The Parks Adventurer

Zion National Park, UT/Valley of Fire, NV. Feb, 2021.

National Parks Counter: 16

2021 LETS GO! I am going to start this blog off with something surely controversial to National Parks people. Zion is gorgeous, a wonder, and a must see. It is also underwhelming to its reputation and to put on top of a national parks list is silly to me. As of the writing of this post I have been to 18 of the 63 current national parks. And granted, Denali, Rocky Mountain, Grand Canyon are among those 18 I am not sure I would even have Zion it in my top 5 right now!

I took this trip with my Sidekick. It was a short weekend trip with a non stop to Vegas (shit hole) and then zipping it out to Hurricane, Utah (pronounced hurra-kin) for the evening. It was too late to go into the park at this point so we found about the only good outdoor option for food and that was at River Rock Roasting Company a short drive away in La Verkin. We would end up visiting this place twice! They have great pizzas, good beer, and unbeknownst to us at first (it was dark) great views, being kind of perched on top of a cliff looking over a river in a small gorge. The first morning was an early rise. Zion is very, very packed and at times they only allow visitors to travel the park in shuttle buses. This particular time of the year was not one of those times, but as is the case with almost every national park, parking is at a premium and very limited. Early starts to a visit is a must!

Zion in its morning glory! Taken by the Adventurer.

We got in pretty early and drove straight for Angels Landing. The parking lot was already pretty packed at 7 AM but we got a spot and started the hike. I had a basic sense of this hike from following others’ posts and doing my own research, but I was a bit surprised. It’s 4.4 miles out and back with 1600 feet of elevation gain. It does follow another trail called the West Rim. I did not expect the hike to start with a pretty steep series of switchbacks. That just gets up to the canyon which eventually leads to Walter’s Wiggles, a set of 20 some really tight switchbacks which leads up to the start of the final ascent up the landing. Good to know fact, there is a composting bathroom up there, very important since there are no private spots to be found on this trail and there are many people. No trail pissing here! Anyway, the SIdekick took about one step of the next part of the hike. I think when she grabbed the chain she called it a hike! I decided I was going to go for it. Spoiler alert: I only made if about a third of the way maybe? I was very unnerved, not by the heights or even the chains, I was unnerved by the sheer number of people coming and going as it was a one way trail and someone would have to let go of the chain. It was happening way too much for my liking, so I found a shady spot to sit and take in some views and worked my way back.

Believe it or not, there is a trail up along that cliff…

And this is what that part of the above pictured trail looks like from above…

Walters Wiggles, which consists of 20 some odd switchbacks, and they are not even all visible here, such the steepness of this section…

And after all that, here is the rest of the hike. I did go maybe to about where those trees on the very right edge are….

But this situation right here, especially when people started coming back down, was a no go! All these pictures taken by the Adventurer!

My Sidekick saddled up near a ranger who was monitoring condors and we got to watch some live condor action! SUPER cool. Unexpected treats like this are always great in the parks. The ranger was pretty disdainful of hiking the landing and told us a better place to go along the trail we got off of to go to the landing. So we took his advice and followed around that trail a bit, this was actually the West Rim Trail that I mentioned in the previously. We found a great open and sandy area to sit down and have a beer and lunch 1 or breakfast 2, however you look at it!

Beer thirty on the trail! These were beers we picked up in Nevada because we were unsure of the beer availability and quality in wonderful old Utah!

My tap out remarks.

Close encounter with a condor! Taken by the Adventurer.

After coming down from the hike and some more minor exploring of the park road we stopped at the Zion Brewing Company for some snacks and beer! The place is literally maybe 100 feet from the entrance to the park, so definitely the closest spot to grab grub and a brew! Being February, it was still chilly but they were kind enough to accommodate with heaters outside. At some point during this day we also stopped a nice little spot with good food and outdoor seating called Me Me’s Cafe.

A tasty IPA from Zion Brewery with a pair of my trusty Blenders shades! And maybe one of these days I will learn how to take pic like this without my mug showing in the reflections!

The next day was the Narrows! We weren’t even entirely sure about doing it until the evening before when it was time to rent the gear, due to cooooold mornings. The following morning we got into the park early and it was pretty cold…like sub 30, so we decided to risk an annoying parking situation and just drive the other part of the road to the east and through this old tunnel. Right on the other side of that tunnel we found a new impromptu hiking opportunity: The Canyon Overlook Trail, a short 1 mile out and back with about 300 feet of elevation change. Not hard, but a very satisfying hike!

Silly posing on the Canyon Overlook Trail, taken by the Sidekick.

This was an area called the Temple of …something or another …on the Canyon Overlook Trail, taken by Sidekick.

Then it was time to tackle the Narrows! If you are unfamiliar with this hike it is a hike that is almost exclusively in the water as you hike up the Virgin River that runs through the park. The temp had reached somewhere in the 40s or maybe even lower 50s, so it seemed like a good time! We actually happened to LUCK into a parking spot at the trailhead (remember all the times I mention this National Park parking situation? This is actually probably one of the bigger parking lots I have seen and it had maybe 50 spots. And roadside parkers were walking a long way to get there. Anyway, we suited up in our sexy suits and off we went. This hike is not that fun. Like Angel’s Landing it is probably known everywhere as this amazing must do! However, the rocks are VERY slippery and the risk of slipping into a bad spot seems very high. You must use something more sturdy than regular ole hiking poles for this one. The gear we rented included those with the suits and shoes so we were properly geared up! This hike can be forever long or just a little as you deem worthwhile. We did probably 3 or 4 hours of it, so make sure to bring food and drink and a back that is ok in the water!

Having a little fun in the Narrows.

After we finished this it was time to depart Zion. We did stop again in the town of Springhaven, which is the entrance town. It seemed like a cool park town, but most of it was closed for the season. Except that we found that one of the recommended restaurants literally reopened THAT DAY. Zion Pizza and Noodle was a bit of a wait, but they legit had spaced tables out really well, including on the outdoor balcony where we requested seats. We caught the sunrise and then hightailed it back to the hotel.

