Think back to the first time you encountered the beauty of our National Parks. Looking down Yosemite Valley, standing next to the waterfall at Niagara Falls, the raw beauty of both rims of the Grand Canyon. The landscape of our great country is so grand and varied. Then there is the completely different beauty of…
Category: Mother Nature
All this wonderful earth has to offer
Cooler Weather = Time to Ride
Another Arizona summer has come and gone. We made it! The air conditioner is off at night and hopefully soon it will be off all day as well. Who am I kidding, it’ll probably be November before it’s totally off for the winter. Until then, I’m going to enjoy the sight of the back door…
McCall 2007
Picking up from the last blog… We couldn’t wait to get back to this place and this campground. We were back the very next summer for a week including Independence Day. Mark’s mom and stepdad joined us along with his brother and family and our dear friends Bill & Deb with their younger two kids….
Heaven on Earth: McCall, Idaho
Let me tell you about this little gem of a campground tucked in the beautiful Idaho pines. It is hands down one of my favorite places to visit and definitely my favorite place to camp. McCall is a quaint lakeside town on the banks of Payette Lake located 100 miles north of Boise. It’s a…
Hiking the Tallest Peak in Contiguous United States
Mt. Whitney is the tallest peak in the lower 48 at a whopping 14,508 feet. Hiking the peak that has been a bucket list item for Mark for many years. We weren’t going to be in Lone Pine long enough and we didn’t get a permit so going all the way to the top was…
Hiking Lake Tahoe
After the wedding in Bend, Oregon we started our trek home. We hadn’t been to Lake Tahoe in 28 years so we decided to venture back to our desert home the Tahoe way. It was a long drive with yet another alarm clock blaring way too early on vacation. Seriously, does anyone else set an…
Leaving the Desert
Living in the Arizona desert in the Valley of the Sun, many of our trips involve a good climb. There is something about the climb out of the heat. There is excitement about reaching Flagstaff and getting to roll the windows down! We didn’t bring Old Yellow with us to Arizona when we moved from…
Beautiful Yosemite – Vernal and Nevada Falls
Saving Yosemite as a place all can enjoy dates back to 1864 when Abraham Lincoln signed the Yosemite Grant. On October 1st, 1890 Yosemite was declared a National Park. It’s because of people like John Muir, Teddy Roosevelt and the many who lovingly tended to the land long before that we get to enjoy this…
The North Rim
Did you know that Arizona is the only state in the union that has one of the seven natural wonders of the world? Millions of people visit the Grand Canyon every year. We have visited several times since we moved to Arizona. We’ve driven all the way a few times and taken the train from…
Sunsets
I just love sunsets. As a kid playing at the beach, I didn’t know of their awesomeness. We’d hurry to the bus station at Huntington Beach to get home before dark. The few times we were there late, we were more focused on the fire pit than that gorgeous sunset. I’m not quite sure…