Category: Adventure Reports

My Obsession With Cactus Gets Even Stronger – Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

Post author By Jess
Post date March 2, 2015
2 Comments on My Obsession With Cactus Gets Even Stronger – Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

This National Monument is the only place in the United States where you can find Organ Pipe Cactus! Go and see our adventure to know why you should add this place to your bucketlist!

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument has been on my “must-see” list since we visited Arizona last year and I developed a slight obsession with all sorts of prickly plants. We didn’t have the time to venture south of Tucson, but we’ve more than made up for it this time around!

When We Visited: February 16-18, 2015
Ages of Kids: 9, 7, 4
Where We Stayed: Twin Peaks Campground. The only thing we didn’t approve of were the strict generator hours! Totally interfered with our hiking & exploring.

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The Organ Pipe Cactus is only found in the United States in this park. There is large concentration of them in Mexico (the park is smack dab next to the border), but if you don’t have a passport, this is the only spot to see them! These plants look like giant, upside-down octopus. The largest one we saw was along the Ajo Mountain Drive. It also was a MUTANT cactus, or a CRESTED cactus (it doesn’t get much better than that!). This anomoly occurs when a new arm of the cactus starts, but pushes out with the new growth forming a line instead of a circle. The resulting fan shape also occurs in saguro cactus, though it doesn’t usually grow linearly as this one did.

We are also getting into the flowering/fruit season of the cactus. This Prickly Pear was starting to have fruit although they won’t be ripe until last summer when the monsoons arrive in the desert.

Here’s Sam and Rachel standing next to it for a size comparison:

At the back of the 21-mile loop is the Arch Canyon Trail. Although you can see the arch from the parking lot, the BEST part of the hike is back up in the canyon. Its a little steep and scrambly, but the views are SO worth it. We couldn’t believe how GREEN everything was. The Sonoran Desert really is beautiful. The green creosote is everywhere and gives the area an almost forest- like appearance. Add to that the cool canyon breezes and I was having a serious case of home-sickness for the Utah mountains.

The Agave is also one of my favorite plants even if it isn’t a cactus. I found this one near the top of our hike.
One morning I actually managed to drag myself out of bed to photograph the sunrise. The one thing I wanted (photographically speaking) was a silhouetted Organ Pipe Cactus with a beautiful sky. Sam gets up early to work and sees beautiful sunrises all the time, and when I cracked an eyelid he told me this one would be worth it. It totally was.

This is an Ocotillo – also not a cactus but very cool looking. Native Americans used to use the branches to make roofs, fences and all sorts of useful things. When there’s not enough rain, they’ll shed their leaves and look quite dead and ugly. Luckily, there’s been quite a bit of rain recently and we got to see them fully dressed!

Organ Pipe NM_09 We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in this park! Even though it is quite a ways out into the desert, its definitely worth the trek!

Tags Arizona National Park, Currently Wandering, full time family, National Parks, Organ Pipe Cactus, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Sunset Cactus, traveling family

Airstream Meetups California National Parks

A Little TOO Social Sometimes? Meet up in the Mojave National Preserve

Post author By Jess
Post date February 23, 2015
5 Comments on A Little TOO Social Sometimes? Meet up in the Mojave National Preserve

When I think of a nomad, wandering existence it can appear to be pretty lonely. Constantly in new places, no neighborhood friends to see everyday, and a new church congregation every week.

We’ve found, however, that sometimes just the opposite is true. Life can get a little TOO social sometimes. With many full-time families and couples on the road or preparing to hit the road, there are myriads of opportunities for social engagements.

Add the weather into account, and we have realized that during the winter most everyone is in southern California, Arizona, or Florida and chances are we’ll run into a few (or a lot) of travelers.

Recently, we had a rather fun meet-up in Mojave Desert National Preserve with 4 other families. Its fun how traveling with one other family (we’d been hanging out with the ADVODNA crew for at least a week already) can snowball into a large potluck with hoards of children running around like crazies. It’s fantastic!

We met up with David & Bridget from @journeywithhappiness:

Amber & Todd from @campytrails:

Jason & his girls from @ramblingfamily (the approved non-Airstream interloper – his wife and eldest daughter were in Texas for work & orthodontist appts):

and, of course, Dave & Ann from @advodna_dave / @advodna_ann

The other nice thing about meeting up with other traveling families is they all know we aren’t on vacation. Most everyone works, kids have nap time, other kids have to do school work. People are generally laid back, no stress, and don’t need to hang out every second of every day. We generally all did our own thing in the evenings, but one night we decided to get together for a campfire and potluck dinner. We even put the kids to bed and had some adult time around the campfire afterwards as well!

