Category: National Parks

Share the Experience National Photo Contest

Post author By Jess
Post date June 11, 2018

Our National Parks are absolute treasures. From the tall peaks in Glacier National Park, to flowing lava in Hawaii Volcanoes to the underwater shipwrecks in Biscayne each one is unique. Many of my favorite memories during our travels involve one of the sites run by the National Park Service. According to the National Park Foundation website there are 417 sites which “span across more than 84 million acres” and “extend into territories including parks in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and Guam.”

To make visiting the parks more cost effective we buy an “America the Beautiful – National Parks & Federal Recreation Annual Pass” every year. Kind of a mouthful huh? We mostly just call it the “National Parks Pass” because its sooo much easier to say!

What’s super cool is that the National Park Foundation holds an annual contest every year to determine the photo that graces the front of the pass. The Share the Experience photo contest is not open to professional photographers (you have to make less than 20% of your income from photography – yep I totally qualify) so there are normal human beings that submit thousands of photos every year.

In addition to the Grand Prize winner, there’s also a 2nd, & 3rd place as well as category winners for all 7 categories.

I submitted this photo last December and recently found out it is the Family, Friends, and Fun category winner! I’m so stoked!

Its such an honor to be chosen out of so many submissions! You can submit up to 10 photos per month and the foundation chooses monthly winners throughout the year and judges the overall winners the following January. I can’t imagine the criteria they have to use to pick winners – it must be overwhelming sometimes!

Just for fun I thought I’d include some of my other favorite photos from National Park sites around the country:

Backpacking on the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore

Coolest rock formations at Chiricahua National Monument, AZ

Exploring the ruins on Cumberland Island National Seashore

Overnight river trip in Big Bend National Park

Celebrating his 8th birthday on the Apostle Islands

I love even just looking through the website to see all the amazing places people have been. It’s truly inspiring! If you’ve been to a national park site recently or plan to this year for sure think about submitting your photos to the contest. Who knows? You could end up winning the Grand Prize. 🙂

Boondocking in Southern Utah, Hiking the Narrows & Mountain Biking

Post author By Jess
Post date May 1, 2018
1 Comment on Boondocking in Southern Utah, Hiking the Narrows & Mountain Biking

Southern Utah is one of my favorite places. Like ever. The red rocks are unreal and there are piles out of outdoor activities that could keep an sane person busy for a lifetime. Mountain biking runs a close competition to skiing as my favorite sport, so naturally as snow season wound down we started planning a spring trip to warmer, dryer climates.

To make re-entry in full travel a little easier, we decided to head right back to where we left off last spring: Hurricane, Utah. The camping is free, the trails are incredible, and if we get bored Zion National Park is a quick 30 minute drive. Not too shabby, right?

JEM Mountain Bike Trails

We were able to camp right along Sheep Bridge road (Campendium Link) in the middle of the JEM trail system. It was perfect for intermediate enthusiasts that we are. Enough uphill to give our lungs a work out, and some sweet rolling downhill to bring on the fun. Our oldest two kids had a blast, and we would switch up who rode with who. Andrew and I did a loop together up Dead Ringer to the top of the Mesa, Sam & Rachel took a spin, and Cara & and I had some one on one time on the easiest trail we could find. At one point Andrew said to me, “Mom, if we came here every year then I could see how much better I’m getting by the trails I ride.” Wise words, my boy, wise words.

For deets on the trails, we love the Trail Forks app (Apple, Google). I love the GPS dot that shows my location and its easy to plan a ride that loops back the way we want. My favorite loop was up Dead Ringer to More Cowbell, down JEM, down Goosebumps, and then back up Dead Ringer. Pretty sweet ride. Cara loved the little green loop we did on JEM from the Gould South parking lot.

Cool off in the Virgin River

Since the temps were flirting with the high 90’s (a little too hot for us actually!) we spent a great deal of time cooling off in the Virgin River. Our Airstream friends, the Ericksons, were camped inside Zion so one afternoon we drove in for a potluck and a swim.

Another evening we met up with Arika from Zion Adventure Photography (she took our photos back in December of 2016 and we LOVE them) and Shanti from Hike it Baby and their families for pizza and a dip in the secret spot with the swing. Totally fun meeting up with these ladies and the kids all had a blast swimming in the river. We ate at River Rock Roasting Company and I wish I could eat there everyday. We had an assortment of pizza, sandwiches, and salad and it was all delicious. Also ordered a cinnamon roll to go and secretly ate it with Sam after the kids were in bed so I didn’t have to share. 🙂

Hike the Narrows

We hiked a small portion of the Narrows back in 2015 when our kids were super little. Although we knew we didn’t have the gear (or the desire) to hike the entire thing this year either, we decided to hike up as far as we wanted and then turn around. We jumped on the shuttle around 3pm at the main Visitor Center and started hiking about 45 minutes later.

