Category: WanderLog

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Daily Life WanderLog

Executing the Crazy Plan & No Time to Blog

We are still alive! I promise. I know I’ve been slacking on blog posts, but we have just been so darn busy with projects that it’s hard to keep up. The last couple of weeks have been rewarding, frustrating, and exciting all rolled up together. I’m learning to not take myself too seriously and we are trying to fit in some exploration in the cracks.

Sam has been outlining our plan over on Instagram so I thought I’d repost and share here so you can see our step by step execution of Crazy Plan 2017.

Crazy Plan Step 1: collect all the things. When we sold our house a few years ago, we got rid of all our furniture and most everything else. The remains we put in a 5×10 storage unit or lent to friends who wanted to use our stuff while we were gone. Yesterday we collected all the things (and some additional new supplies) at 7 different locations around the populated section of Utah.

Crazy Plan Step 2: Drive the moving truck to Driggs Idaho. After years of towing our Airstream, driving _behind_ the Airstream is an odd feeling.

See the Tetons amidst the mountains? Beautiful views here.

Crazy Plan Step #3: Make an AirBnB. Last September we bought a condo here in Driggs Idaho during The Great Nomadic Idaho Land Rush of 2016. We rented it out till about now, when we will spend the next few months making it into a cute AirBnB. This turns out to be quite a pile of work, especially when you decide to build bed frames and other furniture from scratch.

Crazy Plan Step 4: Park our shiny house in my brother’s driveway as we take advantage of his hospitality and his workshop. I plan a few changes and repairs that are hard to accomplish whilst living in it. All this, on top of the workload for the condo.

Crazy Plan Unexpected Step: get a tow when the lock tumbler breaks and you are unable to start the truck after a hardware store visit.

Crazy Plan Step 5: Buy a ton of steel to make furniture, and cut it to size. Employ slave… er… child labor.

Also, begin to seriously miss living in your tiny shiny house.

Crazy Plan Step 6: Order ALL THE THINGS. All you normal people likely take this for granted, but the ability to order something online and have it show up on your doorstep a few days later is amazing. We normally do mail drops when we visit friends (thank you all!) but often end up sending to a UPS facility or something similar. You have to drive to an obscure section of some town, bring the right identification, show up during proper pickup hours, and pee in a cup for a DNA test to get your packages.

Next time you pick up an Amazon box off your doorstep, pause and appreciate how awesome it is.

Crazy Plan Step 7: Get to welding furniture. The welding is being done by my awesome brother @freshaire_dad, captured here in all of his sparking glory. So grateful that he’s willing to sacrifice his time and talents for this project.

Crazy Plan Step 8: More Sparks. Get good at working a grinder with a flap disc to smooth out the surface welds. This requires much less skill than welding, but is still pretty darn entertaining. I also enlisted Rachel into this project. Home school for the day was metal shop.

Crazy Plan Step 9: Install a remotely managed keypad door lock on the condo. This will be useful for managing short term rental access.

Crazy Plan Step 10: Take a break. We spent the last three days with friends on a river trip in Labyrinth Canyon of the Green River.
A few months after we began our full-time travels, we returned to Utah to sell our ‘sticks and brick’s house. During our work, we realized the difficulty of suddenly stopping after after much travel. We took a travel break then, and did so again during our execution of the Crazy Plan.

This trip, organized by @themoreweexplore, was perfect.

After our river trip, Sam flew to California for a business conference and the kids and I have been hanging out at grandma’s. We’ve been getting school done while I also run all sorts of errands. Excited to get back to Idaho next week and continue on!

Categories
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
Arizona New Mexico Utah WanderLog

Road Trip Time! New Mexico & Arizona + a Weekend in Moab

Leaving Lubbock, TX we only had about a week to make it all the way to Sandy, UT for my sister’s wedding on March 17th. We knew that sticking around Texas would make that trip a sprint, but the kids were up for it and we were able to set a fast pace that wasn’t too incredibly insane. We had also wanted to see this part of New Mexico and Arizona for a few years, and driving somewhere new is always exciting!

Travel Dates: March 8-13, 2017

Our first stop was the Very Large Array after an incredibly long drive across almost the entire state of New Mexico.

