Category: National Parks

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National Parks State Parks Utah WanderLog

Dead Horse Point State Park & a Quick Trip to Canyonlands National Park

After an awesome week in Sandy with family, we drove back down to Moab on Wednesday morning and collected the Airstream. Once in tow, we headed out to Klondike Road where @wanderingnation was hanging out. Being ultimately lazy, and knowing we were only there for one night, we squeezed into the same site as our friends and had a blast hanging out.

Travel Dates: March 22-25, 2017

Ages of Kids: 11, 9, 6

“Back in Moab! We ended up sharing a boondocking campsite last night with @wandering_nation. Gave Sam and I the opportunity to lose again in a game of Dominion and the kids a chance to play. Bonus: I snuck out this morning during recess to hit the nearby Klondike trails while the kids were all distracting each other. It’s good to be with friends!” – @currentlywandering

We managed to snag a campsite at Dead Horse Point State Park for the weekend and moved over on Thursday afternoon. Dead Horse Point State Park has been on my list for quite sometime as I heard it was amazing. The campground itself was just okay, but the mountain biking and the views over the rim were absolutely incredible! We arrived around 4pm, got the Airstream set up in our tight spot and then raced to the viewpoint for a pre-dinner walk.

“Drove up to Dead Horse Point State Park to camp for the weekend and we were blown away by this view! There’s something about seeing the river that carved the magnificent canyon that is incredibly awe inspiring. We also walked a section of the rim trail and the kids especially enjoyed all the rock scrambling we found. So excited it stays light later and we can resume our evening walks!” – @currentlywandering

Out at the end of the road there is an overlook with a viewing platform, as well as a short(ish) loop you can walk around the rim. There are walls in some places, but in others there are no barriers between the path and the edge of the cliff so be warned if you are there with little ones. There was plenty of rock scrambling as the trail was mostly just a well used path marked with cairns in some places. The kids loved it, the sky was beautiful and we had a fantastic evening!

“The past two weeks have been…. full. Full of good and family and wedding and work. Also full of challenges, like a nail in a tire sidewall that led to a full new set of tires earlier than expected. Chief among our challenges is a kidney stone that I discovered I had at 5 am the morning after the wedding. Quite luckily we were super close to a hospital, where I was diagnosed and prescribed some pain killer. The stone has made progress but I’m not out of the woods yet. I felt pretty lousy all day today, but at least I get to feel lousy in a pretty place.” – @telegramsam

Dead Horse Point is fantastic to explore on its own, but the park is also *really* close to the Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands National Park. Also a place we had never been. Friday morning we ditched regular school and took of with Rhonda, Joe, & Austin Hendricks to earn a Jr. Ranger Badge and explore a bit.

“I feel like social media is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, people tend to put their best out there so when I’m struggling it feels like everyone else has this amazing life.

On the other hand, I love being inspired by the places you go and the experiences you have with your families. We have also met so many amazing people through Instagram! Not having a stable geographic community could be lonely, but our traveling social family more than makes up for it! Sometimes I joke that our real life is a little TOO social as I feel there are constantly people to hang out with and I’d rather play than work. Last week we visited Canyonlands National Park with @rhondahendricks & @joehendricks & @austinexplores. We had a blast hiking the trails, taking in the views and getting caught up since we had seen each other last year. I had no idea Rhonda was such a daredevil for photos! 😁 They are just one of the many families I’m so grateful to have met over our last three years of travel!” – @currentlywandering

We picked up our books from the Visitor Center and then set off to hike the easy 1 mile to Mesa Arch. Its probably the most photographed area in the park, but was worth seeing in person for sure! I just loved watching Joe scramble around getting different angles. He’s a much more motivated photographer than I am!

Photo Credit: Joe Hendricks

After Mesa Arch, we drove down to the Grand View Point Overlook and hiked the easy 2 mile round trip out to the end and back. The end wasn’t anything spectacular, but the views along the way were pretty fabulous.

Photo credit: Joe Hendricks

After a quick lunch we passed off our books and headed back to the Airstream for an afternoon nap. Okay, not really but I probably could have used one! Joe convinced us to get up a 2am and hike back to Mesa Arch for some night photography. I’ve done astrophotography before, but this was the first time without my 5D Mark II Canon and I honestly missed it. A lot. I love my Fuji X-T10 but it didn’t hold up as well shooting the stars. Boo.  Pretty proud of Sam and I for getting ourselves out of bed though!

“This is what happens when you hang out with awesome photographers like @joehendricks. Somehow he talked us into getting up at 2am and hiking out to Mesa arch because “the Milky Way is going to be perfect!” Haha it’s good to have friends that will push you out of your comfort zone!” – @currentlywandering

Saturday morning we had school to get done but we dragged all the kids outside for a bike ride after lunch. They came kicking and screaming, but all wound up having fun. We were pretty impressed with Rachel & Andrew’s skills going over obstacles and rocks, and Cara did well once we got her attitude in check.

“Pretty great day for a ride. We took our kids on the trails at Dead Horse Point State Park and I observed a few things: 1) No one wanted to go. It took threats. Like “I’m going to sell your bike if you don’t start riding it”” real ones to get them all out the door. 2) Attitude is everything. Even once we were out the door Cara insisted the trail was too hard (it was decidedly not) and she wanted to go home. We had a serious talk about positive thinking and doing hard things. 3) Rachel and Andrew are more capable on bikes than they know and totally rocked some of the harder sections. 4) We really have two different skill levels and as parents have to split up. 5) Taking kids out on the trail is never for me. It’s all about them and teaching them to love the outdoors. There’s time for crushing my own trails later. 6) By the end of our ride everyone was having a fabulous time and there were smiles all around.