The water was cold, but not completely freezing, and we managed okay in just our Chaco sandals & swimsuits. The trail in from the shuttle stop is about a mile along a paved path, and then we hiked for about another mile through the water until we came to a swimming hole. The kids were brave and took turns jumping in, then we found a quiet spot to eat our picnic dinner and headed back.

Someday I think we’ll hike the distance (and rent dry suits!) but for now we just needed to cool off and this totally did the trick!

Relax

Most importantly we dove right back in to traveling life. There’s been some adjusting, but mostly I feel like we picked up right where we left off. The weather was a tad windy, but we did manage to have some good outside relax time while we were at it!

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5 Family Friendly Activities in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

Post author By Jess
Post date February 8, 2018

Our conversation about living in Hawaii went something like this:

Me: Okay, so Hawaii. If you kids could do anything you want while we are over there, what would it be?

All 3 Kids: See a volcano!

That settled it. We are huge National Park advocates and there are two in Hawaii – Haleakalā National Park on Maui, and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island. Since Hawaii Volcanoes has a currently active volcano, that hit the top of our list for this trip. We island hopped from Oahu for about a week an spent three days on the windward side of the island at the National Park.

When We Visited: Nov 24 – 26, 2017
Ages of Kids: 12, 10, 7

Where We Stayed

We had friends suggest staying in the park at the lodge, and I also looked into possibly camping or staying in one of the cabins in the park. Unfortunately by the time we nailed down our dates, there was no availability.

That actually turned out to be a good thing because we found the the most amazing AirBnb rental in the nearby town of Volcano. Only 15-20 minutes away from the entrance, it was the perfect home base for exploring the park. I loved that we weren’t camping in the rain (it rained a lot and was COLD), we had a full kitchen, a hammock, and a hot tub. Doesn’t get much better than that!

New to AirBnB? Use our link to sign up and get $40 of credit towards your first trip!

1. Visit the Kīlauea Caldera Overlook & Jaggar Museum at Night

We spent Friday the 24th driving over from Kona, and managed to stop by the Kīlauea Visitor Center on our way through to our rental. We talked with the rangers about hikes, picked up our Jr. Ranger Books and made plans to return in the evening to see the Caldera at night.

After dinner we drove back into the park and managed to snag one of the last parking spots at the Jaggar Museum. We could easily see the glow of the Kīlauea Caldera in the distance. The overlook has an amazing view, with plenty of information displays. Inside the museum the kids spent their time doing a photo scavenger hunt for their Jr. Ranger Books and learned all about Pele, the Hawaiian Goddess of Volcanoes.

It was cold – so definitely dress warm and bring layers! We never made it back to see the overlook during the day, but from photos I’ve seen the view during daylight is also quite spectacular.

2. Explore the Lava Tubes

We’ve visited multiple caves and lava tubes all over the country, but never in a forest jungle quite like this one. The lave tube trail is a short, 1/3 of mile hike and takes less than 20 minutes. In fact, we did it twice!

We easily tacked this on to our Kīlauea Iki Crater hike as we ascended out of the crater right at the entrance to the Lava Tubes. It was a great way to do both without having to move our car and try and get parking!

3. Hike Across a Crater

The Kīlauea Iki Trail was pretty spectacular! We knew we wanted a longer hike (more than just a 1/2 mile to an overlook) and this one came highly recommended by the ranger. What blew our minds was the change in geology from up on the rim to down in the crater.

We started at the trailhead along the Chain of Craters road in a lush jungle. Once we started the descent into the crater, the landscape quickly changed from tropical rain forest, to barren rock garden.

The trail across the crater felt like we could have been on the moon! The kids loved looking at all the cool rock formations, and we even found some of “Pele’s Hair” – fine threads of volcanic glass that are formed when a spray of lava droplets cools rapidly in the air.

Once across the bottom of the crater, we had to make the 400 ft hike back out and then it was a short walk along the rim back to our car.

Total Miles: 4
Time: 2-3 hours
Difficulty: Moderate to challenging – 400ft descent and ascent in and out of the crater. Trail is switch backed and you can just take your time.

