Utah Part 2: Monument Valley, Zion NP, and Cedar Breaks NM – September 2020

September 23, 2022September 23, 2022 bringram Camping, Hiking, National Parks Brian Head, Cedar Breaks National Monument, Monument Valley, Utah, Zion National Park

Leah and I decided to go on a bigger Labor Day trip this time around. It was the fall of 2020 and many of our travel plans seemed up in the air due to the global pandemic. Neither of us had ever spent any time in Utah and “The Big 5” (Arches, Canyonlands, Zion, Bryce Canyon, and Capitol Reef) were on our bucket list. We lucked into a lull in COVID-19 cases which, along with the relative safety of camping and hiking, made the trip seem reasonable. I’ve split the trip into three blog posts. Part 1 covers the first six days which included driving out to Utah, Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, and Natural Bridges National Monument. Part 2 covers the next 5 days which included Monument Valley, Zion National Park, and Cedar Breaks National Monument. Part 3 covers the next six days which included Bryce Canyon National Park, Capitol Reef National Park, and the drive back to Minnesota.

Day 7 – Monument Valley and Zion National Park

We set an alarm for 6:30 so we could get going on a long day of driving. Leah took a shower in the morning. The campsite being right next to the highway ended up not being an issue for me. I slept really well.

The morning haze of Monument Valley from our modest tent pad.

The couple next to us at the KOA was heading to Capitol Reef National Park. They said it was beautiful—so much so that they had just been there in June but still wanted to go back a few months later. This was contrary to what camp host Dick had told us at Arches National Park—how Capitol Reef National Park was just like all of the other Utah parks. We packed up and initially headed backwards a bit so that we could get photos of Monument Valley which we had missed due to arriving so late at night.

A beautiful photo of Monument Valley from the side of the highway.

The backdrop to the iconic *Forest Gump* running scene.

We hit the road again and headed south towards Arizona on our way to Zion National Park. We stopped in Kayenta to fill our cooler with ice and so Leah could get a coffee. We drove past the Navajo National Monument but it was closed due to COVID. The long stretches of remote Arizona highways were beautiful and made for a pleasant drive. We stopped in Lake Powell so Leah could use the restroom at the Glen Canyon Dam visitor center. I used this opportunity to check out the dam.

The Glen Canyon Dam. You can see the low water levels upstream.

Lake Powell reminded us a lot of Lake Mead. Both are artificial water features created by massive dams on the Colorado River. Lake Powell was an odd tourist destination with lots of boaters, resorts, and crisp green golf courses—all in the middle of the desert. We crossed back into Utah and stopped in Kanab to get gas. Next we made our way into Zion National Park. Of course we had to stop and get a National Park sign photo.

Here’s Leah in front of the Zion National Park east entrance sign.

We hiked the Canyon Overlook Trail which was just past the east entrance. The trail was pretty crowded but we got some great views of the canyon. It’s a one mile hike that is highly recommended and this was our best chance to do it since we would be leaving Zion NP out of a different entrance.

Here’s the view looking up the canyon during the hike.

Here’s the view from the end of the hike. Zion Canyon is the canyon way in the distance that this one drains into. There’s a tunnel along the canyon wall to the left which is how cars access the winding road in the distance and eventually Zion Canyon.

Here’s Leah sporting some Minneapolis pride on one of the more treacherous looking parts of the trail.

We hiked back to the car and ate lunch out of the trunk. We continued into the park—driving through the tunnel and down the winding road. Once we got to Zion Canyon and the main area of the park, our first destination was the visitor center to talk to a ranger. We already knew that Angels Landing (one of the most iconic hikes in the entire National Park system) was closed due to COVID. The hike gets incredibly crowded and there is a section of chains that are a common touch surface. We also knew that the main route to Observation Point was closed due to a rock slide. The ranger said that the alternate route from the East Rim Trail was for high clearance all-wheel drive vehicles only. I wasn’t convinced, but it was discouraging to hear. And to top it all off, hiking The Narrows was still not recommended due to a harmful algae bloom in the river. Apparently this was the first time that this particular algae bloom had ever been found in a river in Utah. The ranger said we should not hike The Narrows. I was really bummed out. The three hikes that I wanted to do the most at Zion NP were all closed for different reasons. We had three days planned at Zion NP and now I was wondering what we were going to do.

We had shuttle tickets for Zion Canyon that were good between 2 and 3 PM. I had purchased all of our shuttle tickets ahead of time. Luckily, I realized while planning the trip that—due to COVID—timed tickets were needed in order to ride the shuttle. Private vehicles were not allowed into the canyon during the summer so the only way in was on a shuttle, private tour, bicycle, or by walking. I was vigilant in checking the reservation system so that we could get tickets in the afternoon roughly when we would arrive. Also, we had early morning tickets the following two days so that we could hike before the crowds increased later in the day.

We boarded the shuttle at 2:30 PM and headed to the final stop on the route—the Temple of Sinawava. This is where the hike to The Narrows begins. We hiked the Riverside Walk Trail and passed countless people who had obviously just hiked The Narrows. When we got to the end of the trail, we saw so many people in the Virgin River. We had read that the algae was only really dangerous if it got in your eye, an open wound, or if you swallowed it. We had planned to heed the ranger’s warning. But after seeing so many people hiking in the river, we decided that it must be safe enough and we should totally do it as well. We thought that as long as we took precautions and were careful that it would be safe. My spirits lifted a little. We’d still have to come back another time to hike Angels Landing and Observation Point, but at least we could hike The Narrows.

Large groups of people wading in supposedly dangerous water.

We hiked back to the shuttle stop and waited in line for about 30 minutes. COVID precautions were being loosely followed. We boarded the St. George shuttle which was being used as a visitor center express bus. There was a constant stream of people boarding the shuttles at the stop we just left so there wasn’t any room for people at later stops to get on. We were going to get off at the Big Bend shuttle stop and look around but we were advised not to due to it being hard to get back on a shuttle.

Once back at the visitor center we bought the passport sticker, a park sticker, postcards, and a baby gift. Our friend had just given birth the other day and Leah wanted to pick out something for the new baby. Next we headed out on the Pa’rus Trail. It was flat and followed the Virgin River. We also got some nice views of the canyon.

We headed to our campsite and set up the tent. Our tent was a little damp from the morning. We had a couple beers and ate extra creamy mac and cheese for dinner. I was very impressed with how easy it was to make mac and cheese on our stove. It also tasted great in my opinion.

Our campsite with Leah enjoying some snacks.

We cleaned up and headed to the ranger program which started at 8 PM. It was about animals in the park. I was so glad that there was a ranger program. It’s one of my favorite things about camping at National Parks. COVID had cut a bunch of programming at National Parks so this was the first ranger program that we had been able to attend.

After the ranger program, we walked back to our campsite. Leah commented that she was going to throw out her headlamp because only two of the four bulbs were working and she wanted a brighter light. I like my dim headlamp. The Milky Way was visible—though not as nice as the first night in Arches National Park. We headed to bed with a plan to hike to Scout Lookout (as far as you can go before the chain section of Angels Landing) the next day.

Total miles hiked: 6.7 Weather: Highs in the 80s at Zion, temps in the 60s while driving

Day 8 – Zion National Park

We set an alarm for 6:45 AM in order to catch our 8 to 9 AM shuttle as soon as we could. We arrived just before 8 AM and boarded the shuttle right away. We rode to the Grotto which is the recommended shuttle stop for hiking the Angels Landing Trail. We overheard an employee talk about how the highs were recently over 100 degrees, but then forest fire smoke blocked the sun and it cooled off a bit. Then a cold front came in which brought cooler nights and mornings. We were very thankful of that because with the sun still behind the canyon wall it was actually quite pleasant out. We started the hike with layers on that we quickly shed due to the steep incline of the trail.

The view from the start of the hike. The large rock formation to the left of center is Angels Landing. The trail wasn’t very crowded which was nice. It was also a paved trail which made it a little bit easier to hike on.

As we climbed, the views back into the canyon were really amazing.

In Refrigerator Canyon (a section of the trail where you enter a small narrow canyon with mostly flat terrain that provides shade and respite from the rest of the hike) we saw a Mexican spotted owl. We had just heard about them at the ranger talk the night before. What a great reason to go to ranger talks! Mexican spotted owls are threatened and a rare sight to see in the wild. It was really cool to see one just chilling on a branch.

This photo kind of sucks because I zoomed in a lot and don’t have a fancy camera. But look at how precious it is.

The hike up to Scout Lookout wasn’t that bad. I expected it to be scarier and longer, with steep drop-offs to the side of the trail. I suppose the chain section of Angels Landing would fit that scary criteria, but the hike up was actually quite nice (with a caveat of it being steep and uphill and we did it mostly in the shade in the cooler early morning temperatures—I would not hike it midday). A fun feature of the hike was Walter’s Wiggles—21 switchbacks that take their name from Zion National Park’s first superintendent.

Walter’s Wiggles is a steep traverse made easier by 21 switchbacks.

We got to Scout Lookout and saw what we knew already, that Angels Landing was closed. There was a park volunteer stationed by the entrance to the chain section to stop anyone from breaking the rules and climbing Angels Landing. We overheard the volunteer mention times where he had to call the park police on people that sneaked out onto Angels Landing. The punishment involved a hefty fine and a ban from National Parks. On the landing designated as Scout Lookout there was a decent amount of people. It was obviously the place to have a rest and take in the beauty of Zion Canyon. There was also a toilet, just in case.

Here’s Zion Canyon from near Scout Lookout, with the east wall still totally shaded.

We decided to continue hiking up the trail that would eventually lead to the top of the west rim of the canyon. This was mostly so we could get away from the crowds but also so that we could get a better view of Angels Landing.

A Massive rock table on the west rim known as Cathedral Mountain.

We found a nice place to sit and have a snack. The view was incredible, but I was still a little bummed that we couldn’t climb Angels Landing.

Our snack break location, with Angels Landing being the rock spire just beyond the trees. Note the sweat stain on Leah’s back—it was a steep hike and the temperature in the exposed sun was already really hot.

After our break we started hiking back down to Scout Lookout. The views were breathtaking.

Leah’s photo of me with Angels Landing directly over my left shoulder.

Once we got back down near Scout Lookout we made a quick stop to watch some wildlife. As it turns out, there was a California condor riding the thermals and cruising around Angels Landing. California condors are critically endangered and there has been a program to reintroduce them into the wild. We overheard some man named Justin—who appeared to be a casual tour guide of sorts—telling his party about how this was chick #1000 (if you’re curious, check out this link). Justin mentioned how miraculous it was that the 1000th California condor chick was born in Zion National Park near Angels Landing, one of the most iconic places in the entire National Park system. Also, 2019—when the chick was born—was the 100th anniversary of Zion National Park. Lots of cool stuff about chick #1000. We raced back and forth trying to get photos of the condor as it floated by. Here are a couple photos I took of chick #1000.

After the excitement of chick #1000, we continued hiking back down the canyon. I was taking the downhill very carefully so I didn’t hurt my knee. When we got to Refrigerator Canyon, the Mexican spotted owl was still there (two hours later). Maybe it was taking a morning siesta?

You can see it directly in the middle of the photo, this time zoomed out for scale so you can see how close it was to the trail.

We finished the hike back down. It was heating up and we saw a lot of people just heading out on the trail. Like most popular hikes, it’s best to get an early start at Angels Landing. Here are a couple photos that I took while hiking down that I thought were amazing.

From further down the hike, Zion Canyon rising on both sides and the Virgin River flowing through.

Next we hiked the Emerald Pools loop via the Kayenta Trail. I have to say that the pools were not all that emerald-y or pool-y. The park didn’t have its normal monsoon season so that may have affected the water levels in the Emerald Pools. We had lunch at the Middle Emerald Pool and then hiked to the Upper and Lower pools.

The Middle Emerald Pool—not very big or emerald.

Leah in front of the Upper Emerald Pool—also pretty small and clear.

The Lower Emerald Pool—the pool-iest and emerald-iest of them all.

We finished the Emerald Pools loop and started on the Sand Bench Trail. This trail was not recommended by the ranger because it’s a sandy horse trail with lots of exposure. We didn’t see any horses on the trail—just in the horse corral at the start. The trail was sandy but not too bad. We also had an interesting encounter with a snake on the trail as we watched it awkwardly retreat with a lizard dangling from its mouth. It probably thought we wanted to steal its lizard snack.

We decided to take a cutoff from the Sand Bench Trail towards the Court of the Patriarchs. We were starting to heat up and the trail didn’t seem to have any more good views beyond what we had already seen.

The Court of the Patriarchs, as seen from the Sand Bench Trail.

Taking the trail cutoff brought us back to the park road and the Court of the Patriarchs shuttle stop. The shuttle was not stopping at this location due to COVID restricted scheduling. We did the overlook hike at the shuttle stop. The views were pretty good. We hiked back down and then walked along the side of the park road back to the Zion Lodge.

Mount Moroni from the Court of the Patriarchs overlook.

Back at the lodge we filled water bottles and got a treat. I got a Crunch bar and Leah had to settle for vanilla soft serve in a cup (they were out of ice cream cones and chocolate soft serve). We found a nice shaded and grassy spot under a large tree and ate our dessert. Leah had me finish her soft serve—she said chocolate or twist would have been better.

A nice ice cream break after lots of hiking.

We poked around the store at the Zion Lodge for a little bit and then started the Grotto Trail. The trail eventually brought us back to the Grotto shuttle stop which was where we were going to catch a ride back. There were a lot of other groups at the shuttle stop that were confused about the policy which required you to keep your original shuttle ticket to board on a return trip. I read the rules and was prepared so there was no confusion for us.

We rode the shuttle back to the visitor center and I caught a couple of Zs. From the visitor center we started the Watchman Trail. The hike had some really good views of the town of Springdale and the lower canyon.

The view looking up the canyon from the Watchman Trail. In the background are features such as the *Alter of Sacrifice* and *The Sentinel*.

By this point in the day it had gotten very hot. The sun was directly overhead and there was no shade. We were also starting to feel the miles as we had already hiked a bunch that day. We were both ready to relax back at the campsite.

Here’s Leah in front of The Watchman. The trail did not summit the peak but provided good views of it.

Here’s the view looking down the canyon with the town of Springdale in the middle of the photo.

We hiked back to camp and drank beer and ate snacks. We did a little reading and postcard writing while lounging in the shade. For dinner we made a Pad Thai freeze dried. At 8 PM we walked to the campground amphitheater for another ranger program. The program that night was about bugs and it was very interesting—though I would love pretty much any ranger program. We also learned that the Labor Day weekend numbers that year at Zion NP were only 1,000 fewer than the year before (which is a drop in the bucket for a park like Zion). It was obvious that the pandemic had not deterred National Park travelers.

After the ranger program, we headed back to our campsite and went to bed. I set my alarm for 6:20 AM because we had 7-8 AM shuttle tickets for the next day.

