when we moved from death valley to lone pine, and started researching things to do in the area, both derek and i were pretty excited about checking out manzanar national historical site. but then we were planning to leave early, so we had to cram it in on the afternoon before we left, after derek […]
junior ranger
death valley days.
we had high hopes for death valley. the drive in was pretty intense. you have to go over two mountain ranges, which is tough on derek driving this billion ton rv. the road and scenery was exactly how you would imagine they would be in a place called death valley. once we met back up […]
tent camping on santa cruz island.part 2.
welcome to part two of the adventures of anna and sarah on santa cruz island. you can read about part one, here. anna and i had a pretty good night, you know, considering we were sleeping on a mat that took 12 breaths to blow up. it wasn’t too cold, which was my biggest worry […]
joshua tree tent camping extravaganza.
from the moment we knew we would be returning to a campground remotely close to joshua tree national park, i knew at least anna and i would take a side trip to do a bit of tent camping in one of the park campgrounds. the first week in palm desert was unseasonably cold, so we […]
THE grand canyon.
we were SUPPOSED to go to the grand canyon for a week after our time in zion in november. but some camper repairs came up and it was a long detour on our way to vegas, where we were meeting family, so we skipped it. then, when we started making our arizona plans for the […]
studies in ancient peoples of northern arizona.
after our long stretch in southern arizona, we moved a little bit north, to cottonwood, giving us plenty of options for new places to explore. within a half an hour, there were two national monuments (tuzigoot and montezuma castle), both of them preserving the ruins of communities of native folks who once called the verde […]
organ pipe cactus national monument.girls only tent camping trip.
when we were coming into arizona, we passed a sign for organ pipe cactus national monument, which i had never heard of. our reservations weren’t anywhere near the park, so i figured we would just have to miss out. then, when our plans changed, due to the hot water heater drama, and we were coming […]
fort bowie national monument misadventures.
on the day we went to chiricahua, we had high hopes of maybe swinging by fort bowie national monument, which is in the same neck of the woods. but, we had read that the hike just to get to the visitor center was three miles, round trip. we hiked enough at chiricahua that we were […]
tumacácori national historical park.
on thursday, the kids and i loaded up and headed off to check out tumacácori national historical park. (pronounced too-mah-KAH-kohr-ee, we would learn). basically, it’s the ruins of an old spanish mission, a few miles north of the mexican border, and it was chock full of information about the history of when catholic european explorers […]
chiricahua national monument
our campsite in benson is an hour or so from four different national monuments/historic sites. since derek was off for martin luther king jr day, we decided to hit up chiricahua national monument to do a bit of hiking and exploring. the place was pretty amazing. a hidden gem of arizona. we took a short […]
