joke! Be aware that if you do this hike the last quarter mile is closed due to a 2016 fire. The views from the lookout are still beautiful though.
Once I got back to my car, I took off for the Deep Creek trailhead. The road took me through Newfound Gap, and the views were really pretty.
At the Smokies, backcountry campers reserve designated campsites and pay a small fee per night. I had reserved campsite 55 (see map below) and was originally planning on taking the Noland Divide Trail up and over, but it was kind of late by the time I got to the trailhead, and I was (sadly) kind of worn out from the Chimney Tops hike already. I decided instead to take the Deep Creek trail straight back.
Near the trailhead, they had tubes available for rent, and there were quite a few people taking advantage of them on this toasty Saturday afternoon.
It was a pretty hike back, as it followed Deep Creek most of the way. The mountain laurel was in bloom too!
After a couple hours, I reached campsite 55. Because I had booked it a few months in advance, I had forgotten that it was a stock camp! Even better, there were horses and riders there. I’m learning to really appreciate horseback riders – they don’t have to worry as much about the weight they carry, and so they frequently have “luxury” items that backpackers can’t afford to carry. Just look at that campsite setup!
Even better, both this group and the guys I met in Washington were incredibly generous in sharing their food. This was by far and away the best I’ve ever eaten on a backpacking trip. Peep the fried fish, fresh hot cornbread, potatoes with ramps (a local onion relative), and bear meat stew – yep, you read that right! They even gave me a beer to wash it down with!
Our campsite was pretty busy, as there were five guys on horseback, four other backpackers, and myself. We had a good time trading wilderness stories and feasting before we turned in for the night.
Sunday morning, I hung around for a bit after packing up, as they had promised me breakfast the night before. While they got up and got going, I took a quick walk to the old swimming hole in Deep Creek and had a little devotion time.
I didn’t get a picture of breakfast, but it was just as good – canned biscuits with homemade sausage, gravy, leftover potatoes… I was a happy camper!
I bid everyone goodbye and headed out. I had considered trying to do Noland Divide that morning on the way out, but ultimately decided to sleep in a little and enjoy breakfast. To get a change of scenery, I hiked out on Sunkota Ridge rather than going back out Deep Creek. I was a little disappointed in the scenery – I’m sure it would have been beautiful, but there just weren’t many gaps through the trees.
I had my first of three major wildlife encounters that day on the Sunkota Trail. I’m 95% sure it was a rattlesnake: it moved very quickly, hissed, and made a rattling noise. I ended up waiting for two guys I knew were behind me to catch up, and we were able to pass it without any incident. Of course, it didn’t make any noise for them, so I don’t think they believed me, but at least we made it out safe.
Here’s Indian Creek Falls! Very pretty.
My next destination was the Twentymile trailhead, about an hour west of Deep Creek. This mini-trip was a two-nighter: I booked site 13 near the top of Gregory Bald for the first night, and 93 for the second night.
The hike up to the bald was no joke – about 7 miles with 2500 feet elevation gain. I was very tempted to stop at site 95 and stay the night but ultimately decided to push myself to get as far as I could.
A few miles in, I heard a noise that sounded too big to be a deer, so I looked around and spotted a young black bear about a hundred feet off the trail! It wasn’t really scary – I just made a lot of noise and attempted to make myself look as big as I could. It just kind of looked at me as I walked by. I didn’t get any pictures of it, as I decided I didn’t want to be the idiot who stopped to get pictures of a bear and got mauled!
My third major wildlife encounter that day occurred as I was walking along Parson’s Bald, close to the campsite. I didn’t get a good look because they ran off as soon as they heard me, but I’m pretty sure they were two large feral hogs. They didn’t seem to move like deer or bears, and they made a loud grunting noise.
After about 4.5 hours of hiking, I finally rolled into camp. I definitely didn’t win any awards for speed, but I made it! I set up camp as the sun was setting, then walked over to the neighboring campsite to fix dinner and join in some conversation with two very sweet older guys. We chatted for a while about previous adventures while I tried to finish my fajita chicken and rice, until it got late and they turned in.
I had a new experience that night! Whenever you’re in bear country, you have to take extra precaution with making sure bears can’t access your food and “smellable” items, both for your and their safety. Usually that means hanging your food bag in trees, but in the Smokies, you’re spoiled with pack hanging cables at every campsite! They were pretty easy to use, and I didn’t have to worry about finding the perfect tree to hang my food from.
I woke up decently early Monday morning, as I was hoping to catch a little bit of sunrise and eat breakfast on top of the bald.
I packed up, got a picture of and said goodbye to my new friends, then hiked the 15 minutes to the top of the bald.
It was beautiful, especially in that early morning light! I picked a spot to plop and just enjoyed the views before eventually pulling out my stove and fixing a bowl of oatmeal.
After breakfast, I walked around and explored the bald a little. I was excited to find wild blueberries, though it would be several months before they’d be edible.
I enjoyed the view a little longer, then continued on the Gregory Bald Trail. I had the option of hopping on the Long Hungry Ridge Trail and taking it straight to my campsite, but I decided to hike a little further on the GB trail to the Appalachian Trail.
The Appalachian Trail is something I’ve been considering through-hiking for a while now, so I was really excited to get to see it in person. After being on it a few minutes though, my excitement kinda died down, as it seemed a lot like the trail I was just on. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I kinda overhyped it. In hindsight, though, I’m glad I did it and got to see the famous white blazes marking the trail!
I hiked about three miles to the turnoff for my campsite and debated just heading straight there, but I had heard about a firetower about a quarter mile further on the AT that was supposed to have decent views. After talking with another hiker, I was sold. And oh my goodness, I’m so glad I went for it.
The firetower is called Shuckstack; you can get to it via an unmarked but well-worn side trail from the AT. If you don’t like heights, it may be a challenge for you, but I still encourage you to try it: it had the best views I saw in the park. I think you can make it into a pretty decent day hike from Fontana Dam.
I had the pleasure of meeting a through-hiker who was taking his lunch break up there, and he was really encouraging me to pursue through-hiking the trail. Super neat guy.
After spending probably a good hour there soaking in the views, I started meandering down to my campsite. Today was a downhill day, and it felt so good after the climb yesterday.
I rolled into camp a few hours later and was pleasantly surprised to have it all to myself. I saw on the map that it was right next to a stream, and I was so excited to take my boots and socks off and soak my feet. It was even better than I imagined: there was a swimming hole very close to the campsite, surrounded by beautiful rhododendron bushes, with the perfect spot to sit and read for a while. And after grabbing a snack, that is exactly what I did for the next several hours. I was so happy…
I finally dragged myself away and set up camp for the night. My appetite had returned with a vengeance, and I was hungry for salt, so I ditched my chicken couscous for beef ramen. That was some of the best ramen I’ve ever had!
I hung my pack, then climbed in my tent and read for a bit before turning in early. Tuesday morning, I was up early and grabbed a honey bun for breakfast so I could hit the trail quickly. I did stop at the beautiful Twentymile Creek falls for a little while and did a devotion there.
Before I knew it, I was back to the car. I did a quick baby-wipe shower, dunked my hair in the water to get some of the oil out (it didn’t work), then hit the road for Congaree National Park!
I was almost reluctant to leave the Smokies, but I was also excited to see one of the lesser known National Parks. Congaree is twenty minutes outside of Columbia, South Carolina, and it’s composed mainly of floodplain forest. It’s on the newer and smaller side, so I only budgeted 1.5 days/1 night to see it, and I think that was about right. It’s a cool park, but unless you are a total tree fanatic, you can see all the park highlights within this time frame.
One of the biggest draws of the park is seasonal: the last few weeks of May, a species of rare fireflies that flash in synchrony appears in pockets of the park. Pre-COVID, 18,000 people showed up one year to see the fireflies, but because of COVID, this year they had a lottery system and were closing the park early to all but people with tickets. I just happened to schedule my trip during this time, but I was super excited to see the fireflies.
I got there about 2:00 and decided to hike the 2.5 mile boardwalk trail. They offer a self-guided tour so you can pick out some cool sights. One of the coolest parts for me was seeing the bald cypress trees, whose roots send up these strange little nubbins. Scientists speculate they help provide support for the tree, but they’re not sure.
I was originally supposed to do some backpacking that evening near the southern entrance, but when I heard that there might not be fireflies over there, I hopped online to see if there were any last minute campground cancellations, and there were! I was absolutely thrilled.
As it turns out, the campground I booked at, Bluff Campground, was about a mile hike away from the parking lot. This didn’t daunt me since I had my backpack, but if you camp here, plan to be carrying your stuff for a while! There’s also no bathrooms or water at the campground, so plan to hike a mile to the Visitor’s Center for these things.
It was a beautiful hike/campsite, though, and there was only one other couple there!
I set up my tent and fixed dinner. I was really tempted to leave off the rain fly since it was so hot, but I ultimately put it on, and I’m glad I did! A popup shower hit right after I was done cooking dinner, so I ate my mashed potatoes and spam (delicious!) from the comfort of my tent.
About 8:30 or so, I hiked over to a spot on the boardwalk where I had heard there were a lot of fireflies. The next two hours or so were just magical: the rain, which had cooled things off, was dripping from the trees, the crickets were chirping, and the fireflies were illuminating the woods like Christmas tree lights, blinking a softer and bluer light than the ones I was used to. It actually takes them a while to synchronize, but once they do, it’s near perfect.
I was also geeking out because I ran into a computer science researcher from the University of Colorado who was studying the fireflies. We talked for a few minutes about the projects he was conducting and how we both enjoyed travel and hiking/climbing. I also bumped into some cool people I had met earlier.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any good pictures or video from the fireflies, but I highly encourage you to look them on Youtube!
