Category: The 50 States

Mountain Biking in Horseshoe Canyon – Driggs, Idaho

Post author By Jess
Post date May 22, 2015
2 Comments on Mountain Biking in Horseshoe Canyon – Driggs, Idaho

We have been hanging out at my brother-in-law’s house in Driggs, Idaho for the last week. Sam has some renovations he’s been doing to our battery box (including some welding by said brother-in-law). Between work, Airstream projects, and the rain, we haven’t had many chances to get out and explore and I’ve been going a little stir crazy.

Apparently my attitude was a little negative this morning, so the boys suggested I get out for a ride. Its amazing to me how quickly getting outdoors improves my mood.

When I went: May 22, 2015

Where We Stayed: With family, but there are a couple of great camping spots in the valley. Check them out on campedium.com.

Trail route: Climb Bovine Bliss, merge onto Shark’s Belly. Turn right on to Bumper & Cody’s at “the five-way”. Go left onto Sodbuster at the “T”. Turn left onto Southbound, and then ride down Channel Lock to the road.

Map: They’ve got a great one on mtbproject.com with coordinates for the trailhead.

I chose to ride the Dude Creek Loop #249 up Horsehoe Canyon. In the Wydaho Mtn Book my awesome brother-in-law picked up for me its recorded as a 6.2 mile ride with a workout factor of 5, a skill factor of 5, and a fun factor of 9. Sounds fabulous, right?

It took me about 20-25 minutes to ride from his house up the canyon. Unfortunately, because of all the rain the road to the trail head was too muddy and I spent about 15 minutes trying to make it. Giving up, I backed down the road and took the fork on the left side of the road instead where there was additional parking.

Getting that all settled, I biked up the road and started on the trail which was (hallelujah) obviously marked with a carsonite post.

IMG_20150522_141210

Bovine Bliss was a pretty good climb. I was breathing pretty hard, and having just worked my legs with 21 Day Fix Lower Extreme yesterday, my legs were also not happy with me at all. I couldn’t beat the views though:

IMG_20150522_121314

There were a few breaks in the climbing which was definitely a welcome relief. I merged onto Shark’s Belly and then it got wet. This part of the trail wound through the trees and there were a few streams that leaked onto the trails. Also some bridges to cross, which I felt more comfortable walking rather than riding. A few sections were too muddy to ride (if you leave a track deeper than a 1/2″ you shouldn’t ride it! It ruins the trails), so I attempted to walk around them. I’m just happy I didn’t slip and end up face down in the mud!

IMG_20150522_123947

A few more ups and downs and I hit the cutoff for Sod Buster and then Southbound.

IMG_20150522_130226

You can take a shortcut, skip Southbound and go straight to Channel Lock, but I don’t recommend it. Southbound was one of my favorite sections! It would around on top of the mesa with amazing views of the Teton Valley.

IMG_20150522_132831

Then there was the awesome descent on Channel Lock back through the gate, and then a short ride up the road to my car. I’m pretty sure I had a goofy grin on my face the whole way down.

IMG_20150522_133033

Overall it took me 2 hours and 15 minutes, and Endomondo clocked 9.5 miles instead of 6.2. It seems like quite the difference in mileage, so I’m not sure where the discrepancy comes in.

It was definitely a great ride, and I would LOVE to come back later in the summer and ride it when it’s fully dry!
IMG_20150522_141355

Tags Driggs Idaho, Horseshoe Canyon, mountain biking, mtb

Arizona Rock Climbing

Rock Climbing in Prescott, AZ With Friends

Post author By Jess
Post date May 18, 2015
4 Comments on Rock Climbing in Prescott, AZ With Friends

It’s no joke we fell in love with Prescott, AZ (really, we did a pretty awesome April’s Fool Joke) and one of the reasons was the plentiful outdoor recreation opportunities. We were only going to drop into Prescott Valley, spend a night with college friends and then leave, until another full time Airstreamer (whom we met at Organ Pipe National Monument a few months earlier) started posting photos of Point of Rocks Campground and the Granite Dells. Although we were slightly nervous about a private RV park (they are never our favorites) we couldn’t resist coming into town and seeing what the hype was all about. We warned Rich & Jodi we were coming to crash their space, and Rich even visited their storage unit and pulled out his climbing gear in anticipation of our visit.

