picture the scene. the fourth of july. at one of the busiest national parks in america. we prepared ourselves for a frustrating day. but we also took preventative measures to be as successful as possible. so, we planned to get up at the crack of dawn, drag the kids out of bed, maybe change them […]
junior ranger
yellowstone.junior rangers and artist paint pots.
on our second full day at yellowstone, we took it pretty easy. derek had to work, so it was just me and the three kiddos, so we decided to hit the junior ranger station closest to our entrance and then stroll around the artist paint pots boardwalk and take in some geothermal activity. the junior […]
yellowstone.upper loop drive and mammoth hotsprings.
our trip from salt lake city-ish to west yellowstone was a long one, at around 5 hours and 40 minutes. we usually like to stick to about 2-4 hours. add in packing up, bathroom, gas and food breaks, registering at the campground and setting up, and we had a long and not fun day. i […]
dinosaur national monument
on saturday, we rolled into our 22nd state, leaving colorado and entering utah. we camped at dinosaur national monument, which spans both states. after we settled in to our campsite (which wasn’t hard, because we didn’t have any hookups – sewer, electric, or water. which means we basically just parked), we headed over to the […]
florissant fossil beds national monument
whenever we move to a new location, one of the first things i do is scout out national parks and monuments and such. the kids like to do the junior ranger program and i enjoy the history, geology, nature, etc of the different places. so, when we locked in colorado springs, i searched the nearby […]
great sand dunes national park.
when we realized that we would be sort of kind of passing near great sand dunes national park, we knew we would take a detour and spend at least a day, even if we camped out in a nearby walmart. but, our internet free campsite caused us to make a hasty exit and we found […]
capulin volcano national monument
due to being either pretty busy or lacking internet for the last few weeks, i have fallen quite behind in my blogging. but never fear, a flurry of blog posts is on the horizon. firstly. our trip to capulin volcano a couple of weeks ago. we were staying at a state park, in raton, where […]
fort union national monument.
originally, we had planned to stay in a state park this week. we arrived, only to discover it was nestled in a narrow canyon. it was really beautiful, but internet was scarce. and by scarce, i mean non-existent. which doesn’t work for us, because derek has to work to support this lifestyle. so, we had […]
pecos national historical park.
on our travel day to exotic (sarcasm) springer, new mexico, we stopped for a field trip to pecos national historical park. it is yet another pueblo ruin, once inhabited by local native folks, who were taken over and run off by europeans in the 1500s-ish. we stopped in the visitor center to pick up some […]
bandelier national monument
warning. this post contains a billion (or 46) photos. and i exercised great restraint while choosing. i promise. on saturday morning, we departed from the walmart albuquerque and headed to a campground in santa fe. my mom had flown out the day before and was staying with her friend dash from horseshoe lake, batavia, ny. […]