My initial reaction to the VLA was, “That’s all the telescopes there are?” In the movie Contact,  there are over a hundred of the radio telescopes, when in reality there are 27. Amazing what visual effects could do even back then.  We arrived around 3pm and spent some time exploring the  Karl G. Jansky Visitor Center. They have an extremely good movie with an overview of how the telescopes work, the history, and various projects that have been conducted using the VLA. Its also narrated by Jodi Foster (chuckle). After the video we bundled up and headed out into the wind for the walking tour.

“I’ve wanted to see the Very Large Array since we started traveling, and today was the day. This multi-receiver antenna stimulates one huge radio telescope out of 27 ‘small’ dishes. I say ‘small’, because they are 90 feet high and weigh 230 tons.” -@telegramsam

“The 27 dishes of the VLA are arranged in a Y shape. The individual signals are combined with serious computing power. The VLA has appeared in multiple movies including Contact, but the array might appear different in person than you expect.
The array itself has 4 different configurations, which they switch between every few months by moving the dishes closer or further apart. Right now, the array is in the ‘D’ configuration, with the dishes spanning only a .62 mile diameter circle. The ‘A’ configuration is the largest, spreading the dishes across a 22 mile diameter circle! Each configuration allows detection of different cosmic materials.

Also, in the movie Contact the array was expanded digitally to include 131 dishes for visual effect.” -@telegramsam

Cara’s ears got a little cold so she stole my favorite Aventura Clothing hat. She looked so darn cute I was tempted to buy another one just for her!

“Our long drive across New Mexico yesterday took us right past the Very Large Array. @telegramsam has literally been waiting three years to see this and was like a kid in a candy shop. I was surprised there were not more of the radio telescopes. Have you ever seen the movie Contact? Turns out you can take 27 dishes and turn them into 181 or so with digital manipulation magic. We also found out there is a small visitor center and a walking tour. We spent about an hour learning how astronomers and scientists move the dishes around in different configurations and use radio waves to take pictures in space. Science is so cool.” -@currentlywandering

We spent Monday night nearby at the Datil Well Campground.  We were sure there would be no Verizon service, but surprisingly it was quite good! at 7,400 feet elevation it was definitely chilly (with spots of snow still!) but we took our time in the morning to get going. I got in a trail run, Sam got work done, and was even able to fly the drone a bit.

Once we got moving around lunchtime we drove through Pie Town, New Mexico. With a name like that we absolutely HAD to stop for pie and met some fabulous people at The Gatherin’ Place. We bought two small pies: boysenberry and a ginger pie. I think we should have bought at least 6 more as they were so good!

By late Tuesday afternoon we arrived near the entrance to Petrified Forest National Park. The Crystal Forest Gift Shop has free overnight RV Parking (I think you can stay for 4 days) so we grabbed a spot in the empty lot. The kids and I drove in to the Rainbow Forest Visitor Center/Museum to  grab our Jr. Ranger Books while Sam got in an hour of work. We played in the Visitor Center, watched the video, and then walked the Great Logs nature path outside before heading back for dinner.

Wednesday morning we hitched up the Airstream for a drive through the National Park. We stopped at various overlooks, did a short hike or two, toured the Painted Desert Inn, and finished with passing off our books and lunch at the Painted Desert Visitor Center. Glad we could check this one off our list, but Petrified Forest was definitely not our favorite park.

Driving north we stopped at the Hubbell Historic Trading post in the late afternoon. Once again the kids and I worked on Jr. Ranger books while Sam got some paid work done in the Airstream. The kids had a blast dressing up and pretending to be traders, and we all loved watching the volunteer work the loom. It was a short stop, but a nice way to break up a long drive! We finally landed at Canyon de Chelly National Monument and grabbed a spot in the campground.

“Today felt like an actual road trip. We drove through national parks, stopped at a bunch of places and saw tons of things. We covered miles at a much faster rate than normal as we head North for family stuff. It was really fun to have a change of pace, even if that pace is faster than normal.” -@telegramsam

“Legit road trip today as we towed the Airstream through Petrified Forest National Park & stopped by Hubbell Historic Trading Post on our way to the campground at Canyon de Chelly National Monument. Lots of car dancing, audio books, music, viewpoints, Jr. Ranger Books, and some short hikes. We figure road tripping is something we should legitimately do at least once a year. 😂 “- @currentlywandering

“We moved fast this week, leaving Lubbock on Monday and arriving in Moab on Friday. We drove every day with visits to cool places along the way. We visited the VLA, ate Pie Town pies, explored Petrified Forest, creaked the boards at the Hubbell Trading Post, and hiked this beautiful view at Canyon de Chelly. We moved fast to stage for a wedding in the family next week in Northern Utah.” -@telegramsam

Thursday morning we got going early to hike the one public trail down into Canyon de Chelly. It was fairly steep, but gorgeous with White House Ruins at the bottom of the canyon. We also drove down to the Spider Rock overlook which was an easy walk from the car. The Canyon is in the Navajo Nation, so any further exploration of the canyon has to be done with a native guide and we just didn’t have time for that.