When We Visited: March 27 – April 2, 2015

Ages of Kids: 9, 7, 4

Where We Stayed: Point of Rocks Campground is not your typical RV Park. The park has lots of shade, dirt roads, and huge granite boulders everywhere. Definitely more of a campground than an RV Park. We loved it. We were given a smaller site on the end (the best spots are in the back loop up against the boulders – note to self for next time) and settled in. And then we kept extending our stay again, and again, and again. By the time we left we had spent a week in this awesome town rock climbing, exploring, visiting nearby Watson Lake, and mountain biking.

Sam and I climbed quite a bit in college, so rock climbing isn’t new to us, but our kids had never been outside on “real” rocks. Andrew especially was pretty excited as we try to have regular rock climbing gym dates.We lined up an afternoon and a small group of us (including the awesome Ty, Sarah, Luna & Aki from mywifesadventure who we met the day before) walked out the back of the campground and into the Granite Dells.

Rich & Jodi frequent this area as a sort of “home base” of operations so Rich has been climbing all over the Dells and took us to a spot with a pretty easy 5.5/5.6 to start. Sam and Rich walked to the top of the crag to set up a top rope and the rest of us made our way to the bottom. After getting set up we took turns climbing the relatively easy first route and then Sam went up and switched the chains over to the next one for a little harder of a climb.

We had a great afternoon! We encouraged each other, talked, the kids made forts, scrambled over the rocks, and ate snacks. The littlest ones didn’t climb, so we took turns entertaining them. I also couldn’t resist pulling out my camera and doing a little impromptu lifestyle session of the Bennett family:

Sarah’s first time rock climbing – doesn’t she look like a natural??

How did it go with the kids that did climb? Andrew spider-manned his way to the top, but had trouble coming down. Jodi eventually went around to the top and pulled him over that way so they could walk down. Rachel struggles with heights and didn’t make it very far at all before she decided she was done, but had no trouble coming down. Sam, Jodi & I all climbed twice, Ty & Sarah both got in one climb (they had the youngest baby to juggle) and since Rich scraped up his leg mountain biking, he designated himself as belayer. After everyone had climbed we had Andrew practice climbing a bit, leaning back on the rope and coming back down. He was much more confident after that!

I’ve warned Sam that if we really end up back here for a month or so next winter I’m so buying a rope and we are going climbing at least three times a week. We had such a fantastic time, that we did it again a few days later – only this time we brought livinginthemomentum with us as well! We are so grateful to Rich & Jodi for the use of their gear and expertise. You really can’t beat a rock climbing location with a view like this!

Tags adventure familiies, family outdoor adventure, Granite Dells, outdoor adventure family, Outdoor Family, outfam, Prescott Arizona, Rock climbing in the Granite Dells, rock climbing Prescott Arizona, XScapers

Featured Destination National Parks Oregon

Visiting John Day Fossil Beds in Eastern Oregon

Post author By Jess
Post date May 15, 2015
1 Comment on Visiting John Day Fossil Beds in Eastern Oregon

Eastern Oregon definitely gets less press than its beautiful counterpart – the coastline. The geography is very different, and luckily for us, so was the weather. After Halloween in Lincoln City (2014) we knew we needed to get out of the rain or we’d go crazy. A rather intense couple of driving days took us through Salem to Bend, to Prineville, and on to the Painted Hills Unit inside of John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.

When We Visited: November 3-4, 2014

Ages of Kids: 9, 7, 4

Where We Stayed: There is no place to camp IN the park. This one of the only parks we’ve done a drive through with the Airstream. We mostly just planned to have Sam take the day off work (except for a lunch meeting) and we left early from Prineville to the Painted Hills Unit, then the Visitor Center in the Sheep Rock Unit. Once we were done, we then drove to Clyde Holliday State Recreation Site, arriving after dark. The park was peaceful and we would definitely recommend staying there!

Inside of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument there are three different units: The Painted Hills Unit, the Sheep Rock Unit, and the Clarno Unit. Which you visit is largely determined by your vehicle type, and how much time you have as they are pretty spread apart. We had seen photos of the Painted Hills, so for sure that was on our list and then we needed to hit up the Thomas Condon Paleontology Center in the Sheep Rock Unit to get our Junior Ranger Books. We decided to save the Clarno Unit for a later visit since it was farther out of the way.

