Our final day of touring around the beautiful state of New Mexico had arrived. We would begin the long drive home the following day. Bobby had read of the amazing National Monument, the Gila Cliff Dwellings. Tucked into the cliffside along the Gila River are the stone structures where a group of several families from the Mogollon Tribe, roughly 20-30 people according to the volunteer ranger we spoke to, lived in the late 1200s. Bobby was drawn to this site for multiple reasons. Primarily, things like pictographs and ancient dwellings are intriguing, mysterious, and wonderful to view. Secondly, the road…
Guadalupe Mountains National Park
Our stay at the Carlsbad KOA was supposed to be coming to an end but I couldn’t help but feel disappointed that we weren’t going to be visiting Guadalupe Mountains National Park. We were only 75 miles away and it felt wrong to be that close to a National Park and miss out on it. We decided to squish two days together further along in our itinerary and stay an extra day at the KOA, thereby making the day trip to Guadalupe a reality! We drove the hour and twenty minutes to the national park. Jack had fallen asleep on…
Sitting Bull Falls
We had been driving A LOT for the past 7 days so we opted for a hike, recommended by many, that was only 40 minutes from our campground. After driving down a winding desert road for 20 miles or so we arrived at the day use area within Lincoln National Forest, found at the end of the road. We were the first car in the parking lot! The park opens at 8:30am and closes to incoming traffic at 4:00 and outgoing traffic at 5:00. This is strictly enforced with gates and a tire shredder. The day-use area is $5 per…
Carlsbad Caverns National Park
I had read of Carlsbed Caverns in Nevada Barr’s mystery novel, Blind Descent. Her descriptions of the caverns intrigued me and had me dreaming of visiting there someday. As we were planning a two week road trip to the southwest, so as to escape the frigid Minnesota winter temperatures, I knew Carlsbad Cavern National Park had to be on our “Must-See” list. Driving while hauling our newly purchased Lance 1575 travel trailer along with traveling with a rambunctious toddle meant that our daily progress wasn’t nearly as fast as we had planned. We were a day behind schedule right off…
Baxter State Park
While we were in Maine we had hoped to summit the state’s tallest peak, Mount Katahdin (elevation 5,268 feet). This tall point didn’t seem an improbable summit for us to reach. Jack has reached higher elevations with longer trails several times before. However, while researching the trails we soon learned that children under the age of six aren’t allowed above the tree line at Baxter State Park, where the trail and mountain are located. We tried our best to research the rule online but decided a phone call to the park might be our best bet. We had read a…
Cadillac to Dorr Mountain
Our first day at Acadia National Park we decided to do two hikes, one in the morning along the Ocean Path Trail and one in the afternoon. We drove, along with hundreds of other tourists to the summit of Cadillac Mountain, the tallest point in Acadia National Park at 1,530 feet. We were miraculously able to find parking in the main, and topmost parking lot. There, we geared up. It must’ve looked odd to the hoards of tourists as we donned day packs and our hiking boots and left the main trail. Many people stick to the tiny, paved, and well…
Acadia National Park
We spent a lot of time in Acadia National Park during our week long stay in Maine. It’s difficult for me to write about and it was difficult for Bobby to develop our pictures. But, we feel we must write about everything that happened to us while we were there. The week began with amazing, beautiful family moments in the park. We were filled with joy and anticipation at everything the next year of our lives would bring us. We had planned a special photo shoot that would announce the coming arrival of our next baby. Halfway through our trip tragedy struck…
Obstruction Point to Elk Mountain Loop
I sat in the airport alone. Something I hadn’t done in a very long time. I held the tears at bay only just. I texted Bobby furiously telling him that this plan of ours was stupid. But he calmed me down and convinced me to stay where I was and board the plane that would take me to Seattle to meet up with him. I left Jack in the capable hands of Grandma and Grandpa Marko but the comfort of knowing he was well cared for wasn’t enough to shake the gloom that overtook me. I thought my first trip…
Garibaldi Lake
It was our last full day in Squamish, British Columbia and we had a lofty goal. Bobby had been reading and dreaming about hiking to Garibaldi Lake. The trip would be 11 miles with 3000 feet of elevation gain and I was unsure if I would be able to complete it. I hadn’t done anything with that distance or elevation gain in a couple of years. We were also concerned that Jack wouldn’t last that long in his carrier and would be a total wreck by the end. The longest he had done was 7 miles. But, we were in…
Whistler – Blackcomb Lake
We were vacationing for a week in Squamish, British Columbia and decided that a day trip to Whistler (a short 45 minute drive away) would be really fun! We had been to Whistler once before back in November of 2013. We had found out we were pregnant with Jack less then a week before we were set to leave. That vacation was to be a long weekend of snowboarding with friends, being newly pregnant, and not a very talented snowboarder, I was advised by my midwives not to participate. So, my last trip to Whistler was spent in a lovely…