Wednesday morning, I got up and hiked my stuff back to the car, then drove to the Visitor’s Center. I wanted to do the River Trail, a 10 mile lollipop trail that was the only trail to offer views of the Congaree River. If you only have a day in Congaree, I would not recommend this hike: it’s long, is pretty narrow and windy, and has several trees down across the trail, and there’s only one or two spots where you can even see the river. That said, it was kinda nice to log ten miles in this park, and if you’re a real tree fanatic, there’s some big trees along the way.
I hiked out to the Sandbar, and ate lunch, then hoofed it back so I could start the 7 hour drive to Shenandoah.
The park is known for mosquitoes, and there’s even a funny sign indicating how bad they are currently, but I lucked out and hardly saw any.
I refilled on water, took a picture by the sign, and hit the road!
The drive to Shenandoah was pretty long, but I broke it up with a stop at Bojangles for dinner. They’re a popular southern chain and are apparently known for their chicken biscuits, so I decided to try it. I thought the chicken was just okay, but the biscuit and potato rounds tasted heavenly (fair warning: food tastes much better when you’ve just come off a backpacking trip, so I’m probably biased!).
Like the Smokies, Shenandoah is mountainous and contains a good section of the AT, but that’s about where the similarities end. Shenandoah encompasses part of the Blue Ridge mountains and is very long and skinny; the famous Skyline Drive, which is over 100 miles long and takes three hours to drive, runs the length of the park and offers over 75 lookouts. Most of the trails spur off of Skyline, which means you often hike down then hike up on the way back. Definitely not like the Smokies, where you had to work for your views! Also, backcountry camping at Shenandoah means finding a spot that fits the rules and camping there, unlike the reservable backcountry sites at the Smokies.
I had a reservation at Loft Campground, the southernmost and largest in the park. I got there late, set up my tent and crashed.
Thursday morning I took a baby wipe shower, packed up, checked weather, and drove back down to the entrance so I could see the parts of Skyline I had missed in the dark.
I had a backpacking route planned, but I realized it probably wouldn’t take me all day, so I spontaneously hiked to the Jones Run Falls. The falls were super neat, and I also stumbled across a beautiful moth!
Back on Skyline, I stopped at some more beautiful overlooks…
…then headed for the Rocky Mount trail. I picked this one because there was supposed to be a singular campsite with incredible views. There was no parking lot at the trailhead, which made it a little tricky to find; I just parked at the nearest overlook and hiked a short distance to the trailhead.
Most people just make a dayhike of the route shown in blue above, but I decided to backpack the whole loop counterclockwise. It was very isolated – I didn’t see another soul the whole trip – but surprisingly well maintained.
There was a mile or two of downhill along the lollipop “stick”, and I got some decent views.
The Gap Run section was pretty flat and went by quickly. Though there weren’t vistas, there were some neat plants I hadn’t seen before!
Another interesting aspect of Shenandoah is that trail markers are concrete posts with metal bands that are stamped with trail information. You can see the one below for the turn off for Rocky Mount.
After turning onto Rocky Mount, things quickly got steeper. It was a good, challenging hike up to the summit. The problem was, I couldn’t find the summit. I stopped a few times before I kept hiking and finally stumbled across the summit.
The views really were pretty awesome.
However, I was worried about camping there, partly because it was so close to the trail and partly because it was exposed and it looked like rain might be coming in. I crawled through the bushes for a few minutes and stumbled on this awesome little clearing that was just steps from the trail but still hidden.
Reassured that I had a safe place to sleep, I went back to the summit and made dinner with that awesome view. I amused myself by calling my little setup Ray’s Cafe, with a different location every night.
Unfortunately, Ray’s Cafe that night had a great location, but pretty so-so food. My stuffing with chicken was a great idea, but execution was another matter. I’ll have to play with that one a little.
After dinner, I hurried back to my site and set up my tent before dark. I had a new experience that night: hanging a bear bag. I didn’t follow the exact rules of hanging it on a branch so far out from a tree, so please don’t use my photo as an example, but I felt a huge sense of accomplishment just getting it up in the tree.
Friday morning was bright and sunny when I woke up. I retrieved my bearbag, grabbed a small breakfast and packed up. I spent a few more minutes at the summit enjoying the views, then hiked down and stumbled across the actual campsite advertised online. It did have some pretty amazing views, but I was pretty happy and felt safe with the little clearing I had found.
It was largely downhill until I got to the lollipop stick, and then it was uphill back to Skyline. Overall, it was a pretty good hike, but if I did it again, I would probably skip Gap Run trail and just hike up to Rocky Mount. If you can’t get a spot at Rocky Mount, though, there are a few sites along Gap Run, as well as access to water – water was scarce to nonexistent on the Rocky Mount section.
Ta-da! Done.
I kept driving north on Skyline and stopped at Hawksbill Mountain. This is the highest point in the park, but it’s only a two-mile RT hike from the trailhead. Unfortunately, the clouds moved in while I was up there, but it still had some pretty sick views.
I also hiked to the White Oak Canyon Upper Falls, which was about 4.6 miles round trip. It was much taller than Jones Run, but you couldn’t get up close to it; you could only really see it from the lookout. I much preferred Jones Run, but it was still pretty.
Back on Skyline, I got some good but cloudy views from a few lookouts. I also grabbed another neat letterbox!
My final stop for the night was the Old Rag trailhead. Old Rag is probably the most popular trail in the park and also happens to be one of the few trails not really accessed via Skyline. You have to drive outside of the park, then back in from the side to reach the two Old Rag trailheads. The whole trail is about 10 miles, and there’s a couple ways you can hike to the summit: 1) Park at the Old Rag TH and hike the entire loop, which includes a 1+ mile rock scramble; 2) park at the Old Rag TH and take the old fire road in to the summit and then back out; 3) park at the Berry Hollow TH and take the fire road in to the summit. Despite a ranger cautioning against doing the scramble while wet, I decided to do option 1.
I technically had backpacking permits for the area, but I was tired, and it was raining, so I parked at the trailhead and decided to sleep in my car.
Saturday, I woke up early, grabbed a quick breakfast and hit the trail before too many Memorial Day vacationers got there.
And boy oh boy, what a fun trail it was! The rock scramble section was slippery, and the normally beautiful views were completely obscured by clouds, but it was still a blast. If you have the option though, I would definitely do it on a dry sunny day with someone else. It was kinda easy to get turned around, and I learned later that someone had broken their ankle on the trail the day before and it had taken 10 hours to rescue them (and that was considered a short rescue!).
This was the only picture I got on the rock scramble because I was often using three or four limbs to climb over rocks. If I remember right, it was one of the sketchiest sections of the hike: you had to climb down from the left side, with just a little foothold to grab onto. Shew!
I finally made it up to the summit, where I met a group of three other women who were breaking for lunch. I asked if I could join them, and they gave an enthusiastic yes. We didn’t break for long because it was cold and barely 60 degrees – a far cry from the 90+ degrees I had a few days ago in Congaree! They took my picture by the summit, and I ended up hanging out with them the rest of the hike. We cracked jokes about how great certain lookouts would be if we could actually see anything, and how reviewers had labeled the downhill section of the trail as boring. (“Nope, not boring yet!”) It was a great time.
After about six hours of hiking, we made it back to the parking lot, tired and wet but happy. We parted ways, and I took a babywipe shower and changed into dry clothes before hitting the road again. Even though it was really cloudy, I decided I wanted to finish out the rest of Skyline Drive, so I headed that way.
On my way back, though, I stopped in the adorable town of Sperryville and walked around for a little while. There was the Corner Store, from which I grabbed some strawberry white chocolate cookies…
…and a coffee/gelato/wine place called Before & After for a hot honeysuckle latte. It was pretty wonderful!
Nearly all the lookouts at Skyline were unfortunately whited out from the clouds. It wasn’t until elevation started dropping that I could see anything.
Finally I reached the northern entrance! I drove all 100 miles. Maybe someday I’ll come back and hike all 100 miles of the AT that runs alongside it.
Next destination: New River Gorge NP in West Virginia! The drive was only supposed to be about 3.5 hours, but I got stuck in accident traffic for an hour and a half and didn’t get there until about 11:00. Normal campsites at New River are supposed to be free and first come first serve; I accidentally picked a group campsite (Burnwood), which is apparently not free and is supposed to be reserved. Luckily for me, the group staying there was super nice and let me pitch my tent near them.
It drizzled most of the night, so I was reluctant to get out of my warm dry sleeping bag the next morning. I finally got to use my hot chocolate though! After hanging out with the group for a bit, I drove across the road to the Visitor’s Center, where I picked up some maps and got a picture with the sign.
The park is so new that most of the signs still say National River; the main entrance sign just had a canvas wrapped around it.
I also did a little hike to see the New River Gorge Arch Bridge. This bridge was super important to the community, as it reduced a 45 minute, winding drive down the gorge to a 2 minute straightshot across. It’s the third-longest arch bridge in the world; plus it makes for great photos!
Next up, I decided to hike the Endless Wall Trail to Diamond Point, which was an easy two miles RT. It was pretty neat, especially since I was going to be rafting that section of the river the next day!
My plan was to head to the tiny town of Thurmond after that, but I hit a hiccup when I got a flat tire. I was okay, and was actually really fortunate it happened in civilization rather than on a windy deserted country road. About three hours later, I was back on the road with a new tire, thanks to Walmart!
I still ended up going to Thurmond, and it was pretty neat! It’s an old railroad town that thrived off of mining traffic. There’s no shops open there today, but there’s a seasonal visitors center set up in the old depot. The tracks are still active, and it was pretty cool to have a train come through.
