I’d been feeling a bit overwhelmed by what would be my last trip post, if I kept the same pattern of two nights, and then I said to myself, this is MY blog, nobody except me and my mom reads it, so why not break the last post up?
So far I’ve told you about Little Rock, Hot Springs, and our wonderful cabin in the Ozarks near the town of Pettigrew. Our next airbnb was south of Fayetteville where we would be spending our final two nights of vacation, but I wanted to make a stop en route.
I like seeking out National Park Sites, not for a bucket list or anything, but because they are often well done and worth visiting, and I enjoy learning about history as we travel. I noticed that Fort Smith National Historic Site wasn’t too far out of the way, and I’d also found a blogger who really loved the town of Fort Smith, so we decided it was worth a short visit.
I wasn’t sure if our google directions already took the gravel roads into account when telling us how long it would take to get there, but it turned out they did. It took about 1 1/2 hours to get to Fort Smith, so we rolled in somewhere between 10 and 11. Fort Smith is located right on the western border of Arkansas by the Arkansas River, and our directions had us briefly in Oklahoma, which was very exciting.
That is Oklahoma.
The Visitor’s Center was closed due to COVID but there was a ranger sitting outside with a table of brochures and happy to answer any questions. I’m sorry we missed whatever museum would have been inside, but he said otherwise, just walk around and it is all well marked.
Various pictures from the route. There was a bit about Fort Smith itself, fighting against Native Americans and stealing their land and the Trail of Tears, things about the Civil War, a supplies area, and a garden.
It seemed that the Fort was important in its history in regards to the Civil War and the Trail of Tears. Some of the information we read was a little confusing out of context, for instance we read something about the soldiers at the Fort abandoning the town when South Carolina seceding from the Union, but then later referring to the soldier being there fighting…so maybe that visitor’s center museum would have been helpful? Or a book I suppose.
In any case, it was a nice place to walk around. There was an extra long walk one could take down by the river, which added about 3/4 mile (I am just trying to remember this without research, so I could be wrong). We enjoyed a nice walk along the Arkansas River. We’d had dinner along the Arkansas River and crossed it a few times by foot in Little Rock and now we were seeing it again on the other side of the state.
It was a lovely, shaded walk on a hot day.The sign was at the edge of the property on the walk, not near the parking lot. Does that mean that the US is becoming a more pedestrian country?
After about an hour, we had seen all we could see. There weren’t proper restrooms at the site, so we figured we’d go and find lunch and bathrooms at the same place.
We drove down a very quaint, historic looking downtown strip to find a place called A.J.’s Oyster House. It was perfect: friendly, cool, had bathrooms, and we enjoyed some oysters too. I got the Oyster Po’boy and we split some Oysters Rockefeller.
After lunch we decided to pop back over to the downtown area to walk around, but I got distracted by a sign about Victorian Homes, and we ended up walking by some of them instead. They all seemed to be law firms now.
We couldn’t check into our airbnb until 3 pm and it was an hour away, so after our stroll we got coffees and relaxed at the Fort Smith Coffee Company (super cool place!) until it was a reasonable time to take off.
Keep your eyes out for the final, or who knows, installment of the trip to Arkansas!
So far at this point in our trip we have visited Little Rock and Hot Springs. When planning the trip I studied the map of Arkansas and tried to decide what would be fun. I knew I wanted us to visit the Fayetteville/Bentonville area last, so I thought, hmm, how about heading into the mountains for a bit? I searched on airbnb for various rural places, and finally found a wonderful cabin near the town of Pettigrew.
The host had warned me ahead of time about a few things: 1) that you probably wanted an SUV or something along those lines for the 5 miles of gravel roads plus their driveway 2) there was no phone service or reliable internet and 3) they had dogs that would be visiting. Oh, and 4) that you needed to bring all your supplies because the nearest grocery story was 4 miles away.
There was also a stern warning about 5) not taking a certain route that google might suggest you take because the road would be impassable at a point and you might get stuck and damage your car.
So, with all of those warnings in mind, it sounded great. 5 miles from a paved road, awesome! Beautiful pictures on airbnb! No phone service for two days so nobody could bug me about violin lessons! Remote location! Hiking! Dogs and chickens and a river! And, since this is important on airbnb as well, a thoughtful and communicative host!