Being an outdoor parent is hard. It’s hard to know when to push and when to give a little. Okay, that’s true for any kind of parenting, but some people look at us and think we must have it so easy. It’s just not! But we keep trying and keep going and hope that someday our efforts will pay off!” -@currentlywandering

“The doctor that diagnosed my kidney stone gave me some instructions: “Try to stay as active as possible. This will help the stone pass.” The pain is intermittent, so we went on a mountain bike ride. Doctor’s orders.” -@telegramsam

Saturday night, Rachel and I drove into Moab for a girls’ night. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints holds a semi-annual women’s meeting in conjunction with its General Conference sessions.  I love that she’s old enough to go with me, and we always turn it into a fun date by getting dinner afterwards! She’s growing up into such a fine young lady and I couldn’t be more proud!

We definitely could have stayed longer at Dead Horse Point State Park, but reservations in the campground are hard to come by, so we’ll take what we can get. Definitely left many miles of unexplored trails  for next time!

Categories
National Parks On the Water Texas

Overnight Canoe Trip in Santa Elena Canyon – Big Bend National Park

When researching Big Bend National Park, we picked out a few things that were on our “must-do” list, and a few for the “would be great if we had time” list. Canoeing Santa Elena Canyon was at the top of the “must-do” list for sure! We’d seen some friends do a boomerang trip where you put in below the canyon, paddle upstream, and then turn around and go back. They had mentioned there were great campsites which got us thinking about how to extend our paddle to an overnight trip. After a lot of research and plenty of stress we pulled it off and we are so glad we did. This trip was definitely the highlight of our visit to Big Bend!

For the rest of trip see our Ultimate Guide for Big Bend National Park – Texas.

The Gear & Planning

We travel with backpacking gear & bikes, but we don’t have our own boats. We rented two regular canoes and related river gear from Far Flung Outdoor Center in Terlingua. There are other rental shops in town, but we felt these guys had the most extensive equipment for an overnight trip vs. just a day trip. We also paid them for a private shuttle at both ends of the trip. The shuttle was expensive (several hundred dollars) but going just as a family instead of a fully guided trip saved us about a thousand dollars.

Far Flung also has a great mileage chart for the river and shuttle fee estimator. Seriously tons of great info right on their website. We knew we wanted to take out at Santa Elena Canyon so the best spot for us to put in for roughly a two day paddle was Lajitas. Total river miles between the two is 18. Definitely the longest paddle we’ve done, but we knew we were up for it!

After we figured out our camping situation in Big Bend, we were able to call and reserve our canoes ahead of time. We were definitely there in the off season, so reservations were not a problem. We did get our desired dates, but Far Flung does run their own trips so coordinating a shuttle could have been difficult. Best to reserve everything as far in advance as possible.

One of the hardest things for us when we head to the back country is what to do with the Airstream? Many times we’ve been able to leave it in visitor center parking lots, but that wasn’t going to work here. The day before our trip, we moved the house to Cottonwood Campground in Big Bend which was the closest to Terlingua. It was cheaper than staying in an RV park in town ($15/night vs closer to $30) and we knew it would be safe. We unloaded and locked all our bikes next to the trailer and spent the afternoon packing and getting our food ready.

Equipment We Rented for 2 Days:

Fire Pan (required by the NPS whether you plan to have a fire or not): $10.78

Canoe (x 2): $340.48

Toilet System (we went with a groover, basically a plastic box inside an ammo can + a seat): $38.80

Larger Waterproof Bags (x 2): $32.32

Shuttle Fee: $80.81 drop off + $202.03 pick up = $294.84

Lost Paddle (oops): $30.17

Backcountry permit (required by NPS): $12

Total equipment rental: $747.39

Equipment We Brought:

Basically we took all our backpacking gear. We’ve worked hard to make sure its small and lightweight (not really a concern in a canoe though) and it was easy to just throw it all in the dry bags. We did pack everyone’s clothes, pajamas, kindles, headlamp, earphones, in individual packing cubes to keep things organized. I feel like it worked really well!

We then had our Freezer Bag cooking meals (We did a Thai noodle dinner this time and it was delicious!), Jet boil, and extra canister.

Just because we could, we packed our two REI camp chairs. They were awesome to have around at camp and the kids were jealous we wouldn’t share. I think next time we might need to pack a few more.

We had a small cooler bag for some lunch items (everything in it got totally soaked so I’m not sure I’d recommend it), and two 5 gallon Rhino water jugs for fresh water. The Rio Grande is a pretty nasty river and we were advised against filtering it, but 10 gallons was plenty for overnight.

Day One – Putting in at Lajitas

We arrived at Far Flung Outdoors by about 8am on Thursday morning. We needed to sign paperwork, double check equipment, and our shuttle timer started promptly at 9am so we wanted to be ready to go.  Everything went smoothly, and just before 9am we loaded up in the company van and our driver set out for Lajitas. Our driver was chatty and told us a little about the history of the ghost town and the area. Before we knew it, we made it to the put in, quickly unloaded, and then we were on our own!

The Rio Grande was running fairly low and slow, and took a great deal of effort to paddle. It was definitely not a float trip! We traded up canoe crews several times each day. Rachel and Andrew are both excellent paddlers, and Jess and I manned the rear seat. The blue bags you see are large dry bags that contain our gear. Yellow bags and ammo cans contain the required ‘groover’ toilet system. We used straps to tie the gear in the boat just in case we all spilled out!