After that, I made the unfortunate decision of taking the scenic route (McKendree Road) to my next destination rather than going back out to the highway. The road quickly turned into a four wheel drive road with no cell service, a top speed of 12 mph, and no houses. I was utterly terrified, but my poor Honda Civic pulled through! I’ve never been so glad to see a paved road…
I learned after the fact that there actually used to be a hospital in the blip-on-the-map town McKendree. If you’re intrigued, it’s an interesting story!
Unfortunately, that little sojourn cut my daylight significantly, and I decided I didn’t want to test my nerves any further by trying to finish a hike before dark, so I sought out a campsite for the night at Grandview Sandbar. My camera ran out of room, so I wasn’t able to get a picture of my site, but it was decent!
I treated myself to a can of soup for dinner, then read for a little while and fell asleep. Monday morning I packed up early and headed for the ACE Adventure Resort for a 14 mile whitewater rafting trip! I was paired with a mom and four teenagers on my raft, and while there was a little drama, we made it through okay. My guide was really knowledgeable of the area, and we bonded over experiences in New Zealand.
The river was pretty flat the first half of the trip, but it soon picked up after lunch (included!). We hit multiple fun rapids, surfed, and even swam a little bit. It was a great day, and a lot warmer and sunnier than the previous few days! A good way to end the trip.
I had been hoping to do one last hike before heading out, but we got back pretty late, so I made the adult decision and drove the seven hours back home. After 11 days, 70+ miles hiking/backpacking, 2000+ miles driven, 5 pounds lost, 4 parks and 14 miles paddling, my shower and bed had never felt so good!
Well, that’s all for this one folks! Kudos if you made it this far. Next trip will be to Colorado, so stay tuned for that!
Happy New Year all! Tears, jeers and cheers to a year that was very challenging in some ways but also very fruitful and lifegiving in many other ways. Thanking God He brought me through it all.
So last post, I teased a trip to Florida’s National Parks over Christmas… Psych! As it turns out, Christmas is a very popular time to go to Florida, and the ferry to Dry Tortugas NP was completely sold out that entire week, meaning my options were either rent a seaplane to get there or skip it. I figured it would be kind of silly to go all the way there without visiting all of the parks, so I started looking at other options.
As it turns out, a friend I met in some previous travels (I’ll refer to him as Jake to protect his privacy) was from Utah, and when I mentioned my dilemma to him, he proposed a trip to Utah’s National Parks and offered to be my host/travel partner. I was initially pretty hesitant, what with the cooler temperatures and shorter daylight hours, but I was soon won over by the prospect of not having to deal with a rental car, the chance of visiting five parks, and getting to spend more time with my friend.
I ended up flying out to Las Vegas on Christmas Day (Friday) because flights were super cheap (and how cool to say you spent Christmas in Vegas!). After a nice Christmas morning with family, Mom drove me to the airport and saw me off. I was pretty amused that this was my first sight after deplaning. Good ol’ Vegas.
Jake picked me up from the airport, and we brainstormed ways to kill time before the show I had booked for that evening. We ended up deciding on The Mob Museum – I had seen ads for it in the airport, and to my surprise they were open on Christmas Day!
It was pretty neat to get some quick Vegas history. Highlights included displays on Vegas in the ’50s, Al Capone’s revolver, and tapes from when the FBI bugged some local mob bosses. Would recommend, though not for kids or for the very sensitive.
Next up, we had tickets to The Rat Pack is Back, a tribute show to the Rat Pack featuring look-a-likes/sound-a-likes for Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and Sammy Davis, Jr. I’m a pretty big Sinatra fan, so I had a great time.
This is a lousy picture, but all three of them are on stage here.
Afterwards, we decided to walk along the Strip. Not every day you get to see the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower!
We also meandered in and out of buildings, but they mostly just had gambling. Unfortunately, due to COVID, we couldn’t stand and watch at any of the tables, but it was still interesting.
We had been planning on walking to the famous sign, but quickly abandoned that idea when we saw how far it was and drove instead.
It was getting late at this point, so we headed for St. George, Utah, our base for the trip. Despite a tire blowout, we made it there safely.
And then we were up early Saturday morning to pack for Zion! Our original schedule had us spending the day around St. George and heading out for all the parks the next day, but due to impending weather and the tire blowout we shifted plans and decided to go to Zion first.
We hit the road, took a shuttle, and hit the West Rim Trail. Note that if you’re planning to visit Zion during the busy season, you won’t be allowed to drive your car back into the canyon. Your only options to get to the trailhead are to reserve shuttle tickets or walk several miles along the road – would not recommend the latter.
Here’s a map to follow along if you’d like!
Temperatures were in the low 30s when we started, so we were pretty bundled up! The sun was shining, though, so it wasn’t long before we shed some layers. The views were certainly gorgeous.
We took our time going up – it had been a long time since I had backpacked, and it had been a short night.
Not gonna lie, those inclines were pretty steep! These were called Walter’s Wiggles.
We stopped for a snack at a good view of Angel’s Landing. This is the most famous hike in the park for good reason, and I was really excited about checking it off. We still had quite a ways to go before our campsite, though, so we saved that for the way back down.
As we kept going up and further into the canyon, it was interesting how the rock changed from red to white. Still really pretty, and much fewer crowds to boot!
We finally made it up to the top of the rim and to our campsite, #1. Our plan was to quickly set up camp, refill water, pack up supplies for dinner, and hike around the rim to campsite #4 and watch the sunset and eat dinner. We hit a bit of a hiccup when we discovered our water source was more akin to a mudhole than a spring, and our filter clogged. It’s amazing how much you take clean water for granted until you’re faced with tantalizing puddles like these!
We rushed to pack up and get over to the other side of the rim, but I made it probably a few hundred feet before I realized that I was too tired to make the trek. Jake was extremely gracious and settled for dinner at the campsite. I’d say we still had a pretty great view!
After making a delicious dinner, we hit the hay early and slept in a bit on Sunday. Feeling more rested, we decided to reattempt our hike to campsite #4 and have breakfast there. It was a pretty great view – though we could have done without the wind. Brrrr.
After we had nearly frozen our butts off, we hiked back, packed up camp, and attempted to filter water once more before descending. No luck, so we resorted to boiling snow.
And we were off! We had a freaky moment while descending: Jake was a ways behind me when all of a sudden I heard him yell. I looked up to see a deer come barreling down the side of the mountain towards me. Thank goodness it stopped! We stood off for a minute or so, then it ran past me on the trail. A minute later, a second one came bounding by. Kind of a close call! This was the best picture I got.
The rest of the way to Angel’s Landing was relatively uneventful. I was super glad that Jake had brought crampons – they made a huge difference on icy patches.
When we got to Angel’s Landing, we stowed our packs away and set out to climb. We were rushing because we had gotten down later than anticipated: the last shuttle back to the parking lot left at 5:15, and we were not about to walk back on the road if we could help it.
It was absolutely beautiful.
Note: if you are terrified of heights, this is not the hike for you. I felt pretty safe the whole time, especially with the chain to grab hold of, but this was definitely not a walk in the park. For most of the hike I looked more like the below picture than the above pictures.
Can’t beat that 360 view from the top though!
We couldn’t spend too much time reveling in the view, however, for fear of missing our shuttle, so we scrambled back down, grabbed our packs and hit the trail again.
We made it, thank goodness!
And we got the classic sign picture on the way out. I may have been just a little cold.
After that, we had the trip back to St. George and a well-deserved stop at In-N-Out for a burger, animal fries, and shake. I didn’t realize they had In-N-Outs that far outside of Cali, so I was stoked!
Later that night, Jake and I did some trip planning. We had originally planned on working our way out to the National Parks and then driving back, but due to weather we decided to go to the furthest park first (Canyonlands) and work our way back instead. There was snow coming in the next day, and we weren’t sure how clear I-70 was going to be, so we decided to go further south into Arizona, which would add a couple hours to the drive but hopefully insure we didn’t get stuck in the snow.
Monday morning, we went mountain biking right outside of St. George. I think it’s safe to say that I’m too cautious to fully enjoy it, particularly the downhill. I’ll try nearly anything once, though, and I’m glad I did!
Afterwards, we hit the road for Canyonlands about mid-afternoon and settled in for a long drive.
Unfortunately we still hit snow, which turned an 8 hour drive into a 10+ hour drive. Thankfully we made it there safely, even if it we did roll in at 3 in the morning!
On the upside, when it wasn’t snowing, the moon was really bright, and Jake got some really neat long-exposure shots around Monument Valley. If you look closely, you can see the star trails.
Canyonlands is massive and is split into three districts: the Needles, the Island in the Sky, and the Maze. That first night, we set up camp in the Squaw Flats Campground in the Needles District and zonked out. Squaw Flats was really a neat campground – the sites were super spread out and tucked back in along the rocks.
We slept in a good bit Tuesday morning, then decided to try to make it to Druid Arch. The problem is, it was about 14 miles round trip on rocky terrain, and we were getting a late start. It wasn’t long before we realized we wouldn’t make it without having to hike back hours in the dark. I was not a huge fan of that, so we decided to just hike as long as we wanted and enjoy ourselves before turning around.
The “trails” here were very different than anything I was used to. For the most part, we were climbing over rocks with rarely any well-worn path in sight. I was really confused for the first half hour just how Jake knew where to go. When I finally asked, he pointed out the cairns, or stacks of rocks, marking the way. I felt pretty silly.
Things started off cloudy, but then the sun came out, and it got really nice.
Overall, it was just a really good day. We almost made it to Chesler Park, but decided that between the fading daylight and the final ascent to get there, it just wasn’t worth it. So after taking a snack break, we just meandered back the same way we came.
And I was so glad we headed back when we did, because we stumbled on a gorgeous sunset.
Everything was just so pink and beautiful… We sat there for probably half an hour, just soaking it in and taking pictures.
But oh, it got better: the moon came up.
Jake was gracious enough to let me play with his camera for a bit, so I got these… I was so happy with how they turned out!