The next morning we had to be back at the airport for our flight out from Vegas, but not too far out of the way was The Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada, near the Lake Mead Recreation Area. We took a side jaunt there and what a beautiful treat! My cover photo of The Parks Adventurer site is a stellar picture the Sidekick took of me at sunrise in that park! We sat in that same spot, had some homemade Bloody Marys, and watched the sun come up! Now this is a gorgeous place and sunrise was spectacular! And there was no one here. And it was a Sunday morning. A great treasure.

Sliver moon over the Valley of Fire pre-sunrise. Taken by the Adventurer.

It’s really pretty how the sun comes up across these pink and white rocks. Taken by the Adventurer.

Great scenery this road traverses. From GoPro footage.

Driving through the Valley of FIre. GoPro footage.

Overall impressions: Pros: Good hiking and stellar views in both spots. Valley of Fire is super empty of people. Cons: Too many people in too small of a park at Zion. And to be honest, it wasn’t that crowded but it was a weekday and a weekend day of the same weekend as the big game. And it was still a pain to find parking, even with coming into the park super early. Valley of Fire presented me with 0 cons.

The Adventurer Final Word:
4.5 Stars! Zion is great, and absolutely worth your while, but the size and difficulty of doing anything because of parking and people is a definite drawback. If you are in Vegas and want a quick escape to someplace pretty and devoid of people, Valley of Fire might be your spot!

Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas Dog Road Trip. Nov, 2020

National Parks Counter: 15

My girl dog Bella did so well on the road trip to Columbus and Providence Canyon, GA that I decided to take her on a much longer trip just a week later! I was going to drive to see my mother for Thanksgiving with Bella. We took a roundabout trip through AL, MS and into a national park in Arkansas called Hot Springs National Park. The drive was long enough that an overnight stop in Birmingham was in order before continuing on. And, in case anyone did not know, La Quinta Inns, while not the epitome of luxury, are pretty solid and are dog friendly, with a small fee depending on the location (this one and the one I used the next night were both free).

The drive the next morning to Hot Springs, AR was another 6 and half hours. I did break up that drive a little in Tupelo, MS where I just literally stumbled across a National Park Service Arrowhead sign for the Natchez Trace Trail, Mississippi. Bella and I did maybe a mile worth of hiking up and down the trail here but honestly, it wasn’t anything too interesting so we were soon on our way to Hot Springs National Park!

Bella and I were only here for about a 24 hour period, and that did feel like enough, though I could see how people might take longer for a visit. It was a very interesting, if short, visit. First of all, this is an old park. It is almost 100 years old. Secondly, whatever your idea of a National Park is, go ahead and throw it out for this one. I have seen people poo-paahing this one and I get it but this one is weird! Basically the park is in the town and any outdoor nature stuff revolves around that, but I daresay there are very few places in America that have 140 degree water just bubbling up out of the ground. The geology AND the history in this area are basically what made the government designate this as a National Park back in the day. This place is located in the Ouachita Mountains in Central Arkansas and was a very spiritual place to the natives living in that area. The hot water was very popular later on with the tourist industry, specifically, early spring training baseball and mobsters. Thats led to development into casinos and hotels. At that point the area was already notched as a National Park. The hot water that bubbles up out of the ground is not volcanic like you would find in Yellowstone or similar places, but it is something to do with how fast rainwater that goes into the ground comes back up from the depths. Because of this, this hot water is not mineral water. It is safe to drink, and it tastes and looks just like normal old water!

144 degree water. The locals come here and to another spot to fill up for free! Taken by the Adventurer

The hot water coming up straight out of the ground! How cool! Had I not already known this was not volcanic I might have been concerned! The path there is the Grand Promenade mentioned in the blog. Taken by the Adventurer.

The one big hot water viewing spot. Honestly I expected more of these holes but the water has been heavily diverted through piping to the bathhouses. Good spot to toss a penny in! Taken by the Adventurer.

So anyway, we arrived and the rain had just stopped but it was cool and overcast, but it was passable. I really did not know what to expect. The park is really kinda 3 different spots. Spot one is on the road, the touristy district with the early 1900 bath houses, resorts, and hotels. This is at the base of spot 2 which is Hot Springs Mountain. Behind the bathhouses and sorta connecting one big hotel to another at each end of the bath house row is what is called the Grand Promenade. This in itself is a walkway that passes by some of the hot water fountains and can also lead to other trails going up the mountain. To drive up to the summit of the mountain you derive past all the bath houses to find the mountain road entrance. At this point if you do not go that way, but continue on you actually leave the park proper and enter into a more residential area of the town that is actually entirely enclosed by the park. And then it is through this area that you can access spot number 3, as I call it, the West Mountain. Honestly, this part is the most “parky” of the who park and does feature some nice hiking trails, including some decently lengthy ones. The trails on Hot Springs Mountain connecting to the bath houses are very popular but also short and easy and cross the road several times and you would never forget you were in a town.

I took this on the Mountain Tower Deck. On the left, the large building is an old hotel. On the right, right of center, is another historic hotel. In between is the Bathhouse Row and those two hotels mark the ends of the park right here. The far right and the very far left top are actually not in the park. However, the center mountain is West Mountain and if you follow that range up and to the right, and then continue it around in 360 degrees you come back to where I am here and that.s the whole park, with the non park “hole” in the middle.

Bella and I did the “drive and pull off at lookouts” thing for a bit while the weather was settling down. We stopped on Hot Springs mountain and did a little “get out the energy” hiking up the mountain (maybe an hour). We made our way to the West Mountain and did a little hiking along Sunset Trail, which is a very long trail that pretty much encapsulates the entire park. The weather was starting to cooperate so we explored the bath house area a bit. I did not really know what to expect, but the two bathhouses that are still operational, limited due to covid restrictions, are not free, and in fact are quite expensive, and have weird hours anyway. I was hoping to experience it, but it was not meant to be!

Taken from one of the pull offs. There were still a little bit of fall color to be found, but I would bet two weeks earlier looked stunning!