Total miles hiked: 13.3 Weather: Highs in the 90s, cool in the morning

Day 9 – Zion National Park

I overslept my alarm due to earplugs—I think. We ended up waking up 20 minutes later than planned. We made breakfast and prepped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the day. Our tickets were for an hour earlier than the day before but we only got to the shuttle about 15 minutes earlier. We rode the shuttle all the way to the last stop—the Temple of Sinawava. We had set aside the entire day for hiking The Narrows. In order to help with stability in the river we brought our trekking poles which were incredibly helpful throughout the day. We were also wearing old running shoes that we brought along specifically for this hike so that we didn’t have to ruin any other shoes while trudging through water all day. We re-walked the Riverside Walk Trail to the start of The Narrows. Immediately after starting the hike, our feet got soaked and stayed that way for the rest of the day.

Here’s the view from the start of The Narrows. It’s impossible to avoid getting wet.

It was easy to spot the people hiking in rental gear as they all had the same neoprene socks with waterproof boots that came in neon red, yellow, and green. They also all had a single wooden hiking stick. Even with our relatively early start it was still pretty crowded on the hike. It was hard to take a photo of the river without having other people in the background. The canyon was cold—and so was the water. Since the canyon opening is very narrow (hence the name), not much sunlight gets in. It was surprisingly dark.

It didn’t take long before we were already walking in knee-high water.

It was unclear where you were supposed to pee and poop. At one point I saw a woman crouching in waist-high water who was clearly pissing herself. With the constant stream of people—and the restrictive nature of being inside a canyon—it was nearly impossible to find a spot to take a leak in private, much less drop a deuce.

Here’s me near the start of the hike—when there were still lots of dry places to stand.

The different rock colors and the sun shining on parts of the canyon walls made for beautiful views.

We saw so many people trip and fall. It’s really hard to get your footing while walking on top of rocks of varying sizes that are submerged in a moving river. I was thankful to have a trekking pole in each hand. There were people hiking without any stabilizing accessories which just seemed crazy to me. At least the people with the single wooden stick had one item to balance with.

Leah up ahead, shrouded in the darkness of the canyon.

We hiked past the Orderville Canyon turnoff. The distances were really unclear and we didn’t know how far we’d be able to get in one day so we kept hiking up the Virgin River instead of taking a detour.

We started on the section known as Wall Street—named due to the high and steep walls on either side.

As best as we could, we would weave back and forth in the river, trying to find the shallowest and least treacherous way upstream. At times it was obvious—stretches that were above water and easier to move through. Other times it was a guessing game of wading through water that you couldn’t really see the bottom of and hoping that you picked a decent route. This made for some really slow going—especially with the added difficulty of walking upstream. We had to pass through a couple of spots where the river water was chest-high. I cinched my backpack up high and tiptoed through the water. Luckily, we never had to outright swim. But the bottom of my backpack did get a little wet.

A cool looking boulder in the middle of the river.

At one of these chest-high passes we were stuck behind a line of people. Our options were to either wait as the line of people slowly crept—one-by-one—along the shallowest part of the river that hugged the canyon wall or to swim up the middle. We opted to wait and were entertained by a man that was continuously swimming to a boulder in the river, climbing on top of it, and jumping off into the river. He was really showing off for the crowd.

An action shot of Leah hiking towards me near the end of Wall Street.

As we got further up the river, the crowds started to thin out. A combination of the total distance hiked and deep-water obstacles scared people away. We kept wondering if we’d see any signs or mileage markers. In fact, we saw neither. The non-permitted section of The Narrows ended at a spot on the map called Big Springs. We weren’t sure how far we had hiked because walking in the river really threw off our pace. We had hiked about 4 miles in the river—or at least that’s what we guessed.

After Wall Street the canyon opened up more and the sun started to shine down into the canyon.

I liked how the shadows and light played around in this shot.

We were hiking for a while—following the same guy. He eventually stopped hiking and we caught up to him. He told us that he left his wife (left her physically that is, not left in matrimony) and needed to start heading back. We had him take a photo of us.

We then stopped to assess our situation as we watched him hike back down river and out of view. At that point we didn’t know if anybody else was ahead of us on the trail (though probably at least someone was). We decided that since we didn’t know how much further we had to hike to get to the “end” of the trail that it made sense to turn around. We didn’t want to be rushing to get out of the canyon as the afternoon wore on.

This section of the hike was much more peaceful (and sunny).

We hiked a short distance back to a sunny section of the canyon and ate lunch on a rock. We saw a few people venture on ahead of where we were eating lunch. At least two of them were specifically looking to make it to Big Springs—and hoping that they’d make it back in time to catch the last shuttle at 8:15 PM. I’d guess that at the spot where we turned around we were about one mile at most from Big Springs. But with the river conditions that could take over an hour to hike. Plus, we had no definitive word on if there would even be a sign or marker telling us that we arrived—which meant we could be hiking indefinitely. For all we knew we had already passed Big Springs without even knowing it. We were both bummed that we didn’t “complete” The Narrows hike but we were very happy with what we saw.

Leah’s photo of me as we made our way back through Wall Street. Notice the neon boots and single wooden sticks in the background.

**After returning home I did a little research and saw some photos of Big Springs. After looking at the photos I determined that we never made it to Big Springs. There also appeared to be no signs. It would have been cool, but the scenery seemed very similar to what we saw so I don’t feel like we missed out too much.**

Leah in Wall Street. I only trusted myself to take out my phone in drier conditions so we don’t have photos of the wettest parts of the hike.

As we made our way back past the deep-water obstacles—this time in reverse order which made them slightly easier to traverse—we began to see the crowds of people again. You’d think there couldn’t be more people, but then around the next corner there would be dozens—and then hundreds—of people. It was an odd sight to see during a pandemic—and also during a time when park rangers were specifically telling people to not hike in the river due to dangerous bacteria. I couldn’t judge since we were also there. But Leah and I were taking more precautions as far as distancing, wearing a mask, and not fully submerging ourselves in the river.

I really liked the way the light bounced off the canyon walls in this photo.

On our way back we took a slight detour into Orderville Canyon. We very quickly came to a section with a boulder scramble. We also heard that there were more boulder scrambles and swimming involved in order to see a waterfall. The scrambles seemed dangerous and we didn’t know how far we’d have to hike in order to see the waterfall (I later looked it up and it was a half mile in and then you couldn’t hike past the waterfall). We decided to turn back and rejoin the main canyon to continue downstream.

Things that had been darker and cooler in color were much more vibrant on our way out.

We took a break to drop layers and put on sunglasses. The sun was finally overhead and the sunlight was shining into the canyon. The canyon was much hotter and brighter—the difference between 9 AM when we were first hiking in the canyon and 2 PM. We were near a group of young twenty-somethings that consisted mostly of shirtless men. They called upon the services of a woman with a special technique to puncture the base of a Coors Light tallboy. Then one of the shirtless men—who was also wearing a bucket hat—declared it to be “shotgun o’clock”. The men proceeded to shotgun their beers right in the middle of the trail. To their credit, they did crush and collect the cans. However, it did disturb the peaceful nature of the National Park. But in all honesty, the crowds had already done that.

People taking a break on the side of the canyon.

I’m always a little torn when it comes popularity and accessibility of parks (mostly pertaining to the most popular National Parks and State Parks). I come from an incredible place of privilege where I was exposed to these places often while growing up. I’ve never felt out of place or unwelcome while visiting a National Park. It’s also hard to escape the fact that most of the land—if not all—was at one point home to indigenous people.

I want the parks to be popular. I want everyone to feel welcome. I want more federal and state funding going towards protecting land. But at the same time, I don’t want these same parks to be crowded. I feel the most at peace in nature when there isn’t anybody else around. So there’s a struggle between wishing everyone the opportunity to visit these majestic places while also not seeing those same people when I’m there. I guess that’s why I tend to fall in love more with parks and trails that are less traveled. Either way, I’m happy to see so many people enjoying Zion NP.

The view nearing the end of The Narrows.

Anyway, back to our hike. We finally made our way out of The Narrows. We took a snack break by the Virgin River, away from the sea of people coming from and going to The Narrows. We walked back to the shuttle stop and ended up waiting about 30 minutes in line for a bus. Leah commented that it was like waiting in line at Disney and I agreed.

The queue of people waiting for a shuttle ride.

We rode the bus back to the visitor center and then walked back to our campsite. We took a quick breather and drank a bunch of water—we didn’t drink enough on the trail for fear of having to pee more. We ate some snacks and wrung out our wet socks. We also spent some time wiping our bodies down with wet wipes in order to remove grime and bacteria. There weren’t showers at our campground so that was the best we could do.

We drove into Springdale for dinner. We stopped at a pizza place to place a to-go order and then walked around town while we waited for our order. Springdale was a cute little mountain-ish town with a few tourist traps sprinkled in—nothing like Moab. We picked up our dinner and brought it back to our campsite. We ate the pizza and salad and washed it down with wine. The pizza was good—the crust was scalloped for some reason.

After dinner we went to the ranger program. It was on Mexican spotted owls. As we were experts on Mexican spotted owls—having just seen one in the wild—the program was just okay. It’s hard to do an entire ranger program on such a specific topic. Each talk the topic had gotten more specific—animals to insects to owls.

After the ranger program we walked back to our campsite and headed to bed. We were having a casual-ish (by our standards) morning the next day. All we had to do was pack up and head out of Zion. No alarm was set.

Total miles hiked: ~10 Weather: Highs in the 90s, cool in the morning

Day 10 – Zion NP to Cedar Breaks National Monument

We packed up camp and made a more involved breakfast since we had more time. We ate freeze dried huevos rancheros and I would not recommend it. It wasn’t worth the effort and was only made flavorful by adding Trader Joe’s corn salsa and homemade hot sauce.

Next we loaded up the car and headed out of Zion NP. Leah dropped off postcards at the Springdale post office. We made our way around the southwest section of the park and eventually back to the northwest section of Zion which is called Kolob Canyons. The first thing the ranger told us when we arrived at the Kolob Canyons visitor center was that we were in the wrong location for cool hikes. We informed him that we had just come from the cool hikes section.

We parked the car—in a full parking lot nonetheless, uncool hikes be damned!—and started out on the Taylor Creek Trail. It was an out-and-back trail. We hiked past two cabins from the early 1900s but neither had any interpretative signs or info—beyond when they were built—so they weren’t very cool.

The trail was beautiful and it gave us new canyon views to experience.

The trail ended at Double Arch Alcove. It wasn’t really an arch—more of an alcove—but it was still super cool.

We took a snack break by Double Arch Alcove and enjoyed the view. Kolob Canyon seemed greener than Zion Canyon.

Taylor Creek running along the trail. We crossed the creek a few times.

After returning to our car we drove the park road to the Kolob Canyons Viewpoint and took in the scenery. Apparently on a clear day—like it was—you can see all the way to the north rim of the Grand Canyon. We were relatively close to where we started the Nankoweap Trail years ago in the Grand Canyon.

We ate lunch under the trunk overhang of our car in the parking lot. Our food supplies were running low. After lunch we got back on the freeway and drove to Cedar City to get groceries. We stopped at a Smith’s grocery store and when we left, our car seemed to start in a weird way. We drove to Dairy Queen for a treat and to give the car a rest before we tried starting it again. It was a Sunday and we couldn’t find any open car mechanics nearby. We were a little worried about having car troubles but thankfully the car started fine the next time. Maybe it was just a fluke?

We got back on the freeway and got off at the exit for Brian Head. The road turned into a very steep uphill climb to reach 9,600 feet. We stopped to take pictures and buy merchandise—I bought a t-shirt and sticker.

Brian Head is a ski resort town in southern Utah. It is also a great roadside stop for people named Brian.

We continued on to Cedar Breaks National Monument. You don’t hear much about Cedar Breaks NM. Relative to the other national parks in Utah it doesn’t get much publicity. It’s relatively close to Bryce Canyon National Park but since it’s designated as a monument and not a park it doesn’t get the same attention. We stopped at the entrance to take the obligatory park sign photo.

Leah’s turn for a park sign photo (I know that technically it’s my turn, but we just had two non-National Park sign photos of me).

First we stopped at the North View Overlook. The view into Cedar Breaks Amphitheater was incredible.

The amazing colors and formations of the amphitheater.

Next we drove to the visitor center to get a map and buy postcards. We walked out to the Point Supreme Overlook and took some more photos.

Looking south to the other side of the amphitheater. The rock formations and colors were incredible.

Next we headed to the campground where we would be staying for the next two nights. There was only one loop with 25 total sites. The campground at Cedar Breaks NM sits at about 10,400 feet above sea level. That’s easily the highest elevation that I’ve ever slept at (not counting airlines). Another cool thing about the campground was that there was a shower. The shower doors were locked with a keypad so first we had to get the code from the campground host. While talking to him, he warned us that “one of the shower drains is clogged” but he didn’t know which one (there were two showers). Leah took the first shower and guessed wrong. I chose the other shower and mine drained just fine. Having a shower was a real treat after going days in the hot desert without one.

We set up our campsite and ate snacks and drank beer. The beer was from Kiitos (meaning “thank you” in Finnish) Brewing—which is located in Salt Lake City. We picked up a sampler pack of their beer when we stopped at Smith’s. We made mac and cheese for dinner. It took much longer to boil water due to the high elevation.

We no longer were restricted by a fire ban so I built one after dinner for us to sit next to. Leah bundled up in five layers of clothing. The lows were going to be in the low 40s the next two nights. Even though it wasn’t going to rain we still put up the rain fly for added warmth. Leah read by the fire and I worked on my journal. We had the entire next day for exploring Cedar Breaks NM and the surrounding area. The highs were going to be in the 60s—perfect hiking weather.

Total miles hiked: 6 Weather: Highs in the 90s depending on location/elevation

Day 11 – Cedar Breaks National Monument

I woke up to pee at about 11:30 PM. The stars were vibrant—Cedar Breaks NM is another dark sky park. I also heard coyotes chirping and howling overnight. The morning was cool but not too cold. We ate oatmeal for breakfast and set off on our first hike. We walked from the campground to the Ramparts Overlook hike.

Another beautiful photo from the rim of the amphitheater looking down into the canyon.

The hike was beautiful and full of great views all around.

Morning shadows in Cedar Breaks Amphitheater. The peak in the top-middle of the photo is Brian Head Peak—sitting at 11,312 feet high.

The trail also included many bristlecone pines which are incredible trees. They are renowned for being the oldest single living organisms on the planet—they have been known to survive for over 4000 years. Bristlecone pines also grow in distorted shapes and twists giving them a gnarly appearance. They often have very little green growth—making them appear dead—which is an adaptation for the extremely harsh environment that they grow in.

Here’s a little baby bristlecone pine that’s probably dozens of years old.

I was getting winded easily due to the steep trails and being at such high elevation. The trail wasn’t too long and really highlighted the incredible views at Cedar Breaks NM—I’d definitely recommend it.

I couldn’t get over how beautiful it was.

The sandstone layers were so bright and vivid.

We returned to the start of the Ramparts Overlook hike which was next to the visitor center. We stopped to have a snack on a bench. Next we headed out on the Sunset Trail. The Sunset Trail was mostly paved and flat and led to the Sunset View Overlook. The trail itself wasn’t too exciting but it was still pretty.

On returning from the Sunset View Overlook, we took the turnoff back to the campground and had lunch at our campsite. Next we got in the car and drove to the Chessman Ridge Overlook to start the Alpine Pond Trail. We picked up an interpretative trail guide at the parking lot (they were $2 but Leah said she’d return it when we were done). The interpretive trail guide helped us learn about and identify different trees in the area.