And then we stayed until dark, and Jake got this one. That’s the moon, believe it or not. That boy is talented with a camera.
Thankfully it wasn’t too much further back to the campsite. We cooked up a nice dinner, then curled up in our sleeping bags and read a few National Park Rangers stories before hitting the hay.
Wednesday morning, both of us woke up and realized that we were having trouble breathing. Jake quickly deduced that the moisture in our breath had condensed and frozen over the vents in the tent, restricting air flow. We threw open the tent door and gulped in the cold morning air. Can’t say I’ve had that one happen before!
Oh, but the frost that morning was so beautiful. It probably stood 3/4 inch high on top of the car…
…and it totally covered some of the plants.
We packed up camp and headed out for the Island in the Sky District.
To get there, though, we had to go through Moab, so we stopped and got lunch at a Mexican place. I got to try deep fried ice cream for the first time!
After that, we continued on to the Island in the Sky District, or iSky.
Definitely a different – and more crowded – vibe, but still really pretty. All of the hikes we did were super short – I think the longest was a mile round-trip. Below are views from near the visitor center, Mesa Arch, and the hike to Grand View Point.
We definitely spent the most time at Grand View Point, where we caught a great sunset, even though we had to share it with a few more people than the one the day before.
We didn’t dally too long, though, because we were absolutely freezing. Thankfully, we had decided to get a hotel in Moab that night – we figured it would give us the chance to warm up, get good sleep, get clean, and hopefully dry out our gear so we could get back to camping the next night. (Of course, we didn’t camp for the rest of the trip… We should have known it would be too hard to go back to a tent and sleeping bag after a warm, dry bed!)
On Thursday, we headed out for Arches National Park, which was very close to Moab. Arches was considerably smaller than Canyonlands and Zion, but still incredibly scenic.
We first hiked to Delicate Arch, the most famous arch in the park. It was about 3 miles round-trip, and pretty icy, but so worth it.
We hung out here for a good while, just soaking in the views. I even had enough cell service to video call some friends, which was pretty neat.
Next we drove out to the Broken Arch/Sand Dune Arch trailhead and hiked to both arches. We were in a pretty goofy/giddy mood, just enjoying the beautiful scenery and having fun.
Our next adventure was driving over to Double Arch. We took our time, though, just enjoying the view.
And here it is!
Of course, we had to stay for sunset, and it did not disappoint! Jake got this stunner just down the road from Double Arch.
After it was finally too dark to see much of anything, we headed out of the park, though not before a sign picture.
We headed back to Moab, grabbed a letterbox, got McDonald’s for a New Year’s Eve feast, then started towards Capitol Reef. We decided it would be easiest (and most comfortable) to just grab a motel room again, so we got one in the tiny town of Bicknell, about half an hour away from Capital Reef.
We did stay up to see the new year in, but otherwise it was a pretty uneventful New Year’s Eve. We were okay with that, though – I don’t think our bodies could have handled too much excitement!
Friday, New Year’s Day, we packed up and drove to Capitol Reef.
Capital Reef was massive and beautiful, though lightly trafficked compared to the other parks. It had a cute historic town called Fruita, which had some small orchards that you can apparently pick from for free during the season.
Capitol Reef actually reminded me a good bit of North Cascades out in Washington – I think it was the small-historic-town-surrounded-by-towering-rock vibe.
Unfortunately, the locally famous pie shop was closed for the season, so we resorted to yogurt for breakfast instead. Unfortunately, my yogurt “just happened” to be pointed towards Jake when I opened it, and it kind of exploded on him… Hehe, whoops. In my defense, he opened his on me first!
After we were done goofing off, we started our hike to Navajo Knobs, about a ten-miler RT. The number of people we encountered was a fraction of the people at Arches the day before, and the views were spectacular nearly the whole time. It’s hard to say just how long it took because we really took our time, but we probably got to the end in about three hours or so.
The top of this knob was our vantage point…
…from which we got these views.
It was absolutely stunning.
We sat up there for probably 45 minutes, soaking in the views and sunshine. I was a pretty happy hiker.
We finally dragged ourselves down, as it was getting kinda late, and put the crampons on to help us go faster on the ice patches.
We ran into these guys on the way down, which was cool! I had never seen a bighorn in the wild.
We made it probably halfway back before we lost daylight and had to break out the headlamp. We trudged on a little more before stopping for a break to look at the stars. I don’t have a picture, but geesh, they were incredible! It was to the point that I couldn’t pick out the classic constellations anymore, there were so many stars. One of the best stargazing sessions I’ve ever had.
Despite my efforts to tough it out, the cold got to me, so we begrudgingly turned on the headlamp again and continued down. We made it back to the trailhead and drove across the park (it’s really thin!) to find some letterboxes.
At this point, we were both pretty hungry, so we headed back to Bicknell to grab a late supper. Bicknell is known for its curry pizza place – apparently it was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives – and Jake is a huge fan. We got half honey curry and half butter chicken on the pizza. The butter chicken was alright, but the honey curry was pretty darn good, especially after a long day of hiking.
After we couldn’t eat anymore, we made tracks for Bryce Canyon, the last of the five parks. We rolled in late but safe to our motel in Bryce Canyon. It was just a really good day – a great way to start off the new year!
Of the three hotels/motels we stayed in, this one, Ruby’s Inn, was the nicest. We even got a complimentary breakfast the next morning!
After we packed up, I got a picture by the sign…
…we found a final letterbox…
…and then we were off!
Bryce is definitely a smaller park, more comparable to Arches. It’s well known for its hoodoos, or thin rock spires. We spent most of the day in the Amphitheater area, which has some of the most popular hikes and viewpoints of the park.
We parked close to Sunset Point and enjoyed the view from the rim…
…and then hiked down into the canyon on the Navajo loop trail.
The combination of the red/orange rock, deep blue sky, white snow, and bright sunshine was just magnificent. Gotta love those hoodoos!
We still had a few hours of daylight by the time we had hiked to Sunrise Point on the Queens Garden trail, so we decided to hike over to Tower Bridge on the Fairyland Loop Trail, about four miles RT. It was way less crowded over here, which was nice.
After that, we hiked back up to the Rim to catch the sunset, and it didn’t disappoint. Credit for this one goes to Jake!
We also enjoyed the little snowman family someone had made.
Before we knew it, we were headed back for St. George. It was a pretty uneventful evening, filled with mostly resting and unpacking/repacking.
Sunday was my final day in Utah, so I packed up, and we headed back for Vegas. Of course, we squeezed in one more adventure activity before I left: rappelling!
Despite a bit of a nervewracking mishap my first go-around, it was still pretty fun, enough to do a second round. It was a good final adventure.
After that, Jake drove me the rest of the way to Vegas and dropped me off at the airport, and I flew back to Indiana.
Some final thoughts before I close:
Some of you may be wondering about Jake! We’re just friends – Utah is quite a ways from Indiana after all. I’m very grateful, though, that he was willing to show me around Utah for ten days! We shared many good laughs, moments, and sunsets. I know I wouldn’t have seen nearly as much (or probably enjoyed it as much) as I did if he hadn’t been with me. It’s also really nice to have someone who can take photos of you, someone to split the driving with, someone to provide extra body heat in the tent, etc.
That said, I still definitely think there is beauty to solo travel (namely meeting other people!), so I’ll probably try to do a little bit this upcoming year.
Finally, I would highly recommend seeing Utah’s National Parks in winter. I’m sure they’re beautiful all times of the year, but the snow just really made them pop. It would have been ideal if it had been just a little warmer out so we could have camped a little more, but at least during the day, as long as you layer up, you should be fine! Also would recommend bringing along a pair of crampons or micro-spikes to navigate the ice – this was the first time I’ve ever used them, but there were several times I was really glad I had them.
Alright y’all, that’s it! I have no idea where the next trip will be, but I have lots of ideas… Until then, happy trails!
Hello all! This post is about my trip to Washington State back in September.
First, however, I need to rewind a bit. Shortly after I got back from New Zealand, I decided to set a goal of visiting all 62 National Parks in the US. I was very busy senior year, however, so my only prospect of making it to a National Park was a trip over spring break. These plans were quickly dashed, though, when COVID struck.
Fast forward to September, where I had 7.5 vacation days that needed to be used before the end of the year. I figured out that if I took a trip over Labor Day, that would allow me an extra day for another vacation! The next trick was deciding where to go: I considered and ruled out Alaska, South Dakota, Colorado, and Yosemite before my Dad suggested going out to Washington state. Unlike several of the other parks I had looked at, it didn’t seem like the parks in Washington had visitor limits. Washington also had three parks: North Cascades, Mount Rainier, and Olympic. I decided these combined with some time in Seattle could make a very fun, worthwhile 10-day trip. Thus, Washington it was!
I flew out on Friday night for Seattle. My techy side was pretty excited when I got to sit next to someone who worked for Microsoft on the plane. He and his family were actually flying back from the Czech Republic after being stuck there for most of the pandemic – they were the first of many interesting people I was to meet on this trip.
I landed rather late and eventually got to my hostel, the Green Tortoise, where I crashed. I was pretty excited to be back in a hostel for the first time since being abroad! I can definitely recommend the Green Tortoise – free breakfast, free wi-fi, right downtown, pretty clean, very reasonable prices and very friendly staff!
The next morning I slept in a bit, then drug myself out of bed to get breakfast and finalize some plans. As soon as I could though, I was out the door to go explore!
One of the first things I heard was a busker by the name of Jeffrey Circus right outside the hostel. I don’t know much about piano, but he sounded incredible! Here’s his original “Daredevil Superman”.
Right across the street from him and the hostel was the world-famous Public Market, also known as the Pike’s Place Market. It was apparently begun in 1907 as an attempt to connect consumers directly with farmers in a time when produce was really expensive.