Thursday afternoon we made it to Blanding, UT where we had planned to camp at a National Forest campground north of town. Turns out it was still closed. Until May. Oops. We ended up moochdocking at a friend’s house instead which turned out fabulous as the kids got plenty of play time in! These friends are practically family, and it was great to catch up with them even if only for a night.

Friday morning we left around lunchtime and drove the two short hours up to Moab and the Moab Valley RV Resort where we had reservations. The kids immediately wanted to swim in the heated pool (naturally) and it felt good to finally be settled for a few days! Friday night, Steve & Tess from @themorewexplore came over and the four of us went a bike/dinner double date. We love having an 11 year old who can babysit, and honestly, they get made if we come home too early! After riding, we ended up at the Moab Brewery and stayed until they closed around 10pm. Steve & Tess are an awesome, outdoor adventure, Airstream couple and we totally hit it off right away. We are planning a canoe trip with them for the end of April and can’t wait!

“What’s the first thing we do after arriving in Moab? 🚲 Okay, okay, in my defense I took the kids to the RV park pool first and THEN we hooked up with @themoreweexplore for a double bike/dinner date. This whole hanging out with adventure Airstream friends is pretty awesome.” -@currentlywandering

“One thing I love about Moab is there is so much variety! We normally dry camp or boondock, but this time we splurged a bit and stayed at Moab Valley RV Park and Resort. We aren’t normally impressed by RV parks but we loved staying here. Giant chess & checker sets, pool & hot tub, full hookups (such a nice treat!), across the street from the bike path, and 10 minutes from Arches National Park. Plus, they have the cutest cabins you can rent which was perfect for my brother’s family in town from Minnesota.” -@currentlywandering

We swam, mountain biked, and then Sunday afternoon my brother and his family arrived from Minnesota. They were also out for the wedding but wanted to get some sight seeing in while they were in Utah. We had so much fun playing with cousins! Monday morning we packed up our two families (Sam stayed behind to work as he needed to take time off later in the week) and drove into Arches National Park for some exploring. My sister-in-law had never hiked Delicate Arch so that was our first destination. The park was not TOO crowded since it was still early, and we had a great time hiking up the hill to the arch.

“We spent a beautiful day exploring Arches National Park with my brother & his family today. The kids loved hanging out with their cousins and it was great to catch up with family! The hike to Delicate Arch is not my favorite (not super pretty and too many people) but this view is one of my favorites!” -@currentlywandering

We ate lunch down at the Devil’s Garden picnic area, and then took the short hike to Sand Dune Arch where the kids had fun running up and down the dune. By that time we were pretty done, so my kids and I drove out to pass of our Jr. Ranger Books (earning them for the 2nd time!) and to get home for dinner. We topped off the day with some after dinner swimming and then all the kids collapsed into bed!

Tuesday morning we packed up our bags, dropped the Airstream off for the week and drove just the truck up to Sandy to stay with family for the wedding!

Categories
Texas WanderLog

Monahans Sandhill State Park & Lubbock, TX

After we left Big Bend Texas, we didn’t have solid plans. We knew we only wanted to drive about 3 hours, needed better signal for work, laundry would be a plus, and we needed groceries. Sam found Monahans Sandhill State Park which seemed to fit the bill so off we went! We were lucky enough to be joined by our online friends @wandering_nation for a few days and we all had a blast getting to know each other and hanging out. Turns out parenting is so much easier when I can send the kids out to play with their friends!