The first day we covered 10 miles of river with open views and an occasional minor rapid. For our only real rapid of the day, Jess and I paddled each canoe through while the kids walked down the bank. The kids kept themselves entertained by singing songs, telling stories, and just talking. We counted all the turtles we saw, and broke into song whenever we saw one.

“These kids. I’m so grateful to be their mom. Cara is an excellent paddler but with 21 miles to go on our overnight trip we didn’t want to push her. Instead, anytime she wasn’t paddling, she happily took on the task of being our figurehead. Most of the time with kids and the outdoors it’s a “whatever it takes” mentality. 😂” – @currentlywandering

We stopped for lunch about mid-day by just pulling off the river. We had made sandwiches early that morning and paired with veggies and chips it was the perfect lunch!

We reached our overnight spot earlier than expected. It was chosen with two goals in mind: a non-muddy landing and non-rocky tent sites. Our camp was of questionable nationality: a river island at higher water levels, this piece of land was divided from the south by only a small trickle and was clearly frequented by Mexican cattle. One of our maps placed the border across the middle of the island, and the other map only showed a border where the middle of the river was clear and no border across the island at all.

Once we got our tents set up we had a few hours to kill until dinner. The kids all brought both audio books and kindles, and spent quite a bit of time relaxing in their tent. We also managed to play a game of Ticket to Ride on my phone. This is the hardest part for me about back country trips – dealing with bored kids once we get to camp! There was a little exploring we could do, and Cara had fun shoveling cow pies with our oars, but mostly it was just time to relax. We had forgotten our card games or even our backpacking bocce set (unfortunately) but we all survived!

The only person we saw this first day was a Mexican cowboy on the opposite bank. We figured he was out checking his herds, and just waved as he trotted past. There’s definitely something to be said for the isolation and peace found in our country’s wilderness places!

“As a family, we are constantly seeking to push ourselves outside our comfort zone. Although I’ve rafted plenty of rivers, planning this overnight canoe trip was extremely uncomfortable. Canoeing has never been my strength, and we were planning to be in very remote areas of Big Bend National Park.

Thursday night after a long day of paddling I stood on the shore of the Rio Grande and watched the sun set over our little campsite. Later, we sat by our fire, gazed at the most stars I have ever seen, drank herbal tea and for the first time in months I felt incredibly at peace. I am content. Happy with our choices, proud of my kids, and in awe at the path @telegramsam and I have traveled to get here.” -@currentlywandering

Day 2 – Paddling Through the Canyon

After a peaceful first day and a good night’s sleep, we felt prepared for day two. Within just the first few river miles, however, we fought with vegetation along a bank, high centered and tipped our first canoe of the day, and Jess hit a rock hard at Entrance Rapid near the mouth of Santa Elena Canyon. Needless to say, we were already pretty rattled.

Most of the paddling trip was fairly flat, boring water. We were warned sufficiently about Rock Slide, however, as its a boulder maze with no good way to portage around it. Sam had stressed the night before about our ability to make it through, but I had adopted a fairly “we’ll make it work” attitude. Fairly normal for both of us. Far Flung had given us a detailed map of this section and the various routes we could take to make it through.

“Rock Slide is rated a Class IV at much higher water levels, this is a Class III at current flow (284 CFS) mostly due to tight navigation. If we had a guide with us, I wouldn’t have been worried about this rapid at all. Because we were on our own, Jess and I felt the direct responsibility for the safety of our kids. We studied maps and guides, and we scouted the rapid in advance. Frankly, it was out of our comfort zone. We reminded the kids of some river safety practices, and made an appeal for divine guidance and strength.

Our courage gathered, we headed in. Rachel and I went first with an attempt at the fast moving Texan Gate, and spilled into the river as we were unable to keep their balance against a large boulder. After draining the canoe on a small sand bar mid-rapid, we managed to nail the small rock you see here in the center of the channel and dumped in again.  Luckily, we were able to drain enough water out to make the canoe workable in this tight spot, and then more fully drained the rest of the water out below the rapid. We lost both the toilet seat and a paddle in the process, but luckily picked the seat out of an eddy later on that day. A paddle was a small price to pay to make it through safely!” – @telegramsam

“My track record so far that morning was not great. I paddled Rachel through scraggly brush, dumped both girls in the water after siding on a mostly submerged rock, and ran straight into a large boulder after missing a turn – smacking my shins on the canoe bar and instantly developing large welts and bruises. As I watched the water rush towards yet another large rock I knew there was no way I could make that sharp turn and keep everyone safe and in the boat.

I could also tell the kids were scared. So much of parenting is protecting our children both physically and mentally and I was doing a poor job at both. After scouting the rapid we determined that Sam and Rachel would run the Texan gate first and I watched as they launched, turned, side hit the rock and promptly were dumped in the river. Luckily there was a sand bar and they were able to beach the canoe, dump it out and reset, but if Sam couldn’t do it, how on earth was I to? Fortunately there was another option. The Mexican gate had more turns but the river was moving much slower. Andrew and I dragged our canoe upriver and headed for the right side instead and we made it with only a few minor bumps.

