I always knew that California was a massive state. It’s economy is the 7th highest in the world and 1 out of 8 people in the US live in California! However, I hadn’t realized the diversity of this state including the topography, climate and the wide variety of people until our visit.
As we officially kicked off our summer travels, we visited Great Sand Dunes, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Mesa Verde, Canyon of the Ancients, Hovenweep, Chaco Culture and Petrified Forest!
This James Taylor song has always been one of my favorites and it is even more so after spending a month in this beautiful area!
Hi friends! It’s so good to see you again! We enjoyed our winter in Florida and wanted to share a post on our time in the Sunshine State. Florida is exceptionally diverse and we were fortunate to experience different regions of this state. We saw historic forts, world-renowned beaches, the rugged landscape of the Everglades, and even experienced some ‘Disney Magic’! Pensacola Our first stop (early December) was in Florida’s panhandle region. We spent a week at the Gulf Islands…
We sold our Michigan home on August 14 and spent the next 4 months exploring by car, foot and bicycle. Our stops included parks, live music venues (large and small), big cities, small towns, tourist traps, wilderness areas and so much more. Throughout it all, we have continued to enhance our selfie skills! Here is a summary of our journey.
We left Arizona with an aggressive plan to visit 5 National Parks in New Mexico and Texas! We had a few long days of driving; however, we both felt that we fully experienced each park on this leg of our journey.
Arizona is a fascinating state. The northern half is mountainous, has pine forests and is generally more temperate than the southern portion. We found ourselves in the cool temperatures of the Prescott National Forest one day and in the dry desert heat of Phoenix the next! We made several stops during our 10 days in this state, so I’ll hit the highlights. Let’s get to it!
The Zion Narrows is literally a 16 mile hike in the Virgin River. During our visit in mid-October, the river temperature was dropping into the 50s. A local outfitter provided us with drysuits, neoprene socks, boots and a walking stick. Mark and I joked that we looked like The Wonder Twins (super heroes from the 1970s)!
Hi friends! Hope you are having a great week! Thanks for tuning in to read about our mid-October visit to Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument! First a bit about this massive park and the features in the area! The monument was established only 25 years ago and covers 1.87 million acres. To put that into perspective, the park is larger than the state of Delaware! The government protected this area because of the extensive ruins, granaries and petroglyphs that…
Visiting the five national parks in Utah was high on our ‘road trip must do’ list! After visiting Arches National Park, we drove south to visit the two largest national parks in the state – Canyonlands and Capitol Reef. Canyonlands National Park I didn’t know what to expect from Canyonlands, but the park exceeded every possible expectation! This has been one of my favorite parks to date (wait, do I say that about every park? Well, for Canyonlands, I absolutely…