Another fun thing to do in Mojave National Preserve is hiking! Surprisingly, there are some great trails in the area both near Hole in the Wall Campground and elsewhere in the park. The kids and I left early one morning to drive the 40 minutes to the Teutonia Peak Trail. The trail is flat for about a mile and then climbs about 700 ft up into the hills for a great view of the park. I was pretty impressed with my kids, and even more impressed with myself for taking them while Sam worked!

Near the Hole in the Wall Visitor Center
there’s also the Rings Loops Trail that we hiked one afternoon as a group. The trail circles the base of one of the buttes, and then climbs out of a canyon using these rings bolted into the side of the rock. With 3 dogs and a few small kids we had a good time getting everyone up and over but we made it!

We had also heard rumors that the Kelso Depot (main visitor center), as well as the Kelso Dunes were worth a visit, but they were too far from our campground to reasonable drive in. Mostly, we just enjoyed relaxing, talking with friends, and enjoying the amazing desert sunsets. Before we all headed our separate ways, David pulled out his drone and let Sam take his hand at creating a “dronie” video. Check it out!

This park suprised us with its beauty and wide variety of activities. It is definitely worth a visit (or two) if you are in the area!

Tags Airstream Meetup, mojave national preserve

Arizona Nevada

Hoover Dam & the Cranky Security Guard

Post author By Jess
Post date February 16, 2015
5 Comments on Hoover Dam & the Cranky Security Guard

Hoover Dam and the Cranky Security Guard

We are huge Percy Jackson fans, and ever since reading The Titan’s Curse (where Percy & Annabeth end up in the bowels of the dam being chased by monsters) the kids have been anxious to visit Hoover Dam.

After returning to our Airstream in Las Vegas from Christmas break, we planned a solid two weeks of exploring the area, with Lake Mead & Hoover Dam near the top of the list.

When We Visited: January 26, 2015
Ages of Kids: 9, 7, 4
Where We Stayed: Boulder Beach Campground, Lake Mead National Recreation Area

We learned from the Lake Mead visitor center, that we could ride the Historic Rail Trail from the visitor center parking lot all the way to Hoover Dam. With a roundtrip distance of only 6 miles we figured we’d get some exercise, learn a little history, and avoid paying the $10 parking fee.

Genius.

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The bike ride itself went great! The trail is a mix of gravel and dirt so not the easiest to ride on, but our kids are veterans. The path was fairly flat, with only a large downhill section near the end. The only thought I had (which Rachel also voiced as well) was that we were going to have to climb back UP this on the way out. Awesome. Something to look forward to. We also switched the Ride-aLong to the mountain bike instead of the cyclo-cross as it has more traction and there was less possibility of us totally eating dirt.

Along the path we ran into the Hoover Dam “graveyard” of old parts, as well as one of the power relay stations. I suppose all that hydroelectric power has to get out somehow, right?

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We made it to the Hoover Dam property boundary where, conveniently, a bike rack was located for us to lock up before heading in for our tour. We took this as a sign that quite a few people actually ride their bikes in to tour the dam and we were doing something fairly common. Turns out that’s not really the case. Notice in the photos, we ALL have backpacks.

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As it was lunch time we grabbed an outdoor table and set about munching down our tuna, crackers, hummus, and veggies while looking at the surroundings. One of the first things we noticed were bright yellow signs advising that large bags (and there was a black square photo to demonstrate the size which was not very large) were not permitted. Uhhh… we had 5 such bags. What were we going to do with those? We decided to just head in anyway and see what the deal was. The signs also said “no food allowed” which we thought meant, “no open food” or “no eating” on the tour. No problem. We’ll just keep it all packed up as all we had left after lunch were sealed up snacks for the ride home.

We followed the “tours this way” signs and headed down of set of escalators to the main building. As we walked inside we instantly noticed the TSA-like bank of metal detectors and x-ray machines. Okay, no big deal. We start to load up the gray trays when a super helpful lady looks at us, and says “There’s no food allowed inside.”

