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 […]
national parks
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 […]
tent camping on santa cruz island.part 1.
anna and i love to go on little side tent camping adventures. so, when we were able to figure out a two day trip to santa cruz island, we were super excited. but, we knew it would require a bit more preparation and planning and gear and such. armed with our brand new backpacking packs, […]
channel islands visitor center.
so. the story goes, that anna and i had a trip booked to camp on anacapa islands in the channel islands national park. but, just before we were set to go, we chickened out. an earthquake. no shelter from sun. aggressive birds. no internet. no escape until our ferry came back. winds. low temps at […]
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 […]
mastodon peak hike.joshua tree national park.
even though palm desert is just south of joshua tree national park, it’s still a good 35 minutes or so to get to the south entrance of the park and a bit further just to get to a few of the maintained trails in the less populated area of the park. the north entrance is […]
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 […]
valley vista rv resortbenson, arizona.
after our stay in an unofficial 55+ community in mesa and hearing about how arizona is just chock full of snowbirds in the winter, i wasn’t super excited to head to benson, arizona. i was expected all the retirees to be grumpy about kids being in “their” park, and benson isn’t near a whole lot […]