Travel Dates: February 24 – March 5, 2017

“We’ve been lucky to be parked just a titch away from @wandering_nation for the past few days. Dunes are more fun with friends. “-@telegramsam

“I’m pretty sure Harry Potter and Minecraft are the universal languages of traveling kids (all kids maybe?). We’ve loved having @wandering_nation as neighbors while we recuperate from our Big Bend trip. The kids have played for hours in the sand dunes chasing dementors, and then following it up with some good old tablet time. Makes it easy to get work done when the kids entertain each other.” -@currentlywandering

Monahans is another park where you can rent sleds and slide down the dunes. We were recently at White Sands National Monument, however, so really the sledding wasn’t all that appealing to any of us. I was worried about the wind (welcome to West Texas!) but it wasn’t too bad. We also managed to get Wandering_Nation addicted to the game of Dominion. We spent many hours playing games and chatting. So fun to have temporary neighbors to hang out with!

After a restful 5 days at Monahans it was time to move on. We debated forever about where we actually wanted to be, but honestly? Nothing sounded good.  I was kind of tired of being in the middle of nowhere and New Mexico didn’t sound enticing. The nearest city was Lubbock, TX and even though it was a small detour we decided it was worth it!

We spent 5 days at the KOA and accomplished A LOT of logistics while we were there, including a stop at Costco where we were able to get our hands on a Costco magazine with our faces on the cover!

“Thanks to everyone who has texted, tagged us in photos and otherwise made us feel so loved in the last week as the Costco Connection came in your mailboxes! We finally got our hands on a copy today (okay, 5 copies) and it’s fun to see in person. For those that have asked – we answered a call to action months ago about Costco members living in unique dwellings. They followed up with a phone interview and I sent over photos but we were shocked they put us on the cover. What a fun surprise!” – @currentlywandering

We swam at the KOA pool almost every day, visited the local library, and were able to see one of my college roommates and her family.  While not super outdoorsy or exciting, this stop was just what we needed to rejuvenate our batteries.

“Lubbock Texas was not on our original plan, but we wanted a Temple to visit, and Lubbock was the nearest one. When we arrived for our session, the sun was low enough to light up the stained glass. I find that our church attendance provides guidance and inspiration for our day to day lives, and the Temple provides perspective as we strive to live the Gospel of Christ.

Lubbock also has a Costco (and a Torchy’s) but it was our Temple visit that made the extra driving hours worth it.” -@telegramsam

“Happy Monday! We had a great weekend resting up in Lubbock, Texas. We snuck in a temple date night, rotated the truck tires and replaced the battery, shopped at Costco, hung out with my college roommate and her family, swam at the KOA pool, found something resembling mountain bike trails, and ate at Torchy’s Tacos – twice. Now it’s time to MOVE. My sister gets married in less than two weeks (eek!) So on to Utah we go. We’ll be in Moab by Friday night!” – currentlywandering

Categories
Arizona Biking WanderLog

Mountain Biking at McDowell Mountain Regional Park, Arizona

McDowell Mountain Regional Park as been on my “visit list” for at least 2 years. We even had reservations here two years ago, but it was too late in the spring and we cancelled in favor of higher elevation to escape the heat.

When we decided to spend winter 2017 in Arizona again, McDowell Mountain climbed immediately to the top of list. Originally we reserved 8 days thinking that would be long enough to explore the trails thoroughly. Then we actually arrived, and 8 days turned into 18. Even then we were all sad to leave, and are making plans to come back relatively soon.

Travel Dates: January 5 – 22, 2017

McDowell Mountain State Park is known for its trails. Specifically, its mountain biking trails. You can hike or ride horses on them as well, but the majority of users we’ve seen have been on bikes. They also have a competitive track and run races here on a regular basis.

Mountain biking in the desert is a completely different experience. We’ve biked in Utah, Minnesota, Florida, California and plenty of other states, but the Sonoran Desert is unique. Rolling, mildly sandy trails, Saguaro catcus, ocatillo, palo verde, and jagged mountains all make this landscape one of a kind. Throw in a few amazing Arizona sunsets (seriously they are not this good ANYWHERE else) and you can begin to understand our difficulty leaving.

The Campground

This campground fills up regularly. After our initial 8 day reservation, we spent a few days in the campground overflow (basically a parking lot), 2 days back in our original site, and then we managed to pick up a 5 day site that backed up to the playground. You can look online for sites, but once you are here you can avoid the reservation fee by just calling in or talking to the campground hosts in person at the nature center.

There is a 14 day stay limit in any one site, so even if you want to be here longer you’ll have to shuffle around. Sites are water/electric so unless you are camping solo and have large tanks, you’re going to need to take a trip to the dump station anyway.