“It’s all sealed,” Sam replies.
“Sorry, you can’t take it in with you.” She gives us a sympathetic look but doesn’t back down. “You could send your bags through the scanner just to see what’s in it,” she suggested.
“We know what’s in it. Wow, you guys don’t make this easy on families, do you?” Sam mutters half under his breath. I don’t think his remark was said belligerently, but suddenly the young, male security guard at the other end of the machine looks up at us, and says, “What did you say?”
“Just that you don’t make this very easy on families who bike in, that’s all,” said Sam.
“We don’t make the rules,” he responds getting testier by the second.

Then I swear this guy went nuts on us. Everything we said, or tried to say just made him more angry. Sam and I started talking quietly about a plan to stash all the food in one bag and take it back by the bikes. The security guy told us that if we left a bag somewhere it would be considered “abandoned” and we couldn’t do that because it was illegal.

Say, what? How is leaving a bag locked up by our bikes suddenly abandoned? Is that different than leaving it in the car?

At one point I looked at him and said, “You need to stop talking to us,” to which he replied that we needed to leave “right now.” Ummm… no. Not going to happen.

Sam and I are still quietly talking, while a bit of a line starts building up behind us, and the original, generally nice female security guard is looking a little embarrassed. We let people go in front of us while we continue packing all of the food into one of our smaller bags, leaving the kids some water, binoculars, and other randomness in theirs, while I still have my camera bag.

“If you come back without that bag, I’ll know you left it somewhere and I won’t let you in.” He was still watching us.

We wouldn’t tell him where our bikes were parked (I seriously had visions of him calling a squad to search the area and confiscate all our bikes), and after we got everything put in one bag, Sam waited while I took the kids through the metal detector and the scanner.

We also had to pull out our First Aid Kit (it had scissors in it) and a pocketknife the x-ray machine picked up. I seriously just tossed them back to Sam and he put them in the bag we were leaving behind anyway, even though the grumpy guard said he just had to see the scissors and then we could take them in since it was a First Aid Kit. Now he was trying to be helpful?

Once we were through we had to sit on a bench and wait for the rest of our “party”. The kids and I talked quietly, and I was so mad I warned them that if they wouldn’t let dad back in we would demand a refund and we’d leave. They weren’t too happy about it, but understood.

Luckily, it didn’t come to that. Whether he decided to take a break, or was forced to, the security guard wasn’t on duty when Sam returned for his trip through the metal detector.

Hallelujah.

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Despite our less-than-ideal experience entering the tour, we somehow managed to time things just right to get a private tour of the power plant. As we passed groups of 40 or more people inside the building, we were a little shocked we got that lucky. Our tour guide, Rebekah, was fantastic. She was patient with the kids, answered questions, asked questions, and generally was just laid back and easy going. It was perfect.

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After our 30 minute tour, we headed outside to walk on the dam (which you can do for free). It’s pretty crazy how tall it is!

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Half the dam is on the Arizona side, and half on Nevada so they have a clock on both sides to show the local time. My kids loved crossing the line and suddenly being and hour different, and then turning around and walking right back to Pacific Time. It’s the little things.

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We didn’t stay too long because we knew we still had to ride back. It was a little tiring, but our kids pulled through and managed to make it all the way back to the truck. The view of Lake Meade from the trail was just amazing, especially as it was getting close to sunset. To top off the ride, Sam drove the car down the hill to the campground while the kids and I coasted (Faster Mommy! Faster!) down the paved trail between the trail head and the campground.

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Although it was a very long day we had a great time. Even with our bad security experience, we enjoyed the tour and the experience of seeing such a great piece of architecture! We’d just recommend driving in, or planning ahead in advance what you bring with you!

California Featured Destination National Parks

The Marin Headlands in San Francisco

Post author By Jess
Post date February 3, 2015
3 Comments on The Marin Headlands in San Francisco

Its amazing to me how little we explore our own backyards. Sam has family in Petaluma, CA which is about an hour north of San Francisco. We have been out there countless times over the last 11 years to visit with family, yet I am still finding new and exciting places to explore. Either that means there’s more out there than someone can visit in a lifetime, or we’ve been really, really lazy the last decade.

When We Visited: December 1, 2014
Ages of Kids: 9, 7. 4
Tips: The headlands are part of the larger Golden Gate National Recreation Area, with countless hiking & biking trails, scenic drives, forts, batteries, lighthouses, and areas to explore. Just pick a small area to visit and save the rest for next time!