The Painted Hills are an impressive geological collection of varying layers of rock and clay. The reddish color had a pretty sticky, mud like consistency which was unsurprising since it had been raining. However, it IS clay so I imagine it is always a little sticky.

In addition to the short Painted Cove boardwalk hike that takes you up close and personal to the clay, there’s also a few overlooks with views like this one:

We also drove into the unit a little farther and hiked the short Red Scar Knoll Trail, which ended at this huge pile of yellow and red clay.

After leaving the Painted Hills Unit, we stopped a few miles down the road where we actually had cell coverage so Sam could make his work meeting. While he worked to the pay the bills, the kids and I whipped up a quick lunch. I love traveling with our refrigerator.

After that it was about an hour drive to the Thomas Condon Paleontology Center in the Sheep Rock Unit. We picked up our Jr. Ranger Books and then hung out in the children’s room for a bit while they worked on their school for the day

Since it was already afternoon and we didn’t have a ton of time, the ranger recommended hiking through Blue Basin on the Trail of Time. It was spectacular! I have never seen anything like these blue hills. It kind of reminded of us Bryce Canyon – only a different color. The kids were particular fascinated by the small GREEN creek running out through the canyon. The minerals from the rock seep into the water, and it had an almost paint-like consistency. Andrew had fun throwing rocks in and watching them spash!

On our way back to the Paleontology Center, we stopped by the Historic Cant Ranch to see how a family used to make their living in this canyon raising sheep. The Ranch is well done and super informative. There were signs everywhere about the type of equipment they used for farming, how they sheared the sheep, and generally what life was like on a ranch in the early 1900’s.

Lastly, we stopped back by the Visitor Center to finish up our books using the displays, and to pass them off with the ranger. Our kids got to wear ranger hats while they were getting sworn in. This was a first for us, and I don’t think any of the kids found them very comfortable!

Although we didn’t see everything, I felt like we developed a good appreciation for this park and what makes it special! We would definitely go back and would love to see the the sections of the park we missed.

Tags fulltimefamily, John Day Fossil Beds, jrrangerbadge, National Park, NPS, Painted Hills, roadschool, Sheep Rock, TravelOregon, VisitOregon

Oregon

Crabbing on the Oregon Coast at Kelly’s Brighton Marina

Post author By Jess
Post date April 27, 2015
4 Comments on Crabbing on the Oregon Coast at Kelly’s Brighton Marina

One of our greatest adventures to date was our during our visit to the Oregon Coast fall of 2014. We had heard great things about Kelly’s Brighton Marina and drove down one afternoon to check it out. Unfortunately, it was raining, the tide was high, and the awesome employee suggested we come back the next morning and try then as we’d have much better luck. So grateful he didn’t let us crab from the dock right then, because we came back the next day and had an amazing time!

When We Visited: October 23, 2014

Where We Went: Kelly’s Brighton Marina, Rockaway Beach, Oregon

Where We Stayed: Nehalem Bay State Park – although you can camp at the Marina we chose to stay nearby at the state park and it was amazing. Great beach & sand dunes, plus an awesome playground. Doesn’t get much better than that!

Ages of Kids: 9, 7, 4

Tips: Prep your kids beforehand what the crabs will look/act like and bring your own set of leather gloves. Also be prepared to get wet!

Although we met Kelly himself, one of the other employees got us set up in the boat. The $100 rental fee included the boat, life jackets, crab pots, and bait for an hour out on the water. The employee demonstrated how to toss the pots in, explained how long to let them sit, and then how to reel them in quickly so the crabs didn’t get scared and scurry away. The whole process was quick and painless and then we were off!

Sam and I took alternating turns driving/steering the boat and tossing the crab pots. The kids even got into it and tossed a few crab pots as well. Despite rain in the forecast, the weather that day turned out absolutely beautiful for a late October day on the Oregon Coast. It was a little windy, and we were definitely glad for our rain jackets, but the sun even poked out a few times and warmed us up a little.

One thing we would have done differently is prepare our kids for what would happen AFTER we pulled the crab pot up full of crabs. One look at the swarming little crabs with their clacking claws and both the girls freaked out and started screaming! Sam and I were so excited we had actually caught something that it didn’t occur to us to just throw the pot back overboard until the girls calmed down, so we had a few frantic moments of trying to get them to calm down while not capsizing the boat and keeping all the crabs contained in one place.

