Trip Summary- Highlights and Looking forward

 We arrived home later on July 11 to a very happy kitty and with very happy kids to see something familiar. Since then we've been enjoying family time and settling back in to sedentary living. However, before we returned, I interviewed my family with the following trip questions so we can plan our next journey and for you to plan yours! Here is what was said:

What were our top 2 favourite days (enjoyed by all 4 of us) (both locations are near each other!)

1. Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado: Cliff dwelling exploration and ancient Puebloan learning
2. S. Utah-- Goosenecks State Park to Edge of Cedars State Park museum, Newspaper Rock (Utah) to Canyonlands National Park (Needles Section).  Oh and throw in a dinosaur museum and a cool local restaurant with huge shakes too!

What were your two best days personally on the trip?

Chris: Rafting and traveling up Mt. Evans in Colorado & Hiking Angels Landing in Zion National Park

Chloe: The Lamar Valley in Yellowstone (WY) and Chaco Culture National Historic Site (& Rafting)

Vera: Las Vegas (my bday--saw an illusionist!) and Great Sand Dunes National Park

Corwyn: Horseback Riding in the Rockies and Winterpark Colorado's Alpine Slide

What places would you really like to go back to?

Chris: Yosemite NP, Pinnacles NP and Utah in general

Chloe: Pinnacles NP (California), Canyonlands NP, the 4 corners region (UTAH) and Yellowstone

Vera: Zion National Park (Utah)

Corwyn: Great Sand Dunes National Park to go run down the dunes again! (Colorado)

What place or park surprised me by being more amazing than expected?

Chris: Great Sand Dunes National Park (Colorado) and the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier --a very cool historic museum (San Diego, Ca) & Mesa Verde Ntl Park

Chloe: Great Sand Dunes NP, the Rocky Mtns of Colorado and how the USA National Park system has adapted well with shuttles and road closures to bursting visitors

Vera: Great Sand Dunes Nt'l Park

Corwyn: River Rafting in Colorado on the Clearwater River

What places do I NOT want to go back to?

Chris: Monument Valley, Arizona

Chloe: The Salton Sea (California)-- 'The world after people and climate change :(

Vera: Mexican Hat, Utah (we were promised a restaurant and there weren't any)

Corwyn: The National Forest campground in Taos, NM where biting ants were everywhere (Las Petacas Nt'l Forest)

What place was I most disappointed in?

Chris: Crater Lake National Park (snowing and no lake view)

Chloe: Monument Valley, Arizona

Vera and Corwyn: Crater Lake (we'll have to take them back one day as it is really gorgeous!)

Favourite Animal Sitings:

Chris: hundreds of bison in Lamar Valley, Yellowstone

Chloe: Seeing a Desert Fox 2x's in Hidden Valley Joshua Tree National Park

Vera: The Coyote in the campground in Joshua Tree National Park & the Elephants and Gorilla at the San Diego Safari Park

Corwyn: Diamondback Rattlesnake in Bandolier National Monument

Best Hike or Exploration

Chris: Angels Landing Zion National Park

Chloe: Chaco Canyon Rim Hike (Chaco Heritage Ntl Historic Park, New Mexico) & Angel's Landing

Vera: Nevada Falls hike in Yosemite National Park

Corwyn: Climbing through the cavates and up ladders to cliff dwelling in Bandolier National Monument, New Mexico & hiking up the sand dunes (Sand Dunes National Park, CO)

Best Bike Ride!

Chris: Mission Bay San Diego & around the closed roads in Yosemite 

Chloe: Zion cycling the closed roads with Grandma Eve, a wild turkey, and a thunderstorm that started a waterfall!

Vera: Bike trails around Santa Fe along the rail tracks, New Mexico

Corwyn: Mountain biking around Bell Rock in Sedona, Arizona

What will I miss most about the journey?

Chris: Listening to audiobooks (whole novels) with the family as we drive

Chloe: Waking up to the sunrise through the tent flap and spending time with the kids

Vera: The starry skies in the desert and sleeping with no tent fly

Corwyn: Not doing school work!

What I missed the most about home and longed for?

Chris: Friends and family (how appropriate if you're reading this F&F!)

Chloe: organized cupboards, the garden and our kitty

Vera: KITTY!, fort building and my bed (and her friends!)

Corwyn: KITTY! (and his friends)

The perfect journey is circular, the joy of departure and the joy of return (and not too many saddle sores!)

