To the Everglades!
Everglades boasts some serious silence and a curiosity different from any other parks we’ve visited. Ride bikes alongside sunbathing alligators - check.
Read MoreOlympic National Park in January
Six days exploring Olympic National Park - and we saw seventeen people - one of which was on a bicycle, so we really say sixteen-and-a-half. In other words, we had the place to ourselves. Brilliant greens, crashing waves you can feel in your feet, and the Elwha River running free.
Read MoreMesa Verde National Park
Mesa Verde was probably the coolest park we accidentally stumbled upon. We’d never heard of it until we were all around a map in Moab, planning our route back to Pennsylvania.
Read MoreZion National Park!
Between seasonal closures, wildfires and weather, a road trip of this size is an adventure all its own. Our plans to explore Death Valley got nixed on October 18th, when they saw 2.7" of rain fall, washing out roads. Besides a small weather delay before our trip in the Tetons, we'd been very fortunate. Zion was no different. Three days before we arrived, the park saw .62" of rain. We were hoping it'd settle down a bit by the time we arrived, and it did.
Read MoreSequoia National Park
I remember distinctly the first time I saw a picture of a giant Sequoia tree. I was in fourth grade science class. It’s enormity fascinated me to the point I smelled the page.
Read MoreYosemite...
Yosemite is beautiful... almost as if you're wondering around in a magnificent painting that took a lifetime to create... only it's interactive, with an elk over there, a climber scaling a cliff up there, and oh! Look! A coyote passing through right there!
Read MoreRedwoods National Park + Gold Bluff Beach
There’s a reason this 6-mile, single-lane dirt road, twisting and winding through towering redwoods, made us feel like we were in Jurassic Park. It was filmed here! Sopping wet tents from camping on the Pacific Coast after chasing waves all night - check!
Read MoreCrater Lake National Park Sunrise
A few interesting facts we learned about Crater Lake: It's isolated from surrounding streams and rivers, thus there is no inlet or outlet to the lake. It's 1,943 feet deep, which makes it the deepest lake in the United States, and the ninth deepest lake in the world!
Read MoreBackpacking Grand Teton National Park
When we got back to civilization, my daughter Lily (11 years old) was asked while we stood in line for a big victory dinner, "why would you do that?" to which she replied with a big smile, saying almost matter-of-factly, "My mom wants us to know we can accomplish something."
Catch a sunrise on a lake in the Tetons - check.
Read MoreThe Bizarre Badlands National Park
We made it to southwestern South Dakota and our first National Park! Badlands is 244,000 acres of bizarre terrain that includes sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles and spires surrounded by a mixed-grass prairie ecosystem. Complete with prairie dogs singing and wasps stinging, our day was full!
Read More