Have Tent, Will Hike. : road trip

Showing posts with label road trip. Show all posts

Sunday, September 27, 2015

Native Culture: National Parks

With five days off in front of us, we decided to hit Mesa Verde for two nights, and then stop through Canyon de Chelly and Hubbell Trading Post on the way home. For four years I've worked at visiting every National Park site in the state, and this trip finally completed my goal. For two seconds it felt awesome, and then I immediately began planning the next trip. This is the problem with National Parks. The more you see, the more you want to see. It's a good problem to have.

We arrived on Wednesday afternoon to a mostly empty campground, so we had our pick of the spots. Our site was surrounded by shrubbery which opened up to a wide view of the night sky. We listened to coyotes howl in the distance and sat drinking wine together under the bright moon. We both wondered why we can't live like this every day.

Because we only had one full day at Mesa Verde, we were out early the next morning so we could make our way into the heart of the park. We spent our day exploring the Chapin Mesa, and could have spent another whole day exploring Weatherill Mesa. We arrived back at camp at 6 pm not even having seen everything we planned. We know for next time that three or even four nights would have been better so we could have even gotten in some hiking or biking.

Mesa Verde is part of the Native Culture Parks which are mainly located in the four corner states of Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. This entire list includes 24 parks, of which we've seen roughly half. You know what that means... more goals to accomplish! These parks are dedicated to the history and culture of the Native American peoples, which is fascinating and heartbreaking all at once. In Mesa Verde we saw some of the biggest and best preserved Ancient Puebloan cliff dwellings, dating back to over 800 years ago. It was simply awesome.

Even though the summer season is over at the Park, we were still surprised at the heat and the crowds. Because you can hit so many parks in so little time due to their proximity, many tour buses make their way through Mesa Verde for the day before or after hitting the Utah "Mighty Five" - Arches, Bryce, Canyonlands, Capital Reef, and Zion - and of course heading into Arizona to see the Grand Canyon. Pulling out at a view point only to be pushed out by large groups in the dozens is frustrating and disheartening when you are all competing for the same view in the same spot. All cultures do not practice "taking turns," which can add even more layers of disappointment to your experience as you may be physically bumped aside. For this reason, we decided to speed parts of our day up so as to get ahead of the buses and do as much as we could in the quiet and the tranquility that we seek.

The highlight of the day by far was a Ranger-led tour of Balcony House. Because the busy season is technically over, it was the only tour available. This tour is also listed as the most "strenuous" because it requires climbing multiple ladders, including one that was 32 feet tall, and crawling on hands and knees through a small tunnel. It was so cool! Aside from that, we did a self-guided tour of Spruce Tree House, and the Mesa Top Loop Drive.

On the way home we acquainted ourselves with the Navajo landscape by catching some sights at Canyon de Chelly, and Navajo history at Hubbell Trading Post. It was a great trip.

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Iceland in a camper van. Heaven on Earth?

For our five year anniversary, Brian and I have wanted to do something a little bigger to celebrate and commemorate. We have talked about this over and over again, and we have been throwing around a number of options for over a year now. This is basically our top five travel wish-list.

1. Danali National Park, Alaska. Brian has been twice, but I have never been. We researched taking a ferry on the Alaska Marine Highway from Bellingham, WA, and then taking a train into Denali National Park. The ferry is not only expensive, (like, airfare expensive), but it eats away multiple days of travel getting there and back (like, 4-6). This would be difficult to justify since that would cut into the time actually at our destination.

2. Rafting the Grand Canyon. Brian has also done this twice and I have never been. Hiking the Canyon is one of our favorite activities which we've both done multiple times, but travelling via the Colorado River from Jacob's Lake to Lake Mead would be incredible. The issue here is that money is mostly due up front. It would be very difficult to come up with that kind of money in advance. Also, it's the canyon. We can get there in three hours. It's not going anywhere.

3. Europe. We have discussed various places in Europe a few times. I'd like to visit Amsterdam to see the Ann Frank house, and I think it's a city with a vibe we would both really enjoy. We've also considered London because I think Brian would really enjoy the history. After drinking some good wine, I always have a strong (inebriated) desire to travel back to Italy... but it always comes down to how expensive Europe is. First you have to get there, then you have to pay for accommodations.. .then what about public transport and tours? It just starts to add up too quickly. Hotels are just not our style, if we can help it.

4. Asia. This is where Vietnam comes in. Having lived in Asia, I know that the best part about Asia is that it's cheap. It's not that cheap to get there, but once you're there it's cheap to eat, cheap to sleep, and cheap to get around. It is a hugely popular and accessible destination for travelers of all kinds and nationalities. A backpacker haven. Then again, maybe too much of a backpacker haven. It will be very crowded and crazy, so that's something Brian and I have had to think about and weigh. It can be very touristy. Also, he hates beaches. (Weird, I know.)

5. Iceland. This is a recent development. First, the bad news: Iceland is expensive. It's expensive to fly there, it's expensive to eat there, it's expensive to stay there, and it's expensive to get around there. It's so expensive I often considered it well beyond the realm of possibility and so never even allowed myself to think about it. It was just out of the question. What has changed? Well... I have been following @thekitchenpaper via Instagram and saw that she was in Iceland. Even her out-of-this-world pictures and oh-my-god-I-can't-believe-this-exists-on-Earth commentary were not enough to move me. It wasn't until she posted a picture of her camper van that I went, wait. What? What's that?! She's camping??! You can tell I'm a camp kind of girl. The waterfalls did nothing. The camper van, though? Stopped me in my tracks. This was the beginning of the rabbit hole.

Since then I have visited mrandmrsadventure.com multiple times and have been truly inspired and definitely hooked. Move over Vietnam. I think we're going to Iceland!

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Disneyland: Summer 2015

This summer my parents treated all the girls and their husbands (and kids, if applicable!) to three days and three nights at Disneyland together. Although we have all never been more exhausted in our lives, it is the best kind of exhausted you can be. Up way too late, up way too early, and lots.of.walking. Plenty of adult beverages involved, and lots of fun memories of childhood to relive, reawaken, and remake. It was Disney. So naturally, it was awesome.

First Timer Button!

We drank the kool aide. He loved it.

The "brothers from another mother."

Junior Ranger? Hey! That's me!

Very fitting in my Big Bend shirt from our road trip earlier this month.

Dresden's first time on Dumbo!

Ceiba's first "Big Boy" ride.

"That was not very fun, Mommy!"

OMG. Couple Twins. Need I say more.

Cousin Twins!

We stayed at The Grand Californian Hotel which might have been the most brilliant idea ever since we could come and go from the park any time we wanted, didn't have to shuttle back and forth, or wait in yet more lines. And believe me, we did a lot of back and forth. Best of all, we got into the park an hour early before it got really crowded. In the afternoons when we were all hot, stinky, and tired, we cooled off in the pool. At night while the kids and grandparents were asleep, we hit the roller coasters and screamed our heads off until after midnight. In short, we could be kids again. And we took full advantage. I even got to visit Dallas Clayton's mural at Downtown Disney created in celebration of Pixar's "Inside Out," and in collaboration with Amy Poehler's Smart Girls!