The views from the trail were nice. Also, there was indeed a pond.

The Alpine Pond—maybe a little too scummy and cold to swim.

We returned to the trailhead and put the trail guide back. We also paid $1.05 to the donation box from the loose change that we had on us. Next we drove to the North View Overlook. There we saw a marmot sunning on a rock fin.

A marmot in the sun. Excuse the bad photo quality.

Next we drove up a three mile dirt road to the top of Brian Head Peak. The dirt road was in okay condition. We saw some marmots on the drive up and down. They’re cute chubby-looking creatures that were darting behind cover as we drove past. There were a few other people at the summit that had also driven up.

We walked around a little at the top and took some photos. The views were very broad and stunning.

Here’s Leah surveying the landscape from 11,307 feet.

Next we drove back down the dirt road and headed towards the Twisted Forest Trail as per a recommendation from a ranger intern. We eventually turned off the main road and onto a bumpy and sketchy forest service road for about 3.5 miles. We did fine on the road since we had four-wheel drive and decent clearance. I wouldn’t want to take my Corolla on that road. The forest service road also took us across some Brian Head ski slopes—one blue square and a couple green circles.

We finally arrived at the trailhead and there weren’t any other cars parked there. We expected it to be remote due to it being well off the beaten path. The hike was just like the ranger had described—like walking on another planet.

The red and white hilly landscape was dotted with tortured trees. The only things that could grow there were limber pines and bristlecone pines. It was both barren and beautiful.

The landscape was like something out of a Dr. Seuss book.

The trail was very steep and slippery in places due to it being mostly sand and rock. The Twisted Forest was surrounded by fir, spruce, and aspen groves. It was definitely a unique place.

From near the end of the trail you could look back into Cedar Breaks Amphitheater.

We decided to turn around—there wasn’t really an “end” to the trail—at a random spot. We saw two other groups on our way back to the parking lot, so at least we weren’t completely alone. The car had trouble starting again—not a great sign when you’re miles into a bumpy dirt road with no cell service. Afterwards it seemed fine. Maybe it was just channeling Leah’s anxiety about driving on the forest service road.

We drove back to the campground and ate snacks and drank beer. Leah read about Bryce Canyon National Park and I worked on my journal. I started a fire for dinner so we could roast veggie dogs. We also made s’mores and I attempted to roast a clump of marshmallows that had gotten soggy at the bottom of our cooler.

No showers tonight—don’t want to overdo it. We got ready for bed. We’d be heading to Bryce Canyon National Park in the morning. In the middle of the night I heard more coyotes howling and yipping. I also heard a disturbing screeching and screaming sound coming from off in the wilderness. I have no idea what was making the noise—maybe an elk or mountain lion? I took some comfort in knowing that we were in a campground with dozens of other people. But nonetheless it was still very creepy.

Total miles hiked: 9.5 Weather: Highs in the 60s and sunny, lows in the 40s

Final thoughts on Part 2

It’s amazing how a dam can turn a desert into a recreational paradise. Driving through Lake Powell felt very odd. I don’t really like golf courses in general, but to see them in the southwest desert just isn’t right. The scenery of northern Arizona, though very hot and dry, was still beautiful.

Zion National Park is a crowded place. It’s amazing and totally worth going to, but there are a lot of people. Plan ahead and start the most popular hikes early in the morning. My “if/when I go back” list for Zion NP is to do the chain section of Angels Landing (which now requires a permit—probably a good idea), make it all the way to Big Springs on The Narrows hike, hike to Observation Point (which is still closed), hike to Kolob Arch, and to explore some of the more remote areas of the park like Wildcat Canyon. There are a lot of opportunities to get off the beaten path at Zion NP and it’d be cool to focus a little more on those areas in the future.

Cedar Breaks National Monument is a hidden gem. The park itself only has about one day’s worth of must-see sites and activities, but the surrounding area has more to offer. My “if/when I go back” list for Cedar Breaks NM is probably just the Rattlesnake Trail—the only trail we didn’t hike—but I don’t think it’s a top priority.

Brian Head is a great place to drive through if you’re named Brian.

We never really felt 100% sure in our car’s ability to start (and not leak oil). Another reason to rent a car for trips with lots of driving is that you typically get a newer model with less mechanical issues. Plus, you don’t feel bad about driving it on bumpy gravel and forest service roads.

I felt like the nights and days spent at each park during this section (part 2) of the trip were spot on. We had just enough time to see a good chunk of Zion National Park while also maneuvering our way to Cedar Breaks National Monument to break up the drive to Bryce Canyon National Park—and to take a shower.

Bemidji – January 2021

June 15, 2021June 15, 2021 bringram Minnesota, Minnesota State Parks, Skiing Bemidji, cross-country skiing, Lake Bemidji State Park, XC skiing

Leah and I have been attempting over the last few winters to get more into cross-country skiing. We received some free used equipment from my dad which has made entry into the sport easier. We decided to finally make good on a yearly activity idea that had yet to come to fruition—doing an overnight cross-country ski trip.

We chose to go at the end of January and make the trip a three-day weekend. I started searching for state parks that had cross-country skiing and also camper cabins. Our experience in the fall in a camper cabin at Lake Carlos State Park had sold us on the idea. After finding that a lot of the camper cabins were already booked we were down to only a few options. We finally decided on Lake Bemidji State Park due to that fact that is wasn’t too far away (just under 4 hours from our house) and there were lots of cross-country skiing options nearby.

We loaded up the car and headed out on a Friday morning. We drove straight to Bemidji, only stopping once for gas. While driving we were listening to the audio book Becoming by Michelle Obama. It was entertaining and insightful to learn about the life of the former First Lady. When we got to Bemidji we stopped at a Subway for lunch. After eating our subs in the car we drove to Lake Bemidji State Park to check in at the ranger station. We made sure our cabin was available and I purchased a Greater Minnesota Ski Pass (a ski pass sold by the DNR that allows access to all state park ski trails and also dozens of other trails that have a loose connection—possibly based on DNR ownership or custodianship). Our cabin was ready so we headed there to unload our gear.

We were staying at Balsam for the weekend (the cabin names were tree themed).

It was pretty cold in the cabin so we cranked the heat a little so that it would be nice and warm when we got back. Our first action of the day was to head out and ski a trail along Lake Bemidji inside the park. There were barely any people out on the trails—though on a Friday afternoon that might be expected. The trail was in pretty good condition for not having had much snow recently. The temperatures were in the teens—not too cold for skiing but definitely not super pleasant either. My hands tend to get cold easily while skiing so I brought some heavy duty gloves on the trip

Here’s me in front of Lake Bemidji. You can see a few ice fishing shacks out on the lake.

The trail was really nice. We avoid black diamond sections at all costs, and thankfully the loop was mostly green (beginner) with a couple blue (intermediate) sections. I also fell almost immediately once we started skiing (it’s rare that I get through an entire day of cross-country skiing without falling at least once). We finished up the loop—which ended up being about 5.7 miles—and returned back to our cabin. It still wasn’t that warm inside the cabin so we bumped the heat a little more. We still had some energy left so we decided to boot hike another loop trail in the park that contained the hiking club trail. I was able to guess the hiking club password correctly (though I had seen it before, so not that impressive).

We got back to the cabin and saw some snowmobiles riding past us. We’d find out later that they were our cabin neighbors. Neither of us are fans of all of the noise that snowmobiles make. When we entered the cabin it felt nice and warm. I eventually realized that the device that I thought was displaying the temperature was actually displaying the humidity. This may have contributed to the temperature issues inside the cabin.

We hung out inside the cabin for a little bit, drinking beer and wine and eating snacks. Then we ordered Domino’s pizza for dinner and drove into Bemidji to pick it up. We each got a medium pizza and ate half. We played some games and read—Leah a book and me Twitter—until bedtime.

In the morning we used our brand new electric water kettle to heat some water. You can’t burn a gas stove inside the cabin due to the toxic fumes. In our previous cabin adventure we used our gas stove to boil water but had to wait outside in the cold for it to heat up. Since the cabins are electrified we thought an electric water kettle would be a great addition to our cold weather glamping packing list. It has also seen some occasional use at home. What a luxury it was to sit inside a warm and cozy cabin and heat up water for coffee and oatmeal. For this trip we also filled two 6-liter water reservoirs before leaving so that we’d have enough water for the trip and wouldn’t have to go in search of it at the state park (assuming that they had winter drinking water access).

We packed up our gear and headed out to Three Island Park—a county park located in Beltrami County. It was about 15 minutes north of Lake Bemidji State park. Three Island Park had a lot of cross-country ski trails and most of them were beginner or intermediate. There was also a section for snowshoeing. We parked and hit the ski trails, starting with the trail that paralleled the Turtle River. It was incredibly scenic and we hardly saw any people.

It was overcast and chilly with temperatures ranging from about 10 to 15 degrees. We saw a trumpeter swan floating along the river and dunking its head into the water in search of food. It was quite a beautiful sight to see on a cold winter day. Part of the trail was also designated for endangered species habitat—I think bald eagle—and was closed starting in the beginning of February. According to the sign, the trail would be closed in a couple of days so we really lucked out on that.

Here’s me all bundled up looking very professional.

We did a big loop around the outside of the park. Near the main parking lot we did end up seeing a few more people—including some skate skiers who flew past us like we were chumps. We finally finished the big loop and made it back to our car. We took off our skis and had leftover pizza for lunch. My GPS watch said we skied 8.23 miles which is the most I’ve ever skied in one day.

Next we decided to do some snowshoeing. We had borrowed some snowshoes from my parents in the hopes that there would be some nice powder to use them on. The trails at Three Island Park were pretty packed down and it hadn’t snowed recently so the snowshoes weren’t that useful. We hiked the snowshoe loop trail which also followed the Turtle River but got down closer to the water. We followed the loop back to the parking lot and then added a small out-and-back hike on a mixed use trail. We ended up snowshoeing about 3.6 miles.

We decided it was time to call it a day and headed back to the cabin. We did some more reading and played some cards. For dinner we had instant noodles (with water from our electric kettle) and avocado wraps. I realized that I brought the wrong crowler of beer from home. I had meant to grab a black IPA and instead grabbed an imperial stout aged in gin barrels. Since Leah doesn’t like dark beers these were going to be personal beers for me and I wasn’t ready to drink that much high ABV (11.5%) beer by myself. I drank wine instead. Eventually we called it a night and made our way to bed.

The next day we got up and had breakfast. We decided to ski on the C.V. Hobson Forest Trail. The trail is inside the Hobson Memorial Forest which was acquired by Bemidji State University in 1948. The university uses the forest for outdoor recreation, education, and research. The property includes a ropes course, amphitheater, two rustic log cabins, and over 7 kilometers of walking and skiing trails. It had snowed overnight so we had some new powder to enjoy. There was one set of tracks in the snow so it looked like one person had beat us to the new snow that morning.

The C.V. Hobson Forest Trail was very beautiful, mostly flat, quiet, and very enjoyable. We did a few loops around the different trails. We never saw anyone else on the trail.

Here’s Leah’s photo of me stopping to enjoy the scenery.

We visited the rustic cabins along the trail. I fell down trying to come to a stop near one, but I did manage to snap a photo of the cabin. It was definitely rustic.

A sketchy looking cabin that maybe college students at Bemidji State University sleep in during outdoor adventures.

We skied about 4.2 miles in total. When we returned to the parking lot we decided that we were done skiing for the day. We packed up out skis and headed to Jimmy John’s to grab lunch. We took our subs on the road as we drove to La Salle Lake State Recreation Area. We weren’t able to get a passport stamp because for some reason the one for La Salle Lake SRA is located at Itasca State Park. We did, however, snowshoe the hiking club trail and collect the password. It was an out-and-back trail that ended at the confluence of La Salle Creek and the Mississippi River. The trail was pretty packed down so the snowshoes weren’t very helpful (again).

We decided to do a little more snowshoeing in the park before leaving. We did a loop near the parking area that was a little packed down in areas but mostly fresh snow. We finally found great terrain for the snowshoes!

Here’s another action shot of Leah, this time while snowshoeing.

The air was crisp and cold but not uncomfortable. We got back to the car and loaded up our gear and hit the road. It was a really fun weekend cross-country skiing and snowshoeing in the Bemidji area. I’m not a cross-country ski buff nor have I been to a lot of courses or trails, but the skiing we did in Bemidji was the best I’ve ever experienced. The trails were plentiful and not crowded and there were courses that catered to all different kinds of skill levels. Another successful cold weather winter vacation.

Utah Part 1: Arches NP, Canyonlands NP, Natural Bridges NM, and Southeast Utah – September 2020

February 14, 2021September 23, 2022 bringram Camping, Hiking, National Parks Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Moab, Natural Bridges National Monument, Utah

Planning

I spent a lot of time researching this trip. Having never been out to Utah before, I was excited to see so much of it. I was really hopeful that we’d have enough time to see and enjoy all five of the National Parks in Utah while we were out there. They’re all relatively close to each other and the idea of going to just a few seemed like a missed opportunity. Leah and I had gone back and forth on how much time we should spend out there. I was pushing for a full two week vacation considering the fact that we were planning to drive to Utah which would take about four days—two out and two coming back—on its own.

We decided to take two weeks off work—leaving on a Friday afternoon and returning on a Sunday two weeks later. We also chose to go in early September which aligned with our Labor Day vacation tradition but also seemed like it would provide decent weather throughout the different desert climates. I then began looking into park details and potential driving routes. All of the parks had reopened since shutting down earlier in the year due to COVID-19, but certain things remained closed. A few notables were the final chain section of Angels Landing and the Narrows at Zion National Park (though the Narrows was closed due to a toxic bacteria in the water) and the Fiery Furnace at Arches National Park.

It was hard to tell how busy the parks would be. With outdoor activities being some of the safer things to do during the pandemic, parks across the country had seen increased use. I had a very difficult time booking campsites for the trip. We both enjoy camping in National Parks but so does everyone else. Also, trying to book things just a few weeks before arriving is not recommended. Many people book campgrounds at the Utah National Parks (especially Arches and Zion) a year in advance. My strategy was to constantly check the reservation site for cancellations. When I say constantly, I mean that I was checking about once an hour for days in a row.

I started off booking certain nights as placeholders while also looking into alternative campgrounds like on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land or private campgrounds. At a few parks I was unable to initially get the same site for consecutive nights so we would have to coordinate a move in the morning. Luckily, after lots of searching and lots of reservations made (and some non-refundable deposits lost), the itinerary for the trip was completed. We would spend the first two nights on the road in hotels out of convenience—the same for the last night on the way home. For the rest of the nights (other than one night where we were booked at a KOA because the campground at Natural Bridges National Monument was closed) we would be camping at either a National Park or National Monument. I was really proud of myself for having all of the dates and plans line up as well as they did. It took a lot of patience, persistence, and luck to book the campgrounds and plan out how much time to spend at each place.

I purchased the annual park pass ahead of time for $80. It got us access to over 2,000 recreation sites—7 of which we were planning to visit on this trip. The individual entrance fees for each of the parks we were planning to visit ranged from $20-$35. The annual pass made sense financially and it also meant that we didn’t have to stop and purchase a new pass at every park we visited. Another positive was that we would get access to National Parks for a year from the purchase date. This meant that any National Park trips in the coming year (which there probably will be at least one) would also be covered.