You might know the market for its flying fish! A couple of fish markets here famously throw fish back and forth between emplyees when unloading them. Unfortunately, they were not throwing fish while I was there due to COVID.
This area is also known for the first Starbucks! I was trying to figure out why there was such a long line and why the logo looked so strange when I saw the sign that said it was the first.
I spent a couple hours just wandering around the market, in and out of shops. I absolutely loved the atmosphere and the vintage vibes.
After I’d seen almost everything (and resisted the temptation to buy so many things!), I wandered on down to the historic Pioneer Square.
Seattle has a really interesting history – long story short, the original city burned, and there was disagreement between the Seattle citizens and the government over whether to rebuild at the same height or one story higher. The citizens rebuilt shops at the same level, but the city decided to build the streets – but not sidewalks – one story higher. Eventually, the sidewalks were extended, and the lower stories evacuated and forgotten about. You can take tours of the below-ground portion, but they had unfortunately stopped due to COVID. The only remnants you can see from above ground are ‘skylights’ planted in the sidewalks to allow light into the lower stories, so I walked down mainly to see those.
This part of the city was definitely a little rougher, so I didn’t stay too long. Seattle definitely seemed to be doing better while I was there, at least during the day. There were still several businesses boarded up, however, and I saw a few tent communities. I was encouraged by sights like below, though.
Next up I grabbed a cup of chowder from Ivar’s…
…and stopped to see the infamous Gum Wall. It’s honestly more like a Gum Alley now!
My next little adventure was going back to the airport to pick up my rental car. I decided to take the train so that I could switch things up and see more of the city (and save some money!). It took a little more time, but I was glad I did it.
Once I got my car, I attempted to stop by REI – their flagship store is in Seattle and is so big it has its own parking garage! – but there was a Labor Day Sale, and it was packed. I couldn’t wait that long – places to be!
First up was the Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum. If you’re familiar with the Indianapolis Children’s Museum, the giant glass tower is one of Dale Chihuly’s works! This was one of the few museums that was open, and there was a great combo deal offered with the Space Needle, so I had booked it well in advance. It did not disappoint!
In addition to lots of amazing glass work, there was also a little cafe with filled with items Chihuly had collected. I was quite entertained by the accordions hanging from the ceiling!
After the museum, I bopped next door to the Space Needle. I had specifically booked tickets for around sunset, and it did not disappoint.
After I finally tore myself away from the Space Needle, I had to make a last-minute grocery run to pick up some supplies. I was planning on going backpacking for a couple of days on the trip, and because this was my first time without a place/person to rent or borrow gear from, there were several things I needed in addition to food. I got most of what I needed and headed back to the hostel to crash again.
Sunday morning I was up early to head out for North Cascades National Park. After a couple hour’s drive, I arrived to some beautiful foggy vistas!
One of my first stops was at the sign, of course. Can you believe that snow is fake??
Afterwards, I stopped in the tiny town of Marblemouth, specifically at the Ranger’s Station, to pick up some backcountry permits. Here permits were walk-up, or first-come-first-serve. Unfortunately, since it was Labor Day weekend, most of the sites were full, but I was able to get one about four miles in on the Pacific Crest Trail for my first night and one near the trailhead of a hike I wanted to do for my second night.
My dad had recommended driving to see Mount Shuksan while I was in the area, so I inquired with a ranger how long it would take to get there and was told about an hour and a half. I crunched calculations and determined I would have enough time to see Shuksan, drive back, hit the trail, and make it to camp just before dark.
Unfortunately, the ranger’s calculations were significantly off, and it took me about 2.5 hours to reach the lookout at Shuksan. Once I realized it was going to be longer than what the ranger had said, I decided to go through with it anyways and just adjust my plans as best as I could.
After a very wind-y mountain road, I finally pulled up to Picture Lake. I knew that Mount Shuksan was the most photographed mountain in the world and that Picture Lake was one of the most popular viewpoints of it, so my expectations were pretty high. However, I was frankly kinda disappointed at what I saw: there was no snow on the mountain! I stood there taking pictures, trying to convince myself it wasn’t so bad.
It wasn’t until I started driving onto the next viewpoint that I realized I had been looking at the wrong mountain! I looped back around and walked to the opposite side of the lake. Now that was much more like it!
Next I drove up to Artist’s Point to get a different view of Shuksan. It was Labor Day weekend, so there were tons of people, but I was somehow able to frame them out in most of my pictures.
I was able to see Mount Baker from here! Pretty crazy cool to think that my dad once summitted both Baker and Shuksan… I am not nearly in good enough shape for that right now!
After a while, I pulled myself away from the vistas and started the drive back. I was racing against the sun setting, but I decided to stop really quickly and grab this shot of Lake Diablo.
I got to the Rainy Pass Trailhead, threw supplies into my pack, and put on the PCT as the sun was setting. I was a little nervous but (foolishly) very determined to hike the four miles and reach my campsite for the night. Long story short, I have decided not to ever try backpacking in the dark again: I realized after about a half hour in that I was going north rather than south. I doubled back, a little more desperate at this point.
When I got back to the trailhead parking lot, I approached two gentlemen to ask for directions to the southbound trail. They introduced themselves as Paul and Gary, offered me dinner and quickly talked me out of trying to hike any more that night. I finally admitted defeat and decided to spend the night in my car.
The coolest thing about Paul and Gary, asides from their amazing hospitality, was their journey on the PCT – on horseback! They had done all but some 23 miles when I met them, spread out over the course of several years. They had some really interesting stories! I insisted on getting a picture of them the next morning.
I decided to hike a few miles on the PCT Monday morning – this time in the light! It did not disappoint.
Next up was driving back out to Marblemouth and then back in to Cascade Pass, my next hike. I stopped on the way, however, to look at an interesting hydroelectric plant and a nearby “town”. Apparently the plant still powers much of Seattle!
I also stopped at this little viewpoint on my way to Cascade Pass, and some very nice gentlemen offered to take my picture.
After a long bumpy drive, I finally made it up to the Cascade Pass trailhead. Cascade Pass was absolutely beautiful, with only one caveat – 37 switchbacks over 3.7 miles. Thankfully I knew this going in, but they were still pretty brutal. Those views though… worth it!
When I got up to where I had intended to stop, I stopped to breathe and struck up a conversation with a guy about my age who was coming down after having been backpacking further up. He introduced himself as James, and I soon found out that he knew where to find the campsite I had booked for that evening. Even better, he was willing to show me where it was! First, however, he recommended I keep hiking a little way further up. Despite my very tired muscles, I decided to go up the next little bit, and it was really pretty despite the sun starting to set.
I hurried back down to where James was waiting, and we began the long descent together. We hit it off really well and ended up talking all the way down those 37 switchbacks! And we caught some pretty amazing views.
The dashing James really ended up being a lifesaver – he refilled my water, showed me where the campsite was (which I never would have found!), and even gave me maps for the other National Parks I was going to! I had been planning on going to bed pretty early and leaving early for Mount Rainier the next morning, but I instead stayed up to chat more with him and look at the stars. It was a pretty great night.
We ended up sharing a tent site (two tents squeezed into a tiny space!), so I was able to say goodbye and grab a selfie with him in the morning.
I’ve been really fortunate to be able to keep in touch with James and his adventures since I’ve gotten back. What an awesome (and kind!) guy!
We parted ways, and it was off to Mount Rainier for me.
Unfortunately, the drive to Rainier took much longer than I was expecting; I didn’t really get there until 3:00 or so. Thankfully, there was no need to stop and pick up back country permits here – they actually had to be reserved and approved a few weeks in advance, and I just hadn’t had time for that. It ended up being pretty nice not having to deal with it!
Unlike North Cascades, which had several high peaks and ranges, Mount Rainier NP essentially just had Rainier. For this reason, I wasn’t expecting to be as impressed by Rainier. However, it ended up being my favorite Park of the three, even in spite of some unfortunate mishaps (more on that later)!
Here’s a map of the park – Rainier smack dab in the middle!
James had recommended a few hikes here, and one of them was a hike to Tolmie Peak, which had one of the Park’s four fire lookouts. I decided to go for this one first since it was on the closest corner (northwest) of the park to me. If you do this hike, be forewarned, the drive up the mountain is a good hour or so! Also, if you’re spending time in this general area, know that the road past the Carbon River entrance is permanently closed, so don’t try to access this hike from there.
Once I got up to the trailhead, I paid the entrance fee and put on the trail about 4:30. This hike took about 1.5 hours one way and had pretty decent elevation change, though thankfully not the 37 switchbacks that Cascade Pass had! Towards the end of the hike, you come upon Eunice Lake, which was really pretty.
The truly killer views, however, are of Eunice Lake from above.
It was just stunning.
I stayed up there for a good bit, just soaking in the views and talking with a ranger who was installing solar panels in the fire tower. I had planned to drive out of the park and spend the night in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Park, but he encouraged me to check out the Molwich Lake campground, which was right next to the trailhead. He also backed up James’ recommendation to hike the Sunrise trail and encouraged me to hike it at sunrise and go to the Mt. Fremont lookout, even though it might be crowded.
I finally tore myself away so I could get back down and set up camp before dark. I definitely caught some good views going back down.
Near the end of the hike, the sun was starting to set, and I could tell it was going to be a pretty sunset, but I just couldn’t find an opening through the trees to get a good shot. Finally, I came across one!
Once I got back down, I checked out the Molwich campground, and they had a few walk-up sites open! It was pretty nice, because you could park pretty close to the campground, but you couldn’t take your car into the campground. They even had big bear lockers for your food!
I set up camp in the dark and made a late dinner.
I also had fun playing with my headlamp and water bottle before turning in.
