soooo. biscayne national park is pretty much mostly underwater. we did some research to try to figure out the best way for our family to experience the park, given our varying degrees of swimming abilities, adventurousness, curiosity, and enthusiasm. we settled on a boat ride out to one of the keys, where there was a […]
junior ranger
big cypress national preserve.
originally, i had absolutely no desire to drive the 1:40 over to the northwest corner of the everglades and into big cypress national preserve. i figured it was likely more of the same, but probably a bit more wildernessy. but, when we got our ranger books for the everglades, we realized if they did activities […]
everglades. anhinga trail and miscellaneous.
our campground in everglades was sort of in the middle-ish of the park, at a no hookup site in long pine key campground. thankfully the power of the sun helped us to not have to run our generator too much, but the extreme heat and mugginess sometimes necessitated a bit of air conditioning and generators […]
dry tortugas.ferry, camping, miscellany.
so. pretty much the main reason we came to the florida keys was so anna and i could take a ferry out to dry tortugas national park, for a few nights of camping and exploring. we were able to snag a two night stay, thanks to a timely cancelation, and began preparations. dry tortugas is […]
de soto national memorial.
while we were at fort de soto county park on the north side of the tampa bay, we pretty much laid low. but on one particularly beautiful day, we packed up for a trip across the skyway bridge to bradenton, to check out the de soto national memorial. it made for an easy transition back […]
colorado national monument.
finally. it was time to start our long trip across the country back to north carolina. derek and isaac took the rv with the plan to travel in small increments in the evenings after work, and the girls and i took a different route, with a plan to squeeze in some adventures and visit friends. […]
great basin national park.
initially, we were pretty sure there was no way we were going to squeeze in a trip to great basin national park. it’s a little off the beaten path, and the internet isn’t so hot, so with derek starting his new job, it wasn’t looking like a possibility. then, we had the bright idea that […]
crater lake national park.
way back when we were making our way up the coast, we had plans to go to crater lake national park, but we canceled them at literally the last minute, because of wildfires and smoke and the worry that it would be a pretty big letdown. then, when we were making plans to get back […]
mostly mount st. helens.(and some travel day pit stops).
our departure from mount rainier marked a crazy whirlwind week of travel, taking us from rainier to salt lake city by the end of the week. our first stop on the itinerary was a two day visit to mount st. helens. the travel day from rainier to mount st. helens wasn’t too long, but the […]
mount rainier days.
our last stop on our tour of pacific northwest national parks and big cities was mount rainier. after our time in monroe and visiting seattle, we made our way south to packwood, washington, which is just outside of the national park. as we were settling in, i noticed that i had a slight tickle in […]