After an entire day of paddling and honing my rudder skills, I look back and think, “Well, shoot. I could do that NOW.” Isn’t that a lot like life? We bumper our way through collecting bruises, get dumped in the water, and at the end of it are so much stronger and capable than when we began. Luckily along the way there’s also calm water and incredible views. We are all stronger from our experience, and Rachel will tell you Slide Rock was her favorite part of the trip.” -@currentlywandering

With Rock Slide behind us, we began to relax and enjoy the rest of the day. The walls of Santa Elena Canyon rose high around us, and the views were spectacular! The Canyon was pleasantly warm, and we paddled easily. We counted turtles, watched birds fly through the canyon high above or heads, and snacked on Perky Jerky and Starburst. We had a few more tight turns to paddle, but by this time we were all definitely in a rhythm and much more confident of our skills. After executing one rather well-time turn, Rachel looked back at me and exclaimed, “Mom! That was graceful!” High compliments from a girl who doubted all of my skills just a few hours earlier!

“Somewhere in the midst of overturned canoes, shin bashing, and bumper boats my Enso ring slipped off my finger and disappeared into the murky depths of the Rio Grande. Or more likely it floated downstream, got caught in an eddy, and now a Mexican Señora is in awe at the incredible comfortableness of this amazing piece of silicon wrapped around her finger.” -@currentlywandering

As we neared the mouth of Santa Elena Canyon we saw hikers on the same path we had walked just two days before. It was a surreal experience, remembering back to our limited view of this magnificent stretch of river. The view at the end is beautiful but insufficiently captures the adventure, the challenge, and the beauty of the 20 miles we paddled to get there.

We made it to the take out spot 20 minutes early, which gave us enough time to haul our boats out of the water, change our clothes, and grab a snack. Once our shuttle arrived, we piled everyone in and set out for the hour drive through Big Bend back to Terlingua.

We celebrated our successful trip with coin operated, hot showers and dinner out at a local Mexican restaurant. It was the perfect end to a fabulous trip! We don’t often push ourselves this far outside our comfort zone, but I’m so glad we did. There are so many ways our trip could have ended badly, and I’m grateful for the protection we believe the Lord gave us on our journey. I’m pretty sure we will all remember this trip for years to come!

Categories
National Parks Texas

Ultimate Guide for Big Bend National Park – Texas

Big Bend National Park has been on our “must see” list for quite sometime. Unfortunately, Big Bend is on the way to exactly nowhere and we hadn’t been able to carve out the time to get down there before now.

The park sits on the border of Mexico and Texas where the Rio Grande takes a large bend and gives Texas part of its unique shape. There’s also not a whole lot nearby. The small ghost town of Terlingua, TX and the slightly more lively town of Study Butte are to the west, and Marathon, TX is an hour north of the Persimmon Gap Visitor Center.

We set our sights to visit this winter and were able to spend 12 days exploring Big Bend and while we were initially overwhelmed and frustrated the park definitely has become one of our favorites!

Travel Dates: March 12 -23, 2017

Ages of Kids: 11, 9, 6

Since we know a lot of people that are interested in this park, we thought we’d give a run down of our experience and what we learned along the way!

Layout of the Park

Big Bend has three distinct areas: the river, the desert, and the mountains. I was amazed that we could have summer down by the river, yet need jackets and beanies up in the mountains. The temperature difference is about 10 degrees between areas so just be prepared with all sorts of clothing.

There are four Visitor Centers but Panther Junction is the central hub in the center of the park. Persimmon Gap is at the north entrance, the Rio Grande Village is in the southeast, and Castolon Historic District is near Santa Elena Canyon in the southwest.  Chisos Basin is in the middle up a windy road into the mountains.

Also, the park is BIG. It takes about an hour to get almost anywhere and sometimes even longer. From Terlingua to the Rio Grande campground is about an hour, and its 45 minutes from Persimmon Gap down to Panther. Just be prepared to drive. There are gas stations at Rio Grande and Panther Junction and it wasn’t crazy awful expensive when we were there.

Where to Stay

I can’t even begin to describe the stress that is camping in Big Bend. It’s worth it though. Most of the camping is first come, first served and the campgrounds very often fill up during the spring.

Your best bet for a FCFS site in any of the campgrounds is to get there before 10am. We suggest camping outside the park at Stillwell store or in Terlingua (or even Alpine) and then drive in early the next morning.

Each of the visitor centers has the latest report on campground availability and can reserve the backcountry sites so you don’t have to drive all the way into Panther Junction for that.

Ideally you could snag a FCFS site at Rio Grande Campground, hike to the hot springs, or maybe even go over into Mexico. From there try and get a backcountry site or  move to a different section of the park.

Backcountry Sites – Trailers

The biggest attraction at Big Bend National Park is the back country camping. There are dozens of 4 wheel drive roads with designated camping spots. We saw so many over lander vehicles, truck campers, and even a decked out pop up trailer.

While it feels like boondocking, you do have to get a permit from one of the visitors centers and each spot has a bear box. So not totally primitive, but definitely solitary. It was awesome.

“Spending a few days in the Big Bend back country is exactly what we needed after a packed week of adventure.” -@telegramsam

You can only get a permit 24 hours before you plan to occupy the site, but the catch is that people can switch sites during their stay. So even if you go in on a Monday to get a spot for Tuesday it could already be taken by someone from last week. Totally confusing, right? A 14 day permit only costs $12 though so once you can snag a backcountry site staying is really, really cheap.

While they are plenty of roads we wouldn’t take the trailer down, there are a few that fit a 27′ trailer (or even slightly larger). Campendium has a great blog post on the different sites and which ones would work for trailers: What You Need to Know about Backcountry Camping in Big Bend National Park.