It was about a 3 hour drive from Hot Springs to the cabin. Along the way we stopped at a Walmart to get groceries and stopped at a Mexican restaurant in Russellville for lunch. We carefully watched the roads as we got close and initially missed our first turn off onto the gravel roads, but it was easy to backtrack.
We’d been driving on various winding highways up until this point, but it is difficult to describe in words how interesting and unlike what we were used to it was like driving on these dirt/gravel roads in the Ozarks. We were surrounded by trees at times, with a creek even going across the road here and there. We would see a farmhouse here and there, some in ruins, some that looked like people still or recently lived there. I’d say about half of the houses we saw looked abandoned and the other half looked lived in. We saw cows and ponds. We kept crossing over the Little Mulberry Creek, which was fairly wide at points (for this there were various types of bridges.)
I took this picture from the car as we went over a bridge.This was the side view for one of the creeks that went over the road.This was what the road looked like for much of the jounrney.
As we drove along our directions had given us various landmarks so we knew we were on the right route. We eventually turned onto a smaller, less well-maintained road, and then headed up a very steep, rocky driveway to get to the cabin.
The host normally lived in a house right by the cabin but she wasn’t there while we were there, which was a little scary at times (so desolate! so thinking of serial murderers!) but also very lovely for privacy. She had mentioned that someone would be by feeding the animals, but I didn’t realize that meant her dogs…
We found the cabin easily and parked in front of it, and then a dog came up. I was nervous at first, but it turned out that her two dogs were the most friendly and welcoming dogs you’d ever meet! The information in the cabin told us their names were Lola and Neena and they pretty much hung out with us the entire time we were there!
As we were getting the car unloaded and getting settled, we kept hearing a strange noise. I thought maybe it was just the screen door being weird (I don’t know!) but it turned out it was a couple of free range chickens. The dogs and the chickens didn’t seem to bother one another!
Anyway, we got settled, and then decided to take a walk. The dogs led the way down the driveway and then we all went to the creek, which was right near the driveway-the road we turned off of to get to the driveway continued a short distance and then dead-ended at the creek, though google maps showed it continuing across. Perhaps there was another road across the creek, or perhaps in very low water one could drive a certain kind of vehicle across, but there was no obvious way to do so, so that would be another piece of bad advice from google.
The chickensThe creek
The dogs led us to the creek where they did a little swimming. We poked around a bit and then decided to just walk up the road a bit. We passed some other houses and saw a few people out with their dogs, which was a bit awkward: we assumed since these dogs were completely free range that the closest neighbors knew them and that the dogs got along, but it seemed that neither of those was true. We didn’t have leashes or anything, but the neighbors seemed to be very wary with their dogs. As I said to one person, I was sorry, but these dogs weren’t even our dogs!
After walking a bit we headed back to make a fire and have dinner. The cabin had modern amenities and a small kitchenette (a two burner stove, coffeemaker, microwave, and small fridge), with lots of pots and pans, flatware, dishes and such to choose from, but there was also a firepit outside and some firewood to use. We thought a fire would be lovely since it was getting cooler! Louie worked on that while I made a shrimp with couscous dinner inside, and then we hung out a bit.
After eating we moved to sit by the fire. It was enjoyable, but the one dog kept getting up and barking into the night, which became a little scary….was there somethign out there? was she hearing things we weren’t? Being so remote, more remote than most of our camping experiences, and having this dog barking like there was danger, was a bit frightening! We decided after awhile to just go to bed, and it was nice and cool and wonderful to snuggle up under the covers.
In the morning we made oatmeal, and then headed out to hike. We decided to do a hike called the Redding -Spy Rock Loop, which was advertised as 8.3 miles and looked to be a good way to spend the day. It was about a 45 minute drive away, which sounds like a lot until you realize that 30 minutes of that is the 5 miles on gravel roads!
It is worth mentioning at this point that the two dogs slept outside our cabin all night, one of them possibly slept underneath it. They were happy to see us in the morning, but a bit harumph-py that we were leaving again.
Another view of the cabinThe creek looked so blue in the sun. It had a cloudy look to it, maybe a sort of mineral.I mentioned cows.
We had a teeny bit of trouble finding where to park, and ended up finding a place that in retrospect we didn’t like as well as our first place, but it was all okay. We loaded up, added copious amounts of bug spray, and headed out.