After a brief check in and unload at the hotel outside of town, we came back to get dinner. The Pizza Joint I checked out was called Grateful Head Pizza Oven and Beer Garden. DELICIOUS pizza. Great place with outdoor seating….it was very chilly but the dog was perfectly happy with it, but I had my pizza and a beer or two and was on my way. The next stop was a brewery! There is an actual brewery IN the national park, called Superior Bathhouse Brewery and it is set in one of the old bathhouses and uses the Hot Springs water for brewing purposes! How cool! According to them they are the only brewery allowed to operate within national park boundaries. Pretty cool! I did not have a beverage there as there was no outdoor seating, unfortunately, but I got a growler to go, which was actually DIRT cheap…it was a glass 32 ouncer and I think with the full fill it was 15 bucks. I came back the next day and got the full one, also glass, and with the fill was only 20 bucks I think! Crazy cheap, really! The beer was very good but definitely different! The one I got in the evening was the Beez Kneez, a Honey Basil Kolsch and that was my evening hotel beverage!

Water from Hot Springs National Park on the left. And, a large and small version of the glass growlers the Superior Bathhouse Brewery Sells.

The next morning, before rolling out, Bella and I went up the Hot Springs Mountain to hike Goat Rock Trail. This trail was 2.5 miles out and back and passed a very easy to miss “Goat Rock.” This is a nice trail with about 400 feet of elevation change. After finishing that we took the elevator up to the top of the mountain tower viewing platform at the top of the mountain. Before calling it a trip I stopped at the brewery right at opening to pick up the big growler and also at the visitor center to buy a jug to fill with Hot Springs water!

This is goat rock. I was following the trail using this as my marker. I managed to go further than I needed to because …other than this being a rock, it’s not very goatlike. After I got back to the road I asked someone who kinda chuckled and said go back and look for the only rock outcropping on the trail, which is what this is.

Overall impressions: Pros: There are a variety of things to do depending on your tastes. Want a day of outside light hiking but want to stop and sit down for lunch? Check. Dip in the hot water in the baths? Check. Want to camp check. Though small, the nature is pretty and I bet is awesome at peak foliage. Also, this entire area of the country is pretty devoid of an easy to access national park, so this is good for them. The Hot Springs thing is definitely very neat. Everything seemed very dog friendly. Cons: This is not the national park for outdoor adventures. There is some hiking, but it is mainly limited to easy and simple trails. The park itself is very small and quite frankly, it is not on anyone’s travel list unless you are like me and trying to hit all the parks. The chances of you strolling through this one by accident is small and I do not think this is too much of a destination for anyone but those living within a few hours probably.

The Adventurer Final Word:
3 Stars! Cool little place that is worth a visit, but probably not going to far out of your way for! I will say it is a great place to take your dog!

Providence Canyon, GA Dog Road Trip November, 2020

I have not talked much about my pup..but here is a picture of my old girl Bella:

Bella Brown and daddy out for a day at the Dog Bar in St. Pete

She is an awesome dog, but she is up there in years. In that picture she is about 9 or 10 and she is now between 11 and 13. You wouldn’t really know it as she hasn’t really slowed up at all! Anyway, since all this outdoor travel excitement began, I have not really been able to take her many places for travel because of her sister. Sadie was the most sweet, but mischievous hell raising beagle you would have ever known! I loved her to death and she just passed in September of 2020 at nearly 15 years old. Unfortunately, there was almost no time in her life when she would not cause chaos, and when that started to… lessen? she developed an incontinence problem, so she never got to travel much. She did make a road trip to Indiana once when she was a puppy, and when on some short ones in Florida. And she go to go lots of places around town, just not much in the big overnighter type trips.

Sadie Lou. There are at least 12 years between these pictures…we got old together!

Anyway, Sadie Lou passed away and I vowed that Bella was going to get to go on some trips. My friend Nicki, the Sidekick, and I were looking at possibilities in Georgia. Clayton is always a strong favorite of mine, but it’s a ten hour drive and Bella has never done more than an hour in a car, so it was good that we decided on a place in western Georgia called Providence Canyon. Nicki has an older crippled dog herself (Charlie), and a new rescue (Tiger Lily) who is quite the handful like my old girl Sadie, and she was wanting to do this trip with all the pups. Providence Canyon is this rather interesting man-made feature a little south of Columbus, GA and about 6 hours or so away from home. A fun addition to this story was that a hurricane was approaching. Nicki and her dogs left earlier in the day. I had to finish up at work and left a little later and had to drive through a few nasty moments but soon enough made it through the bands of Eta and the crazy beast in the back seat and got up to Columbus.

Our AirBnb was on the Chattahoochee which runs through town so we got some easy city river walks in at times. We went down to the canyon a couple times: once with all three dogs to do some easy hiking around the Perimeter Loop and then again with Nicki’s new dog Tiger Lily and Bella to hike down inside the canyon on the Inner Loop. As I mentioned earlier, this is actually a man made canyon. I do not know all the particulars, but back in the 1800s, poor farming techniques created some bad erosion in the fields the farmers were working, and due to the soil in the area those cracks and fissures open up more and more and more and you have what it is now.

Charlie, left, Bella, middle, Tiger Lily, right. The Sidekick took this photo of all of us on the walk overlooking the Chattahoochee near our Airbnb in Columbus.

The hike is pretty easy, even for the dogs. The descent is a little steep and then, if you do the loop all the way around, the slope back up is more gradual. The colors of the earth here are very pretty…and we were catching the tail end of the foliage season in the area. Despite being out in the middle of nowhere it did get busy a bit!

Providence Canyon from the rim. Super neat and random place in the middle of nowhere Georgia! Photo by the Adventurer.

The Sidekick and her new rescue posin. Taken by the Adventurer.

Providence canyon is a super neat and random, unexpected treat on the GA/AL border. It is definitely a cool place to stop by and do some leisurely hiking. If you are into boating there is another state park just a few miles down the road called Florence Marina which is also on the Chattahoochee River. There is not a whole lot in the way of services around here, though. Columbus is about 45 minutes or so away, and that’s about it. There is a little town nearby called Omaha, which does have a large open air brewery, the Omaha Brewing Company, and it is definitely close enough to bring lunch and get a beer, but you’ll need to pack lunch for this trip. I also want to point out one other spot we checked out in Columbus: a brew pub called Chattabrewchee Southern Brewhouse. The beer was pretty decent, it had a nice outdoor space, and their logo is an opossum. There is a magnet on my car of their logo now!