We ended up at K Bar 1 for 6 nights at the end of our 12 days. It was awesome. There was one ranger that wouldn’t let us camp there due to being visible from the road (and people came here to see wilderness not an RV park). So…. we found someone else that was a little more helpful. Maybe it is policy and the volunteers just didn’t agree with it? I don’t know. All the other volunteers we talked to all mentioned KBar as a place they send campers with trailers.

Our friends the Hendricks stayed at Croton Springs with their 30′ Airstream and absolutely loved it. He has a blog post on that here.

Rio Grande & Cottonwood Campgrounds

We stayed 2 nights at Rio Grande Campground and it was a great base for exploring the southeast corner of the park. We visited the hot springs twice, and the kids enjoyed playing the water and mud when they flooded the campground for irrigation purposes. We also ended up here over Valentine’s Day with our friends @thefamilycan. We had a little dinner celebration and the kids made each other Valentine cards. It was adorable.

There are showers at the store, which also has basic groceries (eggs, milk, hot dogs, etc.) laundry, and gas.  There is a “no generator” loop but you can use them in the remaining sites during limited hours. This is also the only NPS campground that takes reservations for some of the sites. The rest are first come, first serve.

We moved over to Cottonwood Campground early on day 4 to use it as a base for our overnight canoe trip. There’s absolutely no signal down there, but since our purpose was canoeing it wasn’t really a big deal. Cottonwood doesn’t allow generators, so its very quiet. The sites are not as large as Rio Grande and aren’t recommended for large trailers. Supposedly the javelina frequent Cottonwood, but unfortunately we didn’t see any.

We visited the Castolon Historic District while we were down there mostly to complete pages in our Jr. Ranger Books. They did have a really interesting (okay, boring for Cara) exhibit on the Mexican/US border and the Texas rangers. Apparently early settlers also grew cotton in the area. Who knew?

WiFi & Verizon

Naturally we wanted to be able to work while we were in the park, as taking 12 days of vacation just isn’t feasible for us. We also love to spend longer in our National Parks and spread out the exploring a bit while still getting some school, work, and regular life in.

We stayed our first night in Terlingua at Retro Rents because we arrived later in the evening and the campgrounds were all full. We had heard it was cheap but we found it that’s only if you stay a week. Otherwise I think we would have picked one of the RV parks closer to the west entrance. The Wifi at Retro Rents was just okay not great. I’ve heard good things about the wifi at BJ’s RV park and there are a few others in Study Butte that could work. Staying out there just means a long drive to get into the park to see anything.

There’s fairly decent wifi at Panther Junction & Chisos Basin Visitor Centers and the Rio Grande store. Sam “commuted” to work while we camped at Rio Grande and although it was annoying it allowed us to stay down there for a few days.

After a few days off signal at Cottonwood, we managed to snag 6 days at KBar 1 (back country site) and had decent enough Verizon to work. Unfortunately for the children it wasn’t fast enough to stream Netflix. Darn. Time to go hiking instead.

There’s no T-mobile in the park, but our phones did roam to AT&T and we were able to get cell service in some parts of the park (but no data).

Things to Do

We kept ourselves fairly busy! There’s so much to do in the park and it just takes time to check them off the list especially if you don’t want to drive yourself crazy in the process. We did plenty of hiking, soaked in the hot springs, canoed the Rio Grande, sat out at night and looked at the stars and earned our Jr. Ranger Badges.

Hiking

There are quite a few hiking trails in Big Bend and we slowly made our way through some of the more popular ones.

Nature Trail (Rio Grande Village area, .75 miles round trip). This is a great little trail with pretty views of the Rio Grande river and campground. The kids never made it out here, but I ran it a couple of times.

Balanced Rock (Panther Junction area, 2 miles round trip). This short hike was perfect for a Sunday evening wander with the whole family. My kids have learned that when I say we are going on a “short hike” to still lace up their hiking boots. Apparently nothing counts as short around here anymore! The trail wanders along a flat wash, and then there’s some serious scrambling/elevation to get up to the formation. It was a great warm up for Emery Peak.

Emery Peak (Chisos Mountain Basin area, 10.5 miles round trip). We went from hiking in the desert one day to mountains & trees the next. The Chisos mountains are over 7000 feet tall and it tripped our minds to be hiking with oak trees, cactus, and even some snow! Out kids rocked the 10.5 mile round trip hike up to Emery Peak – the highest point in the park. The views were absolutely incredible the entire way up.

“Sitting on top of the world! Emery Peak sits at 7832 feet above sea level. So crazy that a mountain that tall is in Texas smack next to the desert. There’s quite a rock scramble up the last bit and Rachel mustered up so much courage but ultimately the sheer height did her in. Not a bad lunch spot though, eh? This was our first peak summit and I’m thinking we have more to come!” – @currentlywandering

Hot Springs Trail (Rio Grande Village area, 6 miles round trip). While you can drive to the Hot Springs, the hike was quite beautiful. My friend Charlene, and I set out to hike the 3 mile trail with 6 kids in tow. The trail actually had quite a bit more elevation gain than I had anticipated, but the views were stunning! After work the dads drove our trucks over to meet us so we didn’t have to hike back as well. I think the kids would have rebelled if we had made them! Even I wouldn’t have enjoyed a wet, 3 mile hike back to our trailer.