The hike was perfectly nice. It was a bit swampy at first, so we were glad to gain some elevation. This isn’t a great time of year to hike in Arkansas due to bugs and humidity, though we were quite lucky with the weather not being too hot. The other thing that isn’t as nice is there are very few views as the trees all have their leaves, so you are just doing a lot of walking around in the woods! We had a few trees in the way, including two really big ones and had a couple of tricky diversions due to that. Louie joked he wished he had brought his saw along on the hike to help out more.
The trail was pretty easy to follow however. We were a little disappointed to find there was also a road up to Spy Rock (gravel, yes, but we saw a few vehicles go by) but nonetheless it was a lovely hike.
We took the West Loop first
Eventually we got to Spy Rock where we enjoyed a lovely view and ate our lunch. There was a nearby backcountry camping area for those who like to camp.
There is a waterfall in this picture if you squint.
After lunch, we got on our way again continuing along the east loop of the trail. The description in a book said there would be a variety of waterfalls, so we looked forward to that. It was a nice hike down, and the waterfalls were small but still a bit of fun along the way. I was a little worried about a tricky water crossing but nothing was too tough. The last mile or so of the trail was pretty rocky under foot and got to be pretty annoying, but before too long we found ourselves back at the car!
Louie ended up with a bunch of ticks on one of his socks, but I seemed okay. He tends to attract more ticks for whatever reason and I tend to attract more mosquitoes.
I don’t think we saw anybody on the hike, unless I am forgetting something.
After the hike, we decided to take the long route back to the cabin: there was another route in from the north side, so we drove around a bit to see the area more. There are some great windy roads, some tiny towns, and then about 7 miles of dirt roads (we drove through Pettigrew and then into the county road territory.) It was better from the other way but nice to see more of the land. One dog came out to visit in the road (actually this was a common thing, it happened at least twice) and we had to proceed cautiously while he said hello to the car and smelled it. Louie did an impression of the dog saying “Hi folks, we don’t get many visitors out this way!”
We finally found our way back to the cabin and I was beat! I showered and then spent the rest of the afternoon reading. Louie headed back down to the creek with the dogs and had a nice time taking pictures of them in the water.
Just some random pictures of the view from the porch, the chickens, and then Louie petting the two dogs. They were sweet dogs!
We made (bean) burgers on the fire that night and hung out outside for a bit, but were tired early and so didn’t stay up too long. The next morning we were headed to Fort Smith and then to Fayetteville to our next airbnb.
The one dog (Lola) was again barking at nothing or everything, and we thought maybe she was being proactive and warning any potential intruders of her presence. Occasionally the second dog (Neena) would join her and they would run off into the woods together…who knows if they found something, or if it was just the chicken, or who knows. Honestly after a point the dogs were a bit annoying which led to our decision to pack it in early, but we were pretty tired anyway!
It was a wonderful place to stay, and there was much more to do in the area as far as hiking and such if we stayed another few nights, so I highly recommend this cabin!
In the morning we packed up, said our goodbyes to the dogs (Louie was particularly sad, and did end up walking down to the creek with them one last time) and then headed out on the dirt roads again. We had just under a 2 hour drive to our next stop and wanted to get a good start on the day.
A few years ago we spent a long weekend in Eureka Springs and had a great time, so when I started thinking about post-COVID vaccine trips, I thought of Arkansas. I wanted to go somewhere not too far away, and somewhere that wouldn’t be overwhelmingly busy with tourists, as I knew the more famous places would be slammed with people eager to travel.
I decided to put together an 8 night road trip for Louie and I that hit the best of Arkansas, or at least, 4 different areas for two nights each.
So, we started with two nights in Little Rock, the state capital. I booked an airbnb in downtown for these leg of the trip. We left on a Saturday morning and headed south.
It’s about a 5 1/2 hour drive to Little Rock, and most of it is on state highways. It was interesting to see the little towns along the way and watch the landscape go by.
We stopped at a McDonalds in Arkansas for a late lunch, and were surprised that we couldn’t eat inside the restaurant. (We actually failed to notice that they were closed inside and were about to sit down and eat and they had to tell us that we couldn’t, which was mildly embarrassing). Missouri has been so “open” this whole time with few restrictions and it was odd to think that a neighboring state had some. That being said, few people were wearing masks, including people going into that same McDonalds, so it’s not like Arkansas was doing things better, just different.
Anyway, we got to our airbnb at 3 to check in but due to a mix up had to wait a little longer. We walked over to a nearby coffee shop in the SOMA area called Community Bakery and sat outside to enjoy some coffee and cookies.