When we went back to the Bay Area for Thanksgiving, I chose to visit the Marin Headlands with the kids so we could add to their collection of Jr. Ranger Badges. There are quite a few to earn in this area (we’ve also done Point Reyes, John Muir NHS, Muir Woods, & the San Francisco Maritime Museum) so I try and pick just one to do every time we are in the area.

Although the weather was a bit chilly and overcast at times, the Marin Headlands park was beautiful! We started out at the Visitor Center to pick up our booklets and view the exhibits, and then drove out to the Point Bonita Lighthouse. The walk down to the lighthouse is pretty steep, but we found a group of seals barking on the rocks below us and there’s a pretty cool tunnel to walk through. Both kept the kids interested and excited about the hike!

My favorite part was crossing the bridge to get out to the lighthouse.

The lighthouse are is not very large, but the views are spectacular and the history is interesting. We spent some time talking to the docent, and working on our booklets. The lighthouse was built in 1855 in response to the 1849 gold rush and the increased amount of ships entering the San Francisco Bay. As we sat and watched the waves crash, and looked at the rugged coastline we could easily understand how so many ships would crash and sink along this route!

After we slogged back up the hill we enjoyed the view of the Golden Gate Bridge, and explore Battery Wallace.

We were even graced with a double rainbow. See? It pays to get out even in “bad” weather!

After we had thoroughly explore the fort, we drove back down to the Visitor Center. We had planned to hike out to Rodeo Beach, but we ran out of time. It was nearing late afternoon and I didn’t want to get caught up in crazy city traffic on our way home. The Marin Headlands badge is one of the coolest we’ve earned though, so I’m glad we took the time to drive out there and visit!

On my bucket list is tent camping in one of the few campgrounds they have out there. None are trailer friendly, but camping on the hills overlooking the city? Yes, please! Also on my list is the Jr. Ranger Badge out at Alcatraz Island. This park is so large and there is so much to do out there that we’ll have to take a few more trips in as we keep visiting over the years.

Tags Golden Gate Bridge, Jr. Ranger Badge, Lighthouse, Marin Headlands, point bonita, San Francisco

California Hiking National Parks Outdoor Adventures

Our Kids Complete the Most Epic Hike EVER in Yosemite National Park

Post author By Jess
Post date January 19, 2015
13 Comments on Our Kids Complete the Most Epic Hike EVER in Yosemite National Park

Our kids never cease to amaze me. They have adapted so well to this traveling lifestyle of ours and I see them growing and thriving in the most spectacular ways.

Hiking is definitely a huge activity for us. We started with short hikes when they were little, and gradually have been able to increase the distance as they become stronger and more used to the physical effort. The hike we completed in Yosemite definitely topped the list for difficulty, duration and amazing views.

When We Visited: December 8, 2014

Ages of Kids: 9, 7, 4

Where We Stayed: Yosemite Ridge Resort. Our timing worked out for a visit across a Sat-Mon, with Monday being the day we spent all day at the park. We opted to stay outside the National Park near Groveland at an RV Park so that 1) Sam could have a prayer of getting Verizon coverage so he could work some on Saturday to make up for play on Monday, and 2) It was much, much closer to church.

I had one purpose for visiting this park, and that was to hike. A big one. It had been quite a while since we attempted an all day excursion, and having just seen the valley floor on my previous visit, I wanted to get up into the hills and really experience Yosemite. Even if that’s all we did on our visit, we felt that would be a better way to see the park than exploring a few of the shorter trails closer to the valley floor. We needed to get UP.

If we could snag a Jr. Ranger Badge while we were at it, I was okay with that too.

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I don’t think any of use quite comprehended what we were getting ourselves into as we left the Visitor Center and headed for the trail head. We planned to hike up to both Vernal and Nevada Falls, a distance, on paper, of 5.4 miles round trip. We also knew there was an option to come down the John Muir Trail, which considering it is the last section Sam hiked of his 240 miles we were kind of excited to all hike together. Coming down the JMT rather than back down the Mist Trail would add about 2.5 miles, however, so we figured we’d just see how it went.

Everyone started out in great spirits. We had psyched the kids up for a long, difficult hike, but we knew that they could do it. The first section of the trail is paved and steep. We kept leap frogging a high school field trip group, and Cara kept teasing them about hiking faster than they were. Sam and I joked that these kids would never live it down if a 4 year old beat them to the top of the waterfall.