We would leave on a Friday and drive to Lincoln, Nebraska that night. Then we’d drive to Moab, Utah the next day. Then two nights at Arches National Park, one night in the Needles district of Canyonlands National Park, and then a night a at KOA in Monument Valley after stopping at Natural Bridges National Monument. The next day we’d drive to Zion and spend three nights there, then two nights at Cedar Breaks National Monument, two nights at Bryce Canyon National Park, and two nights at Capitol Reef National Park before driving home and stopping for one night in an undetermined city (probably in Nebraska).

Day 1 – Driving

We took off a little early after work on a Friday which also happened to be Leah’s birthday. The car was packed full of all of our camping and hiking gear as well as clothes for two weeks and most of the food we’d be eating. It was also our first real trip with a new Yeti cooler—to the hot desert no less—so it would definitely be tested. The drive was mostly uneventful. We stopped at a Culver’s just outside Des Moines for dinner. Leah was craving Culver’s (she gets the grilled cheese kids meal) and it sounded good to me, too. I also had coupons to Culver’s which I obviously forgot at home. There appeared to be a lot of old people enjoying a Friday night custard treat—masks optional.

The rest of the drive that night was straight west on I-80. It was also dark. There were some ominous flashing reds lights on the side of the freeway which we determined to be coming from wind turbines. We tried to avoid driving too much at night but in order to make it to Moab in less than two days it was necessary. Finally we arrived at our hotel just off the interstate in Lincoln, Nebraska. You could see the capitol building from the freeway—a destination for another trip. It took around six hours of driving to get to Lincoln and I did all of the driving that day. When we walked into the hotel there was a sign out front that said “mask required” but the employee working there wasn’t wearing one. This would end up being a theme throughout the trip. The hotel room was fine other than the freeway noise. We settled in for bed with an even longer day of driving ahead of us and not really knowing what the breakfast situation would be.

Day 2 – Some more driving

We woke up and headed down to grab our “to-go” breakfast. It was basically all individually wrapped items from a standard free hotel breakfast. The waffle maker was still on which didn’t seem to lend itself to COVID safety, nor was is very “to-go” friendly. There was also some sign about waiting for the hotel staff to serve you your food. With no staff in sight we thought it best to just grab some food items and go. We ate in the car.

Nebraska is long and flat. I was again doing the driving on this leg. Not much to see as far as scenery. Every once in a while there would be a huge cattle farm or some agricultural smell. We drove without stopping until we got to Sterling, Colorado. At this point we had veered onto I-76 towards Denver. We saw a lot of signs warning of limited services on this stretch of freeway and Sterling was one of the only “big” cities (population ~15,000) for a while. The scenery was getting hilly but it was also incredibly dry and hot. The temperature was about 100 degrees Fahrenheit. On a side note, the extended forecast for that area called for over a foot of snow the following night. Some crazy weather when you get closer to the mountains.

We briefly looked for a Quiznos to stop at for lunch in Colorado. This stemmed from a conversation about how the last time I can remember having Quiznos was at the Denver airport. I figured Colorado must be the last stronghold of Quiznos restaurants since it doesn’t seem like I see them very often anymore. Unfortunately, the nearest Quiznos was a little too far away for a reasonable lunch time and we needed to stop for gas anyways so in Sterling we stopped at a Jimmy John’s. Mask usage was again questionable. We called it the “wild west”. While eating our sandwiches at a table outside the restaurant we saw a car back into a parking spot, two people exit the car and enter Jimmy John’s for less than five minutes, and return without any food items. Leah said they were there to get the free smells.

After lunch Leah took over driving duties. Once we got to Denver we hit a bunch of traffic heading into the mountains. It was a Saturday afternoon so we thought we’d miss the weekend mountain rush but apparently not. At this point we had merged onto I-70. Once we had cleared most of the traffic we stopped again for gas and made another driver switch. Leah isn’t a big fan of driving through mountain passes at freeway speeds. The mountains were beautiful and still luscious and green. Somewhere along the way we started listening to a book on tape—Wild by Cheryl Strayed.

Our next stop was in Parachute, CO for another gas break and dinner. Right before getting to the Parachute exit the low oil light turned on in the car. I was a little worried. Leah said that it had happened before and that we just needed to add some more oil to the engine. Luckily for us there was a full service gas station in Parachute. And by that I mean they sold engine oil and there was a Domino’s inside as well. We ordered some engine oil, pizza, and a salad and I poured the oil into the engine—I only spilled a little bit onto the engine block. We then enjoyed our dinner while sitting on a bench next to the car. It was a very eventful break in the drive that put some fear of car troubles into me. I chalked it up to the Volvo not being as experienced with mountains and thus burning through some extra oil. We also only used about half of the bottle of oil in order to get the dipstick back to the proper oil level reading, so if it happened again we’d be ready.

The drive from Parachute to Grand Junction was very pretty—winding canyon roads and river views all around. Due to the prolonged dinner stop and the traffic, we hit nighttime right before the Utah border. I had hoped that we’d make it to Moab in daylight, but at least we weren’t too far away. The Utah border crossing at night was very uneventful. We got into Moab and I was blown away at how built up it was. The town—on a holiday weekend Saturday night—was busy. Pandemic be damned. The main road through the downtown area was crawling with people and the hotels, bars, and restaurants appeared to be packed. I didn’t know what to expect since I had never been to Moab before, but it seemed like a real madhouse.

We checked into our hotel which we had booked in order to avoid having to set up camp late at night after a long day of driving and to hopefully help us get an early start the next morning. The hotel provided free truffles—a real treat if you ask me. We both took our last shower for what would be a few days at least. I was reading some info on the Arches National Park website that mentioned that the park entrance was closed to vehicle traffic at 9:20 AM that day (the Saturday of our arrival into town). This was due in part to the popularity and high visitation numbers for Arches National Park—over 1.5 million people a year. But also the pandemic was forcing the National Park system to monitor their crowds more than they had in the past. We planned to get to the park around 7 AM so that we’d be able to go to the visitor center right away when it opened and hopefully beat the crowds. That meant a 6 AM wake up the next morning.

Day 3 – Arches National Park

We got up at 6 AM so we could be in line for breakfast when it started at 6:30 AM. As we lined up for breakfast it was obvious that we weren’t the only ones that had the idea of getting up early to beat the crowds. We ordered our “to-go” breakfast à la carte with no indication of a menu. The hotel staff stuffed it all into a brown paper bag and handed it to you. Not ideal but still better than the last place. We went back to our room to eat and get ready.

We loaded up into the car and drove the short distance (about 10 minutes from Moab to the park entrance) to Arches National Park. We arrived at the visitor center at approximately 7:15 AM. We wanted to talk to a ranger but once we arrived we saw signs that said the visitor center opened at 8. We didn’t want to wait that long so we headed off into the park and towards our first destination for the day, Delicate Arch. But first we took our National Park sign photos. Due to the pandemic we didn’t get a lot of photos of the two of us (phone sharing and common touch points didn’t seem all that safe) but rest assured we each got our own photos. For the sake of brevity—and my blog’s cloud storage limit—I’ll just alternate between each of us.

Here’s Leah in front of the sign. Do my readers enjoy this new caption feature?

There were two parking lots for Delicate Arch, an upper one and a lower one. The lower parking lot was for the trailhead for the hike to the arch. The upper parking lot was where two short trails to viewpoints of Delicate Arch started. The lower parking lot was full when we got there and we were directed by a ranger to continue to the upper parking lot. We drove around the upper parking lot a couple times before we finally found a parking spot. It was about a one mile hike from the upper parking lot to the lower parking lot. We decided, like so many others we passed, to walk back to the lower parking lot along the park road so that we could hike out to the arch. This would add a couple extra miles of hiking and also eat away at some of the pleasant morning temperatures but we figured that we might as well do it.

We got to the Delicate Arch trailhead and started hiking. The trail was crowded. The Delicate Arch trail is three miles round trip and very popular. For those who don’t know, Delicate Arch appears on one of the common Utah license plates. It is also impressive to see in person. When you add together it being the most iconic hike in Arches National Park along with the fact that it’s only three miles long (granted 500 feet of elevation gain and no shade), you get a lot of people out on the trail.

Here’s a photo I took from a plateau on the hike while looking back. You can see some of the people as well as the lower parking lot off in the distance.

The hike felt a little touristy, but it’s hard to be mad at the crowds when you factor in how beautiful it all was. As someone who loves to take advantage of all of the amazing outdoor adventures available through state and national park systems, I can’t be upset when other people do the same. As long as people are respectful and follow the rules then who am I to complain. Park overuse is a question that I’m not qualified to talk about but I hope those decisions are being made by the powers in charge. I think the ultimate goal should be to provide access to as many visitors (and especially those of different backgrounds that haven’t been provided access in the past) while still preserving what currently exists for generations to come. But I digress…

This is another photo from the Delicate Arch hike. I really loved the swirl patterns in the rock and sand.

Leah read in the park brochure that the Delicate Arch hike was “expertly designed” such that you wouldn’t get any views of the arch until the very end. This proved to be true. I suppose the idea is that you won’t see it until it’s basically right in front of you. We finally saw it.

Leah’s photo of me in front of Delicate Arch.

In the photo above and below you can see the line of people to the left of the arch that are waiting to take individual photos underneath it. We weren’t interested in waiting in line so instead we just took some photos from the perimeter.

I really like the lighting and angle of this photo of Delicate Arch.

On our way back towards the parking lot we stopped by the Wolfe Ranch. It is an old settlement started in 1898 by a 69-year-old who left Ohio—and most of his family—to find a drier climate that would be easier on a leg injury suffered during the Civil War. There were also some cool petroglyphs which showed that the land had been inhabited long before any white people ever arrived.

When we finally got back to the lower parking lot many of the cars had cleared out. There must be an early morning rush to see Delicate Arch? We walked back to the upper parking lot and hiked the short spur trails to the upper and lower viewpoints for Delicate Arch which left from the upper parking lot. The viewpoints weren’t really anything special, mostly because we had already hiked out to the arch.

If you look straight up from Leah and then slightly right once you hit the blue sky you’ll see Delicate Arch.

On that first day I was wearing my new trail running shoes as a test to see how they’d fare on some more strenuous hiking. Unfortunately, I got a blister on my left heal after hiking for only a few miles. I had theories about changing insoles or socks, but sadly I was back to wearing my old hiking boots the rest of the trip. We left Delicate Arch and made our way back towards the visitor center. We stopped at a few places along the way. Here’s a view from Panorama Point.

The high desert landscape from a mostly empty parking lot. Maybe it’s not a popular stop.

Our next stop was at the Garden of Eden, which was a collection of cool rock formations.

The Windows Section is another marquee stop at Arches National Park. There you’ll find some of the following formations.

North Window (Left) and South Window (Right).

A rare photo of the two of us—in front of South Window.

Leah’s photo of Turret Arch taken from in front of North Window. A different perspective from further away. See the big turret on the left side?

North Window from below—rocks ready to fall.

After all of that we finally headed back to the visitor center. I bought my National Park stickers and we ate lunch at a picnic table next to the parking lot. The picnic table had a covering so we weren’t in the direct sunlight, but it was already really heating up. The first half of the day we had done a bunch of hiking in the sun but for the most part hadn’t really felt the heat yet. After lunch, however, the heat started to seem unbearable. The high for that day was 105 degrees and at about two o’clock we felt like we hit a wall. Naturally we powered through (we’re not the type to take it easy). Our next stop was Park Avenue—named for how it felt like you were walking down a skyscraper canyon in New York City.

Here’s the view from the trailhead looking down Park Avenue.

Here’s a formation known as Three Gossips—one of Leah’s favorites.

The Park Avenue Trail is an out and back that ends at the Courthouse Towers viewpoint. We barely saw anyone on the trail. The park seemed to clear out a little bit as the midday heat crept in.

Here’s the view from Courthouse Towers looking back up Park Avenue.

Here is one of my favorite rock formations. I don’t know if it has a name.

We finally made it back to the car and chugged hot water. There were water filling stations at select locations in the park. It’s mostly trucked in from Moab and then sits in big storage tanks which must just bake in the sun all day because the water came out of the tap warm. Next we started heading towards the campground which is located at the very end of the park road. Along the way we stopped at a few more spots.

The Fiery Furnace from the Fiery Furnace viewpoint.

I was really hoping that we could hike in the Fiery Furnace. It’s another one of the main attractions at Arches National Park. Due to preservation and overcrowding (and danger, especially of getting lost) the area is permitted. Unfortunately, due to COVID the National Park Service was not issuing permits and was also not providing ranger led tours—the only two ways to enter the Fiery Furnace. This was a bummer, but something to look forward to if we ever return. Next we headed to Sand Dune Arch. They weren’t kidding around when they named this one. You walk through a crevasse between two rock fins and all of a sudden you’re on a sandy beach.

Here’s me standing in the crevasse, wearing the infamous trail running shoes.

Here’s Leah standing on the beach-like sand.

The fins that protect Sand Dune Arch, which is tucked away inside.

Next we hiked a little loop trail that connected a couple more arches. It also overlapped with the campground so we got to take a sneak peak at our site.

Broken Arch, which the trail passes through. Can you spot Leah?

Tapestry Arch off in the distance. This one you couldn’t get close to.

The hike back to the car from Tapestry Arch.

We got a little lost on the back side of the loop. It wasn’t so bad because without much vegetation we could pretty much see exactly where we needed to get to. Eventually we found the trail again and made it back to the car. Our next stop was Skyline Arch. In 1940 a big chunk of Skyline Arch fell off, instantly doubling the size of the opening. This brings up another point about Arches National Park. There are over 2000 documented arches, many of them smaller or less magnificent than the ones on the map. But that number is constantly changing as the elements that form arches—mostly water—also destroy them.

Skyline Arch with the “newer” rock on the left side exposed from a rock fall in 1940.

We were both feeling pretty beat and it was getting late so we headed to our campsite. There are 51 total sites at Arches National Park and they are all located in the Devils Garden Campground. It’s an incredibly hard place to book a campsite at if you’re not looking months ahead. As I mentioned above, I used persistence and luck to score a two night stay during a holiday weekend. And we just so happened to luck into a great site as well. It was a decent size and private on both sides. The site was also very sandy. Leah had been wearing her new trail running shoes as well. They had a mesh upper so after the last couple of hikes she had to stop and dump sand from her shoes.

We set up camp and drank beers—still cold thanks to our Yeti cooler, though a lot of the ice had already melted. We ate crackers and spinach artichoke dip as an appetizer. Dick, the campground host, chatted with us for a while. He was retired for 17 years and spent most of his time volunteering at National Parks. He was from Texas but told us about canoeing trips he took in Minnesota after learning that we were from there. He also mentioned that a 12-year-old girl had been helivaced (we had heard a helicopter but not known what it was for) from the Devils Garden section of the park (an area we hadn’t been to) just minutes ago. Apparently she was found unresponsive and with no other person nearby. Dick assumed it was heat related. Very strange circumstances but we hope she was okay. Dick also came back later to give us free firewood that he had collected as camp host.