Yellowstone and Grand Teton: Wild and crowded

 We headed to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park for the last major leg of our travels for 7 nights of camping and exploration in the area. These two parks are basically adjacent and together are such a large area that even with many many walks and hikes and even with the 5 nights I've previously done in the park back when I lived in Wyoming in 2004 we didn't even drive to all the roads or see all. There is a tonne of backpacking to do here and I look forward to returning.

Old Faithful

We started with 2 nights at Jackson Lake in Grand Teton and enjoyed the campground at Coulter Bay. Teton unlike Yellowstone is all about the mountains. Gorgeous backgrounds followed us and next time I'd love to canoe and hike them. We enjoyed the cool dips we took as we have not seen many natural lakes on this trip! Although we did see a few far away bison and some moose it was actually the old settlement of Mormon Row that we particularly enjoyed. Volunteer docents had set up a settler learning area where we could dress in 1860s dress, wash clothes, make rope and toys and learn about settler life and work. The  kids were thrilled and spent hours there. We also fit in a muddy bike ride, dodged a thunderstorm and took one more dip in another lake.

Games and activities at Mormon row. 

People had warned us that Yellowstone would be unbelievably crowded and they weren't wrong for at least the geyser basin area. A park ranger infomred us that 5.4 million people visited the park last year! We think Yellowstone should implement a few of those free shuttle buses for the busiest areas to help with the lack of parking and congestion. But it was worth the crowds to see it. We saw Old Faithful go 3 times and saw numerous incredible and varied bubbling mud pools, paint pots and smaller geysers and partial eruptions of big geysers. Chris and my parent both caught big explosion of less reliable geysers which was pretty cool. I really enjoyed especially some of the colourful hot sprints and the different colours and formations formed from the living organisms that inhabit these hot areas (thermophiles). 

Us with castle geyser 

Amazing thermophiles at a hot spring

We recommend making sure you walk beyond geyser basin and we really enjoyed the strange world of porcelin basin and the steamboat geyser.

steamboat geyser, the largest having mini eruptions while a ranger gives a talk. 

After 3 nights at Madison Campground all together, my parents took the kids in their campground down to Fishing Bridge in the south of the park and Chris and I went to a smaller (and gorgeous) northern campground called Slough Creek near the Lamar valley, the "Seregeti of North America." If you are worried about seeing bison in this park--don't be. There are 7000 and they are at capacity. We saw more than 1000 in our one day in the Lamar Valley. 

Slough Creek campsite

soon many bison!

Our campsite was a nice respite as we had the longest we'd ever been away from the kids (2 nights or 40 hrs). There were badgers, bears and bison in the campsite and we hiked and hiked. We had some close encounters with bison and Rusty grouse and petrified trees and alpine wildflowers. This whole trip we've been chasing the Spring and we're still in in it it seems with mountain wildflowers and thunderstorms.

hike to the petrified forest

still spring in the mountains! 

By the time you read this we'll probably be home. We're now jetting across Montana, Idaho and Washington. It's been an amazing trip but 'the best journeys are circular: the joy of departure and the joy of return.' Expect the next post to be our high (and low) lights from 4 different perspectives.

Look forward to seeing you soon.

Cool Colorado- Rafting in the Rockies (& so much more!)

Despite the scary adventure of the electrical storm, we have had a blast in Colorado. We've been here just under 2 weeks (not including our 5 days for Mesa Verde & Cortez on the other side a month ago). Originally I wasn't looking forward to Colorado as it sounded fairly similar to BC but its been a breath of cool fresh air and a surprise. Here are a few highlights:

Great Sand Dunes National Park was a surprise. We were coming out of the desert and were not exactly excited to see more sand. However the dunes are the tallest in North America and abut a mountain range. Colorado is also full of flowing water (so exciting!!) and we got a taste of it with the magical Medano Creek which flows only in May & June as snow melts and floods across the bottom of the dunes. It comes in strange, shallow waves as small sand dams break and flood water forward. Easy to cross. Although hiking the dunes is a challenge, the kids were so stoked about the running and sliding down of them that they hiked quite high up--we probably hiked up for ~1hr. Then we got a panorama of valley and 2 mountain ranges before running down. We won't miss our first real taste of hungry mosquitoes but it was worth a stop for sure (and be sure to camp if you go as the lines to get in between 9-1 were ridiculous--they haven't figured out timed entry like other parks).