“It’s so amazing to me that much of our deserts were once lush, tropical forests and huge seas. We found this fossil on our hike from Rio Grande to the Hot Springs in Big Bend National Park. The older kids were hiking fast and completely missed it, but Cara’s sharp eyes picked it out of the surrounding stone. Not too shabby.” -@currentlywandering

Lost Mine Trail (Chisos Mountain Basin area, 5 miles round trip). We had heard this was the best trail in the park, so naturally we had to fit it in. We hiked this only 2 days after Emery Peak so we were all a little tired. It gains some pretty steady elevation, with a lot of switchbacks up the ridge. If you can’t get up to the south rim, then this is definitely a good one for the view!

Santa Elena Canyon (Castolon Historic District, 2 miles round trip).  This was a great evening walk! The trail was fairly flat except for the nice switchbacks up the steep canyon. We hiked this the night before our canoe trip and it got us all excited for getting on the river.

Soak in the Hot Springs

After driving to the parking lot, the springs are only a short .5 mile walk away. We managed to visit three times and each was different! We noticed many people stayed for just a few minutes, but our kids had fun jumping and swimming down the river for hours. The water is a consistent 110 degrees and was absolutely lovely, if a bit on the sediment-y side.

Along the trail are remnants of an old hotel that would house tourists visiting the springs. It was a really neat historic area and I love that the buildings are still there!

Canoe the Rio Grande

When we researched activities in Big Bend, canoeing in Santa Elena Canyon was at the top of our list. We had never attempted an overnight canoe trip with our kids (I did a multi-day rafting trip as a teenager) and it sounded like a challenge. We could have just done a day trip – or a boomerang as they call it – but that just didn’t sound as appealing.

This trip took a lot of research and planning so I put together an entire blog post just for our canoe trip. You are welcome.

Stargazing

We’ve been to quite a few “dark sky” National Parks but Big Bend blew them all away. There were So. Many. Stars! I seriously couldn’t believe it. Another perk is that we had some pretty warm nights. We were out shooting star photography at 11:30pm and it was about 70 degrees with a nice warm breeze. 

Dining and Food

There aren’t a lot of places to eat in the park. The Chisos Basin has a lodge with a restaraunt, but that’s the only one. After our hike to Emery Peak we treated the kids to dinner at the lodge. Sam and I were hoping for a hamburger, but unfortunately the only one on the menu was a vegetarian bean burger. That just wasn’t going to cut it.  Instead we opted for the all you can eat salad & soup bar and it really  hit the spot! They also had a pretty decent kids’ menu (which actually had a hamburger) and we felt the food was good for the money we spent.

There are convenience stores in most of the areas, and we may or may not have grabbed ice cream bars at 10am one day.

The only “real” grocery store is in Study Butte and we were surprised at the variety and quality of the food. After our canoe trip we stayed in town long enough to grab Mexican food for dinner, a coin operated shower, and a trip to the grocery store.  It says something about our travels when we can shrug and say, “Well, its not the most expensive bread we’ve ever bought.”

Earn a Jr. Ranger Badge

Naturally we had to earn our Jr. Ranger Badges while we there. The nice part about a 12 day stay was that we could stretch it out a little. There are pages to complete in each section of the park, but the kids don’t have to complete all of them to earn the badge.

They also had centennial hiking patches we could earn and since I figured we’d never get down there again we were going to earn all the things! There were patches for hiking the Panther Path Nature Trail (easy), the Hot Springs Trail (medium), and Emery Peak (hard). Super proud of my kids for snagging all three!

If I’m honest, planning and visiting Big Bend took about everything we had. Canoe trip, hikes, hot springs, campground jockeying, plus all the driving completely wore us out. Kids and parents alike. It took us quite awhile to recover!

Even though we were in this park for 12 days, I feel like we only grazed the surface. They have some great scenic drives, you can mountain bike on all the back country roads (and cycle the paved ones!), and the backpacking in the Chisos Mountains looked top notch! I feel like we did a great job with the time we had though and we always try to save something for next time!

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Grand Teton NP Homeschool National Parks Yellowstone

What is the National Park Junior Ranger Program?

To date our kids have earned 112 Junior Ranger badges at the various National Park, National Historic Sites, and Monuments run by the National Park Service. Its a great way to learn more about the parks we visit, often giving us direction and more information about the wildlife, geology and history (see our list of badges).

We find these booklets are a great learning experience for kids and adults alike. Sam and I have learned a lot about our National Parks by helping our kids complete their activities. These badges aren’t just for kids though! Anyone can complete the work and be sworn is as a Jr. Ranger so don’t be afraid to ask next time you visit a NPS site.

We decided its time for a little Junior Ranger 101 and tried to tackle the most common questions we hear. If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask!

What is a Junior Ranger?

The Junior Ranger program is an activity based program conducted in most parks across the country. Potential Junior Rangers received a booklet from the visitor center, and upon completion are sworn in and received a patch or badge. The motto of Junior Ranges is “Explore, Learn, Protect!” and the activities reinforce these values through puzzles, question and answers, observation, and outdoor activities. Each program is unique to the park and they vary widely. Some have been newspaper fold outs, some are extensive booklets with amazing graphics, some are simply printed in black and white and stapled together.

Where Can I Earn a Junior Ranger Badge?

Most National Park sites have Junior Ranger programs. Many people don’t realize they are even in a NPS run site – when we visited the St. Louis Arch three years ago I was shocked that there was an entire museum below ground run by the National park Service. Its official name is the “Jefferson National Expansion Memorial” and yes, there is a badge. I’m still waiting for the chance to get back there and earn it.