For dinner we made quesadillas with vegetables from our garden. We cooked the quesadillas in a pan over the stove which actually worked pretty well. Next we got ready for bed. Our plan for the next day was to head to the Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands National Park.

We decided to put the rain fly on the tent because of blowing sand. Leah didn’t like being trapped in the heat. We got in bed around 9 PM but it didn’t cool off until about 10:30. I thought it was supposed to cool off immediately in the desert as soon as the sun set. Before falling asleep I took a look at the stars. I could see so many—and the Milky Way as well.

Total miles hiked: 11.5 Weather: Very hot and sunny, high of 105

Day 4 – Canyonlands National Park

We set our alarm for 7 AM but ended up getting up at 6:45. We woke up to a hazy morning. The smoke came from forest fires near us (there were so many different wildfires that it was hard to know exactly which one the smoke was coming from).

Leah’s photo of the blood orange sun behind the wildfire smoke.

Leah’s photo of our campsite. It was a pretty incredible site if you ask me.

We had a quick breakfast and then headed out towards Canyonlands National Park. Since the campground at Arches National Park was at the end of the park road it took about 30 minutes just to get back to the entrance to Arches National Park. We stopped at a gas station to fill up on gas and also restock our ice in the cooler. It felt wrong dumping out the melted ice water in the middle of a desert.

Canyonlands National Park is split up into four different sections; Island in the Sky, The Needles, The Maze, and Horseshoe Canyon. We were headed to the Island in the Sky section today and would be going to the Needles section the next day. The Maze is an incredibly remote section that is only accessible by hiking, off-road vehicle, or rafting the Green River or Colorado River. There were a lot of warning about the Maze due to how far it is from any services or help. It didn’t seem like a place that we needed to go to. Horseshoe Canyon is a much smaller section that is disconnected from the other three. Its main purpose is to protect pictographs on a section of the canyon. It was way out of the way and it didn’t make much sense for us to go there either.

We finally got to the Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands National Park but drove right past the National Park sign. We said we’d get it on the way out. We stopped at the visitor center to buy stickers and a postcard. We also asked a ranger about hikes and conveniently they had a list of recommended day hikes. Our first stop was Mesa Arch. It was a beautiful arch that was great for framing the canyon behind it.

Looking through Mesa Arch. Off in the distance is the Colorado River—carving some seriously big canyon walls.

Me in front of Mesa Arch for scale. It wasn’t that tall but was decently wide.

I just really like this photo of Mesa Arch.

In the parking lot we met some Minnesotans. They used to live fairly close to us in Minneapolis—near the Stone Arch Bridge. They had decided to take their lives on the road and live out of an RV. They worked during the week which meant that they had to stay in RV parks or campgrounds that had WiFi. Then they explored different parts of the country on weeknights and weekends. It was unclear if this plan was due to the pandemic and so many jobs going remote. They told us that they were planning to winter in southern California. And they also brought their pet cat with them so electric hookups were needed in order to run AC for their feline friend.

Our next stop was at Aztec Butte which had two large hills, one with a grainary and one that had beautiful 360 degree views. To get to the top of both hills there were some steep scramble sections of the hike that Leah did not like. When we got back to the parking lot there was a group of two men that appeared to be stoned. They asked us, “how was Aztec Butt?”, with a little snicker. Great, guys. It was great.

A photo of the second hill taken from the first hill.

A wide canyon view from the second hill.

Next we headed to a short hike up Whale Rock. It didn’t really look like a whale but the views were nice.

Here’s the tail of Whale Rock with a canyon in the background.

Back in the parking lot I made a miraculous discovery. Back at Mesa Arch we applied sunscreen and I had accidentally placed the sunscreen bottle on the roof of the car. Without knowing it, we had then driven around for the next six miles or so with it wedged between the roof rack and the car. We couldn’t believe it was still there.

Our next stop was Upheaval Dome—a unique geological feature that is approximately three miles wide. Its origins are not precisely known but there are two main theories. One is that it’s a salt dome that has flowed up through the rock layers over the years. The other theory is that it’s the result of an impact crater. Either way it was a cool site to see. We visited the main viewpoints which were highly recommended by the guide books that I read.

Here’s Leah’s photo of me with Upheaval Dome in the background.

After returning to the parking lot we ate lunch at the picnic area next to Upheaval Dome. Our next stop was the Green River overlook. It’s right next to the campground at the Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands National Park. I had considered staying at that campground—called Willow Flat—but there were only 12 sites, they weren’t bookable, and the nearest water source was at the visitor center. We drove through the campground and some of the sites seemed fine, but maybe not the best situation.

The mighty Green River which meets the Colorado River about 15 miles south of here. Lots of wildfire smoke in the air.

Our next stop was the hike out to Murphy Point. It was quiet and the trail was flat. We only saw a few other people. If I did it over again I’d probably skip Murphy Point. It was pretty but the views were similar to others and it wasn’t a short hike (3.6 miles in total). Also the relative haziness throughout the day made some of the wide vistas harder to see and a little less impressive.

Our next stop was Grand View Point overlook. There were views from the parking lot and also a short trail that followed the canyon rim and provided more great vistas.

If you look closely you can see a dirt road that follows the rim of the canyon. This is the White Rim Road which is a 100 mile road that is popular with four-wheel-drive vehicles and mountain bikers. At the base of the canyon is Monument Basin with its distinctive spires of rock.

Junction Butte as viewed from the Grand View Point overlook trail.

Next we stopped at the White Rim overlook trail. We were feeling beat so we decided not to hike the trail. Instead we had a snack at the picnic area next to the trailhead. It wasn’t as hot as yesterday—the high was only around 90 degrees. The wildfire smoke seemed to block out some of the heat from the sun which probably helped the temperature stay a little lower.

The view from the White Rim overlook trailhead—probably just as good as the view from the end of the trail.

Our last stop on the way out was the Shafer Canyon overlook. It also happens to be the location of one of the main access points for the White Rim Road. Here’s the creepy looking road down that Leah was scared to look at.

A steep and winding road down to the canyon floor.

We left Canyonlands National Park and started driving back to our campsite at Arches National Park. If you’ve been paying attention you’ll notice that we forgot to take a National Park sign photo. Big mistake. We better remember to take one when we’re at the Needles section of Canyonlands National Park the next day. We had also considered going to Dead Horse Point State Park (it was a backup campground location if I couldn’t find sites at the National Parks) which is very close to the Island in the Sky section. We decided that the views would be similar, our time was pretty limited, and there was no need to really push it.

We got back to our campsite at Arches National Park and started a fire using the wood from Dick. We ate veggie dogs that we cooked over the fire for dinner. I had beer and Leah had wine. We used some of our body wipes to clean up. After a couple of days of hiking in the hot sandy desert they were a welcome cleanse.

There was a chance of rain overnight and lows in the 50s were projected. There were even some reports that we’d see some snow. We left the rain fly up, but this time for actual rain. The wildfire smoke made stargazing pretty lousy. Our plan for the next day was to hike to Landscape Arch in Arches National Park and then to drive to the Needles section of Canyonlands National Park.

Total miles hiked: 10.5 Weather: Hot and hazy, high of 92

Day 5 – Arches NP and Canyonlands NP

We woke up around 7 AM to a light rainfall. It had been very windy the night before. As we began to rise and shine and leave the tent, the rain started to fall harder. We huddled underneath the opened trunk door of the car to eat breakfast. The temperature was in the low 40s. The rain didn’t seem to want to let up and we finally had to pack up what had become a very wet tent. The fine particles of wet desert sand were sticking to everything. It was all kind of a mess. We loosely packed the tent into the car, knowing that we’d have to dry it and wipe it off later. I felt a little foolish for not waking up 30 minutes earlier so that we could have packed everything up before the rain started.

We headed to the Devils Garden trailhead, our last stop at Arches National Park before leaving for good. It was cold, dreary, and windy. There weren’t many cars parked at the trailhead. We were planing to at least hike to Landscape Arch, which at 306 feet across in the longest arch in North America. Due to time constraints and weather we weren’t sure how many other arches we’d get to on the hike. Our first stop was at Tunnel Arch.

Leah and I in front of Tunnel Arch. Sorry for the bad light exposure and focus, the front facing camera can be difficult.

Next we hiked a little spur trail to Pine Tree Arch. I guess it got that name because there’s a pine tree kind of underneath it.

Pine Tree Arch. You can see the footprints in the wet sand of the rule breakers leaving the designated trail.

Our next stop on the hike was at Landscape Arch. It was hard to get a good picture of it—you had to have your camera in landscape mode (just some arch humor). In the 1990s there were a few large rockfall events that occurred which caused the park to close the trail the went underneath Landscape Arch. Here are a couple photos, one Leah took of me in front of Landscape Arch where you can mostly make out the curvature of the arch and one I took from much closer that really highlights the expanse.

Me in front of Landscape Arch. The rock formation behind it hides the opening from this angle.

A closer view of Landscape Arch looking up at it’s impressive—and skinny—stretch. It looks pretty precarious, like if a bird landed on it the whole thing might fall.

We had been thinking that we’d try to make it out to Double O Arch but ended up talking to a couple that said they had turned around before that point. They said that they hiked to Partition Arch and Navajo Arch and then turned around. They said that the trail was primitive and the rainy conditions made it slippery and dangerous.

I usually have a hard time turning around or stopping a hike before we finish it. But the couple we talked to was right, the trail did get more primitive. There were some scrambles which when wet were treacherous. We decided to at least get to Partition Arch and Navajo Arch before turning around. Not long after starting the primitive section of the hike we ended up a little bit off trail. We did eventually make it to our destination.

Right in the middle of the photo is someone who was probably loving the rain.

On our way back to the trailhead we found the place where we had gone off trail while going the opposite direction. The actual trail looked worse, with a long scramble up a wet and slick rock fin. We opted to return the way we came, albeit not on the proper trail. This time we were the rule breakers. I was a little bummed that we didn’t hike all the way out like I would have liked, but we had plenty more to do that day in the Needles section of Canyonlands National Park. When we returned to the Devils Garden trailhead parking lot there were a lot more cars and people.

We drove out of Arches National Park for the last time. We headed south through Moab towards the Needles section of Canyonlands National Park. From Moab to the visitor center of the Needles section is about a 90 minute drive. We turned off the main highway onto a long and winding road that led to Canyonlands National Park. Along the road we stopped at a section of petroglyphs called Newspaper Rock. Leah was going to use the restroom at the parking lot for Newspaper Rock but thought otherwise when she saw that it was full of garbage.

The road leading into the Needles section was beautiful as well as remote. It felt so far removed from the busy roads and people of the previous days. When we finally entered the park we made sure to take a National Park sign photo.

Here’s me this time—notice the ominous clouds in the background.

First we stopped at the visitor center to talk to a park ranger. We asked for day hike suggestions and he gave us questionable routes and distances. After a little bit of back and forth, a hike (that we had read about in guide books) out to Chesler Park was brought up by us. He then mentioned that this hike is probably the best showcase of the pinnacles that give the Needles section its name. You think he would have led with this information? Gosh, it sure felt like pulling teeth to finally get the answers that we were looking for. He was not one of our favorite rangers. The park store was closed for lunch so we decided to eat our lunch as well. We had a cold lunch in the cold and windy parking lot. Temps were still in the 40s but at least it wasn’t actively raining.

Our first hiking stop in the Needles section was at Roadside Ruin. As the name implies it is just a short roadside hike. There was a grainary but it wasn’t as cool as the one at Aztec Butte in the Island in the Sky section.

Our next stop was at Cave Spring. It’s a short trail that passes by ruins of historic ranching operations that were active until 1975. As the name would imply, there’s an active spring in an alcove of the cave—a vital source of water in the vast desert that surrounds it. On another wall of the cave there was some rock art left by the ancestral Puebloans who inhabited the area 1,000 years ago. There’s also a ladder that takes you on top of a mushroom shaped rock formation—the surface of which is an example of slickrock—with views in all directions.

Leah in front of artifacts from the ranching operations at Cave Spring.

The ladder used to climb on top of the “Canyonlands mushroom”.

Me on top of the mushroom-like rock formation. Over my left shoulder is either North Sixshooter Peak or South Sixshooter Peak—they’re very close to each other and look similar.

Next we stopped at an overlook for Wooden Shoe Arch. It was so far away that the photo is really not that impressive, but here it is regardless. In person you could see the arch better and it made sense why it’s called Wooden Shoe Arch.

If you want to try to pick out the arch in Wooden Show Arch, it’s the tiny dot of sky in the middle of the third rock bump on the horizon (the smallest rock bump) from the left side of the photo.

Next we headed to the campground to set out our wet tent so that it could dry a little bit before we had to set it up again that night. There was another site that had a picnic table that fit entirely underneath the overhang of a large rock formation. The campground was really cute and pretty intimate—just 26 total sites. I though that we ended up with a really great site (#022 for anyone that’s curious). It was on a smaller loop of the campground and we only had 2 other campsites visible from ours.

A quick side note, this campsite was my favorite site of the entire trip. It was amazingly beautiful, quiet, had drinking water, and there were flush toilets. We only ended up spending one night there but I could have easily spent a few more. A small spoiler to some thoughts I’ll share later; Canyonlands National Park was my favorite park we visited on the trip (with some caveats and expanded opinions explaining my choice coming in a summary section). I took the following photos once we had returned to the campground that night and set up camp but I thought they’d be good to share now since I’m talking so much about the site.

Our cute little site with the tent pad nestled directly underneath juniper trees. I had already gotten the fire going with the leftover wood from our friend Dick.

The National Park Service rolling out the red carpet to greet us. Chad Wilson will be taking over for the next week.

After leaving our wet tent to dry at the campsite we headed to the Elephant Hill parking lot. To get there we had to drive on a narrow and bumpy dirt road that was partially washed out in a couple spots. The Elephant Hill parking lot is one of the main access points to the backcountry hikes at the Needles section. There were a decent number of cars there, though it was hard to tell how many of them were from day hikers like us or people camping overnight in the backcountry.

The Elephant Hill parking lot is the start of the Chesler Park Viewpoint Trail. The hike to the viewpoint is about six miles round trip which seemed like a doable distance to hike before it got dark. The hike was beautiful. We traversed cairn strewn boulders and dirt paths carved into canyons. The trail was mostly up and down with about 700 feet of absolute elevation gain from start to finish—though many more feet were gained and lost along the way.

The view of the so-called “Needles” from near the start of the hike.

I loved how this rock formation looks like thin and fragile paper-like sheets, rounded into a mound.

Here’s Leah’s photo of me showing off a tight squeeze along the trail.

The view from the Chesler Park viewpoint looking eastward.

And here’s the view looking westward. The rock walls on either side slowly expose the dramatic view as you approach.

A photo of a balanced rock on our hike back to the car. The skies really started to clear up.

After finishing the hike Leah declared it to be her favorite of the trip so far. I’d have to agree. The trail was moderately difficult and long enough that it felt like a good workout but also short enough to be an enjoyable day hike. There weren’t many people on the trail, a common theme of the Needles section of Canyonlands National Park. We did see some people that were just heading out as we got back and we questioned how far they’d get before it got dark. We also saw two men that were loaded up for an overnight backpacking trip—a great idea if you ask me.