Where the dune meets the forest & the mountains-- Great Sand Dunes National Park

Medano Creek- flows May/June

Colorado Springs & Denver: We had 2 nights each in Colorado Springs and Denver and had some tastes of city life. There are lots of fun activities to do in both and we really enjoyed cycling the numerous paths. In CS we really enjoyed heading the short distance to Manitou Springs, an adjacent town with a colourful history. There you can walk around and taste all the unchlorinated natural springs in little fountains around town and visit the penny arcade.

We tasted 5 of 8 fountains in Manitou Springs

 Nearby we also had a blast at the Rock Ledge Ranch Historic Site which we all loved--hands on history, with actors while traveling through time from prior to settler introduction to the 1900's. It was like a smaller version of Barkerville but equally good in its own way. 

We cycled to town each night by urban streams to dinner with very little time spent on streets. There is a sizable homeless population living along the trail near where we stayed but maybe not too much different than in Victoria?

In Denver we stayed in the Cherry Creek State Park which had the nicest reservoir we'd seen so far. Corwyn and I had a lovely kayak on the lake and we cycled around this park and later cycled into town to the confluence of 2 rivers. Denver also has an amazing science museum. We spent hours there avoiding a second electrical storm and still didn't get to about 1/3 of the exhibits.

The Rockies of Colorado. Now we've driven about 2hrs northwest of Denver into the Colorado Rockies. We're staying in a high valley in the town of Fraser which is cool and lush and full of fun. We've met up with Meme and Tate (my parents) for the rest of the journey and we've challenged them to many fun outdoor activities in the thin air including:
-Horseback Riding (Vera's choice) 

-Class 3 River Rafting

-Alpine Tundra and Colorado River source valley hiking 

Vera's wish--to ride a horse.

Meme and Tate hiking in the tundra, Rocky Mt. National Park

Downstream Adventures- 90 min's of fun on Clear Creek, Co.

We've seen TONNES of animals (2 moose, 50+ wapiti (elk), 20ish bighorn sheep, 10 mountain goats including one licking our car and other cool things like fawns and white pelicans. So far everyone is mostly in one piece (the 3 things listed above are mega adventures especially for my mom) and we're all having a great time. 2 more days here and then we're off to our final big leg of the journey--Wyoming.

Mountain goat and kid

Driving up Mt. Evans- 14 130 ft

Mountain Goat licking our car--salty?

Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep

King of the Alps- So small & beautiful

The Storm (Denver, Colorado)

I was excited to be in a big city again. Denver, Colorado. And there was an MLS professional soccer game our first night there when the Colorado Rapids were playing, ironically, the Vancouver Whitecaps. It was going to be too late at night for Corwyn, so he and Chloe went kayaking earlier in the day on the reservoir we were camped on (Cherry Creek State Park). That left Vera and I to leave the campsite after dinner and go to the soccer game. We got there early enough to see the warmups, the introductions of the starting lineups, and the national anthems which included a brief fireworks display. Vera was enthralled by a big sporting event. I was looking forward to the rare opportunity to watch professional soccer live ... and then the announcement. "Due to an extreme weather warning, we ask all spectators to return to their cars or the covered area." But weren't the skies clear? There was a little wind but not significant. I was a little surprised but expected a brief delay and then the game would start.