4. Bike and Hike to See Surface Lava

Finding surface lava is a bit tricky. Sometimes the lava is pouring into the ocean (I’ve seen photos – so cool!) but other times its just slowly moving on the surface in different areas. Current conditions are available on the NPS Hawaii Volcanoes website, and you can also talk to a park ranger to find where the most recent lava flow is.

We drove out to the Lava Viewing Area (Google Maps) where there is a huge parking lot and a gazillion vendors that sell bikes and tours. We arrived around 3:30pm which was perfect as we wanted enough time to get out to the lava before it got dark – just check when your sunset time is (ours was about 5:45pm). We spent about $65 for bikes for the 5 of us (2 adult bikes and 3 kid sized). Most rental companies included a headlamp (you’ll need it), a bottle of water, a bike lock and a fanny pack to put it all in. We also saw vendors that had bike trailers for rent, and even ride along attachments for smaller kids. It can definitely be family friendly adventure!

We biked along the dirt/gravel road for 4 miles until we reached the National Park boundary. Here, everyone locks up their bikes and heads out on foot across the cooled igneous rock to find the good stuff. There were enough people out there we mostly just had to follow them towards the smoke. There are no trails, but the rock is uneven and in some places we were jumping across deep gaps. As we got closer, encouragement from others coming back was pretty awesome.

We crested a small hill and then in the distance we could see it – LAVA! Being up close to legit volcanic lava has been one of our favorite experiences to date. We found slow moving lava, but every once in awhile an entire shelf of rock would lift up and the molten stuff would just come pouring out. It was incredible. If you get too close I can imagine that your shoes would melt (we didn’t have that problem), and while it smelled bad, the stench was not overwhelming. There are no rangers out there, no guardrails, fences, or anything to protect you from doing something stupid. Just be aware that you are on you own. We saw at least 2 ambulances on their way out at the end of the night so injuries do happen, just be careful!

We stayed out there well past dark just waiting and watching and soaking it up. After a quick snack we turned on our headlamps and made the trek back to our bikes. The ride back was difficult. Cara was really tired, the road is NOT flat, and we had our share of tears and frustration over a bike that wouldn’t shift very well. She ended up walking most of the hills and then we’d ride as fast as we could downhill. We managed to get back close to the cut off time (all the bikes MUST be back on time).

Overall it was an amazing adventure! We’d do it again in heartbeat, but maybe just make sure all the bikes shifted a little easier. Dinner in Volcano afterwards was a definite treat!

5. Drive Chain of Craters Road

Sunday afternoon was a perfect time to drive the Chain of Craters Road. There are multiple pull offs to see varies craters, and the weather changed dramatically from up at the visitor center (lots of clouds & rain) down to the coast where we could see the sun! The road ends at the Hōlei Sea Arch which extends out into the ocean. Eventually it will collapse, but it was a beautiful view along the coast!

There’s plenty of other hiking trails, back country adventures, ranger led tours and activities we could have participate in, but overall we are happy with our time spent in the park. Seeing lava up close was definitely the highlight of our trip to the Big Island and we highly recommend it!

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Summer Wrap Up and Fall Plans

Post author By Jess
Post date August 24, 2017
2 Comments on Summer Wrap Up and Fall Plans

After our busy spring schedule, I made the conscious decision to not blog over the summer and it was such a relief! We’ve had a fabulous couple of months back in the Airstream and thoroughly enjoyed spending quite a bit of time with family and friends as we’ve explored. At some point, I hope to be able to do detailed blog posts on the places we’ve been, but for now I thought I’d do a quick summary and also let you guys know what our plans are for this fall.

Canadian Rockies Loop

Last summer as we were hanging out with my brother’s family in Grand Teton National Park, we started scheming about a great Canadian Road Trip. They had always wanted to rent an RV and do some extended traveling, so we tossed out the idea of going up to the Canadian Rocky National Parks. It stuck. We reserved campsites as soon as they went online (somewhere around March) and generally had our path planned in advance. Totally different for us as we usually fly by the seat of our pants, but we really enjoyed it! I had a few moments where I was frustrated we couldn’t stay longer at one park or another but overall our schedule was pretty spot on.

We started at Glacier National Park, and then drove up through the parks to the Canadian sister site of Waterton Lakes National Park. Both parks definitely had a similar feel, and of all the National Park townsites (towns right in the National Parks) Waterton was my favorite. Just a super cute, not crazy busy downtown area with shops and restaurants. We hiked, we canoed (all the things!) and generally kept ourselves WAY too busy. I feel like we were in “go” mode all the time but we definitely got to see quite a bit of the parks!

