Guadalupe Mountains National Park was never on my bucket list. In fact it wasn’t even on my radar. When I began to do planning for our trip to White Sands National Park, I saw a dot on the map indicating a National Park. I was surprised as I didn’t know of one there. That’s how I discovered Guadalupe Mountains National Park. It fit perfectly into our travel itinerary so I added it to our list of things to do. The…
Continue Reading “A Spring Hike in Guadalupe Mountains National Park”
Redwood National and State Parks is more than just the redwood trees in its names. While the trees are often the star, the parks covers a lot of territory so a visit will allow you to see more than just trees. On our second day in the park we saw trees, but we saw more as well. During our first stop of the day, we saw no redwoods. We would take a fairly short hike around the Yurok Loop. The…
Redwood National Park is an interesting connection of both state and national parks. In fact the official name is Redwood National and State Parks. We traveled to the northern most section of the parks, Crescent City, and continued our exploration of the redwood area from there. After a hearty breakfast on Tuesday, we were ready to hit the forest. Our first park was Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. We were headed to a popular trail called the Boy Scout Trail.…
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Over Thanksgiving week my daughter and I had the opportunity to visit Channel Islands National park off the coast of California. Our family traveled to Santa Barbara to be with my wife’s family for Thanksgiving. We went down there two years ago, but a fire forced us to evacuate. It was time to try again. My daughter, Andrea, lived in Santa Barbara for five years for school. She graduated from Cal. State Channel Islands. I have been down to Santa…
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Early in our marriage my wife and I spent a night at the Quinault Lodge. What I remember most about our time was dinner. During dinner we were suddenly told that we needed to evacuate the dining room because of a fire in the kitchen. We all went out onto the back lawn standing around until the staff finally instructed us to return to our tables. Now over 40 years later we would return to the area to see what…
Continue Reading “Olympic Peninsula: Quinault, More than just a Lodge”
If you are visiting the Olympic Peninsula, the Olympic National Park will probably be at the top of your list. Of course going up to Hurricane Ridge is one of those must-do activities in the park. We have been to Hurricane Ridge a few times over the years, but it was time for another visit. I had looked at the weather forecast and decided that Sunday would be a good day to travel up to Hurricane Ridge. (My daughter thinks…
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After our Interlude in Iceland, I asked my daughter Andrea to write a blog post about traveling with me. I thought my readers might be interested in a different perspective on my travels. She agreed so below is her post about our trip. The photos are also hers with a little editing from me. Enjoy. It had been over a year since I had added a stamp to my passport, and I was itching to get away. Iceland hadn’t been…
Continue Reading “Lessons Learned While Traveling With My Dad”
We woke up Wednesday to the usual grey skies. We packed our backpacks as today we were going on a hike. Andrea had booked a hike up into the colorful mountains of Landmannalaugar. It would be an all day adventure. After my near accident yesterday, I wasn’t sure if I should be going on this hike. However, when I woke up and moved around, I didn’t really feel much pain, just some stiffness so I thought I would be OK…
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I have wanted to go to Alaska for some time, but it never happened. This spring my daughter suggested we go there for a summer vacation. When airline prices came up that were a great deal, we made the call. We would finally visit the huge state of Alaska. Our sojourn would begin in Fairbanks and end in Anchorage. Our flight arrived in Fairbanks about 9:00 PM the day after the summer solstice. The sun would set at about 12:45am…
Continue Reading “Alaska Sojourn: Hiking Success Near the Chena River”
When one thinks state parks, usually what comes to mind are parks in the mountains or at the ocean beaches. Their distance away from urban centers can make them seem difficult to get to for a day trip. However, nestled in the suburbs on the east side of Lake Washington is St. Edward State Park. One can easily take a day trip to this park, and it recently got a unique upgrade. So grab your Discover Pass and find out…
Continue Reading “St. Edward State Park: A Lodge Opens in its Middle”