Wildlife refuges often have badges (we earned our first one in Florida last year), and many state parks also have their own programs. California’s program is quite extensive and time consuming as its designed for local kids to visit multiple parks over their summer break. Humboldt County also an an EdVenture Quest where kids can solve a riddle to earn a patch (California Jr. Ranger Program & Redwood EdVentures Quest). Colorado has one badge for all the parks, while Arizona has a unique button for each park.

Earning badges in beautiful parks with friends is the best!

The most unique badge we’ve heard of is the Eisenhower National Historic Site in Gettysburg for the Junior Secret Service Agent in Training program. You have to go to the Gettysburg National Battlefield Visitor Center and take a bus to the site, but then can be sworn in as  Junior Secret Service Agent. How cool is that?

Chances are, if there’s a visitor center they probably have a program for kids. You just have to ask.

How Does the Program Work?

Our first stop at most NPS sites is the Visitor Center where we pick up our books. Rangers are generally excited to hand them out and are supportive of kids wanting to learn more about the park! Books in hand, we take a look at the activities required. There are usually different age groups with various requirements. Older kids have to do more complicated activities, while younger kids have activities that are more appropriate to their age. The best part is that as they get older our kids are more capable of doing it one their own! At this point, Cara still needs quite a bit of help but she’s getting there now her reading skills are up to snuff.

Once you’ve completed the book, take it back to the visitor center and have the ranger check it over. They make sure the kids have done enough work and check their answers. Some rangers are extremely thorough (Saguaro National Park) and others give it a cursory glance and call it good. Depends on how much time they have or how many kids are lined up to pass off their books. The ranger then signs their certificate, and the kids line up for their pledge. After raising their right arm the kids repeat the pledge after the ranger. My favorite pledges involve promises to “eat their vegetables” and “obey their parents”. After they’ve been sworn in, they get a handshake and their badges!

Getting sworn in as Jr. Rangers in Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida

Does it Cost Money?

Most of the programs are free, but a few charge a nominal fee. Yosemite has both a free and a paid version (you earn a patch with the paid book), and Yellowstone charges $3 per book. I think they just get so many visitors that it would be cost prohibitive to provide the program for free at those parks.

What do the Badges Look Like?

Each badge is different. We’ve learned that some have the generic NPS logo (the arrowhead, bison, river, tree) on them, while others have a graphic specific to the park. The latter are definitely our favorite and now the kids are disappointed when its just the “regular” one.

Some parks have wooden badges and we are finding these more common. At first I thought they weren’t all that great, but slowly they’ve absolutely become my favorite ones. We’ve found wooden badges at Yosemite, Zion, Marin Headlands, Muir Woods, Chiricahua and Fort Bowie to name a few.

We’ve also run into a few metal badges. They tend to be smaller, but also are unique and fun to collect.

Most parks no longer have patches. I feel like budget cuts have made it impossible for parks to keep offering these. Sometimes you can buy a Junior Ranger patch in the bookstore (they are usually around $5) or if a park still has some, they offer the choice between a patch and a badge. We snagged up some of the last patches White Sands National Park had as they said they aren’t getting any more.

Only SOME of our badges!

Junior Ranger Hats & Vests

Some visitor center bookstores have a collection of Junior Ranger items. We’ve seen binoculars, books, pencils, and most importantly: hats & vests. We bought our kids hats when they had earned their first 5 badges, and then vests once those started to fill up. If we loaded ALL our badges and patches onto the clothing I’m sure I wouldn’t even be able to see my kids anymore! It does create quite a stir when they walk into a NPS site all decked out.

Photo with a tourist at Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

For awhile we sewed patches on the back of my kids’ vests, but then it got crowded! I still love having them on there, even if the kids don’t to wear their vests anymore. I think they just got tired of all the attention, plus the vests just got HEAVY.

At some point, I’d love to create a wall hanging for the badges, or even a quilt with a map of the USA and sew on their patches. There’s lot of options, but for now we collect and then drop them off in storage when we swing through Utah. We just don’t have room for all of them right now!

Other Options for Earning Badges

If you can’t make it to a National Park, or miss out on earning a badge don’t worry! Many of the parks have the booklets available for download on their sites and then you can mail it in (see our post How to Mail in Jr. Ranger Booklets to Get Your Badge).

You can also mail in your books if you don’t make it the Visitor Center before it closes, or just run out of time to get it done.

There are also badges connected to multiple parks, or even no parks at all. We’ve earned the Ocean Steward Badge (picked up at Olympic National Park), Wilderness 50th Anniversary, Junior Night Ranger Explorer (coolest patch ever!), Paleontologist, Underwater Explorer (picked up in Wisconsin and turned in in Florida), Historic Preservation, and the Centennial Jr. Ranger.

We’ve also printed off the Junior Archaeologist Book, Cave Explorer, and the Underground Railroad. I have these on hand and we work on them occasionally to supplement our school work. Eventually we’ll mail them in to collect our badges!

 Web Rangers Online

Last, but not least, there’s also a Web Rangers program! It is an online activity for kids where they learn about, History, Nature, Puzzles, Science, Parks and Animals.

After logging on, each child gets to design a ranger station. From there, they can explore many activities about our presidents, animals, sea, earth, and lots of other topics! My kids also like that there are lots of fun puzzles to do to.

As they complete activities, a bar graph on the side moves on the category of Easy, Medium, or Hard. When you finish all of the activities the “lamp of brilliance” turns on and you can submit your name for a patch!