Overall impressions: Pros: Beautiful state park. Nice weekend getaway. Good spot to take dogs or young ones. Cons: Not too much nearby, and Columbus is ok, but not what I would call a touristy draw. They do have some whitewater rafting through the city, and that might be something that would also draw me back, but that’s about it.

The Adventurer Final Word:
4 Stars! Perfect for an extended weekend hiking or get away from the city type of trip.

Shenandoah National Park, Virginia/Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. September 2020

National Parks Counter: 14

Shenandoah National Park was actually a spot I was actively thinking about going to in March of 2020. I never quite got to the booking stage because our friend covid was starting to make a muck of things just before and I was holding off. It also sounded like March was hit or miss on weather in that area. After getting back from Colorado my Sidekick and I were looking for new spots. Again, it had to be non stop flight and easy access to a cool outdoor spot. Slim pickings at that time, but we found it with a flight to Baltimore, and a quick hour, hour and a half trip to an area close to the Virgina/West Virginia border called Shenandoah National Park. This was over Labor day, so we made it an extended weekend. Shenandoah is a huge draw during the fall foliage season but it wasn’t possible to get there at that point.

We got in rather late and had hotel reservations at…wait for it…Super 8, in Front Royal, VA. So long story short, the park is beautiful and great, but that town at the entrance is pretty much garbage! There actually were not a whole of hotel options to be had and Super 8 it was! But at least the hotel was very close to the park entrance.

So this is an interesting park with a complicated history that I am not going to get into, but feel free to check it out here. The park is very thin, and very long. Basically it is situated around the main drive through the park called Skyline Drive and it is slightly longer than 100 miles long. We actually came into the park early the next morning and did our recon thing, scoping out things. We found a store inside the park selling some locally brewed beer, specifically for the park and found a little baby introductory hike, that was actually a part of the Appalachian Trail called Bearfence Mountain Trail, and we conveniently had the namesake beer! This trail is actually fairly simple, a mile with 250 feet elevation gain, despite alltrails saying it’s moderate…but it was quiet and had a good spot at the top to sit, soak in the views and have a Bearfence IPA!

View of the Shenandoah Valley. Taken by the Adventurer.

Bearfence IPA at the top of the Bearfence Mountain Trial! Summit at 3500 feet

Our second hike was an early morning one called the Whiteoak Canyon Trail. We went to a waterfall called the Lower White Oak Falls. The trail went on for a while and I think we actually went a bit further than that. According to alltrails, it’s about 3 miles out and back to the lower falls, if that is indeed where we stopped and turned back, with about 400 feet of elevation gain. The spot we accessed this trail from was actually not off of the main drag through the park. Instead, we drove through an area parallel to the park. The town? if you want to call it that, that was close to the area is called Etlan. The hike was nice and easy, but could be pretty lengthy and it was actually pretty crowded, especially considering it was off the beaten path and there was still a small ranger station there for payments. No free access to this park! After this trail we stumbled upon really calm and chill winery in that Etlan town called DuCard Vineyards. Really pretty spot in the Virginia Mountains and good wine! There is no cell phone service out here either!

The Adventurer in front of lower (I think) White Oak Falls, taken by the Sidekick.

Looking for a good stop after the White Oak Canyon Trail? Right here is your spot! DuCard Winery. Food truck and all! Even out in the sticks!

After catching a beautiful morning sunrise in the park a couple other trails we did from the more usual way to access the park were the Mary’s Rock Trail and the Upper Hawksbill Trail. Another general National Park hiking reminder: parking lots are usually tiny and fill up fast, so always keep that in mind, ESPECIALLY in busy parks like this one. Mary’s Rock is a 3.5 mile out and back summit trail with 1200 feet of elevation gain and a good rocky top with killer views! This trail is also a part of the AT. Hawksbill is the tallest mountain in the park at a little over 4000 feet and there are several trails to access the summit. The one we chose was called the Upper Hawksbill Trail. It is the fastest trail to the top at only about a mile each way and 400 feet of gain. Alltrails says this one is moderate and has a “gradual” slope. There is nothing “gradual” about that trail. In fact, it may very well be one of the steeper trails I have done. No, it’s not long, no it’s not exposed, and it is very wide, but it’s a calf work out on the way up and don’t slip and bust your ass on the way down! There is a nice observation deck at the top that looks over the park and the Shenandoah Valley to the west. Heads up! There does appear to be a false observation point. When the trail finally flattens there is a structure of some time and then an open expanse to view the surrounding area. Past the structure, though, the trail does actually continue a bit to get to the proper observation area.

Sunrise in the park, taken by the Sidekick.

On top of Mary’s Rock (which is actually a mountain elevation 3500). Picture by the Sidekick.

The out of the park life was a little disappointing. This town was really dirty and blighted looking. Finding good outdoor places to eat or hang was not too easy. There was a brewery in town and it was surprising that the little Italian joint we found sold none of their beer. We stopped at the Front Royal Brewing Company once. The first impressions were not great. It was a chore to get a table and the staff seemed inattentive and overwhelmed. Eventually we got seated and the food and drink were pretty solid. I would hope that post pandemic the place is more pleasant, but it’s about the nicest place we found. After a few days, it was time to start making our way back to Baltimore. We took a route back that went past some dinosaurs and through Harpers Ferry, WV. This is an old historic town on a river. The whole area is a national historic landmark. The Appalachian Trail passes through here. We came on a day when a lot of shops and restaurants were closed up but we did find one place open to microwave some food that serves hikers on the AT, called The Towns Inn. The lady running the place is a former teacher and now tends the house for the hiking crowd.

Harper’s Ferry. Taken by the Adventurer.

Another section of Harpers Ferry. Taken by the Adventurer.

We stayed just long enough to soak up some views over the river and traintracks once Almost Heaven Pub and Grill opened and then it was time to come back to the FL!