Instead, Vera and I sat in our seats (which were conveniently covered and on the lee side of the wind) and listened to stadium music. After about 30 minutes, the rain and the lightning started. The rain started coming harder and more diagonal, the lightning seemed distant but it was getting closer and more frequent. Soon, there was sheet lightning on three sides of us. It was actually pretty cool to be sitting with several thousand people watching lightning and listening to rock music ("Thunderstruck" and "Raining Men" were big hits). Vera was more interested in the event than the actual soccer, so she was happy. A text message from Chloe confirmed that there was no rain at the campground, although she could see some lightning in the distance. Corwyn was sleeping happily in the tent.
Then the power went out at the stadium and the weather report changed: hail was coming. I pictured my wife and son trapped in a tent without any other cover, while Vera and I were at a stadium. Bad Dad. Time to go. About five minutes into our drive home, the hailstorm hit. I don't think I've ever experienced such a loud storm. Vera and I had to yell at each other in the car just to be heard. Sheet lightning was visible over and over, in multiple directions. I've never seen so much lightning. Road visibility deteriorated rapidly and as water pooled on the highways, lanes became rough guidelines. Cars started hydroplaning at strange angles and we were brought to a crawl as an four-lane highway was limited to one car at a time driving on the shoulder because the other lanes had too much water (or trapped cars). Some people were crawling along in their vehicles with the hazard lights on while others continued to drive the 65mph (100 km/hr) speed limit weaving in and out of lanes.
We made it back to camp to find Chloe had evacuated the tent to our neighbours car. Corwyn was in her arms still sound asleep in his sleeping bag. We hung out in our car for a while and then the lightning seemed to subside for a while, so we finally got into the tent. We were generally dry inside, although a small leak at the top of the tent led to drops of water that would consistently find my forehead no matter how I tried to dodge. Chloe had the weather radar map on her phone and it was showing a full rainbow of colours that you don't want to see from a tent. Most of the neighbours had packed up to go home (if they lived in Colorado or were hiding in their cars). The lightning didn't dissipate though and still seemed to be coming from all sides. I was always counting the seconds between the lightning and the thunder. After one intense blast, I barely got to "one" before the thunder struck. Time to go back to the car. This time, we had two sleeping children in sleeping bags to take with us since Vera had conked out in the tent. After another hour in the car (time is difficult to measure as you drift in and out of uncomfortable sleep), the worst of it seemed to have moved on. Again, we returned to the tent and were able to stay there until morning. When we awoke, there was little trace of the previous night's storms. Even though it was fully booked, half the campsites were now empty, and the remainder were swapping their survival stories.
Thunder and lightning are pretty rare in Victoria and can be exciting when they occur. I've seen a few bigger thunderstorms in other places around the world, but this was on a different level than I've experienced. The electrical storm (Chloe clearly differentiated it from a thunder storm) had lasted about six hours and must be generated thousands of strikes. When my phone received an emergency signal today stating "Severe Weather Warning! Go indoors!", I was worried that the next night was going to be even worse. It started raining hard while we were making dinner ... but then it stopped and there was only minimal lightning for the rest of the night. Maybe it hit the next campground over. Fortunately, tomorrow night we'll have a proper roof over our heads.

Forests and Phones- New Mexico

The landscape around Chaco Canyon was pretty bleak (Chloe doesn't seem to think so) but there was one particular Northern Mockingbird that I will always remember. I've always laughed at its song on our bird clock at home because it's so long and varied ... but the real call was even crazier! This bird was a non-stop chatterbox with a variety of different songs, calls, and chirps. I'm not sure if that's normal for a mockingbird or if it would be ostracized by its peers for being obnoxious, but it was impressive nonetheless. The next impressive thing in New Mexico were the forests. Two hours outside of Chaco Canyon, we picked up some groceries in a small town and then we started to climb into the mountains. The trees (mainly pines but also the occasional Douglas Fir) appeared immediately, along with meadows of green grass. Corwyn kept screaming with joy in the backseat saying this was the best day ever! We stopped for lunch and he rolled around in the grass like a dog that found a dead seal on the beach. He was ecstatic! The campground at Bandolier National Monument was full of pines and we were able to hang our hammock in the campsite again (We hadn't had enough trees to do this for a couple of weeks). Mountain trails, more cliff dwellings with dangerous ladders, a close encounter with a big diamondback rattlesnake, and flush toilets. All we could hope for in a campground.

We also experienced some city culture in Santa Fe by visiting Meow Wolf, which is a combination of art museum, modern lighting display, and escape room. The mystery we were supposed to solve required too much patience and reading for the kids but they loved all the wild lighting, strange creatures, secret doors, and tight passageways. I was skeptical of the steep price before we went but the 2+ hours we spent in there were great! Unlike anything else I've experienced in real life (kind of like being in a video game, actually).

Chloe's phone died on us which caused a minor crisis since it's the one that connects to our car and provides all the maps. It took a day and a half to get it fixed, which kept us in Santa Fe for an extra day, and we had to limp along with my more simple phone. Suddenly, we were reading actual maps again and looking at travel pamphlets for information! It was a great reminder of how important these devices have become in our daily lives, even when we come in and out of cell phone range each day. I've been reading about the negative effects of social media on people's mental health recently (in a paper magazine, not online!) and I'm concerned about that, but as a navigation and information tool, they are second-to-none. I can't imagine completing this trip without all the information they provide us daily. We got to explore this town a bit more though including cycling some of there many rail trails!

Chaco Culture in New Mexico

Chaco National Historic Park is a few hours SW from Mesa Verde but in New Mexico. We spent the day in Farmington appeasing the kids with a fun waterpark and appeasing me by visiting Aztec--another set of Ancient Puebloan ruins with a reconstructed big kiva you could go into (its cool too but kids can only take so many ruins and there are MANY in this area).