Related Articles – For more information check out these other great articles  on the Jr. Ranger Program!

Currently Wandering – Our Kids Earn Their 75th Junior Ranger Badge

Faith Takes Flight – The National Park Jr. Ranger Program

Take That Exit – Earn Junior Ranger Badges at State, National Parks

Categories
National Parks New Mexico

Backpacking & Sledding in White Sands National Monument, New Mexico

"White Sands National Monument is one of those other-worldly places. Located in southern New Mexico this park is truly one of a kind. We visited three years ago on our initial trip from Virginia to Utah and the kids have been begging to go back. When we decided to stay west this winter they unanimously voted White Sands as the one place they wanted to visit for sure.

Travel Dates: February 17-18, 2017

Ages of Kids: 11, 9, 6

Where to Stay: There is no campground for trailers in White Sands National Monument. However, Lake Holloman is a free option about 5 minutes from the entrance, or Oliver Lee Memorial State Park is about 30 minutes away.

Where to Get Sleds: The Albertson’s in Alamagordo sells sleds (usually) but you can also get them from the Gift Shop through the courtyard and past the Visitor Center desk. At the time new disks were $16 and used were $10. They will also buy them back once you are done ($7 new and $3 used I believe).

We arrived Airstream in tow and parked in the Visitor Center lot where they have ample room for bigger vehicles. We went inside, grabbed our Junior Ranger books and headed to watch the video about the park. Unfortunately about this time a school group came through so we didn’t explore the exhibits further. After about 15 or 20 minutes of working distractedly on their books, the kids looked up at me and said, “Mom? Can we just go sledding?”

I realized we weren’t going to get anything else done before we hit the slopes as it were, so we bought used sleds from the Gift Shop for $10 each, some wax, and loaded up for the drive into the park.

I love that the parking lots are HUGE and we can just drive our entire Airstream into the park. The best dunes are located near the end of the one way, teardrop shaped loop. We parked near the Alkali Flat Trailhead where there were multiple large dunes to choose from.

We also met up with both @liddleadventures and @thefamilycan so it was a full day of friends and sun! We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day.

With cloudless blue skies, and warm temperatures, our visit this time was totally different. We basked in the sun wearing shorts and short sleeves, and even had to apply sunscreen in order to not be burnt. It felt like the perfect beach day and we were up and down the dunes for hours.

At one point in a conversation with another family, we were musing about the back country camping in the park. There is a loop for tenters and we joked about pulling out our tents and just staying the night.

And then we totally did.

Sam drove back to the Visitor Center to grab a permit (first come, first served) and I double checked to make sure we had enough food to pack in for dinner and then breakfast the next morning. Around 3pm our friends both took off for their next destinations and we set about packing up our overnight gear and prepping food.

Once we were ready, we drove to the backpacker trail head, parked the trailer and set of into the sunset for our short one mile hike to campsite #2. Cara insisted on bringing a sled and pulled it behind her as we followed the orange markers out over the dunes.

We got to camp and hurriedly set up our tents before it got dark. In hindsight, we could have timed things to arrive just a little bit sooner, but honestly the kids were having so much fun sledding with their friends that I’m not sure we would change anything.

Have you ever had a random idea to turn a one day visit into a backcountry overnight trip? Me eithe…. Yeah. That happened. In our travels, we have learned to say Yes when adventure calls. That is how we ended up hiking into the otherworldly scene displayed here. We found our campsite amidst the dunes just before nightfall. Staying overnight allowed us to experience not only the late evening and early morning unavailable to daytime visitors, but also a brilliantly bright full moon. -@telegramsam

Hooray for a spontaneous backpacking trip! While sledding yesterday in White Sands National Park we decided to grab a back country permit and stay the night. With a full moon, plenty of stars, and a gorgeous sunrise we definitely made the right decision! -@currentlywandering

Camping on the dunes is prohibited so all of the camp sites are nestled in valleys between dunes. We settled into our little spot, made dinner, and the kids managed a final sled before bed.

One of the perks of staying the night was the ability to see both sunset and sunrise in the park. Sunset over the gypsum sand was pure magic. Depending on the time of year, the park can close before sunset actually occurs which I think is totally sad. The rangers drive through the park at closing announcing over a loudspeaker that everyone needs to leave. I’m grateful we were able to just stand and enjoy it.

At first we were excited there was a full moon and then we realized that its really hard to sleep when its so bright outside! Sam, Rachel, and I went for a walk at 10pm with no headlamp (and no shoes honestly) to try and bring on some sleep. I didn’t even try to capture any star photos as the moon would have just washed them out.

“The moon was full last night, and as it shone upon the brilliant white sand around us, it lit up the night in a way I have never seen before. It was bright enough to allow a late night wander without any light at all. It was so bright that we had moon shadows. It was so bright that we had trouble falling asleep. It was indeed otherworldly.” -@telegramsam

We had plans to be 5 hours south of White Sands by Saturday night, so were were up and out of camp early the following morning. We had a quick breakfast of Cliff Bars, fruit strips, and hot chocolate before making our way back to the trailer. Halfway there we realized the Visitor Center didn’t open until 9am (we needed to turn in our Jr. Ranger books) so we slowed down a bit and got some more sledding in.

Backpacking trips that involve sand dunes and sledding are much more fun. -@currentlywandering

I love that we could revisit one of our favorite places and the experience was so different than last time. White Sands is definitely a unique visit and camping in the back country made the visit even more special.