Overall impressions: Pros: Beautiful National Park. Great hiking. It was not terribly overcrowded. Harpers Ferry looks like a cool little quiet weekend spot. Cons: Front Royal, VA sucks. We were in Harpers Ferry on a not weekend day.

The Adventurer Final Word:
4 Stars! A definite nice place to go out of your way for but there are parts of the overall experience that could have been better!

Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, August 2020

Well now, we had a travel hiatus didn’t we! So my Sidekick’s Southwest companion pass was only good for 2019. I managed to snag the normal one from them early in 2020 just in time for the old pandemic. Great timing! So anyway, my Sidekick and I decided that the best course of action was to enjoy the outdoors and decided to go for it a couple times in 2020.

Due to the pandemic a lot of non-stop Southwest destinations dried up. We were looking for non-stop only flights that led to cool outdoor options. So, naturally, Colorado fit the bill, even if it was the third time in as many years that I have visited the state! We decided to get into Denver and head on up to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park and stay a few days up there!

We stayed at a fairly no frills hotel near the lake, but it was reasonably priced compared to everything else around there. Highlights of the trip included a visit to the top of Trail Ridge Road, summiting Deer Mountain in Rocky Mountain Park, doing a cool hike to Dream, Nymph, and Emerald Lakes, seeing some elk and checking out the Stanley Hotel.

As I mentioned in my first Colorado post, Estes Park is a really pretty spot at decent high elevation surrounded by 10k plus peaks and, of course, is at the entrance on the east side of Rocky Mountain National Park.

This is Rainbow Curve, along Trail RIdge Road. Killer viewing spot! Taken by the Adventurer.

My second time standing with this sign! Taken by the Sidekick.

So my Sidekick and I have done a lot of traveling together now and we have our way of doing things which is basically getting into the place we are staying to check over things and then go out and do some recon. This one was a little tricky. Due to covid restrictions, RMNP was/is doing a timed entry and requires tickets for specific time frames. Luckily we were able to get in when we were supposed to and took the drive up to the Alpine Visitor center at the top of Trail Ridge Road. I would say that among the national parks I have been to so far, this road is probably tops in terms of grand scenic views, and I think it would be very difficult to top for sure. It is also a high elevation road up to 12000 feet!

I went ahead and reserved tickets for entry each of the days we were there but honestly, the thing about some of these parks that are very popular and crowded, and especially if one is hiking in these high altitude locales, you have to start early. The main reasons are logistics and atmospheric. These are national parks, not malls. There are very small parking lots, no parking garages, and when they are full, that’s it. Also, it seems that many do not know the actual hours of the parks. Very few of them actually ever lock the gates. Many of them have posted hours for paid entry (I have an annual pass) and visitor center and restroom access, but, generally speaking, you can come in and leave whenever you want. With RMNP doing that. it meant getting around the ticketing system and ensuring a parking spot for our hikes. The other reason is that weather in the mountains gets suspect after midday and if you happen to be in an exposed spot and are the highest thing above the ground, that means lightning is not your friend. Plus you get down from a hike and still have a lot of the day left! We did a couple nice big morning hikes on this trip. The first one was the Emerald Lake Trail, accessed on the Bear Lake side of the park. Again, even though this parking lot is decent sized, we were there before sun up and it was already filling up! The hike was about 3.5 miles out and back, with 700 feet of elevation gain. We had our packs and second breakfast and a couple beers for the end of the hike. And, we got to catch a killer sunrise!

Sunrise over Rocky Mountain National Park. Photo by the Adventurer

Mountain People. Photo taken by a nice passerby.

The middle lake of the three, Dream Lake. One of us was using a selfie stick on the phone.

End of the hike, this is the Emerald Lake, elevation about 10,100 feet.

After this hike we checked out the Estes Park Brewery for a brew and a sandwich. We later checked out the historic Stanley Hotel. This hotel served as the exterior for the hotel in the movie The Shining. It is an operating hotel and has a restaurant and bar that we actually visited the next day for some really good food and cocktails!

The historic Stanley Hotel. Well, part of it. Oops.

Some of the many elk seen on the trip. This one was in a group laying down outside the pool of our hotel.

So the next day was supposed to be some hike that I had my eyes on, but neither of us were really in an 8 mile hiking position so we pulled an audible. We spied a mountain hike at a mountain called Deer mountain with a trailhead just off of the road and decided on that one. Again, we got up early to hit the very small parking area for this one. Deer Mountain Trail, is rated hard at 6 miles and 1400 feet of elevation gain up to the summit at 10000 feet, and features killer views! And, also some very hungry chipmunks! We stopped along the way for 2nd breakfast and then at the top had either 3rd breakfast or 1st lunch and the chipmunks were literally climbing on us! Gorgeous hike, though.

The Sidekick and I having a local beer on top of Deer Mountain! Killer view!

Another view from the top of Deer Mountain. Pic by the Adventurer!

Desperate Chipmunks: Deer Mountain Edition. 🙂

Fun outdoor trip and the perfect recharge from a weird year.

Overall impressions: Pros: Beautiful National Park. Great hiking. It was not terribly overcrowded, with the timed entry ticketing Cons: None. This is a must visit, period.

The Adventurer Final Word:
5 Stars! Must go!

Christmas in the Caymans, 2019

So this was the last 2019 trip! You might be wondering how on earth a teacher affords all this! Well, almost all of these flights were free with my Sidekicks companion pass on Southwest and she had accumulated enough points from that perk (a credit card offer) to basically make almost all the flights expenses during this year for damn near nothing! Hotels/Airbnbs and rental cars were a different story, but we managed to do most of all of that on the cheap, especially splitting between 2 people.

I usually go to Indiana for Christmas, but I had been there just 3 weeks prior so we found one last flight to the Caymans that fit the free flight bill! So other than a brief visit to Niagara falls 15 years ago and a day in the Bahamas from a cruise, this is the first time I have been out of the US!

They take Christmas pretty serious on the island!