Paddling St. Mary Lake – Glacier National Park, MT

Hiking to Iceberg Lake – Glacier National Park, MT

Hiking Red Rock Canyon – Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta

Next stop was Banff National Park where we camped at Two Jack Lakeside. It was gorgeous! Banff was definitely a busier park, but we tried to get out early and since it was light until at least 10pm we were out late most days as well.

Lake Moraine – Banff National Park, Alberta

We parted ways with my brother as they headed up to Jasper and we joined Tanya Koob from (www.rockiesfamilyadventures.com) on a 2 night backpacking trip in Yoho National Park. This was our first hut experience and it was a blast! We loved having a dry place to hang out (it poured rain the first night), a full kitchen, and a roof over our heads at night. Next time I’d bring pancakes instead of our normal freeze dried meals, but that’s about the only thing I would change. We met some amazing Canadians and all had a blast with our Back Country Olympics.

Stanley-Mitchell Hut – Yoho National Park, British Colombia

We rejoined my brother up in Jasper for two nights, and after they left we had another 4 days to just chill and enjoy the park. It was incredibly relaxing! After our backpacking trip, the kids were all hiked out so we went ice skating at the local rink, and did a white water rafting trip with Maligne Adventures on the Athabasca River. Sam and I also snuck in a date night up the Jasper Tramway and hiked to the peak. The views up there were incredible and I always love doing outdoor adventures with Sam!

We drove down the Icefields Parkway on our way south. The views along this drive are amazing. We stopped at the Athabasca Glacier, but you can’t really get too close to the glacier, and after scrambling on one during our Yoho backpacking trip it really wasn’t all that exciting. We also managed to squeeze into a road side parking area and do the short hike up to see Peyto Lake. All of the stops along the Parkway were super crowded so we didn’t stop to see much else. Totally worth the drive though!

We then spent 5 days in Fernie, B.C. I had heard years ago that it was a good mountain biking town, and it definitely did not disappoint! We also met up with Leanne and her family (www.borntoadventure.com) and the kids had a blast hanging out for a few hours. We learned that Canada really does have difficult trails – everything feels like its straight up without switchbacks. The kids did great though when we finally realized everyone does better when we split up. Cara still struggles and needs easier trails, and the other two like rides a bit more advanced.

Our trip into Canada was surprisingly not stressful. We have a credit card with no foreign transaction fees, and with our T-mobile plans we were able to hotspot and get work done. The only painful part was that we didn’t exchange cash from the beginning which made doing laundry complicated.

Oregon Coast, Camp Noyo & the Eclipse

We crossed the border north of Sandpoint Idaho, and spent an evening hanging out with the McCartie’s at their homestead. We met them on their RV trip a few years ago and loved to see them happily settled on their gorgeous property. I’ve always said that meeting people is one of my favorite parts about traveling and having friends all over the country is a bonus!

At the last minute we made a decision to divert to the Oregon Coast instead of continuing on to Bend, OR as planned. The temperatures were projected to be in the 100’s and that just didn’t sound fun at all. We found out our friends the Bareneckers were settled in a quaint state park and that sealed the deal. We enjoyed hanging with them for few days, and the kids had a blast playing together!

Sam’s family does a reunion at Camp Noyo every summer, and even though the scout camps are no longer running, we are still able to go in for a week every summer. Its really our happy place. Bridge jumping, paddling, outdoor movie nights, shooting range, lots of games, good food and family. Definitely my idea of a vacation.

On our way back to Idaho for the solar eclipse, we stopped at Lake Tahoe for the weekend to see our friends the Erickson’s. They are our outdoor adventure friends from Utah but had been spending the month in Tahoe renting a house. They also has just purchased an Airstream and were about to set out north for their first extended trip! We have kids pretty much exactly the same gender and ages and they get along really well. Movie nights, beach time, and bike rides. It was a great weekend!

After a quick stop in Salt Lake City to see my family and for Sam and I to escape for a night to celebrate our anniversary we made it back home to Driggs, ID! We had rented out the condo, so we camped for the week in my brother-in-law’s backyard. A bunch of the Curren side came up for the weekend as well as a lot of my sister-in-law’s family. We had a great weekend hanging out, and the eclipse on Monday morning was absolutely one of my favorite experiences ever. Being on the line of totality was incredible and something I will never forget!

Fall Plans

In less than a week we will be on Oahu, HI. I still can’t wrap my brain around that. We are pretty much packed, and now just need to winterize and store the Airstream, and make the trek out to San Francisco to catch our flight on August 30th.

We are still ironing out school for the 2017-2018 year, and while everyone else seems to be starting the new school year this week, we are still finishing up last year! It seems we take quite a bit of time off during the year to play.

