I’ve previously blogged about the beginning of spring break 2022 in Breckenridge, Colorado. Following that weekend with Elizabeth’s family, the two of us headed up to Estes Park to spend some time at our wedding venue for next year and to work through some of the many possible vendors. I’ll write about that part of …
Tag Archives: National Parks
Great Sand Dunes National Park: Day Four
My phone hadn’t charged at all overnight. Cool. Looks like I was going to have like a 25% battery until we got the car rolling later on. At least I had enough charge to check the forecast and see if my car was going to be safe – Oh. That was foreboding. The HRRR kept …
Great Sand Dunes National Park: Day Three
At some point overnight, the wind died down. The wind, that pervasive uninvited guest in our first day in Great Sand Dunes, which had shifted the tent all around when I laid down to sleep. It wasn’t gone, but it was quiet. I felt the lack of it when I awoke in the quiet dawn. …
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Great Sand Dunes National Park: Day 2
My night of bleh at the worst hotel in existence was finally over. Punctuated by any number of trains going “WOO WOO” right outside our room, Scipio and I had drifted in and out of sleep while Elizabeth slept like a blissful rock alongside us. The dog finally decided he was done resting and insisted …
Great Sand Dunes National Park: Day One
The big national park trip that I’ve already been writing about for the past few months was a huge, planned ordeal. We worked things out for months to make that trip happen. There were reservations, flights, cancellations, and all sorts of bureaucratic maneuvering we had to accomplish to get to where we wanted to. It …
National Park Trip Homepage
In August 2021, Elizabeth and I embarked on the trip of a lifetime. Over the course of a week from August 13 to 20, we explored the iconic national park tandem in northwestern Wyoming – Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. Every piece of advice we read said we would need this long to see …
Hot Springs National Park: Day 3
In contrast to night one, where I felt like I didn’t sleep at all due to the wind, I slept like a baby on Saturday night along Lake Ouachita. Maybe it was the exhaustion from a pretty long day of hiking. Maybe it was the comfort of a sleeping bag on a chilly night. Maybe …
St. Louis 2021: Gateway Arch National Park
There are 63 national parks. If you asked any NPS enthusiast who has been to all 63 to rank them, the Gateway Arch would probably rank 63rd on most people’s list. That isn’t necessarily the fault of the Arch, either. It’s a beautiful piece of architecture in downtown St. Louis with historical significance, and a …
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Hot Springs National Park: Day 2
The first thing that I noticed was the stillness. Coming off of a night where our tent had been buffeted by periodic wind gusts that kept me up until very late, the relative calm was jarring. The next thing I noticed was that light was filtering into our tent, which meant it was officially Saturday. …
Hot Springs National Park: Day 1
October 2020. A week and a half before an election that Americans had been on the edge of their seat about. In the middle of a pandemic that continued to steadily worsen, with people now over half a year removed from everyday life. A time when people eyed each other suspiciously not only trying to …