So, there is a conversion rate problem here and things are kind of expensive. That being said, we found a hotel, Sunshine Suites Resort, right across the street from the beach hotels that was decent and about the cheapest we could find. The good news is it was a sister hotel to the resort across the street so we were allowed to use that hotels amenities. That was a great perk! Other than lounging on the gorgeous beach the entire time we did do a couple other things! We got on boat and went to a place called Stingray City. It was not without some trevails. The boat broke down a bit and it was a little weird…but we got to Stingray City and it was pretty cool! My friend was a chicken and wouldn’t get off of the boat! Afterward the boat took us to a snorkeling spot to do that for a bit. Later on in the trip we took another boat up to the northern part of the island and did a nighttime kayak trip through waters that had a bioluminescent plankton (the videos and pictures did not come out well).

I made NO adjustments to this selfie. Look at that water!

Close encounter with a stingray! Footage on my gopro from a random stranger.

Snorkeling in the Caymans! Gorgeous! Using my GoPro Hero Session 5. It’s a pain in the neck camera, but it does a great job when it works!

It was a short trip but was a lot of fun and was a new out of the US experience for me!

Overall impressions: Pros: Gorgeous water. Super friendly people. Neat things to do. It is pretty close to home! Cons: Exchange rate stinks. And I think we were the poorest tourists there. You will spend money quickly here.

The Adventurer Final Word:
4 stars! Really awesome place but be prepared to open your wallet, which cost a star for me!

Macy’s Parade, NYC, Nov. 2019

Whoo! Lots of fun stuff in 2019! So, I am a pro musician and trumpet player down in Florida. In my area there is an adult marching band. It is mainly much older people than me and just more amatuer level than anything. It is also about 500 strong and they travel the world. I did not know playing in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was on my bucket list, but here we are! I went with the Sidekick, as she used to live in NYC and was itching to get back to visit.

So the Macy’s thing was a good year and a half in the making. The buddy who I met up in Colorado the first trip and also who had the birthday that brought me down to South Florida this same year was also in the marching band. We were two of the “horses” so to speak in the trumpet section and planned on doing the Macy’s thing. So, we did. It’s NYC. It’s late November. It was about as warm and windy as you might expect! A couple notes about the Macy’s situation: 1) The Choreography of both the performance and the logistics has to be spot on perfect to be put on the TV telecast. 2) The practice for the parade and those logistics happens at like 1 or 2 AM and then from there its to breakfast and then lining up by 8. Not a short day at all! The Sidekick and I did a little New York stuff when we got into the city. The entire band was in a hotel just behind Times Square, so a super convenient location for sure. We did the performance, it went off pretty well! The Sidekick and I did some exploring of the city that night and the following day.

Early Sat we got up and ubered our way to Laguardia. The sidekick was back to Florida and I was off to Indiana, first.

Overall impressions: Pros: A neat once in a lifetime experience! NYC is a lot of fun and plenty of stuff to do. Cons: Cold and windy in the winter. Probably too busy for my liking. The band has done 2 Macy’s parades in only 11 years. If it comes up again, I have little desire to do this again.

The Adventurer Final Word:
5 Stars! Just because so few get a chance to do the Macy’s Parade. NYC is cool too, but probably wouldn’t be a 5 star without the Macy’s Experience.

Colorado. Salida/Great Sand Dunes National Park/Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park/Telluride/Denver. July 2019

National Parks Counter: 11, 12

Right off the bat, this is probably one my favorite trips, so far. I was with the Sidekick, we saw 2 national parks, almost every area of the state, and did LOTS OF COOL SHIT. Stops included: a wolf rescue, Great Sand Dunes National Park, whitewater rafting in Buena Vista, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Telluride, Denver, Breckenridge, and Golden.

So right out the gate we did something really, REALLY cool. We stopped by a now defunct wolf sanctuary. It seemed to be run by a pretty weird eccentric older guy who seriously loved those wolves! Pretty ragtag operation, but we got to actually physically interact with these guys. Some were half breeds too, but they all needed a place to sleep and someone to care for them. This was in a very small town called Guffey, elevation at a very surprising 9000 feet! Very neat experience and it was free! But we each made a donation to help out the critters!

Cute wolves! They’ll rip your arms off if you aren’t cool! Pic by the Adventurer.

We made our way to our base of operations for the next two evenings: Salida, CO, population like 15. Ok, not really, but it is small. The town itself is situated along the Arkansas river in a fairly ideal spot surrounded by mountains. It is about an hour and a half north of the Great Sand Dunes but also only a little south of the whitewater rafting location, and also directly on the road that we needed to take across the state in a couple days.

The Adventurer in front of the Arkansas River in Salida, CO. Picture by te Sidekick.

The Great Sand Dunes are really neat! We rented sand boards/sleds from the nearby town and went adventuring! There are plenty of hiking and mountain type opportunities there but we committed to just hanging out on these sand dunes. And they are not little humps of sand either! Super fun trying to sled down these dunes but I was terrible at it! Just terrible! Nicki was a a little better. And the children around were just whipping around these things like they were nothing. Very annoying, kid!

Grand Sand Dunes National Park. Not the best picture in the world, and I don’t like getting roads in pictures like this, but it does give you some sense of the terrain and the dunes against the mountains! Picture by the Adventurer.

Hmm. Adult language…I promise this is harder than it looks!

After a night out and about in Salida (that means the one nearby bar that was open!) we got up early to head to the Adventure Company in Buena Vista to raft a spot in the Arkansas called simply, The Numbers. This is a pretty difficult stretch, class IV and V, with a bunch of rapids in short succession, and they are just numbered instead of properly named. Now, this was late July and usually by this point the rivers have settled down a bit. Unlike the previous year’s Royal Gorge, late June and already settled down water, this summer the water was crazy high. In fact, I do not believe they could even open this stretch to rafting until a week or two before we went, so it was exciting. Best part: no raft ejections this time!

The Numbers section of the Arkansas River out of Buena Vista. And wow, I kinda forgot how fast that water was moving! There might be some questionable language on any of these videos….

