Tuesday, 8/13 Second day of success – we got up early enough to get to the Sky Pond trailhead and secure parking. We were still in prime season at the parks, so the need to find parking early ended up being something of a theme for the entire trip. We… Continue reading
Saturday, 8/10 I drove down to Chicago in the Subaru getting in at around midnight and with the expectation that we would be driving the Subaru westbound the next day. Something about the drive made me uncomfortable enough with that plan that we decided to take Janet’s Honda Fit instead…. Continue reading
8/27/17 We headed out toward Portland in the morning, opting for the somewhat more scenic route down the coast. Down the coast, in this case, meant highway between small towns instead of freeway. For the most part, I didn’t feel like it was “on the ocean” – not like California… Continue reading
Most of the last day is taken with the drive home, but we did get up early and go catch sunrise from a new spot. This time, just after (heading to Tennessee) the Newfound Gap Overlook. Since we didn’t do much Sunday, I’ll use this post as a wrap up…. Continue reading
We started early on Saturday and went up to Clingman’s dome for a chilly (as expected) sunrise. After that, we headed over to the Roaring Fork Motor Trail to the Grotto Falls trail head. It’s a moderate hike and climb at 2.6 miles round trip with 585 ft of elevation. … Continue reading
Despite avoiding the weather the evening before, day three was the real day of questionable weather. Having been to the park a few times before, and wanting to explore something new, we took a drive to the Eastern end of the park to hike up Mt. Cammerer. I think we… Continue reading
Apparently I started to write this (day 1 was written then), but then took a six month hiatus, so though I can track what we did based on pictures, I don’t recall exactly what the rationale was for doing the various things on various days. So, for some reason which… Continue reading
First day of an extended weekend trip to the Smokies. Janet and I had done a very similar trip to this before in 2015, so it was relatively predictable. Drove overnight Wednesday to get to Gatlinburg and then got a hotel on the outskirts of Smoky Mountain National Park to… Continue reading
We had been to Bryce Canyon once before and were nearby so it seemed like a fine idea to stop in again. I think we were there for maybe an hour all together (partially affected by wasting time taking pictures of a hawk on a post earlier). It seemed that… Continue reading
We woke up on on day two of the Capitol Reef visit to snow on the tent. This did little to encourage expediency in getting on with doing things. We violated the safety and wildlife rules of camping and proceeded to pull out the stove and make oatmeal in the… Continue reading