2022 Year in Review
Hi friends! Hope you are having a great 2023! Mark and I continue to enjoy paddle boarding, bike riding and one-wheeling in the Sunshine State! It’s amazing how quickly we have become accustomed to wintering without snow! Recently, we shifted our focus to reviewing 2022 and planning for 2023 travels.
Generally speaking, 2022 felt more relaxed than our 2021 itinerary. In 2021, we had several planned milestone stops, which helped set our travel schedule. However, in 2022, we were on the road for more months with fewer milestone dates. Our plans were quite ‘fluid’ (which, oftentimes, I would think ‘who ARE we right now?’). We wanted to visit some places longer than we had planned (Petrified Forest NP, the Pacific coastline in Oregon and Glacier NP, just to name a few). And, conversely, there were a few places that we cut short (Death Valley in July, Tallgrass Prairie NPRES and Pipestone NM). Oftentimes, we were doing ‘same day’ searches for places to camp (I know – crazy!). We are grateful that things always worked out as our plans evolved.
Summary of our 2022 travels
from February 1st through October 14th
Total Distance Traveled
Number of States Visited
National Park Sites Visited
Overnight Accomodations
Our ‘rule of thumb’ is to spend 7 – 10 days camping in the van before staying in a hotel for a night or two. Generally speaking, we are ready for civilization and clean laundry after camping for 10 days. In 2022, our longest stint in the van was 17 nights (traveling through southern Florida). The ‘runner up’ duration was 16 nights in Colorado / New Mexico. We stayed in several campgrounds with hot showers, so even though we are living in a van, at least we don’t smell like it (most days, anyway!).
Road Trip Adventure Map
We referred to our trip as ‘the great outer loop’. Our travels started with the southern Florida parks (in February). We meandered west across the plains, turrned north at the Califonia coast and drove east across South Dakota and Minnesota. We concluded this year’s adventure with a visit to Cleveland in October.
For reference, our 2021 road map as well as the draft plan for 2022 can be found in the ‘2021 Adventures in Review‘ post.
But, here is a map of ALL of the stops we have made in the past 17 months:
2022 Highlights
- Touring a portion of the longest cave in the world (Mammoth Cave NP)
- Feeling immense pride watching our niece graduate from KU (Lawrence, KS)
- Hiking in the longest slot canyon in the world (Buckskin Gulch)
- Securing a permit to witness the beauty of The Wave sandstone rock formation with our friends Anandhi and Hiren (Coyote Buttes BLM)
- Sandboarding! (Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, AZ)
- Seeing the largest ancient cliff dwelling in North America (Mesa Verde NP)
- Visiting the largest national park in the lower 48 states (Death Valley NP)
- Dining with friends we haven’t seen for 20 years (San Francisco, CA)
- Looking up at the world’s largest tree (Sequoia NP)
- Swimming in the deepest lake in the United States (Crater Lake NP)
- Wandering through tidepools to see urchins, seastars and mussels (Olympic NP)
- Exploring the world’s largest temperate rain forest (Olympic NP)
- Witnessing the power of a grizzly bear during our encounter at Cobalt Lake (Glacier NP)
- Eating fresh blueberries and huckleberries by the handful (Glacier NP)
- Watching a lengendary buffalo roundup (Custer State Park)
- Taking in the murals at the World’s Only Corn Palace (Mitchell, SD)
- Watching the Guardians play in the ALDS postseason game (Cleveland, OH)
Draft Plan for 2023
We have reservations in The Sunshine State until mid-March. Afterwards, we will drive north to Cleveland to secure Hank (who is hibernating in a storage unit) and begin our travels! We plan to do a small ‘inner loop’ this spring including Tennessee, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Illinois.
Once the weather is consistently warm (after Memorial Day), we are going to head north to ALASKA! We are working through our ‘must dos’ while we are in the massive state!
We are exploring:
- Driving though Canada via Great Falls, Montana, Banff National Park and Jasper National Park
- Camping above the Arctic Circle for the summer solstice
- Flight tours in Gates of the Arctic and Kobuk Valley National Parks
- There aren’t roads leading into either park, so a ‘fly in’ or ‘hike in’ is the only way to gain access to these remote areas
- Glimpsing polar bears in Kotzebue
- Watching walrus and brown bears in King Salmon
- Kayaking and fishing in Lake Clark National Park
- Boating through Kenai Fjords National Park (near Seward)
- Hiking in Denali National Park
- Exploring an abandoned mine in Wrangell – St. Elias National Park and Preserve
- Riding a water taxi from Haines, Alaska to Bellingham, Washington at the end of the summer
Have you been to Alaska? We would love to hear your ‘can’t miss’ stops in the Comments section below!
Thanks for following our adventures! Wishing you and your family all the best for an amazing 2023 –
Mark and Debbie
5 thoughts on “2022 Year in Review”
What an amazing year!! Can’t wait to share the journey through the last frontier. See you in 2023!!
It’s gonna be epic! ⭐️🐻🏔️🥾
We will also be in Alaska this summer! We’re going on a cruise & land package for our friend Rachel’s 50th birthday. I know you’re still in early stages of planning, but just FYI that we’ll be there from August 19-29, if there’s any possibilities for overlap…
Woo hoo! That would be awesome!!! Hooray!
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