After rafting we hit the road and headed toward our evening destination in a town called Placerville, just outside of Telluride. En route we had a planned stop at another national park, The Black Canyon of the Gunnison. So this place was definitely cool to look at, but there is not a terribly large amount of things to do, or even much hiking, outside of stopping at overlooks and the small treks to the edge. Don’t get me wrong, it was spectacular, but the canyon is literally almost straight down (it is called the black canyon because some parts are so narrow that sunlight doesn’t really ever make it through) and so that means not much in the way of trails. If you are the type that loves to experience cool things while driving or close to the road this is a cool one and very neat to see!

Painted Wall in Black Canyon of The Gunnison National Park. Photo by the Adventurer.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison. The river is called The Gunnison. Photo by the Adventurer.

The Angler Inn. Our lodging in Placerville, outside of Telluride. It was much cheaper than staying in Telluride! Photo by the Adventurer.

We made our way to south through a really gorgeous stretch of road that at times reminded me of the mountains in Alaska. But, I guess this is the reason they call parts of this area the Alps of America. So this is where we pulled an audible. The plan was to make a brief stop in Telluride before it got dark that evening, go to Mesa Verde National Park about an hour or two down the road the next day and then head back to Denver the following morning. After our short evening visit and dinner in Telluride, it was decided to spend the next day entirely in Telluride. Telluride is spectacular and we were both needing a more relaxed day without driving 200 miles round trip. Telluride is a ski town, but even in the summer it was cool AF. We spent the entire day there. There are a couple breweries/pubs in the town. There are, of course, some excellent hiking opportunities. We hiked a jeep road that leads to some crazy mountain road that nutty people will drive, but hikers use it as well and it goes up to a sweet tall waterfall, Bridal Veil Falls. There is also a free gondola that goes up the mountain and over to another town even a bit higher in elevation called Mountain Village (all ski resort type stuff). It was up here that I learned that high elevation and alcohol are not a great mix! An IPA up there had my head spinning like crazy, but down in Telluride, about 1000 feet lower, I was just fine. Speaking of beer, there are a couple cool spots to grab a brew! Telluride Brewing Co. is just outside of town and cannot be missed. The Smuggler Union Restaurant and Brewery is tucked away in a corner of Telluride proper. Some really good beers and some delicious food can be found here!

Telluride from the gondola. Photo by the Adventurer.

No photo description available. — Bridal Falls on the Jeep trail outside of Telluride. Photo by some random stranger!

Fun observations from my travel buddy.

The next day we got up and headed in the general direction of Denver. It was a lengthy drive and unbeknownst to us, the time we left could not have been any later due to a thing that happened later! In preparation for this drive we found a mountain top amusement park in a town called Glenwood Springs. The drive near Glenwood Springs on I-70 is pretty amazing, basically driving at the bottom, along the river, of a deep canyon. As we got into the town it started raining quite heavily for a bit so we stopped to eat lunch. As the rain cleared we parked at the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park and got into the line to take the gondola up the mountain. It was about this time, or right when we got up to the park that we found out that I-70 had been entirely blocked by a mudslide from that rain! Had we been like 30 minutes later, maybe less, we would have had a SERIOUS problem. I think the interstate was closed the rest of the day and if I remember correctly the detour to get back on the way to Denver was a large number of hours. Eek! Anyway, the amusement park on the mountain top was AMAZING. The Alpine coaster…legit. That is some fun crap!

The SUPER FUN Alpine Coaster. And be warned there is some sporadic but very adult language in this one!

We finally made it to our AirBnb in Arvada, just outside of Denver. We hung out around Denver one of the days we had left. We checked out this area called the Mall, and outdoor corridor of shops, restaurants and the like. We did spend a day checking out Red Rocks, and then exploring Breckenridge. Breck is another really awesome ski spot. After doing some light exploration of the town, we saddled down to a beer at the Breckenridge Brewery. That Vanilla Porter is delicious, but they actually sell it here in Florida, so I had some other brews! Afterward, we did a pretty decent hike in the afternoon, something called Mohawk Lake Trail. We didn’t make it quite to the end as it was getting late, but we went pretty far and to one of the lakes nearish the end.

The Adventurer in Breckenridge. Photo by the Sidekick.

The wrap up of our trip was a morning spent in Golden. We found a little mountain hike and a cool bar to finish up our trip before heading to the airport, Ace Hi Tavern where the Sidekick gave a great narration using the map in the bar!

Nicki narrates our trip!

Overall impressions: Pros: Two national parks. Telluride is amazing. The white water rafting was outstanding fun. Not scenic really, but super intense! It was awesome getting up close and personal with actual damn wolves! Cons: Just a lot of driving, which cannot be helped. Maybe, as I said for the previous year, there is too much to do!

The Adventurer Final Word:
5 Stars! If you haven’t experienced Colorado, and I don’t mean Denver either, you are missing out!

Southeast Roadtrip. Savannah, GA/Congaree National Park/Asheville, NC/Great Smoky Mountains National Park/Clayton, GA. June 2019

National Park Counter: 9, 10

Ok, so this one actually came before the California trip as well, and I forgot it too! Oops! Anyway this was a road trip my buddy Matthew took with me. He lives in Guam but comes to Florida to visit often. We have been throughout Florida so much, and I have the travel bug so I suggested we take a road trip out of state when he got here. The. plan: leave for Savannah, GA on day one, and stay the night there; get up the next day and drive to Congaree National Park; from there head toward Asheville and make an overnight stop there; get up the next day and go to Great Smoky Mountains National Park; stay the night in Cherokee, NC; travel and stay the day and night in Clayton, GA; return to Florida. In other words: a lot!

Unlike literally EVERY SINGLE OTHER TRIP in this blog, this one had not so good weather. My good weather streak ran out, so things were not ideal. It was not terrible…but not ideal. I had hope to do some more exploring in Savannah, but unfortunately it was pouring so dinner and a quick stop at a brewpub was it. The next morning we stopped at Congaree National Park, SC, home to some of the largest cypress trees in the country, and is some kind of special bottomlands hardwood forest. It was sparsely attended, very serene, very green, and there was not a ton to do aside from a boardwalk hike that turned into a small trail through the immediate area. I understand there is some kayaking and canoeing that one can do on the Congaree River if one desires.