Sites are level, spacious, and not too close together. They all have a picnic table (the sturdy stone kind), and a fire pit. We always find it amusing when the camp hosts rake the gravel nicely between campers, but it does make the site feel tidy and neat.

The Trails

Someone asked me on Instagram if all the trails we’ve encountered are this smooth and rolling. Nope. Don’t let the smoothness fool you though, from the campground headed north-west all the trails are uphill. We could easily get in a good 8 mile loop in an hour and feel like we got worked. Its nice to head uphill first and then have a nice, swift downhill on the return.

Some of our favorite loops:

For the Kids

Granite – Bluff – Granite (4 miles): Start at the campground and take the connector trail to Granite. Stay on Granite when it turns left and heads down into the wash. Climb back up and you’ll run into Bluff. Turn left and enjoy the ride down back to Granite. Turn right to head back to the campground. Granite is a nice, easy, rolling uphill, and Bluff is slightly more technical on the way down. The downhill is fun with some rollers but overall not technical (except for the waterbars).

Tortoise – Pemberton – Shallmo Wash – Escondido – Cinch – Scenic – Pemberton – Tortoise (4 miles): Feels like a lot of trails but many of them are short connectors. Start at the nature center and ride Tortoise down to the intersection. From here its an easy 0.1 miles on PB until you hit SH. SH is a great downhill – fast and furious until you hit the staging area. From here find the trail head for Escondido and follow it 0.2 miles up to the turn off for CI. 0.6 miles up CI you’ll continue on up Scenic. Its fairly smooth and not steep, just a gradual uphill the entire way. Turn left on PB and ride the short distance back to TO and then up to the nature center.

Rachel rode this one with Sam and I, but I’m not sure I’d take the other two. Cara and Andrew did ride with Sam from the campground down Tortoise and Shallmo Wash to the competitive track where I picked them up after we played around for a bit.

“Cara sometimes gets frustrated as she’s not as capable as the older kids. She was upset the other night because she was scared to ride the hills on the pump track. I assured her she didn’t have to ride, it was okay to be scared, and that we would keep practicing until she felt comfortable. Instead of quitting Cara put her intense game face on and rode the hills over and over until she smiled and laughed the whole way. I’ve never seen such fierce determination and desire to overcome an obstacle. I hope that’s a lesson she keeps with her for the rest of her life!” -@currentlywandering

North Trail (3 miles): We drove up McDowell Mountain Park Dr and Asher View Dr to park at the trail head for North Trail. Along Asher View Dr. there is an amazingly old and gnarly Saguaro cactus we had to get out and inspect – so don’t miss that on your way. North Trail is a fairly tame 3 mile loop. You can ride the trail in either direction and its pretty symmetrical. Gentle uphill and then back down on the return. Rachel found it almost too easy, while Cara was upset it was too sandy in spots to ride. Great recess break from school!

For the Adults

Granite – Delsie – Pemberton – Lariat – Granite (8 miles): Start from the campground and take the connector trail up to GR. About the same place GR splits off left and goes left down the wash, DL heads right and continues climbing. We felt this was one of the easier climbs but still managed to get a good work out. From there, this section of PB is super fun! A short sprint uphill and then its downhill, smooth, flowy and fun to Lariat. LR was a bit boring but you have to get back to camp somehow.

“First MTB ride is in the books with another scheduled for today. There are so many trails here and I intend to ride most of them over the next week. Not gonna lie – all of you and your snow photos are making me grateful for 70 degrees, sunshine, and cactus. 🌵☀” – @currentlywandering

Pemberton – Scenic – Cinch – Escondido – Pemberton (11 miles): This one starts at the trail head staging area which is also the campground overflow. This section of Pemberton is fairly smooth so its a nice ride up to Scenic. SN is definitely more rocky as it climbs up to and along the bluff. Definitely more technical and we do recommend riding it clockwise. Once we hit the bottom we turned onto Cinch which is a small connector to Escondido. ED is a nice rolling uphill all the way back to Pemberton. It is a good combination of technical and smooth rolling hills. I really liked it. Once you hit Pemberton again its downhill all the way back to the staging area.