Very early Wednesday morning, I packed up and headed out with the intent of watching the sun rise from Sunrise. I drove back out to civilization, only to find that my wallet was nowhere inside my car. Long story short, I had apparently dropped it sometime around when I had paid the entrance fee. The next few hours involved frantically calling my parents, driving back up the mountain and searching for it to no avail, and finally making a plan to drive back up to Seattle and borrow funds from a cousin who lived there. Talk about stress! It was a definitely a very humbling experience that made me realize just how dependent I was on money and how vulnerable I was with only $60 to my name (I was incredibly fortunate that I had taken out the remaining cash in the wallet when I paid the fee, so I wasn’t penniless!).
On top of this, there was a wildfire blocking the road to Sunrise, so there apparently was just no way I was going to make it there that day.
At this point, however, I was really determined to get there. The roads essentially form a loop around the outside of the park, and I figured out I could go the long way around and still get there, though it would mean about a three hour drive. I did some calculations to figure out if I could get on there on my remaining money, and I decided to go for it.
I was actually really glad that I ended up going the scenic route – I felt like I got to see a lot more of the park. And of course, more views of Rainier!
I was able to make it to the White River campground just before dark, and I decided to sleep in my car so it would be quicker to pack up the next morning and go watch the sunrise.
Unfortunately, I slept through my first alarm, so I got the short drive to Sunrise started later than what I had planned and put on the trail just as it was getting light in the east. I was headed to the Mount Fremont fire lookout this time – two out of four fire lookouts in the park checked off!
I finally got there about an hour in, just a few minutes before the sun popped over the horizon. It was crazy beautiful.
I got this shot by looking into the windows of the fire tower – you can see the sunrise in the reflection, the inside of the tower, and Rainier behind. It’s definitely unique, but one of my favorites.
And the wildfire blocking the northern entrance meant that I had the whole place to myself!
Even as the sun came up and the colors faded, the beauty remained.
After a little while longer, I decided to hike back so that I could get on the road to the next destination. The hike back down was also gorgeous.
All in all, not a bad way to start off a 23rd birthday!
I also made a little buddy! He was pretty much the only wildlife I saw most of the trip… go figure. At least he was cute.
The lodges at Sunrise looked really neat, though unfortunately they were closed due to COVID.
I made a few stops on the long drive out of the park. First, for this view…
…then at Longmire, where the gift shop and the Wilderness Information Center are. It was a pretty neat place, though unfortunately the museum was closed.
And of course I had to get a picture at the sign!
After Longmire, I hit the road, planning to make a detour up to Seattle to borrow enough money to get me through the rest of the trip. I stopped along the way, however, to check my email, and I had an email from someone who found my wallet! And even better, they lived in Olympia, which was right on the way to Olympic National Park. I can’t tell you how much of a relief it was to have my wallet back in my hands. Best birthday present yet!
As for Olympic National Park, the wallet/wildfire fiasco meant that I was getting to the park much later than anticipated, and a backpacking trip that I had planned and booked campsites for was looking less and less feasible by the minute. After some thought, I decided to ditch the backpacking and explore more areas of the park.
Speaking of the park, if you’re planning on coming here, know that the layout is kinda wonky. Most of the park is clustered in the center of the Olympic Peninsula, but there’s also a few patches along the coast… Very unique! Most of the land in between is State Forest property.
Again, travel time to the park was significant, so I didn’t get to Olympic until an hour or so before dark. I decided to try to stay at Graves Creek Campground near the southwest edge of the park, so I headed towards the small but pretty town of Quinault.
It was a bit of a drive back to the campground, so I was really glad when there were spots left open! Staying here was actually really neat because my dad had taken a trip out to Washington (we figured out it was almost thirty years ago to the day that I was out there!) and had stayed at Graves Creek campground. He actually sent me a picture of where he was (below) so I could look for it!
I located about where it was, but a group was already staying there, so I picked out a different spot (below).
With that bathroom in the background, my site might be a little easier to find in 30 years! Super stoked to share that experience with Dad.
I didn’t do much that night, just set up camp and enjoyed a gourmet birthday dinner of cheesy garlic mashed potatoes and spam.
The next morning I packed up and tried going on 1 mile loop hike around the campsite. Unfortunately, the trail quickly became very hard to follow, so I turned back pretty quickly, but not before I got this shot!
Next I headed out for the Hoh Rainforest, but not before stopping at the world’s largest spruce tree!
58 feet around… big fella!
I also stopped at a beach real quick… Wasn’t the most beachy weather, but it was still pretty.
The Hoh Rainforest was kinda neat, but not quite what I was expecting. It was probably just the time of year, but it was actually very dry. Believe it or not, the time I spent at the rainforest was the only time it was sunny all day.
I decided to go for the Hall of Mosses Trail, which is a 0.8 mile popular loop trail. It was definitely neat, but I was itching to get a good vista!
One of my favorite parts of the trail was getting to see the aftereffects of nurse logs. These are giant trees that have fallen and served as a “nurse” for seeds that fall on top of them and sprout. Eventually the nurse logs decompose, but you can still see their influence in the living seedlings – some of them appear as if they’re on stilts.
Another one of my favorite parts of the Hoh Rainforest was meeting Brad. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of Brad, but I met him when he offered to take this picture of me with a nurse log tree.
We got to chatting and quickly hit it off. I learned that he was also trying to travel to as many National Parks as he could, though he found hotel rooms better suited his age than campgrounds. I hadn’t planned on spending much more time in the rainforest, but I ended up tagging along on a longer hike with him, and we had some really great conversations about everything from the voting process to family. I’m almost always grateful when I end up connecting well with someone from a different generation!
After parting ways with Brad, I headed to Rialto Beach, which my Dad had been to on his trip 30 years ago. Brad had specifically recommended hiking to Hole in the Wall here, so I decided to go for it.
Here is when I really started to realize that effects from the Oregon and California wildfires were creeping northward. Though it may have been partly cloudy, I could see the sun as a small orange ball through the clouds, which made me suspect I was seeing more smoke than clouds.
Unfortunately, the tide had risen since Brad had hiked that morning, so I wasn’t able to hike into Hole in the Wall, but it was still neat.
I also got to see someone surfing. Little chilly for me, but you go dude!
Dark was creeping in, so I started the search for a campsite. I saw on my map that there was a campground called Klahanie just a few miles down the road in Olympic National Forest, so I set out there. It was a Friday night, so I wasn’t too hopeful there would still be a spot open, but when I got there, it looked deserted: most of the campsites seemed overgrown, and I didn’t see any type of bathroom or any facilities. It was also dark at this point, and I was honestly pretty freaked out, so I decided just to sleep in my car and lock the doors until I could head out early the next morning.
Come to find out, after getting back, this campground has apparently been closed for over a year! Definitely very strange.
The next morning, I fired up the car and got the heck out of there. This was my last full day in Washington, so I was determined to make the most of it. My first stop was Sol Duc, which is known for its hot springs and its waterfalls. I didn’t have time to investigate the hot springs, but I decided to do the short hike to the falls. They ended up being really pretty!
Next up was Marymere Falls, close to Lake Crescent. I was not nearly as impressed with these falls, but thankfully it wasn’t too time consuming to hike to them.
And of course, I had to stop and get a picture with the sign!
The day before, Brad had recommended doing this hike called Hurricane Ridge, so I decided to try it out. Very unfortunately, however, wildfire smoke had completely rolled in at this point. Despite being told that visibility and air quality were very poor, I decided to drive up to the top anyways and see what I could see.
Spoiler: it wasn’t much.
The air was definitely smokier at the top – I actually wore a mask the whole hike, but to protect against smoke inhalation rather than COVID.
I had to laugh when I reached the top and found this sign elaborating the mountain peaks I should have been able to see in the distance… Oh well.
I was also pretty disappointed that the trail was paved – I understand if it’s for accessibility reasons, but this seemed far too bumpy/steep for a wheelchair. Definitely made it feel like more of a stroll and less of a hike.
To ease my disappointment in the lack of views, I decided to take pictures of the flora.
This hike was the last must-see item on my list for Olympic, so I bid it adieu and exited the park in an attempt to catch a ferry to Whidbey Island. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage logistics very well for this part of the trip, and the ferry ended up being booked up. I was kinda disappointed, as Dad had been there and had requested I bring a special liqueur back for his birthday if I went. I decided instead to start the long drive back to Seattle.
Of course, along the way, I spotted a coffee shop that served ice cream, so I just had to stop. I got a coffee-whiskey-cherry-chocolate chunk kind – very good!
By the time I got back to Seattle, it was clear that the smoke was not just in the peninsula area. I stopped to see a distant cousin and found out that the sky would have been completely clear that day if not for the smoke: that’s how bad it was.
Overall, I was pretty disappointed that I hadn’t gotten to see much of Olympic under normal circumstances, but I’ve been reminding myself that “normal circumstances” for Washington means lots of rain, so it honestly was probably little different than if it had rained all day. Also, it was kind of neat to be there at a somewhat historic time. I was definitely grateful that I was ending my trip at that time rather than just starting it, and it gave me a whole new appreciation for wildfires and the people who have to endure them.
I closed out the trip the same I way I started it – the Green Tortoise Hostel. This time around I got to interact with guests a little more, which was a lot of fun.
That next morning, I stopped back by the market to get me a bouquet of flowers, and I also managed to grab a letterbox before flying out.
I was able to pick up my dad’s liqueur, by the way! A store in Seattle carried it, so I was able to get some. Good stuff, though quite expensive…
Overall, despite the craziness of losing my wallet and just traveling solo in general, it was a good trip. I definitely learned a lot that I’m looking forward to applying in future trips!
Speaking of future trips, I hope to be taking one to Florida this winter to knock out another three parks, so stay tuned! Thanks for hanging on through this gargantuan post – I’ll see you next time!