This was pretty much it for a quite a distance! Taken by the Adventurer.

Some of these cypress trees are over 150 feet tall! Taken by the Adventurer.

After departing Congaree we decided to stop at a place called Chimney Rock, just outside of Asheville. There was some good hiking around the area and it seemed really neat. But the weather was not great, we ran into a copperhead, and it was ho hum because of all of that. I could see how it would be spectacular in good, non snakey weather though!

The view on this day from the top of said Chimney Rock….Taken by the Adventurer.

My buddy and I made it to Asheville and did some of the same things I did just a year earlier. No pictures or further commentary because I just wrote about that trip a few days ago! So the next morning we drove from Asheville up to Gatlinburg, TN. There was a new Skybridge situation they had built there and it seemed worthy of checking out before going into the Smokies. It took a lift to get up there and unfortunately while we were up there storms moved in and we got stuck for a while. Annoying, but what can you do?

Selfie time! Oops on the reversed lettering…but this is the skybridge. The middle is all glass.

When we finally got down it was time to get into the Smokys. Before I get to further into this and it sounds like a not so good experience: The Park itself is splendid and a real gem – easy to see why it’s the most visited national park! Obviously, this was June, so heavy crowds were to be expected but it was pouring and I was hoping that the silver lining could be less crowded. But, no. It was crowded AND pouring rain. My hiking aspirations went out the window. We drove awhile in the park and managed to get some better weather in the Cades Cove area…and the dumb long line of cars slowly inching their ways through the area. The weather turned annoying again so we basically just finished the drive south through the park and checked into our Airbnb in Cherokee. We found a cool short trail to a neat waterfall before heading to dinner. While at dinner it cleared up and the sun came out! I told my friend: “Hey, let’s go back into the park.” So we did, and it was much nicer experience. We decided to try the drive up Clingman’s Dome at around 7 or 8 o’clock, which was a mistake. The sign said exactly how many miles it was to the summit and I don’t know if I ever watched the tenths of miles click off on the odometer so closely! I couldn’t tell you if the drive was crazy scary and exposed or not. It’s like we were driving through a cloud the entire time! We eventually made it to the top and did the short hike up to the top of the observation deck. I assume from the signs up there that you can see miles and miles, but we could see like 15 feet.

Smoky Mountains later in the day. Taken by the Adventurer

An old mill in the Smokies. Taken by the Adventurer

A close encounter with a friend, photo taken by the Adventurer.

Mingo Falls, Cherokee, NC .
Photo taken by Matthew. This is the end of a pretty short trail. I doubt you are supposed to go where I was standing.

The next day we headed down toward Clayton, GA. I was there just the year prior and it is only an hour or less from Cherokee, so a return was warranted. We hiked Black Rock Mountain, the Tennessee trail, from start to summit, about 2.5 miles or so. The year previous I had just driven up to the top, but the summit was actually off in the woods. We did the Tallulah Gorge hikes which I had already done before we saw goats on top of a country store, and had dinner at the restaurant I had been to the last time. Protip: if ever in Clayton, GA, check out fortify kitchen and try their homemade butter…you can buy a big container of it, and it’s not cheap but OH SO GOOD. After the long trip back to FL, this trip was in the books!

Many goats are on top of this store. And watch for droppings from above…

The big falls in Tallulah Gorge, taken by the Adventurer.

Summit of Black Rock Mountain! Taken by Matthew. Take the Tennessee Trail

Overall impressions: Pros: Two national parks. Smokys after the crowds and rain cleared out. Clayton, GA (again) Cons: Weather. Smoky’s with the crazy crowds and not so good weather. Congaree is neat, but not much to do there.

The Adventurer Final Word:
4 Stars! It was a cool roadtrip for sure. Had the weather been better if might have been close to 5 stars.

Miami/Everglades National Park/Biscayne National Park/Islamorada. Feb. 2019

National Park Count 7,8

I might have mentioned at the beginning of the blog that I would try to keep everything in some semblance of order. Done pretty well so far! However, I forgot this one. And it’s going to be a short one. The FIRST trip of a very travel heavy 2019. The friend I went to Colorado with in 2018 had his 50th at a restaurant in Islamorada, one of the northern Florida keys. He, his wife, some friends and family made the 6 hour drive from the Tampa area on Saturday and were to come back the very next day.

I went ahead and left Friday morning with the intent to stay in the Wynwood area of Miami. Think of a grungy industrial, craft brewery area and you got it! I also was meeting up with a former student of mine from many years ago who works in Miami now. He lives in a high rise in an area of Miami called Brickell, so we cabbed it down there and checked out some cool spots for the evening. Miami is NUTS. It’s huge. I had been down there once or twice when I first moved to Florida and its either grown like crazy or I just forgot. Anyway, Saturday morning I got up and tid a tandem drive by of two national parks near Miami.

I first went to Biscayne National Park and to be fair this visit is not really even a visit. I walked around outside along the shore a bit and checked out the visitor center, but the bulk of the park is off shore in the waters and islands off the coast. I simply didnt have the time it was going to take to get out to the islands and …. walk around them like any other offshore island in Florida.

Some may not know this, but the entrance to Biscayne National Park is literally like 30 minutes from the entrance to the Everglades National Park. So I zipped it over there real quick like! I went in, found a visitor center and found a short hiking experience down the road a bit and called it a park. I had been there once before is some fashion…and to be honest? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…Florida is not that varied really. Once you have seen one swampy alligator infested marsh you’ve seen em all!

Off to the 2 hour drive to Islamorada. I have done this drive all the way to Key West before, and it is very pretty. The water is gorgeous! If it were not so far from me I would go down there much more often. The Fish House is a super awesome place to go if you like seafood! I apparently did not take many pictures on this trip. Weird. But it is what it is!

Overall impressions: Pros: The water down in this part of Florida is great! The keys are cool for sure. Two national parks (ho hum as they are for me) are within a stones throw of Miami. Cons: The scenery is not very good unless it’s the waters around the keys. It’s not easily accessible from me. The keys themselves are still a good ways from Miami and the traffic is a nightmare.

The Adventurer Final Word:
3 Stars.