Then we headed into the desolate world of Chaco Canyon on mostly bumpy, cattle-guard ridden roads. The last 20km were the worst and we went slow. Traveling in is kinda part of the experience as you feel like you are way out there but yet in a place that at one point (1000AD-1200AD) this was the center of a civilization. Unlike Mesa Verde which was green and lush, Chaco canyon wasn't and there are no trees (there was 1 cottonwood in a wash in our campground but no much else). I wouldn't say it was desolate, but Chris would (see photo below-- you can deside! and it is still the end of Spring so there were flowers and grasses. One flower, perhaps the Desert Verbena in our campground, became wonderfully fragrant at night---a perfect combination with the amazing stars and the coyote yips. No need for a fly on the tent most nights in the desert! The campsite was cool as it was filled with rock art and even a cliff dwelling from ancient farmers. So many ruins and so much rock art that most weren't even listed on the map! Just meant to explore and find.

Mesa Verde- Cliff Dwellings from Ancient Puebloans

The Puebloan Indigenous peoples have been in this area a long time. People may be more familiar with the Navajo (Dine is what they call themselves, Navajo is a name the Spanish gave them that means "farm fields in the valley"). Though the Dine say they have been here and originated from the 4 sacred mountains in New Mexico (where we are now), their genetics and language point to them as Athapaskan people and being related to the Dineh of Northwestern Canada (we have Dineh in BC). The Puebloans I believe, have been here much longer though they are scattered into many nations now throughout New Mexico and Utah (the Hopi). Their ancestors left an incredible mark on the landscapes here---communities of buildings in cliffs and canyons that still are very noticable on the landscape today. These buildings are on average 800-900 years old. Mesa Verde is a National Park that encompasses a large mesa (table land--from a distance it looks like low mountains but flat) with valleys. Without a car it would be a trek to get up but the Mesas provided extra moisture and so were better at the time for farming (the 3 sisters- beans, corn & squash). Though there is evidence of people living up on top of the Mesa for >1000 years it is only around 1100 that something curious began--people went over the cliff edges of the small canyons on the mesa and began to build--beautiful stone structures. When you approach these villages you are on the mesa which is now a Pinyon pine and juniper forest (except for the sections that burned between 2000-2003, 1/3 of the park). This is where the farming would have occurred. Dryland farming, which means you plant and hope the rains for the most part, water your crops. You meet up top your Ranger on Guided tours (we did 3) and then you descend. There are now some paved and staircases but the main way in traditionally and the way out now is through ladders and hand/toe holds over the cliff. We thought it sounded cool so we signed up for all three tours we could.

We first went to Balcony House- a small house of 2 extended families. We did a 30' and 60' ladder and had to craw through a traditional rock tunnel that was a 3m long and just barely fit Chris and our even larger guide if they crawled sideways with their packs in front. It was a cool place. Each household has a Kiva-- a perfectly round structure made of stone with a air vent on one side, a hearth fire, a place to sit and a ceremonial hole called the sipapu (it is believed that this hole represents the place where people emerged from the earth). Then a number of multi-story rectangular buildings surround the kiva for living and storage of food.

We also went to the even larger 'Cliff Palace' a larger one with many kivas--lots of families lived here or people congregated to perform ceremonies. We also got a special tour (only 10 people per day) of Square Tower house where we decended ladders into an area most people don't get to to see this dwelling with a Hopi guide and a very knowledgeable docent. This one was great as we could even see places where the kiva roofs were still in tact and hear more about how some traditions of Puebloan life carry on. These cliff dwellings are so special not only because the brick dwellings meant buildings still stand but the shelter under the cliffs meant so much were preserved-- pottery cups hanging on hooks, feathered blankets, wood beams etc. Cool to know and cool to see. These people lived here for a few hundred years in these dwellings and then left, scattering in many directions. The common theory is that people migrated here as the climate got drier and a drought drove people out of other areas. However, as the drought continued people had to leave and find more reliable water than the seep springs that weep out of the canyon walls. But there are many questions about whether that was it or other changes in culture (conflict? astronomical signs to travel?) that made these people leave by 1300 leaving all the things they couldn't carry carefully stowed or in the case of kivas, burnt as they moved on to their homelands.

Square Tower House and the Route Down via more traditional steps (and more ladders too!) The campground and park itself was great, even had free showers (so rare) and evening programs. Juniper and serviceberry (read saskatoon variety) and pine. But 2 nights and we were moving on to Chaco National Historic Park.