We got back to our car and drove back along the access road to the Elephant Hill parking lot. While driving on the narrow road we ran into a familiar vehicle. It was our Minnesotan friends that we had met the day before at the Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands National Park. We rolled down the car window and stopped to chat for a little bit. They were just heading out on a day hike—it seemed late to be starting a hike—after we can only assume having worked during the day (it was a Tuesday after all).

We got back to camp and set up the tent, ate snacks, and drank wine (Leah) and beer (me). It was still cold out but at least it wasn’t raining. I lit a fire (using the leftover wood that Dick gave us) and we roasted veggie dogs for dinner and s’mores for dessert. The view out the back of our campsite was beautiful.

Here’s the view looking out the back of our campsite.

There was rain and/or snow in the upcoming overnight forecast with lows in the 30s. This isn’t the kind of weather that we were expecting while planning this trip. It was a nice change from 105 degree heat but it definitely made for a colder night. On the positive side, we avoided rain in the late afternoon and the sun made some appearances. We sat by the fire and planned out our next day. We were going to do some hikes in the morning in the Needles section and then leave Canyonlands National Park. I was really liking Canyonlands National Park. It was quiet with lots of long and varied hiking options. It was another bad night for star gazing—too many clouds.

Total miles hiked: 10.0 Weather: Cool, windy, and rainy—highs in the 50s

Day 6 – Canyonlands NP and Natural Bridges National Monument

The cold didn’t bother me overnight. It was still chilly in the morning when we woke up but it wasn’t raining so we packed the tent right away—we didn’t want to make the same mistake again. We ate a quick breakfast and headed off to our fist hike of the day, a loop through Squaw Canyon and Big Spring Canyon. It started to rain just as we left the campsite.

The hike was about 7.5 miles long (though it was hard to get an accurate measurement from the map). It was dreary out and temps were slightly above freezing with a light drizzle. We didn’t let the weather deter us—what else were we going to do all day? The hike started on a mostly flat and open section.

The trail gradually enters Squaw Canyon and you hike along the canyon bed for a while. We started to see more vegetation than we had seen in days. I was blown away by all of the biodiversity inside of Canyonlands National Park.

Here’s a large tree in the dessert—it just seemed so out of place.

Here’s another photo showing the massive amount of vegetation growing in the (currently dry) riverbed.

As the hike went on we slowly started to notice the larger and larger canyon walls building up around us. I was also hoping to see more mammals since there was so much green vegetation. No luck on that front.

Beautiful layering and coloring on the Squaw Canyon walls.

The rain started to pick up as we hiked. It made for an interesting experience both in the scenery as well as the footing. The rocks weren’t too slick—though they are unironically called slickrock. I only slid once on a small drop.

The dampness of the rocks completely changed the color palette. We started to see so many rich blues, reds, and blacks.

We took a little break out of the rain in a small cave to eat some snacks.

Another cool thing about the rain was that it clearly laid out the paths that the water took as it flowed over the rock faces and into the canyon. Millions of years of erosion and paths of least resistance led to the landscape that we were viewing.

I was amazed by the deepness of the colors on the wet and rocky landscape.

Here’s Leah inside one of those cracks in the rock—widened over time and currently a small creek of flowing water runoff.

We were close to getting lost at a tricky spot in the trail. After following the Squaw Canyon for a while, you eventually start hiking up along the top of the canyon on a rocky surface with only cairns to guide you. We stopped seeing cairns (which is never a good sign) and weren’t sure what to do. I was thinking we’d continue to follow the canyon as it seemed like the only thing to do. Leah wasn’t so sure. We compromised and backtracked until we found cairns again and paid close attention to where the next ones might be. It turned out that this was the point in the trail where we had to scale over the canyon ridge and out of Squaw Canyon and into Big Spring Canyon. Crisis adverted—credit to Leah.

Water flowing along the bottom of Big Spring Canyon.

Another photo of damp rocks—this one taken in Big Spring Canyon.

A cool looking rock formation as we made our way out of Big Spring Canyon.

Throughout the entire hike we had only seen one other group—just two people. Once we got back closer to the parking lot we passed a few more groups and the trail appeared to be getting a little more crowded. Nevertheless it was a very quiet hike. We got back to the car and were absolutely soaked after 7.5 miles in the rain (which had picked up its intensity as the morning went on). It was also about 45 degrees out so not only were we doused but we were also chilled to the core. Next we headed to Pothole Point to do a small hike. We were still wet and cold and the views were hindered by the rain and clouds.

Leah walking along slickrock at Pothole Point.

We decided to skip the Slickrock Trail. It was a little bit longer than we wanted to hike (about 2.4 miles) at that point due to coldness, hunger, and timing. Instead we drove to the end of the park road and to the Big Spring Canyon Overlook. It turned out that you had to hike out an unknown distance in order to get a better view. With the weather as it was we decided to not look around very much. The other cool thing about this stop is that it’s the trailhead for the Confluence Overlook Trail—an 11 mile trail that takes you to an overlook at the confluence of the Colorado River and Green River. This was way more than we had time for on our trip but I added it to my mental bucket list.

Next we drove out of the park, stopping at the visitor center to use the restroom and poke around the gift shop briefly. We decided to eat lunch in the parking lot. I boiled water on our stove to pour into miso soup cups—a new camping food item that I had purchased for us to test out. We sat inside the car (it was still raining) and warmed up as we slurped down the hot soup and ate Pringles and Oreos. The hot soup cup idea was a success.

Sometimes it’s the little things that really make a difference—like hot soup on a cold day.

We started driving again and left Canyonlands National Park. Just outside the park boundary we started to see snow on the ground. Then the rain that was falling from the sky turned to snow. We finally got back onto the main highway and it had turned into a proper blizzard. We passed one major accident where an RV was jackknifed on the side of the road. Driving conditions were not good and Leah was thankful that I was driving.

I made Leah take a photo of the snow as I was driving.

We stopped in Blanding, Utah for gas. I told Leah that we didn’t need to get ice for the cooler because the outside air temperature was refrigerator temperature. Eventually we got to the turn off for Natural Bridges National Monument. We drove along a long and mountainous road to reach Natural Bridges National Monument. Once we got there, the parking lot was almost empty and the visitor center was closed (it was indefinitely closed due to COVID) so no postcard or sticker. We stopped and grabbed a map. I don’t know how popular Natural Bridges National Monument normally is. It’s a little off the beaten path. And it was 42 degrees and raining—we had driven beyond the blizzard by this point. But we only saw a couple other cars the entire time that we were there.

We started driving along the loop through the park. The first stop—after a couple overlooks—was at Sipapu Bridge. Sipapu Bridge is the longest at Natural Bridges National Monument—spanning 268 feet. Bridges look a lot like arches with the main difference being that bridges are formed by active moving water. In other words, bridges form in riverbeds (which are usually dry because it’s the desert). All three of the named bridges on the map are connected by one big loop trail that follows the canyon floor. At each of the three trailheads you can also hike down to the canyon floor. The hike down at Sipapu Bridge is the hardest because there are multiple stairs and ladders that help you ascend and descend. We started the hike but Leah didn’t want to go down the wooden ladder in the rain so we stopped about one-third of the way down. I probably would have gone all the way down but Leah is the safety captain.

The best photo of Sipapu Bridge that I got. You can kind of see it in the middle of the frame.

Next we hiked out to the Puebloan Overlook. This was a shorter hike that didn’t include a bridge but still had a cool view of the canyon and some cliff dwellings.

If you look closely you can see some cliff dwellings along the ridge close to the canyon floor.

One of the few people that we saw at Natural Bridges National Monument was a woman that was wearing flip-flops and driving a rental car. She asked us about how to pay for entrance to the park. We told her that if it wasn’t obvious how to pay by self-registration then it probably wasn’t that big of a deal. I mentioned that we had already purchased an annual park pass so we didn’t have to pay. We continued along the park loop and stopped at Kachina Bridge. This time we hiked down to the bottom.

Kachina Bridge as viewed from the overlook.

Some cool painted (by natural mineral deposit) rocks on the hike down.

Leah’s photo of me underneath Kachina Bridge.

Next we stopped at the third and final of the named bridges—Owachomo Bridge. We also did the hike down at this one. Owachomo Bridge is the smallest of the three at 180 feet across and it’s only 9 feet thick. Seems unstable.

The view of Owachomo Bridge from the overlook. It’s hard to spot it but it’s in the middle of the photo.

We finished out the loop and returned to the park entrance. There is a campground at Natural Bridges National Monument that I was hoping we could stay at but it was also closed indefinitely due to COVID. It would have been very convenient to stay there because it would have accomplished two things. One, we wouldn’t have had to drive far that night (we had been rushing some of the hiking at Natural Bridges National Monument in order to beat the sunset). Two, it would have meant that all of our nights of camping on this trip would be at National Park units—either parks or monuments. Unfortunately, this wasn’t an option. So instead I had already booked a KOA an hour-and-a-half away in Monument Valley. As we left we took our National Park sign photos.

We took the direct route south to Mexican Hat (the name of the city). There was a sign that advised there would be a 10% grade, switchbacks, and a one lane gravel road. RVs, semi-trucks, and trailers were warned not to proceed. Leah was freaked out by the sign. I said that we should press on. I was also driving. It was by far the fastest route and the alternative would take us all the way back to where we had turned off the main highway for Natural Bridges National Monument. The road also seemed fine for a long time. We even saw cars coming from the other direction so it had to be good, right? It turned out that it was the last three miles that were harrowing. We basically followed gravel switchbacks from the top of the mesa down to the canyon floor. Leah couldn’t watch. I was doing fine.

By the time we got to the canyon floor it was just about past sunset and everything was getting dark. Unfortunately, this made for bad viewing of what’s called the Valley of the Gods. We finally arrived in Mexican Hat, Utah which gets its name from a sombrero-shaped rock outcropping on the northeast edge of town. We thought we could find a place to get dinner. It was getting late and we weren’t planning on cooking. There appeared to only be one open restaurant and it seemed kind of sketchy. There wasn’t even a Subway. It was kind of a sad looking town.

We stopped at the San Juan Inn—named for the San Juan River that flowed nearby. We didn’t have any other options. We decided to dine in the restaurant (there were about four other people eating there and we were able to space way out and sit in a different section). It was strange to eat inside a restaurant. It was our first time doing it since the pandemic had started six months ago (and we have yet to do it since). I ordered the Navajo burger and Leah ordered the Navajo tacos. They were both served, as their name implied, on Navajo fry bread instead of a burger bun and taco shell, respectively. My burger was good. The whole process of eating there took a while because as it turned out there was only one person working—meaning she was taking orders and making the food. We both used the restroom and noted the signage warning about not clogging the toilet.

We finally hit the road again—later than we had hoped but satisfied. We drove into Monument Valley but it was completely dark so we couldn’t see anything. During my trip planing I was hoping that we’d be able to see Monument Valley that night. Instead we’d have to backtrack a little the next morning to see it. We arrived at the KOA which was located right next to the highway. The rain subsided a little and was only a faint trickle. We set up the tent and I took my first shower in days. It was warm and nice and I felt very clean. Leah decided to take a shower in the morning instead.

Our plan for the next day was to drive straight to Zion National Park. There was some rain predicted overnight but it was supposed to clear up by the next day. Maybe we’d be done with cold temps and rain for the rest of the trip? I had picked the roadside KOA due to it’s convenience and price but I was worried that the car noise from the highway might keep me up at night. Oh well. Nothing I can do about it now.

Total miles hiked: 11.1 Weather: Cool, windy, and rainy—highs in the 50s

Final thoughts on Part 1

We did a lot of driving to get out to Utah. In the future (if there isn’t a pandemic) I think we’d fly out and rent a car. I did some quick calculations and the cost of the flight and rental car are easily offset by the cost of gas and wear and tear on our personal vehicle, as well as the extra nights of lodging while driving.

Moab was crazy. I’d like to visit and check out the restaurant and brewery scene sometime in the future (again, during non-pandemic times).

Arches National Park was really cool. It’s very iconic and worth going to for sure. It was also very crowded and hard to get away from people. I always make mental notes of the things I’d like to do if I ever return to a place. My “if/when I go back” list for Arches National Park is the Fiery Furnace, the complete Devils Garden Loop Trail (of which we only did part), and Tower Arch. Outside of those items we pretty much covered the entire park (minus some off-road vehicle stuff). At about 77,000 acres Arches National Park is the second smallest of the Big 5 in Utah (only Bryce Canyon National Park is smaller) so there isn’t as much backcountry exploring to do.

At the Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands National Park there was still a bunch of hiking that we didn’t get to, though most of it went down towards a river. My “if/when I go back” list for the Island in the Sky section is the Neck Spring Trail and hikes down to the river like Alcove Spring or the circumnavigation of Upheaval Dome plus the trail down Upheaval Canyon to the Green River. Another thing that would be cool is driving the White Rim Road in an off-road vehicle or possibly bikepacking it if I felt adventurous.

At about 338,000 acres Canyonlands National Park is the biggest of the Big 5 in Utah (but only the 23rd biggest park in the National Park system). I really appreciated the size of it. It made for lots of long hike possibilities and tons of overnight camping options. It also meant that—along with it being farther from the main highway—it wasn’t crowded. We saw a lot less people at Canyonlands National Park compared to Arches National Park. I really appreciated the quietness and solitude.

Speaking of quiet, the Needles section of Canyonlands National Park was even less crowded. The Needles was where I fell in love with Canyonlands National Park. The scenery was so varied and beautiful. Plus there were a bunch of trails that all sounded really fun. My “if/when I go back” list for the Needles section is the Confluence Overlook Trail, Peekaboo Spring plus Angel Arch, Druid Arch, Devils Kitchen, the full Chesler Park Loop, the Slickrock Trail, and possibly the Lower Red Lake Trail down to the Colorado River. That’s a lot of things to do, but I feel like I could spend a week in Canyonlands National Park and never run out of things to do.

Natural Bridges National Monument was really cool. It doesn’t seem like a lot of people go there. It doesn’t get the same kind of hype as the Big 5. I think if you’re in the area and have time it’s a worthwhile stop. If you are short on time and need something to cut, it might be best to skip it. My “if/when I go back” list for Natural Bridges National Monument is to hike the full loop trail that connects all three bridges (about 8.6 miles). That includes hiking down—or up—the ladders at Sipapu Bridge. Hopefully it isn’t raining the next time. Other than that there isn’t much to do. Natural Bridges National Monument is only about 7,500 acres and there aren’t any backcountry opportunities.

We did a lot of driving to connect these different parks and sites but overall I was happy with the timing of things. I felt like we had adequate time to see each park without being rushed while still leaving lots to do if and when we return.

Lake Carlos State Park and Glendalough State Park – November 2020

December 6, 2020June 13, 2021 bringram Hiking, Minnesota, Minnesota State Parks Camper Cabin, Glendalough State Park, Lake Carlos State Park, Minnesota State Parks

Leah and I have talked about renting a camper cabin at one of the Minnesota State Parks for a few years now. We opt for tent camping when the weather is nicer and the days are longer but a camper cabin seemed like it would be a real treat in late fall or winter. We picked a weekend in November and I got started looking for availability.