Sam is teaching a computer science class at BYU-H, and we are renting the townhouse of a friend. I waffle between being incredibly excited to experience a new part of our country, and trepidation for having to sit still for 4 months. It will definitely be a challenge, but overall I think we will grow in ways that we haven’t been able to experience for the last 4 years on the road. I have so many plans to get caught up on ALL the projects, but realistically you’ll probably find us at the beach.

Aloha!

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Best Summer Road Trips: Lake Superior Circle Tour

Post author By Jess
Post date May 22, 2017
6 Comments on Best Summer Road Trips: Lake Superior Circle Tour

Loading up the kids in a minivan and hitting the road over summer break is a rite of passage. I figure if you can all survive being crammed together for days or weeks on end, you can do anything, right? Traveling in the Airstream is a bit different, since we mix in school & work year round but occasionally we hit upon just the right schedule to create an epic road trip.

We visited my brother and his family in Minnesota one summer, and after taking a look at our schedule and the time available we decided drive around Lake Superior. Turns out its a thing. There are patches, stickers, maps, and even a website for that, something we didn’t realize until we started seeing the street signs pop up. The aptly named Lake Superior Circle Tour is a 1,300-mile drive that completely circumnavigates the lake, including the North East shore in Canada.

You can start the tour anywhere and travel in either direction. Most people take about a week, we just happened to stretch it out into 42 days. Our tour started at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan and traveled clockwise. While our adventures on the shores of this great lake could fill a book, we’ve picked out a few of our favorite destinations to get you started.

Stop 1: Michigan’s Upper Peninsula

We spent 10 days exploring the “UP” as the locals call it. We started in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, ate a lot of pasties, learned about mining on the Keewinaw Peninsula, and hiked in the Porcupine Mountains. There’s definitely something for everyone!

Stop 2: The Apostle Islands National Lakeshore

The Apostles are a beautiful cluster of islands that sit just off the coast of Wisconsin’s section of Lake Superior. You can learn about the islands from visitors centers on the shore, but a rich experience awaits those willing to board a ferry. We opted for a two-night backpacking trip on Stockton Island. A ferry trip from Bayfield let us off onto the docks. We explored, hiked, and even celebrated Andrew’s birthday there! Other popular activities include kayaking to the sea caves, and lighthouse tours.

Stop 3: The City of Duluth

Duluth has a rich history in shipping activities, and you can watch huge cargo ships navigate in and out of port. Check the schedule before you arrive, and you can get an up close look as they come and go. There’s also some great mountain biking in the hills, a decent children’s museum, and a cute downtown with great food.

Stop 4: The North Shore

There are numerous spots along Minnesota’s North Shore worth stopping for, but Gooseberry Falls State Park was a favorite. We enjoyed our time on the shore here, appreciating the magnitude of this lake we were driving around. Split Rock Lighthouse is just a short drive away and don’t miss Betty’s Pies located to the south. We ordered the Pig Trough to share, complete with three slices of pie, four scoops of ice cream, a banana, and whipped cream and toppings. We liked it so much we returned a few days later and had the same thing again!

Other stops along the shore included Tettegouche State Park, Grand Marais, and Grand Portage. Check out our post here for more details.

Stop 5: Sleeping Giant Provincial Park

We had heard amazing things about Sleeping Giant Provincial Park and knew we wanted to spend at least one night there. It was mid-September so fairly off season for this part of Canada and the campground was not busy. The park hosts amazing hikes and beautiful views. We also enjoyed our lakeside campsite on the smaller Marie Louise Lake.

Stop 6: Sault Ste Marie

Our visit to Sault Ste Marie was punctuated by two things: Poutine (on the Canada side) and the boat locks (on the US side). Watching the huge lake boats move through the locks was enthralling, and everybody’s bellies were fat and happy after we ordered (and ate) far too much from Smoke’s Poutinerie.

Even having driven around it, I still don’t think I full appreciate the vastness of Lake Superior. It literally looks and feels like you are standing on the edge of the ocean, but there’s no salt smell. Something about it just drew us in and we were smitten from day 1. It was hard to narrow it down to just a few places on our journey! Maybe we will write that book….

What to Wear:

The weather around the lake is constantly changing. There’s sunshine and warmth, then there’s fog & rain. We had crazy wind and were wearing all our layers on the Apostles, and then up along the north shore it was t-shirts and shorts. Its best to plan on layering your wardrobe and taking pieces that are versatile! Check out some of my favorites from Aventura’s spring line: