We made it out of Idaho! We had quite a few family adventures planned so it almost felt like we hadn’t started our “big” trip yet, but we enjoyed it along the way.
We had reservations to meet family in Rocky Mountain National Park over the weekend which gave us time to slowly move through Colorado.
Visiting the Big Island to see an active volcano was high on everyone’s wish list for the time we spent in Hawaii last fall. Our original plan was to island hop between the Big Island and Maui over Thanksgiving, but after we got bogged down in the logistics, we decided to just focus on the Big Island and I’m so glad we did! There is plenty to do, and I feel like we really got to appreciate the unique beauty of this island.
We received plenty of recommendations from friends, and in the end decided to fly in and out of Kona International Airport on the west side of the island. We rented a car through Turo – which is a peer to peer rental network.
The vehicle ended up being smaller than we imagined (our fault, not theirs) but luckily Sam is a Tetris whiz and was able to cram everything in. I’m just glad we didn’t bring that extra suitcase. It was really nice to have the owner drop the car curbside at the airport and pick it up there as well. No waiting in a car rental line!
We started our adventure on the west side of the island in Kona. There’s plenty of condo rentals available in the area, and ours was just okay so I won’t link to it here. Kona was definitely not our favorite place – its definitely touristy and felt rather crowded.
The second half of our trip we stayed in the cutest AirBnb in Volcano near the national park. As soon as I saw it, I knew we wanted to stay there! 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!
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Our flight was around noon, so we arrived in plenty of time to have a little adventure before checking in to our accommodations. We grabbed our car and then stopped for a quick lunch at at Annie’s Island Fresh Burgers. It was late for lunch so the restaurant was pretty empty, but the burgers were good and the onion rings were even better!
Afterwards we headed a little farther south to visit Pu’uhonua O Honaunau National Historical Park, or the Place of Refuge. It was a sacred place for Polynesians and a safe place for those who were basically running from the law.
There’s a self-guided tour, and both Cara & Andrew enjoyed earning their Jr. Ranger Badges. It was definitely a lot hotter than we expected and our short walk was plenty!
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Afterwards we drove up to our condo rental, took showers and prepped for family photos! I had this crazy idea long time ago to have or family photos taken in Hawaii and when our friend Joe Hendricks found out we were headed to the Big Island he recommend Jim Dierking as a family photographer. After a few back and forth emails, we arranged to meet up at Waialea Bay.
The light was perfect and Jim did a fabulous job capturing the spirit of our adventurous family!
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Thanksgiving Day! The last two years we’ve been backpacking over Thanksgiving, and although that was a possibility this year, we did want to do something adventurous. After throwing a ham in the crockpot to cook while we were gone, we packed a lunch and headed south!
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We had heard amazing things about snorkeling in Kealakekua Bay, and after I found a place where we could rent kayaks and paddled out to the bay ourselves we were sold! We rented 2 kayaks from Ehu & Kai Kayaks who are located right on the bay. After parking, we loaded up our gear and pushed off right from the dock! We were immediately greeted by a sweet, little turtle.
It was about a 20 minute paddle over to the James Cook National Monument, and since it was a brilliantly blue day we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
There’s no place to dock boats at the monument, and technically you aren’t allowed on land unless you are with an official tour & guide. We mostly just took turns snorkeling and keeping an eye on the boats. The current wasn’t strong so they mostly stayed put. I’ve mentioned before that Cara loves shallow water snorkeling where she can see everything up close, and Rachel loves deep water snorkeling because otherwise she gets claustrophobic. This spot had both! There’s a large reef that drops off fairly steeply, but also places where the water was fairly shallow.
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After an hour or so of snorkeling we pulled out our picnic lunch and ate on the boats while floating in the bay. We couldn’t have asked for a more picture perfect location! Once we were done, it was a fairly easy paddle back to the dock.
Back at the condo, we swam in the pool (cause not enough swimming yet!), enjoyed our Thanksgiving meal and watched the sun set over the ocean.
One thing that Rachel really wanted to do while on the Kona side of the island was to attend the LDS temple. She’s old enough now to participate in some of the ordinances, so we drove her over and spent a few hours in service. Perfect way to start the day!
Afterward, we packed up and started our drive over to the west side of the island. We planned to take all day and stop at various places along our route and it was perfect!
Quick stop at the southernmost point in the United States. It was pretty blustery and cold, but that didn’t stop the cliff jumpers we saw! There is a green sand beach you can hike out to, but we opted to pass this time around.