The SOMA area was a 5 minute walk from our airbnb, and SOMA just means South Main Street. It was a few blocks with a bunch of restaurants and a few other things to do, and was really cute. We walked around a bit after our coffee and then went to check into our place.
We were staying in a little apartment in a house with a shared kitchen and other shared spaces, but with private areas. It worked out really well and the hostess actually wasn’t even around for the rest of our stay, so we had the place to ourselves at a cheaper rate!
We walked down to the river next, and took an hour or more just looking around, taking pictures, and getting a sense of Little Rock.
There is a park called Riverfront Park right down by the River which has art and playgrounds and other cool stuff to do and look at. You can also bike or walk along the Arkansas River Trail which is a much longer trail.
We had dinner reservations for a place called Brave New Restaurant, so after awhile we cleaned up and headed there. This wasn’t our first dinner out after getting vaccinated, but it was our first fancy dinner, and I was really looking forward to it! Though it was a bit chilly we sat outside on the patio overlooking the Arkansas River. It was absolutely beautiful as the sun went down!
The food was excellent too: oysters, salad, trout…it was all delicious and well prepared. The chef, Peter Brave, kept coming around to check on all of the diners and make sure we were enjoying our food. We loved the meal and would eat there again!
The next morning we decided to grab coffee and breakfast at the Community Bakery and then go to hike up Pinnacle Mountain at Pinnacle Mountain State Park.
We had a little trouble finding the right parking lot at first due to Google not being as helpful as we needed, but we eventually found the West Summit Trail Trailhead with plenty of time to beat the crowds.
It was a lovely trail, for awhile, until it just turned into some rock scrambling!
The rock scrambling part (unpictured) was terrifying to a point, and I had to sit down for awhile. I didn’t think I could finish and Louie went ahead without me, but after collecting myself and resting I decided to forge ahead and made it to the top!
After hiking, we went back to the SOMA area for lunch and went to a wonderful place called the Root Cafe. We just beat a large crowd, but were told it would be 40 to 50 minutes on our food anyway! This ended up being wrong, and we were eating within 20 minutes. I had a delicious banh mi tofu sandwich and Louie had a mushroom burger.
After lunch we decided to visit the Historic Arkansas Museum (called the HAM). It was okay, and sort of interesting, with old houses outside and some indoor displays, but I was hoping for a bit more on the actual history of Arkansas for general knowledge about the state and the area, and it was piecemeal. It was partly our fault for not doing the call in cell phone tour, but I’m not that interested in going to a museum and using my cell phone… I want to be in the moment at the museum, experiencing and reading stuff, and honestly, I use my phone for taking pictures and it can be tricky going back and forth. In any case, one of the more interesting things to me was that the old houses were actually there from the start of the museum in the 1930’s and the museum itself kept them from being torn down!
We walked over the Bill Clinton Presidential Library after that. We knew it was closed due to COVID but wanted to see the grounds and the building anyway, and there was plenty to do outside, some gardens, wetlands(so many turtles!!), and artwork area. It was a really cool building and I’m sorry we didn’t get to see inside!
The Heifer International Headquarters are there too, but there didn’t seem to be anything we could do there at this time either.
We walked across that bridge and considered looking at the other side as the map indicated a trail, but it didn’t look very welcoming so we turned back.
Our next stop was a brewery near our airbnb called Stone’s Throw Brewery. We got a nice sampler and sat outside enjoying the gorgeous weather: it was in the 70s!
We went back to the SOMA area for dinner to Mockingbird Bar and Tacos. It was tasty and we enjoyed sitting outside relaxing.
The Visitor’s Center was only allowing a certain number of people in at once, so we got a time to come back, and went to see the outside stuff first. There’s the high school where the Little Rock 9 attended school and some other places around, a gas station where the media used the payphone (it’s so funny to remember that we didn’t all used to have phones all the time!) and a bench where one of the 9 sat waiting for everybody and some other stuff. It’s a very moving and emotional place to visit, and it really makes you think about Civil Rights, how much things have changed yet how much things stay the same.
The museum was great (though the COVID protocols of limited people and giving times to come back meant that we were all clumped together going one way in the museum, when otherwise we might have naturally spread out more to avoid being clumped together!) and definitely worth a visit.
After the NPS site we got lunch at Three Fold Noodles and Dumpling. Louie wanted to stop by the Clinton Library again to look at a little island we had skipped the day before, but I didn’t want to walk in the sand so we split up.