About .8 miles up the trail, we hit the footbridge and our first view of Vernal Falls. I handed my camera off to the field trip instructor and started giving him directions when he promised that he was a photographer and knew what he was doing. Perfect. We rarely get photos of all 5 of us and this is one of my all time favorites!

The little things that help our kids accomplish something difficult are pretty varied. For Cara, listening to music is a huge help. On this hike, Rachel really want to bring Rebecca, her American Girl doll along for the hike. She’s not very heavy and has a backpack she straps into, so we thought, “why not?” It was adorable to watch Rachel hike up the trail with her doll strapped to her back. I think it gave her encouragement to think she was “helping” her doll along and responsible for someone else throughout the hike.

Before reaching the top of the falls, we had to climb 600 granite steps that had been shaped out of the mountain. It was quite the work out and we were all pretty tired & hungry by the time we reached the top!

Feeding both body and spirit is definitely important. We packed in lunch to eat at the top of the falls and not only filled our hungry bellies, but re-energized the kids to keep hiking. Its amazing what a milestone can do for encouragement! We did beat the school group to the top of the falls, and they endured some good natured teasing from 4 year old Cara, despite having to stop here and there for a lecture from their teacher. Cara was very proud to be competing in league with ‘big kids’ and it gave her confidence and courage.

At this point we had a decision to make, continue to the top of Nevada Falls or head back down? We definitely wanted to keep going, but Rachel was having some severe cramping in her hip flexor and was struggling to even walk. We sat down and talked about pressing on in spite of difficulties, how excited everyone else was to see the other waterfall, and we stretched out her leg so she felt confident she could keep hiking. Had we remembered to bring our hiking poles, they also would have helped tremendously, but they were sitting back in the Airstream too far away to be useful.

We are proud of Rachel for how determined she was to see this thing through. We walked a little slower on the second half of the trail, and stopped frequently to stretch, but she kept hiking with very little complaining. I’m glad we kept going because the views just kept getting better and better!

Just before we hit the top of Nevada Falls we had another steep, switchback, rocky section to hike. This time, however, we had the company of the sun which peaked over the nearby cliffs and bathed us in golden light. It was the first time that day we had seen the sun and I just stood for a minute and let the warm sunshine wash over my face.

We saved our very favorite granola bars to eat at the top of Nevada Falls, and stopped for 20 minutes or so to complete their short Jr. Ranger books before heading back down the trail. Spending a few minutes which such a view (and our favorite snack!) was ample reward for our effort up the trail. Our break was short, as we’ve learned to keep moving so our muscles don’t freeze up, and by this time it was about 3pm and we needed to get off the mountain before it got dark.

We made it! This was our “We can’t believe our 4 year old hiked all the way up here” self-congratulatory selfie photo.

The slog downhill began. The kids were pretty tired by now, and it was getting late into the afternoon. We were slightly worried we wouldn’t make it back to the visitor center in time to turn in our Jr. Ranger Books, but more importantly that it would be dark before we could get off the mountain. The views coming down the JMT side of the trail were spectacular, however, and was worth the extra distance we hiked.

Lots of trail snacks, “I spy” games, music and anything else we could think of to keep them hiking. Sam and I were tired, which meant the kids must be doubly so. Little Cara had given her all, and just couldn’t make it the last mile. We alternated between carrying her and having her walk and it was pretty slow going.

We made it back to the car just as it was getting too dark to see around 4:55pm. The visitor center closed at 5pm so we raced back along the road to the closest drop off point and the kids and I ran from there on our already exhausted legs. We ran up to the visitor center just as the last ranger was walking out the front door. He was so great – the kids explained which hike they had just finished and he congratulated them and went back inside for the badges. Without even checking their sheets, he just asked what their favorite part was and handed them over. Obviously he was ready to go home too!

On the way out, we made a quick pit stop at the food market to grab some snacks for the way home. Everyone was tired, but it was definitely a fantastic accomplishment for everyone! Although on paper, the trail was supposed to be only 7. 5 miles or so, tracking with Endomondo I clocked 10 miles and 2000 feet of vertical elevation. We are so proud of our kids and what they accomplished!

Our decision to begin hiking serious hikes with the kids was deliberate, and over this last year we’ve seen them grow and become both physically and mentally strong. We have a learned and grown so much through these experiences, and I look forward to what we will accomplish this year!