Booking the cabin took a little bit of patience and trial and error. The camper cabins cannot be booked through the online reservation system and you have to call during normal business hours to book one. You can, however, determine the cabin availability through repetitive searching using the online reservation system. This way I was able to determine which parks had available cabins so we could select our favorite before calling. The cabins at the more popular parks (Jay Cooke, Wild River, etc.) seemed to be completely booked up. We also wanted a park that was close enough so that we could drive to it on Friday night. I found a few parks that fit our criteria and we eventually settled on Lake Carlos State Park.

On Friday night we left after work and drove to Lake Carlos State Park, located near Alexandria, MN. The drive was about 2 hours long and for part of the way we listened to Where Men Win Glory by Jon Krakauer on audiobook. The book on tape (CD technically) was a holdover that we had started and not yet finished from our road trip to Utah in September. We stopped in Alexandria for Jimmy John’s and took the sandwiches with us to eat at the cabin.

There are four camper cabins at Lake Carlos State Park. We rented the one known as “Frog Pond”. When we arrived it was dark. We unloaded all of our stuff into the cabin and had dinner. The cabin was super cute and cozy. It had electric heating and since the space was so small the room really heated up quickly. Here’s Leah’s photo of me sitting at the table inside the cabin.

Our cabin slept five and came with mattresses—though we did pack a fitted sheet which was a good idea. We used our sleeping bags for bedding. All of the cabins at Lake Carlos State Park also had front porches that would have been nice in warmer weather. The weekend before we went camping the highs were in the 70s. When we arrived there was a thin layer of snow covering everything with highs in the 30s and lows reaching the single digits after windchill. Not ideal timing.

One of the great things about the camper cabin was that it had electricity and heat. We didn’t have to worry about sitting out in the cold by the campfire or reading by headlamp. It was definitely a more manageable way to winter glamp. Eventually we cozied up in bed and went to sleep.

The next day we woke up and made some breakfast. We had to go outside to use our stove since open flame cooking on butane stoves is highly discouraged indoors. We noticed some of our neighbors in the cabins moving about. Some were even lighting fires in the fire pits. Here’s a photo of me outside of our cabin, waiting for water to boil.

We headed out hiking for the morning. It was cold but the sun poked through the clouds and we were out of the wind enough for it to be a pleasant day. We hiked the Hiking Club Trail and only saw a few people. We had been to Lake Carlos State Park a few years ago over Memorial Day weekend so most things seemed familiar, though seasonally distinct. Here’s a photo I took of Leah as we made our way along the hike.

We also tried to do some more intentional birding while on the hike. We saw a lot of chickadees, jays, and what we think was a downy woodpecker—according to our bird guidebook—among other birds. We finished the Hiking Club loop and then hiked another small section by the entrance to the park. On our way there we stopped at the park office to buy the Hiking Club password book.

For those who don’t know, the Minnesota State Park system has a passport book where you collect stamps at each of the 75 state parks and recreation areas. We recently purchased the passport book and have been amassing stamps. On this trip we decided to add the Hiking Club password book to our state park travel documentation. There are 68 Hiking Club trails spread throughout the state park system and somewhere along each trail there is a post with a sign that contains the password. Sometimes the password has meaning to the park like a person or place. Sometimes the password has relative meaning like the name of a species of tree. And sometimes the password is seemingly meaningless and I spend the next 30 minutes complaining to Leah about why that was a terrible password and what one I would have chosen instead. I often end up complaining.

There was a little lake on the park boundary that we hiked to and I took this photo. We saw some big bird flying—maybe an eagle or hawk?

Next we headed back to our cabin to eat lunch and to warm up a little. After lunch we headed out again to do some more hiking, this time along what were mostly horse trails—though we never saw a horse. The park was beautiful and quiet. Afterwards we headed back to our cabin and had some snacks while we studied the Hiking Club password book and our bird guide.

We ordered Domino’s for dinner. I couldn’t get over how good of a deal it was to get two medium 2-topping pizzas and a salad all for $5.99 each. Domino’s, if you need an ambassador or spokesperson just let me know. I love a good deal on pizza. We drove into Alexandria to fetch the pizza and ate it back at the cabin. Eventually we curled up in our sleeping bags and fell asleep.

The next day we got up and had breakfast again. Then we loaded everything back up into the car and headed off to Glendalough State Park. But first we took a selfie in front of the cabin.

The drive to Glendalough State Park was about an hour and we got there mid-morning. We stopped at the kiosk at the park entrance to get our stamp. When Leah went to open the glove compartment to get the passport book, a bundle of foam padding and fabric fell out. It quickly became clear that a mouse had spent the night inside the glove compartment of my car, presumably taking shelter near the warmth of the recently running car engine following our return from Domino’s. Leah got out of the car and I used a latex glove and trash bag to pick up what I could find—including mouse turds.

If you’re wondering why I had a latex glove in my car—long story short, a few months ago a door-knocker for Ilhan Omar stopped by our house and asked if we wanted a COVID safety package which included masks, hand sanitizer, and latex gloves. I said yes and have sense stored that package in—you guessed it—the glove compartment of my car. A real full circle story.

We weren’t really quite sure if the mouse could still be in the car. You’d think that loading items into the car and driving for an hour would scare a mouse away, but who knows. I tried to remain optimistic that once the sun rose the mouse woke up and realized what a terrible mistake it had made and quickly left the confines of my car never to be seen again. After the traumatizing mouse nest and poop scare, we got the stamp in our passport book and drove into the park.

We parked near the swimming beach—a place where I had gone swimming (Leah didn’t join in) years ago on that same Memorial Day weekend trip that included Lake Carlos State Park. We checked the car for visible damage or chew marks since it appeared as though the mouse had built its nest out of foam and padding from somewhere in the car. We found nothing and headed out on the Hiking Club Trail.

Glendalough State Park is more prairie-like than Lake Carlos. The weather was a little colder and the wind was blowing hard. This made for a particularly cold and less fun experience. We walked past the cart-in campground where we had mistakenly attempted to make a reservation on that trip years ago. Somehow we failed to actually submit the reservation or receive a confirmation and ended up having to book a site at a nearby private RV campground last minute.

Next we walked on a trail that included a dog cemetery which was from when the state park used to be a resort. The owners buried their hunting dogs on the grounds when they passed. Then we stopped by a historic lodge on the main lake in the park to check it out. It was locked. Here’s a photo of me demonstrating how cold it was.

We hiked out on a trail through a very marshy landscape. It was a trail that we attempted to hike years ago on the previously mentioned camping trip but were turned away due to an unpleasant amount of bugs. One positive of the cold was that there were no bugs so we felt like it was the perfect time to hike the trail. It also turned out that the frozen surface allowed us to walk—carefully—on top of what would have been inches of water and mud. It seemed like the best time of year to hike this section of trail, and yet it still wasn’t that great. At least we can say that we did it.

We finished the Hiking Club loop and ended back at the car. Leah made me check the glove compartment for mice. Then we enjoyed our cold pizza leftovers while sitting in the cold car. We decided that we would hike one more trail before calling it a day. We headed out and enjoyed some more beautiful prairie views. I didn’t take many photos that day mostly due to not wanting to expose my hands to the cold air. I did, however, feel the need to take a photo of this large tree that a beaver had recently been putting a bunch of work into.

We made it back to the car, checked again for mice, and headed home. We listened to more of the audiobook but still didn’t finish it. Finally, we made it home before it got too dark. The weather wasn’t super pleasant, but we’re both pretty resilient and didn’t let that deter us from having a good time.

The camper cabins are something that we’ll definitely stay in again. They are a little bit pricier—we paid about $75 per night—but when it’s cold and dark it sure beats tent camping. We’ve also talked about trying them out in the winter at some of the parks that have groomed cross-country skiing trails or snowshoeing. So many fun winter getaway ideas for the future!

Southeast Minnesota: Root River State Trail – October 2020

October 18, 2020June 13, 2021 bringram Biking, Minnesota Lanesboro, Root River, Root River State Trail

It had been a bucket list item for me and Leah to bike the Root River State Trail in southeast Minnesota. It’s 42 miles end-to-end of paved rails-to-trails bliss. The trail runs from the town of Fountain in the west to Houston in the East with Lanesboro being the most prominent town that it passes through. We had been kicking around the idea of biking the trail this autumn in order to see the fall colors. I was able to find us some lodging on the trail in the town of Rushford (all of the places I found in Lanesboro were booked for the weekend, and so was pretty much everywhere else that I looked along the trail).

The plan was to drive down Saturday morning and park the car in Fountain. From there we’d bike to the other end of the trail in Houston. Then we’d double back about a dozen miles and spend the night at a motel in Rushford. On Sunday we’d bike back to the car—with optional detours on the Harmony-Preston Valley State Trail to add some extra mileage.

Day 1

We got up early(ish) on Saturday, had breakfast, and packed the car. It was about a two hour drive from our house to Fountain where we would be getting on the trail. We arrived at the Root River State Trail parking lot at about 10:30 AM and there weren’t many other cars—maybe ten at most. The DNR website had warned that because of the nice weather and the great time of year for fall colors the trail may be crowded. In Fountain that really didn’t seem like the case.

We unloaded the bikes from the car and then loaded all of our gear into the panniers strapped to our bike racks. We were technically bike touring. But only for one night. And we were staying at a motel. Definitely a more glamorous trip than a standard bike tour. But since it was just one night and we weren’t really conditioned to spending days on the road I decided that it would be more comfortable (and dare I say romantic?) to travel light and in style.

The first section of the trail from Fountain to the junction with the Harmony-Preston Valley State Trail was slightly downhill (though it wasn’t very noticeable until we were biking the other direction while coming back). We also weren’t following the Root Rover yet. Here’s a photo I snapped while we stopped so Leah could shed a layer as the sun was heating up the crisp October day.

We continued riding to Lanesboro. There happened to be a farmers market that was just about to end when we got to town so we decided to check it out. It wasn’t very big—just a few stands (and half of them were selling honey). Leah forgot to bring lip balm so she thankfully was able to purchase a bee balm from one of the vendors. Divine timing it would seem.

Next we walked the main street through Lanesboro and peeked at the stores and restaurants. The pandemic had obviously put a damper on some of the charm and quaintness of the town, but nevertheless there were people out and about. I noted the ice cream place that I was planning to have us stop at on our way back the next day.

We then walked up to the top of the hill in town where there were a couple of churches that we had spotted from below at the farmers market. We found a bench to sit on and we ate our packed lunch while looking down on the southern section of Lanesboro. There were also two Corvette enthusiasts from Iowa that had driven their cars to the top of the hill and posed them for dramatic photos. Here’s a photo that I took of the view (Corvettes not included).

Next we got back on our bikes and rode down the hill back to the trail. Well, I rode and Leah walked. Leah isn’t a big fan of steep downhills while riding a bike. We quickly came upon the town of Whalan (population 63) but continued riding without stopping to check it out. I did note that the sign for Whalan called it the home of the “stand still parade”. I guess that’s cool.

We passed a shirtless middle-aged white man riding a recumbent bike. He must have been trying to get some rays on one of the last hot and sunny days of the year. We stopped for a bathroom break just on the edge of Peterson (the next town along the trail). Some stranger asked us if we saw the shirtless guy riding the recumbent. I said we had. He said that guy’s out there every day riding the trail with his gut hanging out. It was an unpleasant thought.

We got back on our bikes and continued riding to the next town on the trail. We stopped in Rushford for an ice cream break at Creamery Pizza and Ice Cream. We also happened to be in the town where we would be sleeping that night, but we first had to bike another 13 miles in order to reach the end of the trail and then bike that same section back. Coincidentally, I had planned for us to get takeout pizza from Creamery Pizza and Ice Cream for dinner that night. They really had the market cornered on some of my favorite foods.

We rode out of Rushford and headed towards Houston, the final stop on the Root River State Trail. Along the way we crossed the river and stopped to take photos. Here’s Leah standing with the bikes.

And here’s one of me looking the other direction.

We didn’t hit peak fall colors on the trip (we were a little too late for that), but there were definitely still a lot of beautiful colors to see. The trail was mostly flat and followed the relative bends of the Root River. They call southeast Minnesota bluff country and it truly is spectacular to see hills and bluffs covered in reds, oranges, yellows, and greens. We may have missed peak colors, but we were lucky to be able to coordinate the trip with some amazing weather and still pretty darn good colors. Here’s another photo from the bridge.

We continued riding into the section that the map labels as having “relatively steep hills”. A little up and down but it wasn’t too bad. Pretty soon we made it to the town of Houston. We stopped at the trailhead and never actually rode into town and possibly missed out on the (presumably closed) International Owl Center. We did stop at the Houston Nature Center which was located next to the trailhead parking lot. There was a decent collection of trinkets and taxidermy animals. We purchased a used field guide of Minnesota reptiles and amphibians for $2. Quite the deal.

Our our way out of Houston I noticed something on the side of the trail. It was an analemmatic sundial which I guess is just a fancy way of saying a sundial that works based on different positions of the thing casting the shadow. This particular one used the shadow from a person standing on a corresponding month marker. In this photo, Leah is standing on “October”. And if you can read the sundial using her shadow, the time was approximately 3:50 PM. Pretty cool.

We made our way back to Rushford and checked into the motel. It was a decent place (we’ve definitely stayed in worse) but was a little pricey due to the demand in the area. The person working the front desk told me that in the last hour he had to turn away six people who had called to try to make last minute reservations. I guess I was pretty lucky to find a place to stay.

We parked our bikes in the room, unloaded our gear, and took showers. We had ridden about 55 miles that day. Nothing crazy, but we were glad to have a shower and a nice dinner coming up. We placed an order at Creamery Pizza and Ice Cream and walked to an off sale liquor store to get drinks. They didn’t have any single-serve beer options and I didn’t really want to buy a 4-pack. We bought a bottle of wine and brought it back to the motel.

Then we had the idea to check out the beer selection at the Kwik Trip in town. They had those massive cans of Bud and Bud Light and I decided to really treat myself and got the King of Beers. We also brought that back to the motel and stored it in the fridge (it tastes best cold). Then we headed to Creamery Pizza and Ice Cream to pick up our pizza. When we returned to the motel, Leah wanted to capture the moment so here’s me on the motel bed with the pizza and my oversized Bud.

We finished the pizza (though we both needed a break in the middle) and I was able to drink all of my beer. We watched a little football and then a bunch of episodes of Hidden Potential on HGTV. Eventually we also finished the bottle of wine and went to bed.

Day 2

We woke up and had our pre-packed breakfast of Pop-Tarts. We loaded everything back up and hit the trail again. Our butts were feeling very sore. It reminded me of the good old days of bike touring with a constantly sore butt.

On the way back through Peterson we took a quick detour along the main road. Nothing seemed to be open on a Sunday morning. Before too long we were back in Whalan. This time through town we stopped and read some signs that were posted near the rest stop. We learned that for the stand still parade the participants sit (or stand) along one block in town and the parade attendees walk around and enjoy the non-moving parade.

An older couple (they said they were almost 85) stopped to chat with us for a little bit. They were from Green Bay, Wisconsin and were riding the trail in chunks over three days. One of them couldn’t believe how even though we were riding upstream he had been coasting for miles. He also told us that they were riding E-bikes, so maybe he just had forgotten to turn his off.