The grounds were beautiful and there was a display of various globes which seemed to have something to do with Charlotte, NC initially rather than Little Rock so I assume it was a visiting exhibit in some way.
Anyway, Louie said the island was pretty much flooded out (I think from two years ago, likely?) and so then we hit the road for Hot Springs! If you have Little Rock questions, be sure to let me know!
I was looking through old pictures and found some from a previous visit to the confluence (2015). I blogged about visiting the confluence (of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers) the other weekend with my parents and how there was a ton of flood damage.
Here’s a picture from two weekends ago:
And this is a different angle of the same kiosk, you can see the pole is there which showed the height of flooding in 1993.
You can see there was a parking lot and such, none of that is visible, it is all covered with mud and plants now.
Here is a selfie I took before—you can see there is a metal bar in the background.
Another picture of the viewing deck of the confluence in the past. Look in the background at the trees—that’s the last bit of land before the confluence actually happens.
This is a different view, but it’s the same platform. The metal bars are totally gone. When we there recently we didn’t even notice they were missing, but now I see it.
My mom standing on the platform surrounded by flood wreckage.
And now, two similar pictures of the actual confluence:
Can you tell which is which? Probably only because the bottom one is from the summer and the upper one is from the winter. So the first one is from the other week, and the second one (directly above) is a picture of the confluence from 2015.
I found all of this to be really interesting, and I’m glad I was able to find these photos from 2015 (it was a bit of a search!).
Last weekend my parents came to visit. After they got vaccinated, they went on a road trip, first to Phoenix to visit my sister Leslie and her kids, then to some National Parks (Grand Canyon, Arches, Canyonlands), and then took their time driving through Kansas and Missouri to get to me on a weekend when I had days off. Me, days off on weekends, I still can’t quite get used to it!
Anyway, they arrived last Friday just in time for us to watch my sister Carrie play a recital for her doctoral degree at CUNY. We set up the livestream on the big TV.
Carrie played a great recital with a wide variety of pieces and we clapped after each piece even though she couldn’t hear us. We were all very proud.
After that, I had one lesson to teach before being done for the weekend, so I did that and then we just hung out, took a walk around the neighborhood, baked a dessert, and eventually got takeout from an Indian/Nepali restaurant, Himalayan Yeti. I hadn’t been impressed with them a few years ago, but Louie randomly got dinner there a month earlier and I loved it, so we did it again. After dinner we watched a movie, Nomadland. I like streaming, but in a way I miss the days of just going to a movie store and picking out the movies: we had to do a lot of research and then sign up for a Hulu account in order to watch the movie. Rental prices are crazy, like $20 for a rental, are you serious?
So, a few years ago when my parents were visiting we had considered visiting Columbia Bottom Conservation Area, where you can visit the Confluence of the Missouri and MIssissippi Rivers. We decided against it at that time and did something else, so we thought this would be a good time to do it: easy social distancing due to not being very popular. It was lightly raining, but nothing you couldn’t walk around in. Right before we were going to leave, I thought of checking the website, and I’m glad I did…the website said that due to the floods in 2019 that:
All the area trails have been damaged and are closed. Conditions are rugged and uneven in many places. Users may hike these trails at their own discretion
AND
The road from parking lot L to the confluence is closed. Area users may park at lot L and hike to the confluence (approx. 1 mile)
This information seemed a bit conflicting to us, and we focused on the bit that said “area users may…hike to the confluence”.
So, off we went! We got to the park and found that yes, some of the roads were closed, but we drove through on in the Subaru on the gravel roads and did pass one or two other cars. The birds were out in full force and that was great to see. We found Parking Lot L and parked, and then realized, that yes, the trail was overgrown with weeds and mud. I don’t think we really realized how much damage there still was from the flooding of 2019, and had assumed the website was being dramatic, after all, it had been nearly two years. Nevermind that those years were during a globalwide pandemic and likely there was little funding given to the cleanup.
We decided we would try to get there and worst case, would just turn around and not see the confluence.
It’s important to note that in the past, one could drive up right to a parking lot and just hop out. We had hiked there in the past as well.
Well, we mostly walked along that road, which was mostly overgrown with weeds. It was pretty amazing to see how quickly a road can turn into nothing…I think it was a two lane road and at times it was less than one lane. We walked through some large puddles and a few muddy places, and we kept thinking we might have to turn around, but kept forging ahead.