Granite – Pemberton – Dixie Mine – Coachwhip – Pemberton – Bluff – Granite (14 miles): If you are looking for a rocky, technical trail than you’ll love this. Riding on a hardtail, I struggled over the rocks but it was still a really good loop. Granite is an easy fast couple of miles from the campground before your hit the turn off for Pemberton. From there follow the trail past the old Ranch homestead and then start climbing up towards Dixie Mine. This part of PB isn’t too rocky and traverses some really pretty landscapes. Once you hit Dixie, there’s a gradual, rocky downhill before hitting a gnarly, long technical climb. Summit is at the turn off for Coachwhip, which has a fun, rocky downhill before another long slog uphill. From there its mostly downhill or rolling all the back to Pemberton. We chose to turn left and end our ride down Bluff rather than doing a return up Granite the way we came. Definitely the better choice as downhill doesn’t  get much better than Bluff in this park!

A note about Tonto Trail, Granite & Delsie – These trails are super easy, gradual climbs. We came down Delsie once and it was actually quite boring, fast, but boring. Most of our trail rides including going up one of these trails and taking something a little more exciting on the return. Tonto is steeper than Delsie which is steeper than Granite.

Hanging Out With Friends & Regular Life

One of my favorite parts of our stay was hanging out with friends. @TheFamilyCan came up from Lost Dutchman to join us and we convinced them to hang out for more than a week (it wasn’t hard). Our kids played for HOURS at the playground, we enjoyed a few campfires, and the kids had some solid Minecraft time. We loved having other adult company!

“Our kids have spent hours at the playground with @thefamilycan this week. Mostly it’s been Harry Potter games and imagination central, but after they left today Andrew found a different use for the slide.” -@currentlywandering

The only downside to this park is that laundry is 45 minutes away no matter which way you drive. I paired our laundry trips with grocery shopping and other errands so it wasn’t too bad.

We have some college friends down in Gilbert, and they were gracious enough to watch our kids while Sam and I attended a session at the Gilbert, Arizona LDS temple. We loved catching up with them as they are nomads at heart and are still trying to figure out how to take their 5 kids on the road someday.

“Roughly three years ago we attended the Gilbert LDS Temple open house as we passed through Arizona heading West. This week we had a chance to attend a session as we pass through Arizona (slowly) headed East. I love the focus that the Temple brings, pointing us to the Gospel of Christ and His Atoning Sacrifice. Visiting so many different temples is one of the perks of a nomadic life.” -@telegramsam

“We visited some college friends yesterday and the the kids got a kick out of their indoor trampoline. Everybody needs awesome friends like this! This is not the only cool thing in their lives as @funawesomefamily has a fun YouTube channel with plenty of fun family stuff.” -@telegramsam

We were stationary long enough to get not 1, but 2 Amazon deliveries. We utilized the Amazon locker pick- up that is available in the Phoenix area and it worked like a charm. You send your package to a nearby locker and then use your phone or a code on the keypad and it pops open your locker with package(s) inside. Brilliant. Now we just need these in more remote areas.

One of Airstream’s marketing companies paid us a visit and we were privileged to be interviewed by their amazing team. They are rolling out a new “Home” campaign highlighting the various uses of full-time Airstreamers and we can’t wait to see how they edit our story together. Lisa gave us a preview of some of their previous shoots and they look top notch. Ours should be published in a few months and we’ll definitely let everyone know when it goes live!

“Fell in love with our tiny, shiny space all over again today. We spent a couple of hours cleaning yesterday in preparation for a video/photo project with @airstream_inc today. Our house looks amazing! If only the kids could keep it this clean all the time.” -@currentlywandering

We briefly went “ice skating” with @campytrails in Bakersfield a month ago and the kids have been begging to try it for real since then. With my ankle still not to full strength we determined I shouldn’t skate (not really my thing anyway) but I came along for moral support. Sam was amazingly patient with the kids and they learned to glide around the ice. I can definitely see more of this in our future!

One last errand to top off our stay was to replace our toilet. We weren’t really planning on it, but the darn thing sprung a leak (clean water thank goodness!) and we decided it was time. After some research Sam sent me to Camping World in Mesa, AZ where they had the correct toilet in stock. Really grateful this happened in civilization and not out boondocking in the desert!

We had a fabulous stay at McDowell Mountain and honestly can’t wait to go back. We attended a record three times at the same LDS ward in Fountain Hills, and there are plenty of hikes, museums and restaurants we weren’t able to check off our list. For now, however, its off to south eastern Arizona!