Category: Video

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Hiking Oregon Outdoor Adventures State Parks Video

Wandering Update: Hiking Trail of 10 Falls in Silver Falls State Park – Oregon

Last week we hiked the Trail of 10 Falls at Silver Falls State Park in Oregon. We had heard great things about this park and it didn’t disappoint! We pulled out ALL of the tips and tricks we know for helping our kids to hike without whining on the long 9.5 mile trail. They did fantastic! Here’s our Wandering Update Video:

And some photos. We LOVED this park. Kids played on the playground, made some friends, we went on a fun bike ride, and the hike.

 

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At 9 miles in, Cara managed to drop her whistle necklace through the cracks in the bridge into the creek below. Tears flowed. Mommy volunteered to rescue it. I didn’t even change my mind when I had to remove my shoes and wade into the chilly water. After a very long hiking day, it was the least I could do to reward my little girl!

Silver Falls State Park_30This beautiful park is on our list for a revisit at another time. We would love to go back in the spring when the waterfalls are their fullest!

 

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Video

Wandering Update: Lava River Tubes in Oregon

We recently spent some time exploring the Lava River Tubes outside of Bend, Oregon. While we’ve visited quite a few caves in the last year, this one we were allowed to explore on our own without a guide. Probably our favorite way to cave.

Enjoy!

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Video WanderLog

Grants Pass, Medford & Video of Hiking Wizard Island at Crater Lake NP

Travel Dates: August 23-29, 2014

Every week when I do these posts I think, “Holy crap. We get a whole lot done in one week. We’re nuts.” Every. Single. Week.

This Week on Instagram Aug 23-29 2014

Ashland, Medford, and Valley of the Rogue Oregon State Park hit a chord with me. The area is beautiful – towering mountains, golden hills, interesting people, fun outdoor things to do, and some culture. Oh – and a Costco. That always ranks a city high on my list.

We celebrated Andrew’s 7th birthday with a day at the pool, the kids and I visited the Science Center in Ashland, we got a ton of work and errands run, Sam and I attended temple sessions (separately), and we even made it on a DATE. This is epic you guys. A friend’s parents babysit our kids for 6 hours so we could take a jetboat tour up Hellsgate Canyon. It was awesome. Both the tour and being sans kiddos.

We ended the week with a gorgeous drive through southern Oregon up to Crater Lake National Park. This park has pretty much hit the top of my favorites list. I loved everything about it. We loved exploring some of the trails and scenery off the rim, as well as a boat tour of the lake and a hike up to the top of Wizard Island (such a cool name btw). It was a great week!!

Here is our most recent Wandering Update taken from the top of Wizard Island (sound warning – it was windy and he took this with his cell phone):

 

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This Week on Instagram Video

This Week on Instagram: July 9-15 2014 & Wandering Update: Patrick’s Point

This Week on Instagram August 9-15, 2014 “Mom. Do you want me to take photos? Lots of them?” Cara asked.

“Yes, Cara. As many as you want!” I answered.

“Okay. And then after I can show them all to you. Except they are invisible.”

This week we haven’t moved much and moved a lot all at the same time! We’ve stayed near Trinidad, CA for most of the week (Eureka, CA last Saturday)  and split our time between the beautiful coast at Patrick’s Point State Park and Trinidad Head, and the Redwood National and State Parks. Two completely different landscapes and both stunningly beautiful. We have a few more days near the coast and redwoods before heading inland again for a bit! Our highlight this morning was agate and tide pool hunting on the beach. Check out our most recent Wandering Update:

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Hiking National Parks Nevada Outdoor Adventures Video

Skiing a Glacier in Great Basin National Park – Nevada

We had plans to stay at a lake between Bryce Canyon & Cedar Breaks that fell through due to lack of Verizon signal, so with a couple of extra days before we needed to be back to Salt Lake for a photography workshop we decided to detour to Great Basin National Park. This had been on our list, but we had thought there wouldn’t be time. Good thing we are nothing but flexible.

When We Visited: July 2014
Ages of Kids: 8, 6, 4
Tips: Fill up on gas & groceries before heading out. This park is in the middle of nowhere on the border of Utah/Nevada and gas is expensive and groceries are hard to find. Local residents of the surrounding little towns drive an hour to two hours to go grocery shopping (crazy!).

When deciding what to do while we were in the park, I really wanted to go hiking. REAL hiking. The kind where you actually sweat and the next day you are sore and tired but you feel awesome because you showed that trail who was boss. Finding a glacier at the top of the mountain we calculated out the distance for a round trip and came up with just close to 5 miles. Next we just had to pitch it to the kids.

“Seriously mom? There’s SNOW up there?” Andrew asked skeptically.
“Yup. All the time. It never really melts,” I answered. “A glacier is a slow moving pile of snow & ice that carves its way down the mountain. You want to go see it? It’ll be the longest hike we’ve ever done.”
“Yes!!” All three kids answered at the same time.

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It was magical. The hike was great, but watching my kids scramble all over this snow in July was exhilerating. Andrew took off by himself, while Cara and Rachel stuck a little closer to Sam & I. Sam managed to step his way up the hill in a way that Cara and I could follow pretty easily in his footsteps. We threw snowballs, the kids slid down on their backsides, and we generally had a good time goofing off. THEN Sam started skiing down the glacier on his feet. Immediately all the kids wanted in on the action and one by one, we helped them know where to put their feet and we slip-slid down the snow together.

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There are a lot of great things about Great Basin National Park. The campground was clean and nice, Lehman Caves were very interesting (we learned about shield formations), the Bristlecone Pines were majestic, the kids earned a Jr. Ranger Badge, we went on an evening hike, and we even had ice cream in their on site cafe. We had a great weekend, but I think all of us will remember Great Basin National Park as the place where we went skiing in July.

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