ALL the malasadas. We bought round one and then went back for more. They weren’t hot – but still pretty dang good.
I’ve never seen anything like it! The kids were fascinated with the small, volcanic black pebbles that make up this beach. There’s also a group of sea turtles that relax in the sun on a daily basis. We ate our picnic lunch, wandered around and stuck our toes in the surf.
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On our way through Volcanoes National Park, we swung by the visitor center to grab our Jr. Ranger books and scout out the hiking and exploring possibilities before checking in to our AirBnB accommodations.
That evening we drove back into the park to see the Kilauea Caldera at night – which was super awesome. We spent all of Saturday & Sunday exploring the National Park before heading back over to the Kona side on Monday morning.
We woke up to rain Monday morning which was fine, since it was a driving day. The east side of the island is more jungle-ly and it is incredibly beautiful. I had hoped to do some snorkeling on this side of the island before we left Hilo, but it was not to be.
We did make a brief stop at ‘Akaka Falls State Park. We paid a small fee for parking and then sloshed down the pathway to the falls overlook. Despite the fog, clouds, and rain the 442 falls were still quite impressive! Even with rain jackets and umbrellas we still were drenched by the time we made it back to the car.
As we drove across the north shore of the island the weather became increasingly better. So crazy how one side of the island can be pouring rain, and by the time we get to the west shore we are pulling on our shorts again.
We did find more malasadas – hot from a food truck this time – which we counted as lunch. Probably not the healthiest option but it worked.
Andrew was in full on Jr. Ranger mode so we spent some time exploring the Pu’ukohola Heiau National Historic Site. The park is dedicated to the history of the early Hawaiian kingdom and we enjoyed walking around on the property to stretch our legs.
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Despite the terrible weather, we knew this was our only chance to visit the Mauna Kea observatory. As we climbed the road up the mountain the weather became increasingly overcast until it was once again, a downpour. Turns out all of the star watching that evening was cancelled. 🙂
We brought our own hot chocolate (which was good because it was freezing up there!), and watched the video in the small visitor center. Kind of a let down because we had heard amazing things, but we also can’t control the weather.
Costco was on our route home, so we grabbed a pizza for dinner and some muffins for breakfast in the morning before settling in to another AirBnb condo in Kona.
Our flight wasn’t until noon, so after packing up we attempted one more national historic site near the airport. Unfortunately to earn the badge we needed to visit more sites than we had time for, so we just strolled along the ocean instead.
This was our first legitimate vacation in years. Sam left the laptop at home and we acted like tourists. It was a blast! Although there is much more to see and do (we left Hilo relatively unexplored) we accomplished our goal of seeing lava and everyone went home happy!
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:
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. 🙂
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?
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.
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. 🙂
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!
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!
“Hey Mom! Watch this!” I paused for a moment along the trail to look back at Cara. She bent down and picked up a handful of snow and tossed it up into the air. “Its snowing!” I laughed along with her and marveled at the beautiful snowy landscape. The sun dipped behind the mountains, lighting up the sky with soft pink hues. We could hear the rustle of the swans as they swam effortlessly in the frigid, ice filled river. The scene was picture perfect and I couldn’t have been happier.
Our yurt trip at Herriman Idaho State Park lined up perfectly with some “hitch itch” anxiety. This is the longest we’ve sat still in over 4 years as Hawaii + Skiing stacked up is giving us 8 months of “regular” living. There are a lot of advantages to being in a sticks and bricks but sometimes I feel trapped and just want to go….anywhere. Luckily I have an amazing husband and kids who are adventurous and fun and who make playing in the outdoors the perfect solution. As we were falling asleep that night the kids mentioned they loved being together and sleeping in the same room. It was a throwback to life in the Airstream and for a minute we all had a twinge of nostalgia.
We needed this trip. Well, I needed this trip and luckily everyone was content to follow my madness. I have times where I can’t believe how good we have it, and other times where I think I’ll go mad if we spend one more day in the condo doing the same things over and over. Yurt camping was NEW, and FUN and DIFFERENT and I thrive on all three of those things. They help me feel alive.
We are headed back out in the Airstream for a spring mountain bike tour in 43 days. There’s actually some anxiety as we have a new truck (Ram 2500) which still needs a cover and a bike rack, a bike that needs a new front shock, and what if we get back in the Airstream and hate it? Then what?
The problem is that life in the condo is comfortable. It’d be so much easier to stay here, get involved with the local community and just be. We’ve always said that “comfort is the enemy of adventure”, however, so I think its time to start getting uncomfortable again because that’s where all the magic happens.