Can you see the sign that says “Bus Parking”? That’s how overgrown things were.
We finally got to a place when the road completely ended, but found a route through a bush where obviously people had gone, and then I went ahead to see if there was a way through, and found that it was easy enough, just a bit of wandering in the woods.
It may not look like much, but that is the confluence of the Missouri (left) and Mississippi (right) rivers. It was overcast, but you could see a little ripple where they come together, after all those miles and miles. So much of our land and history (and those who came before us, the native Americans as well) are based on these rivers running throughout the country, and it is fascinating to see one turning into the other.
You can see the little point of land before the rivers converge behind us.
We were pretty proud to have made it out there to the edge, without having a real path to follow! We noticed we weren’t at the official viewing area though, just a little bit of land you could see through. We started heading back and then we did find the original parking area:
There is a kiosk there with historical information and a blue pole showing the level of various floods over the years. I suspect 2019 will be the highest yet, if they are able to rebuild. I suppose I don’t actually know if 2019 is the highest yet, but I hope they can rebuild and update it. My dad and Louie are standing in what looks like a yard, but it was a parking area with pavement before, and Louie is holding a “Bus Parking” sign.
Then we realized we might as well try to get back out to the original viewing area, so we found our way there.
You can see the concrete was damaged in the flood and there are several downed trees just sitting around.
It really seems like quite a bit of damage, all caused by water. Seeing this really gave us a greater understanding of the power of water, somehow even more than the Grand Canyon, because this just happened!
Finally we headed back, and knowing what we were hiking through made it easier than the way out.
If you look carefully into the green, you’ll see a faint blue square. It is a disabled parking sign. Not a great place to park at the moment, though I joked that those weeds could have grown up in a week, knowing how weeds in my own yard work!
Afterwards, we came back and took turns riding my dad’s electric “trike.”
I was a little nervous to take it out, but I went around a few blocks and it was actually super fun and exhilarating to ride!
Later we cooked dinner and watched the movie Knives Out.
The next day we went to Louie’s mom’s for brunch. Everybody except Louie’s brother Julian was fully vaccinated, and Julian had gotten his second shot just that morning. We had a lovely meal and then took a long walk around Forest Park. It was a hot day, actually, and we enjoyed seeing all the flowers and such. After that it was time for our weekly “roll call” online zoom meeting with the rest of the family and then dinner. We watched the Oscars after dinner for a bit, but went to bed earlier.
I woke up earlier to teach my class but then my parents didn’t leave until a few hours later. It was great to see them, especially after so long, and I hope I didn’t make them walk too much.
They took two days to drive home but did get home safely.
My mom taught me what some of the flowers were called: I guess this is the first year I’ve really paid attention to what is coming up. Anyway, the second two above are irises
I read a book last week by a man who visited all of the National Parks in one year. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed reading the book. It wasn’t what I expected though as it was more about him and less about the parks, and I was struck by how different my own travel experiences are. In retrospect, that shouldn’t have surprised me. And of course, his experience as a man traveling is very different than the experience as a woman traveling. Women have to worry about personal safety in a way that no man will ever have to, even when you are traveling with a man, but especially if you aren’t. So reading any travel book by a man, oh, and there are so many, is different than reading a book by a woman, such as Wild by Cheryl Strayed.
However, I was thinking about travel itself, and why I travel, and what traveling has taught me. One of my favorite things to do with Louie is go on a road trip and visit parks and other sites. We love loading up the car and hitting the road, being dirty for a few days, hiking a lot, taking tons of pictures, and finally being grateful to return home. So while visiting National Parks is wonderful, more of our life is spent at home, so how does that affect it?
Caption: Hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park, going up to the Loch from the Glacier Gorge Trailhead. Summer 2015
The National Parks Service has this “Find Your Park” campaign, and truthfully, my park is Forest Park, which is a huge park near my home in St Louis. I love traveling, and I especially love the mountains. I love seeing wildlife, and getting out into terrain and parts of the country that are very different than where I live, but I don’t want one park. I want them all, and not in a bucket list way, but in the way that I want to experience different places. I have enjoyed returning to places like Yellowstone and Rocky Mountain National Park, but I also have enjoyed seeing new places like Jasper National Park, Colorado National Monument, and Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
Caption: The Colorado River. I swear there’s a picture somewhere in Louie’s albums of me by the River at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, but I don’t have it. This is a picture I took at the bottom. Spoiler: going down is the easy part. May 2016
The crowds can be an issue. Everybody loves the National Parks! Camping reservations can be hard to get. So another part of the Find Your Park idea can be to find somewhere less popular that may have a more quiet beauty. This summer I am hoping we can travel some, but I’m looking at more off-the-beaten path places that won’t attract the same crowds, but more importantly, don’t require as much advance planning. I just looked at Rocky Mountain NP camping reservations and they are nearly full at my favorite campground for the summer. Not surprising, but we can’t plan a trip until we are vaccinated, and we have no idea when that will be.