Hello all! What a crazy, crazy year it’s been. At the same time, though, I feel so, so blessed, not the least because I’ve been able to get out of the house and still have a few adventures.
This adventure took place late May of 2020 in the Big South Fork National Recreation Area in Kentucky and Tennesee. This was really my first time out of the house after I was sent home from college in mid-March, and it was a nice reward for graduating and a pre-work/adult-life trip!
We got to brainstorming when we found out Braden (my younger brother) had an ideal finals schedule for taking a trip. We were initially thinking of going to Boundary Waters, but it was a long drive for a short trip. I suggested the Big South Fork, since it was closer and I had never been there. I also wanted to go backpacking, and there were a decent number of trails there. That quickly got the wheels turning, and before long we were decided!
We met Braden in Indy on Friday and began the long drive down. We took our truck, which we hauled the kayaks in, and a car in order to do shuttles. We stayed at the Sheltowee Trace Adventure Resort a little ways outside of the BSFNRA to break up the drive a little. They had covered tent platforms, which were really nice because we didn’t have to pack up dewy tents the next morning. Overall, we had a very good experience there – nice showers, and even wi-fi! Normally I would scoff at wi-fi at a campground, but it was really nice for planning purposes.
Dad had been keeping a close eye on water levels the past few days; we had hoped to do a section (I think it was the North White Oak Creek?) but we determined Saturday morning that it was just too low. We decided to split the trip into two smaller sections: Peters Bridge to Burnt Mill Bridge for the first 1.5 days on the Clear Fork, then Leatherwood Ford to Blue Heron on the Big South Fork in . Below is a map of the first part. And yes – the BSF and tributaries run from south to north! It confused me too. On the map below you can see the first part of our trip.
It was a good little drive to Burnt Mill from Sheltowee Trace – some of those back roads are wild! We dropped off the car and took the truck with all the gear to Peters Bridge. Since it was about 1:00, we took a lunch break before finally putting on the water.
This first section of water started off at a decent pace. The banks were decently high along here, and there were some nice exposed cliff faces – Dad hopped out and took some pictures of some of them.
We did hit a massive log jam at one bridge, but there was a small path through it, thankfully.
Things really seemed to pick up later on that afternoon. All rapids on this stretch were designated a Class II or lower, but we felt they were definitely a high Class II!
Braden was the first of us to dump – somehow I made it through this rapid! He made the most of the opportunity, though, and climbed up on some rocks to get some pictures.
My luck ran out, though, a little further downstream, and I got caught on a rock and tipped. Braden managed to ferry me over to the bank while Dad did a “rescue” on my kayak. It was about 6:30 at this point, and after not having done a kayak trip in a while, I was worn out and not too anxious to get back in the kayak now that I was all wet. While I waited for the boys, I started exploring with the hopes of making camp for the night, and was delighted to find an amazing camping spot tucked away among some rocks and plants.
As we figured out, I just so happened to dump right next to the Gentleman’s Swimming Hole, a long established favorite with the locals. I was absolutely enthralled and quickly convinced the boys that we should break camp here.
There was the perfect stump to put our lifejackets on, a boulder that we could hang our water filter from, a fire pit… I loved it.
We spent a little time exploring, then got to setting up camp. We made dinner, and Dad built a small fire, but we were pretty tired and didn’t stay up too late.
Sunday morning was a bit cloudy as we packed up and put on the water. That didn’t dampen the trip any though – this next section of water was an absolute hoot, with plenty of tricky rapids. Though I got pretty stuck at one point, I managed not to dump, which I was pretty happy about! I learned pretty quickly to let Dad take the lead and find the best way through, though I did gain more confidence by the end of the trip.
This section of water was also the first time I used a kayak skirt. I found it really tricky to put on the first time, but I got better at it over time, and it was really nice not having to empty out the boats whenever a little water got in them.
When we weren’t navigating rapids, we enjoyed the scenery, like this pretty little waterfall tucked back in a cove.
I wish I had some good pictures of the rapids here – they were really a lot of fun and seemed to come one after the other. We all decided that if we had had an extra half day, we would have come back and done that stretch again.
About noon or so, we came up on Burnt Mill Bridge, our take out point. I was sad it was over but also excited to start the next section.
Once we were off the water, Braden and I began the shuttling process while Dad got things unpacked. This took quite a while; it was fun driving those curvy back roads, but they definitely didn’t make things any shorter.
Technically we could have kept going downstream, as the Clear Fork would merge into the Big South Fork; however, several of the rapids there were Class IV, and we didn’t have the right equipment nor the skill for that extreme of kayaking. This is a very popular stretch of water for highly skilled whitewater kayakers, however, and they come from all around and will often run it multiple times in a day.
We debated for a while over where to start our next section of the trip. We narrowed it down to Pine Creek and Leatherwood Ford, the latter of which was further downstream. There were apparently really fun rapids downstream of Pine Creek, but it would add on extra mileage, and we would have had to carry the kayaks a half mile between the end of the road and the water. Ultimately we decided to put in at Leatherwood Ford, mainly because of time constraints. The take-out point was decided – the old mining community of Blue Heron – so we began the long process of shuttling vehicles.
If you look at the map below, you can see Leatherwood Ford to the south and Blue Heron at the north.
We also stopped along the way somewhere in there to get a picture of the BSF sign! What a bunch of river rats…
By the time we put on at Leatherwood Ford, it was probably about 5:00. Our goal was to try to spend the night at Station Camp, but we had a good ways before we got there and the water was moving pretty slowly. The Big South Fork was significantly wider than the Clear Fork, and seemed to have less of the pretty foliage, but the scenery was still neat.
It wasn’t long before we came up on Angel Falls. IMPORTANT NOTE: If you’re planning on paddling this section of the BSF, you HAVE to portage the falls. There’s several boulders around the falls, and some of them are dangerously undercut. Also, there are no signs indicating that you’re coming up on Angel Falls!! So it’s really important that you’re paying attention and carrying a map around here.
If you’re not familiar with what ‘undercut’ means, it’s when water has eroded away a section of rock right at the surface or below the surface of the water (see the diagram below!). If the water is moving fast enough and in the right direction, it can push a kayaker into the rock, which would tip the boat, and then trap the kayaker under the water. Pretty scary stuff.
The falls were really pretty though! The portage, on the other hand… pshew.
We got the boats loaded back up and put on the water again pretty quickly, trying to make as much headway as we could before dark.
Unfortunately, things went a little south at the last rapid we did that night. We all made it through the rapid okay, but Dad and I ended up on one side of the creek and Braden the other. Dad wanted us to meet Braden at the other side of the creek – I think maybe we had decided we weren’t going to make it to Station Camp, and Dad remembered a nice camping spot there from his last trip. He decided to try to teach me an upstream ferry so we could get to the other side. I was pretty worn out, however, and I didn’t get positioned quite right, so the current soon overpowered me. I was going downstream backwards in a decently fast section – not a great situation.
I was trying to turn myself around when I hit a strainer. For those of you unfamiliar, a strainer is a downed tree extending out into the water. Strainers can be extremely dangerous, as they will capsize you, and the current can suck you under them, where you can get pinned by branches. Really scary stuff. Here’s an example of one.
Thankfully, the one I hit was much smaller, though it did capsize me and hang me up for a few seconds- it ripped a small hole in my pants. I was able to break free and grab onto my boat, and the water was shallow enough that I could stand up and dig in. Normally, you should really just grab hold of your boat and float downstream feet first until someone can rescue you, but Dad was really still hoping to grab that campsite. Unfortunately, the current was too strong, and I couldn’t stay in one place and hold onto the boat, so I ended up having to float downstream until Dad and Braden could come rescue me.
Thankfully, there were no real gear losses, and I was okay, just pretty shaken up. While I changed into dry clothes and let off a little emotion, Dad and Braden found a passable campsite. We set up camp and cooked dinner, and I went to bed right after.
Monday I woke up in better spirits, and good thing, because we had a guest!
This is a bona fide Copperhead. It was actually the only one we saw the whole trip – I was okay with that though! It didn’t bother us or even really move the whole time we were there.
For breakfast, Dad fried up some spam – my first time! I thought it was pretty good.
We packed up and were back on the water about 10:00. Here’s an early morning river view for ya.
This next section of water was very slow, almost lakelike. After yesterday’s action, though, that was okay with me!
We broke for a pretty early lunch at Station Camp. I quickly determined that trying to cross the Big South Fork here while backpacking was not going to be feasible.
Back on the water, we began keeping our eye out for a campsite Dad had read about online. The only thing we knew was that it was close to a large mushroom-shaped rock. About 3:00 or so, we spotted it!
It felt pretty strange stopping so early for the day, especially when we’d gone pretty much until dark the last two days. I was really glad we did stop here, though – what a beautiful site, even if it was a climb to get up to it!
We unloaded the kayaks and lugged everything up the hill, then went back down to explore a little bit.
It was absolutely gorgeous. Braden and I spent some time laying out on this massive boulder, and Dad took a kayak out and paddled around a bit. It was just so relaxing.
After a couple of hours, however, it started sprinkling, so we headed back up to camp. Thankfully, the boys had set up the tents already, so we just crawled in and rode out the storm with a nap.
By the time we roused ourselves, it was nearly dark. We whipped up our last trail dinner as a family, chili mac with pepperoni – so good!
Since we hadn’t done much that day and had already gotten a good nap in, we stayed up a bit later around the fire just talking.
Tuesday morning, our final morning on the water, we packed up and put on the water again. The water picked up not too far after the campsite, and we had a good bit of fun after such a long flat stretch the day before.
Before we knew it, we were at Devil’s Jump, the last big rapid before our take out point. We were really hoping to run it, so we pulled over and scouted it out. Unfortunately, Dad decided water levels weren’t quite right and that it would probably be too dangerous since we weren’t in white water kayaks. It was still neat to see though.