You can only keep MALE crabs of a certain size, so we used the handy measuring stick tied to our bucket to check their size. If they were close we tossed them in the bucket just in case we didn’t catch anything bigger. All the smalls ones just got tossed back overboard. Poor crabs. I wonder if they get lost? Our kids got pretty good and distinguishing male from female, and unfortunately the biggest crab we caught was a female! Here’s our catch in the bottom of the bucket:

We were such newbies that we didn’t even realize it would help the crabs to put water IN the bucket so they could still breathe. Oops. They were destined for the pot anyway:

Although we caught probably close to 100 crabs, we ended up with 3 good sized ones to keep, and the cool part about the marina is that they’ll cook them right there for you to eat! It took about 20 minutes to boil them and then Sam had the opportunity to help clean them, and prep for eating!

Then we got to feast! Lots of napkins, paper plates and some garlic powder were pretty much all we needed. Cara tried a little, but she’s a less adventurous eater than my other kids, so she was done after a few bites. Rachel & Andrew (especially Andrew) gobbled up crab as fast as they could crack open the legs and eat! We ate two and took the third home to consume later. We also purchased some chips and soda from the Marina and made lunch out of it.

If you are looking for a fun family adventure and are headed to the Oregon Coast anytime soon, we definitely recommend stopping by Kelly’s Brighton Marina. He’ll take great care of you and you’ll have a great time!

If you haven’t seen it, check our YouTube video about our experience for more details and up close look at crabbing with kids!

Tags Crabbing on the Oregon Coast, Family Adventure, Fishing for Crab from a boat, Kelly's Brighton Marina, Outdoor Family, taking kids crabbing

Adventure Reports Arizona

The Sonoran Desert Museum in Tucson, Arizona

Post author By Jess
Post date April 20, 2015

We went back and forth on visiting the Sonoran Desert Museum in Tucson, AZ. We had heard great things about it, but was it just another zoo? Would we really find it that interesting? Turns out that traveling the country makes you a bit of a snob when it comes to activities you’ll pay for. You start thinking things like, “Is this going to be better than ‘X’? We just did ‘Y ‘so maybe we don’t need to do this one too.” Happily, the Sonoran Desert was everything we had heard and the kids and I had a fantastic time. And there was cactus. You should know by now how much I love cactus.

When We Visited: March, 13, 2015

Ages of Kids: 9, 7, 4

Tips: Although the park has done a great job of providing shade Ramadas & drinking fountains, its still Tucson, and will be very HOT in the summer. Plan accordingly.

The Sonoran Desert Museum boast over 98 acres, and “is a fusion experience zoo, botanical garden, art gallery, natural history museum, and aquarium.” The museum is also 85% outdoors which can get pretty warm during the Arizona summers.

We started off the morning by wandering down to the bird show. It was pretty fascinating, and the birds really do fly just right above the crowd. The animal trainers are on either side of the standing crowd and the birds crisscross back and forth. Although we were standing, my kids were able to get a spot right on the fence so they could see pretty easily.

After that, we walked the desert loop trail that included javelina & the coyote. Left to right below are the Red fox, javelina, coyote, and coati. I’ve wanted to see a javelina since we got to the Sonoran Desert, and although I never saw one in the wild, I was pretty excited we spotted 3 here at the museum.

Luckily for us, there was an ice cream vendor near the Cactus Garden. The ice cream made the kids happy, and the garden was for me. A ENTIRE garden FULL of very interesting and unique cactus. My kids thought I was crazy, but this was probably my favorite part. Serious obsession, here people.

After lunch we wandered over to the Warden Oasis Theater (indoors) and watched the Live & (sort of) On the Loose venemous reptile presentation. I thought it was funny the animal handlers thought everyone was there to see the rattlesnake. No way. Gila Monsters are definitely more interesting!

Overall we had a great day! A highlight for the kids was also the underground cave tunnels in the Earth Sciences center. They really did look like caves. Pretty sweet. And the exhibit popped us out for a great view of this mountain lion who was just pacing back and forth in front of the window:

Was our visit worth the price of admission? From our experience, to the crowds and the museum’s rating on Trip Advisor, I’m going to go with yes. Everything about the museum is dedicated to this amazing desert and I feel like we got a great overview of the plants, animals, and geology of this amazing place!

Tags Sonoran Desert Museum, Things to do in Tucson Arizona with kids, Tucson Arizona