Caption: Great Smoky Mountains, and you can just see how damp it was there. This was walking around an area near Gatlinburg where the fires had burned quite a lot. Our wettest camping trip ever! Summer 2017.
Normally by this time of the year I would have my summer at least mapped out. That may sound crazy to some of you (and it may sound a bit crazy in general) but it was fairly necessary in order to make sure we could fit in various family visits and stuff. It’s all up in the air now, and I hope I get to see my family as well as do a little random traveling.
Caption: Glacier National Park, our first views after driving all day from Yellowstone. Each place is new and wonderful, even when the one you left may still be your favorite place. Summer 2019.
Caption: Standing on a rock at Colorado National Monument, Summer 2016.
But I’ve gotten off topic from my thoughts on the National Parks. Everybody has their own travel style: some like to rough it, others prefer middle-of-the-road comfort, others high end luxury. Some people like to go for a long weekend or a week, others have more time off in a row and can get away longer. Some love flying, others love hitting the open road. Some people like to picnic and cook, others prefer to buy all their food ready-made. Everybody has their own travel style, and of course each trip might be different. I love planning trips almost as much as I love taking them so for me the advance planning is half the fun. Other people hate planning and prefer just to show up. Where am I going with this? Nowhere, it’s my blog But maybe just to say, I want to read the book about somebody who didn’t just hit the road. I want to read the book by somebody who spent as much time planning their trip as doing it! I’m sure that book exists (and I’d like it to be by a woman so I can relate more) or I guess I should write it, ha. If I wrote a book I’d have to edit though, rather than with my blog. (I’m aware people DO edit their blogs, it’s just not something I want to spend a lot of time doing. Yes, I’d probably have more followers.)
Caption: On top of Mt. Washburn. Summer 2019.
Caption: Louie in Bryce Canyon, Summer 2016.
I went down a bit of a memory lane the past hour here, looking at old photos, remembering where we had been, remembering how it felt, remembering arguments we had and remembering wonderful experiences we shared. I recall my wonderment and amazement on the hike in Bryce Canyon. I recall feeling scared on a hike in Zion National Park, and feeling like I’d never be dry again in the Great Smokies. I recall being blown away by Colorado National Monument’s beauty, and also feeling incredibly dirty from not showering for days and being relieved we were out of bear country. I remember enjoying taking the bus out to Athabasca Glacier and feeling sick to my stomach now knowing that there was a horrible accident there last summer in which many people lost their lives. I remember hard work putting up our tent, putting away our tent, and everything that goes with camping, and each night I get into bed here I am grateful for how easy my regular life is.
Caption: Canyonlands National Park, Moab, Utah, Summer 2016
I suppose traveling is never actually about where you go. I mean, it IS, but it’s really about leaving your everyday life to do something special, and try to bring a bit of it back. It’s about finding the special in the mundane as well, and being grateful for the conveniences you have at home, and being more aware of all that you have to feel grateful for.
Caption: Canary Springs, Mammoth, Yellowstone Summer 2019
As we hope to see the beginning of the end of COVID, we will see how travel has changed, and how COVID has changed us. I don’t see trying to make a big plan for this summer, but there will be a summer soon when Louie has finished his doctorate as well, and I would love for us to hit the road for 3 weeks or so. The cats miss us while we are gone of course, and we miss them, but it’s just so nice to be immersed in not being at home, and so worth it. It does change you, though nobody stays the same anyway, travel or not.
But maybe just to say, I want to read the book about somebody who didn’t just hit the road. I want to read the book by somebody who spent as much time planning their trip as doing it! I’m sure that book exists (and I’d like it to be by a woman so I can relate more) or I guess I should write it, ha. If I wrote a book I’d have to edit though, rather than with my blog. (I’m aware people DO edit their blogs, it’s just not something I want to spend a lot of time doing. Yes, I’d probably have more followers.)