Of course, that meant portaging all the gear and boats… Oh well.
Once we were back on the water, Braden decided to try a little surfing (putting the nose of the kayak upstream in a crevice). Of course, he tipped, so the trip ended with me towing him and his boat to the takeout point. He also had decided not to tie down his spray skirt since we were just going around the bend, so we lost that to the waters of the BSF. Silly boy.
Once we got the kayaks out of the water, Braden and I went to go get the truck from Leatherwood Ford. Once we got back, Dad packed up, which allowed me to run around and explore Blue Heron.
Blue Heron was really interesting. It’s an old abandoned mining town that’s been turned into an outdoor museum. It still had the tipple (building/machine that sorts coal) and a couple other buildings, though most are now just foundations. The mine ended up being not very successful, but the tipple was pretty heavily used until coal in the area dried up and the mine was closed in 1962. The history nut in me was very excited.
After we got packed up, we decided to drive to a lookout we had seen while we were down on the water. The views did not disappoint! This is the aerial view of Devils Jump, the rapid we had just portaged.
Also, I finally got to get up close to these pretty little flowers we had been seeing along the river bank! Apparently they’re called mountain laurel.
Eventually, we hit the road for Sheltowee Trace again. We got showers – oh how glorious not to be just wet but also clean and warm! – and then went out for Mexican to celebrate a successful trip before turning in for the night.
Pshew. This is going to be a long post. If you want to take a break, now is probably a good spot!
Wednesday, we packed up and parted ways. Braden had to get back for a final and Dad back to work, but I still had a few days to play. I hadn’t been backpacking since I got back from New Zealand, and I had been itching to go. This was my chance!
I packed up, reserved my backcountry camping permit, checked the weather one last time, and hit the road. I stopped to take this picture of a river (not sure which one, but I was glad we hadn’t been trying to paddle it!).
The plan was for me to spend Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday morning backpacking in the Big South Fork. I was going to start at the Twin Arches trailhead, then hike counterclockwise to the Slave Falls to Charit Creek trail and then over to Sawmill then take the Fork Ridge Road/Trail to the Laurel Fork Creek Trail, then the Station Camp Creek Trail back to the Arches loop. There’s a map below if you want to try to follow along with any of that; basically it was an approximately 20-mile loop trail.
I put on the trail about 1:00 or so. There was some rain in the forecast, but I decided to go for it anyway and hoped that it would miss me. Here’s a pre-trip selfie!
I got a little confused to start off with – I knew that the Twin Arches, which are a decently popular area attraction, were along the hike I was doing, but my map made it look like I could do the first section without seeing them and save them for the end. It took me some time, but I eventually figured out that the trail actually went right underneath one of them. Oh well – this meant I got to see them twice!
Unfortunately, I didn’t get great pictures of them, but they were pretty neat. Even better, you could walk on top of them, and there was a great view from the end!
After I figured out where I was going, I started down the Twin Arches loop trail. There were a lot of neat rock formations and miniature waterfalls, especially close to the arches.
A historic “Jake’s Place’ appeared on the map right where I was supposed to hop off onto another trail, but unfortunately there wasn’t much signage, so I didn’t learn what made it historic. Nice little campsite there, though pretty soggy at the time.
The next section of trail led me right by Slave Falls, so I decided to take the little spur trail and go see it. It was a pretty little falls!
I also got the chance to refill on water here. That was one nice thing about this hike: I had several chances to refill on water. This was actually the first backpacking trip where I had had to treat/filter water – the trips I had done in New Zealand were kind of “cush”, as there was often treated water available.
There’s really two methods of making “wild” water potable – chemical treatment or filtering. There’s pros and cons to each. Filters remove everything from the water and leave it tasting normal, but they’re significantly heavier/bulkier (an ever present concern when backpacking!), take a little more work and time, and they can clog up. Chemical treatment is arguably easier, as you just have to drop a tablet in water and wait half an hour; however, the tablet does nothing to remove garbage in the water, so if your source water is full of gunk, you’re kind of stuck drinking gunky water. We had used a filter on the water portion of the trip because we weren’t worried about weight, but I decided to use the tablets here, specifically iodine. Overall, I thought the taste was pretty good! It was just a tiny bit chemical. It definitely helped that I used pH rectifying tablets alongside the iodine tablets – most of the time nowadays it seems like they are sold together.
I took two liters of water on this trip, which is the recommended amount, but I found this wasn’t quite enough for me. Even though I had several opportunities to fill up on water and felt like I was staying on top of it, I still ended up almost running out the second day. Remember, this is water is not only for drinking, but cooking and cleaning, so it can go pretty quick. A third liter just gives you a nice safety net.
Sorry to talk so much about water, but it’s really important on trips like these! I always realize when I come back how much we take clean water for granted.
The next little sight on the trail was the Needle Arch. Quite smaller than the Twin Arches, but still neat.
The clouds started looking pretty ominous, and I began looking for a place to spend the night, preferably one with shelter. I was hoping to make it over to the Sawmill trailhead, where I hoped there would be an established campsite, but I was looking elsewhere just in case.
Sure enough, it started raining soon after, and I started booking it. I got to Sawmill, only to find out that there was no camping allowed at the trailhead, and the closest campsite that would keep me somewhat dry was a few miles back. Already pretty wet, I decided I might as well go down this other little loop trail and look for a campsite. I had also seen a sign for an Indian Rockhouse and thought that sounded interesting.
To my wonderful surprise, the Indian Rockhouse turned out to be the perfect place to spend the night! It was a massive cutout in a rock shelf, and I was thrilled to find the ground underneath it was DRY!
It was absolutely massive. Here’s my tent for scale.
I quickly set up camp and laid some things out to dry, then it was ramen for dinner!
This was my first time backpacking solo, and I found I really liked several aspects of it: being able to move at my own pace, the quiet solitude, feeling independent, etc. At the same time, once I had set up camp and fixed dinner, I found there really wasn’t much to do. I wasn’t terribly lonely, but I could see how I might be if I hiked solo for longer. I ended up going to bed pretty early.
The next morning, I fixed my oatmeal, packed up and headed out by about 9:00. It was so nice to wake up dry… What a godsend that rockhouse was!
I finished out the loop the rockhouse was on and went back to the Fork Ridge Road and Trail. I was kind of disappointed to find that it was very roadlike, but it went by rather quick. Once I turned off onto the Black House Branch, things got more interesting, and even more so once it intersected with the Laurel Fork Creek Trail. There were three creek crossings pretty close together in this area; I planned my steps really carefully on the first one and was able to make it across dry, only to realize there was no way to escape getting wet on the next crossing. Oh well. At least it was pretty!
There were also two really nice campsites right around the crossings! Too early to stop though.
The section along Laurel Creek was probably my favorite along the whole loop. The creek was just so pretty, and the trail was nice and wind-y without being too challenging. I stopped about 1:00 for lunch at another nice little campsite.
Most of the trail was wooded, though I came across this swampy clearing at the very end of the Laurel Fork trail.
Next up, I turned onto the Station Camp Creek Trail. The trail at this point was quite a bit wider, as it was also a horse trail. Definitely pretty muddy at points. I hadn’t expected to make it this far in one day, but I was feeling pretty good and still had a lot of daylight left, so I kept going, looking for campsites along the way. I ended up going all the way to Charit Creek Lodge without finding an established site.
Unfortunately, the lodge was closed to all but employees due to COVID, but it was a neat area.
I talked briefly with a staff person, and she recommended some camping sites close by, but I was unable to find them. I was actually only a mile or so from the arches, so I decided to hike back up and camp close to there. It was quite the hike – several switchbacks, but I made it back up. I called Dad from the top of the arches to check in and get updated weather – he was quite surprised at the progress I had made.
I was really tempted to try camping on top of the arches, but a sign made me a little wary. I definitely enjoyed another look at the view though. Of course, it started to rain some while I was up there, causing me to book it back to a more sheltered spot.
Of course, it didn’t last long, and when I turned around, there was a rainbow! Pretty neat way to end a 13+ mile day.
I then hiked another mile or so back to the trailhead and was really fortunate to find a campsite close by. The trip definitely went quicker than I was expecting, but it was nice to know that I had been underestimating myself.
The next morning, I made my oatmeal and packed up, excited for my travels that day. I had picked out a few letterboxes nearby, so I first set out for one at an area called Colditz Cove. It was absolutely beautiful – I felt like I was in another country, what with all the falls and wild rhodendron!
Unfortunately, I was unable to find the box, but it was still so worth it.
Next up, I decided to go to Rugby, which was close to where we had put in on our first trip. It was so interesting! I’ll spare you all the details, but it was this little English, very Victorian colony among the hills of Tennessee. It was essentially started as a place for second-born English gentlemen who were left little of their family’s inheritance to learn trades such as farming, etc. Overall, it wasn’t really a success – they were criticized for having a swimming hole (where we stayed at the first night!) before a working water system – and though a few people stayed on, today it is mainly a historic site. Definitely recommend stopping by here.
I also enjoyed stopping by a little country general store nearby and splurging on a hot lunch.
At this point, I only had really one more thing on my list: another letterbox was planted close to Burnt Mill Bridge, where we had taken out on our first river trip. It required about a 1.5 mile hike in to get to it, but there were several neat waterfalls and campsites all around.
And the best part was, the box was there! I was very happy.
After that, I hiked back out and hit the road for Indiana!
Overall, it was a really good trip, and it was really good to get out of the house and back outdoors. I was also really grateful to get to spend time with Dad and Braden and improve my kayaking skills.
Next adventure takes place in the Pacific Northwest, so stay tuned! Until then!
Ray of Sunshine Travel 