Next we rode to Lanesboro and stopped for a snack. Unfortunately, I wasn’t really interested in getting ice cream which kind of made a mess of my whole perfect plan to stop and get ice cream in Lanesboro. Oh well.

We had decided to ride the Harmony-Preston Valley State Trail as far as Preston and then turn back. Our butts were sore and my back was also feeling a little sore so we decided that we didn’t need to ride the entire Harmony-Preston Valley State Trail which would have made the whole day about 65 miles. Riding to Preston and turning around made the ride about 42 miles which seemed long enough. While in Lanesboro we looked up lunch options in Preston. We found out that the local sandwich shop in town was closed, possibly due to COVID. We decided to get a packed lunch from a restaurant in Lanesboro and take it with us to eat in Preston.

We continued on from Lanesboro and at the junction with the Harmony-Preston Valley State Trail we turned towards Preston. The Harmony-Preston Valley State Trail follows the south branch of the Root River from the trail junction until Preston. The trail was also very pretty.

We arrived in Preston and had lunch in a park by the trailhead. When we got back on our bikes to ride towards Fountain, our decision to cut the ride a little short was reaffirmed by how sore our butts were. We biked back the same section to the trail junction and this time turned towards Fountain. The ride to Fountain felt like one long shallow uphill. Not the most fun way to end the day.

We stopped at a cool section of the trail that was carved between two rock outcroppings and took photos of each other.

We got to Fountain and loaded our gear and bikes back into the car. The parking lot was again mostly empty. The Root River State Trail was kind of busy in sections, but mostly just the areas closest to Lanesboro. As we got closer to Lanesboro there seemed to be more and more people on the trail. And inversely, as we got further from Lanesboro there appeared to be fewer and fewer people on the trail. But all-in-all we didn’t have any issues with trail crowding and it seemed like we were there at a peak time.

We made a decision to detour slightly on the way home to stop at one of our favorite apple orchards—Whistling Well Farm. We bought some local maple syrup and cider and got a bag of Zestar! (an apple developed by the University of Minnesota). Leah also took my photo. Mask up.

It was a great weekend of bike riding and sightseeing made even better by the perfect fall weather. It also reminded me how much I enjoy bike touring. Minus the butt soreness part.

Isle Royale National Park – September 2019

September 22, 2020June 13, 2021 bringram Hiking, National Parks Isle Royale, Isle Royale National Park

Leah and I have had a yearly tradition of traveling to an outdoor adventure every labor day weekend. It usually coincides with Leah’s birthday which makes it a great opportunity to plan something fun for the two of us.

This year we chose Isle Royale National Park (IRNP). It had been high on our list of national parks to visit considering its relative proximity to Minneapolis and its well-documented beauty. Isle Royale is an island in Lake Superior about 15 miles off the coast of Grand Portage, Minnesota (the northeastern tip of Minnesota). Oddly enough (and we got more info about this during a ranger talk), the island is part of Michigan and not Minnesota.

Isle Royale National Park is comprised of over 400 islands that make up an archipelago. Isle Royale, the largest of the islands, measures roughly 50 miles long and 9 miles wide making it the 4th largest island in the United States. Leah also loved to quote an unconfirmed source that said it was the least visited National Park (outside of Alaska) but the most returned to. Another fun fact that I remember from the trip and don’t have a source on is that IRNP is the only National Park that officially closes in the winter.

Trip Logistics

I thought I’d dedicate a section to trip logistics because I found that to be one of the more challenging barriers to visiting IRNP. Like some National Parks, just getting to Isle Royale was part of the adventure.

First off, Isle Royale is an island so the only way to get there (when Lake Superior isn’t frozen) is by boat or seaplane. You are allowed to park private watercraft at certain docks in the park so that’s technically an option but I’m assuming that most people don’t have access to a private boat in northern Lake Superior.

The most common way to get to the island is on one of the four ferries that provide passenger service. The Ranger III (the largest moving piece of equipment owned and operated by the National Park Service) leaves from Houghton, Michigan and stops at Rock Harbor on Isle Royale. Rock Harbor is the main port on the eastern side of the island with Windigo being the main port on the western side. The journey from Houghton to Rock Harbor takes about 6 hours which is why we learned that the Ranger III is also known as the “barf barge”.

The other ferry option from Michigan is the Isle Royale Queen IV which leaves from Copper Harbor and also arrives at Rock Harbor. The journey takes a little over 3 hours so it’s not quite as arduous of a journey as the Ranger III.

If you’re traveling from Minnesota there are two ferry options that both leave from the same location in Grand Portage, Minnesota. They also both operate on central time whereas IRNP is on eastern time (since it’s part of Michigan—though part of Michigan is on central time, but I digress). The Sea Hunter III is the fastest way to get to Isle Royale by ferry. The trip to Windigo takes around 1.5 hours and also includes a few sightseeing announcements over the PA system.

The other ferry that leaves from Grand Portage is the Voyageur II. The trip from Grand Portage to Windigo takes about 2 hours. The other important aspect of the Voyageur II is that it’s the only ferry that provides transportation from point to point on Isle Royale. It has an outbound and an inbound schedule. The complete outbound schedule starts in Grand Portage and ends at Rock Harbor while stopping at Windigo, McCargoe Cove, and Belle Isle along the way (it navigates the northern side of the island while doing this). The inbound schedule starts in Rock Harbor and ends at Grand Portage while stopping at Daisy Farm, Chippewa Harbor, Malone Bay, and Windigo along the way (it navigates the southern side of the island).

This makes the Voyageur II very helpful if you’re hiking from end-to-end on Isle Royale or if your starting or ending point isn’t Windigo or Rock Harbor. It also makes it a little harder to schedule transportation on the Voyageur II because the outbound and inbound schedules alternate days (since the trip from Grand Portage to Rock Harbor takes about 7 hours).

The other way to get to IRNP is by seaplane. The seaplanes leave from either Houghton, Michigan or Grand Marais, Minnesota and land at either Windigo or Rock Harbor. This option was faster, but also more expensive. I didn’t look into it too much because the ferries seemed to make more sense for us.

I found the hard part of the planning to be trying to fit our vacation schedule into the ferry schedule in a way that made sense, was relaxing, and didn’t require stressful amounts of travel and hiking. After a couple scheduling snafus with the ferry (mostly it being full when I tried to book), we finally committed to going. I booked the ferry about 3 or 4 weeks before we were leaving. It was also a holiday weekend (Labor Day). I would recommend booking earlier than that if you can to avoid running into issues with trying to book the ferry. We allotted four nights and five days on the island.

We were leaving on the Sea Hunter III and returning on the Voyageur II (the Voyageur II was our only return option because we were planning to hike across the island and it was the only method of intra-island travel). I was also worried that maybe hiking across Isle Royale in 5 days was too optimistic so I called the ferry service and asked if we would be able to get on the Voyageur II at a different pickup point that was part of their inbound service in case we couldn’t make the whole distance. They said that we could, but now that I know more about how the ferry operates I’m not so sure that would have worked. Communication on the island is spotty or non-existent. Unless you’re at Windigo or Rock Harbor you’re kind of on your own (with the exception of the other hikers and boaters). My advice is to have a backup plan, but hope that you never have to use it and understand that it probably won’t work very well.

I’d also highly recommend visiting the Isle Royal National Park transportation website (https://www.nps.gov/isro/planyourvisit/transportation-services.htm) for the most up-to-date information and schedules.

We left Thursday after work to complete the 5.5 hour drive to Grand Portage where we stayed at the lodge at the Grand Portage Casino. It was the most convenient option given our late arrival time and its proximity to the marina. Part of the hotel package included $5 in free play for each of us at the casino. We declined, though I told Leah that we should take that $10 and let it ride on the roulette table until we had paid for the entire trip.

Day 1

We woke up early and packed everything for the ferry ride to the island. The marina, as it turned out, was basically someone’s yard with a gravel parking lot. We grabbed our packs and headed to the ferry. They had us queue up on the dock before the departure time and then called out the boarding order by group name. The Sea Hunter III operates as a day trip service so there were many people on the boat that were not spending the night on the island. They also got to board the ferry first—such luxury treatment. Here she is in all of her glory.

The ferry ride was pleasant. We sat on the outer deck and took in the sights. The ferry captain threw in a few tour guide style stops along the way. We saw the Little Cedar Spirit Tree—a sacred tree to the Ojibwe that has grown on a rocky cliff of Lake Superior. We also stopped to look at the wreck of the SS America. Here’s a photo of the Little Cedar Spirit Tree taken from the ferry. It’s the scrawny-looking one smack dab in the middle of the photo.

Here’s a photo of Leah enjoying the warm sunshine and cool breeze during the ride.

Once at Windigo we unloaded from the ferry. They split us up into two groups, one for the day trip folks and one for the overnight people. Each group had a park ranger give them a presentation about the island and basically explain the rules and regulations. Apparently every person that arrives on the island must sit through one of these presentations.

Next we headed to the visitor center. All overnight backpackers had to register for back-country permits in order to camp on the island. The permits were free but served as a way for the park rangers to keep tabs on who was on the island and where they were planning to be. We had been a little anxious about being able to hike the entire length of Isle Royale in our time allotted so we made sure to clear our plans with the ranger just as a sanity check. She explained that our chosen trail, the Greenstone Ridge Trail, was mostly flat as it followed the middle ridge line of the island. Also, the most elevation change that we would face each day would likely be when hiking to or from a campsite as there were no campsites along the ridge. All of the campgrounds were next to a permanent water source. The majority of the sites that we were targeting were next to inland lakes that were off the ridge trail.

We mentioned to the ranger that our first intended campsite was one called Island Mine (6.9 miles from where the ferry dropped us off). She said that we should be able to make it to the next campground called South Lake Desor (about 11.6 miles from where the ferry dropped us off). With her boost of confidence we felt better about our planned mileage. We also spent some time perusing the park store. I got my coveted passport sticker and we picked up some other stickers and postcards.

We left the visitor center, took a quick bathroom break (at the last flush toilets and running water we would see for the next four days), and headed out on the trail. Here’s a photo from the start of the hike as we were climbing slightly up to the top of the ridge.

There weren’t many views in the first stretch of the trail since we weren’t on top of the ridge yet. The hiking was pretty easy going and it felt like we were making good time. We stopped for lunch on a log and enjoyed the peace and quiet of Isle Royale. After putting some distance between us and the visitor center, we didn’t see very many people.

We were also keeping our eyes peeled for a moose. One of the main draws of IRNP is the opportunity to see moose in the wild. The moose population is estimated at about 2000 and the island only has about 200 square miles of land. So at about 5 moose per square mile you feel like your chances are pretty good. We eventually cleared the forest and made it to the ridge. Here’s one of the photos I took from along the ridge. That blue water down the hillside is the Siskiwit Bay.

We eventually made it to the South Lake Desor campsite. All of the campsites on the island are first come, first served. We were able to pick a nice spot and only found one other campsite occupied. We set up the tent and got settled in. Here’s Leah’s photo of our campsite.

We headed down to Lake Desor to relax and take a load off. There was some discussion while packing for this trip whether or not we should bring sandals for lounging around the campsite. I said that I wasn’t going to bring sandals and ended up convincing Leah to also not bring sandals. After a long day of hiking and sore feet, Leah was a little upset that she didn’t have sandals. She blamed me for this. I also mostly agreed, and we decided that on our next backpacking trip we would bring sandals. Here’s some ducks swimming in the lake.

We took photos of each other sitting by the lake side. I feel like mine looks like a senior portrait.

While we were sitting by the lake, two women sat down near us. Leah recognized one of them as someone that she had recently worked with. We briefly chatted and agreed how strange it was that we ran into someone that we knew while on Isle Royale.

Leah and I filtered some water from the lake (for the remainder of the trip all of our drinking water would be filtered from either one of the inland lakes or from Lake Superior). Then we headed back to the campsite and cooked some freeze dried food for dinner. We headed to bed and crashed pretty quickly. It had been a long day.

Hiking: Windigo to South Lake Desor campground – 11.6 miles

Day 2

We woke up and made our hiking plan for the day. We were ahead of schedule due to hiking further than we had expected on the first day. Our original plan had us going to Hatchet Lake, but since we were closer than originally planned it would have only been an 8.1 mile hike. The weather was beautiful and the forecast for later in the week was a little more sketchy, so we made the decision to try to make it to the next campground on the Greenstone Ridge Trail which was West Chickenbone Lake. The new mileage for the day would be 15—a little ambitious but we could always stop if we weren’t up to it.

There’s an interesting relationship between wolves and moose on Isle Royale. The park service has been working to balance the populations over the last few decades (more info can be found here https://www.nps.gov/isro/learn/nature/wolf-moose-populations.htm). During the previous night I had heard wolves howling somewhere off in the distance. According to the park rangers, wolf sightings are very rare. Early on in the hike I spotted some wolf tracks in the mud.

I was working on my tracking skills. I also spotted a moose track. I knew there must be a moose somewhere nearby. Maybe we were following one? I was determined to see a moose at some point.

There is a lookout tower called Ishpeming Point that we stopped at. Unfortunately, we could not climb the tower because it was locked. Here’s me getting as high as we were allowed.

Here’s a photo of a single tree that was showing its leaf colors. I can only image what IRNP looks like during peak fall colors.

While hiking along the trail, I heard a rustling up ahead. I was in front of Leah and I stopped as soon as I saw that it was a moose about 100 feet ahead on the trail. I think it was startled by us, and just as soon as I had stopped, it started to trot away on the trail. All I got to see was its butt as it ran away. I was glad that we actually saw a moose, but also a little disappointed that the moment was so fleeting and I didn’t have a chance to enjoy it or photograph the moose.

We kept hiking along the trail. Parts of it were pretty overgrown and it felt like we were walking in a field of plants. Here’s Leah standing in the trail.

We managed to take a decent selfie on top of the ridge.

Here’s a photo of Leah looking out onto the wilderness below and Lake Superior beyond.

We decided to stop at Hatchet Lake for lunch. It was the last reliable water source before making it to our campsite and we thought it would make a nice place to stop and take a break. Here’s Leah navigating the trail down to the lake.

Here’s a photo of Leah enjoying our little break by the water.

We also saw these insects flying around by the lake. I’m not sure if they’re butterflies or moths or whatever (I’m not a professional insect identifier yet). I just thought they were really pretty.

We hiked back up onto the ridge trail and continued on our way. One of the interesting things about hiking on Isle Royale was that if you couldn’t see Lake Superior or didn’t have a view, you kind of had to remind yourself that you were hiking on a really big island in a really big lake. Here’s another photo of the trail picking its way through a different grove of trees.

Here’s a photo Leah took of me on top of the ridge.

Later in the day we passed a group of about five people—probably the largest group we saw while hiking on the island. We chatted briefly about how we had seen a moose earlier in the day heading in their direction on the trail and were wondering if maybe they had seen it. They said that they had been on Isle Royale for seven days and hadn’t seen even one moose. I felt a little selfish for wanting a better moose encounter than what we had just experienced. Maybe I should be lucky that I even saw one at all, I thought.

Closer to the campground we crossed a water feature courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. Beaver. There were some boards put out to help cross but they were not enough.

We finally made it to our campsite at West Chickenbone Lake. It was a long day of hiking and our feet were sore. We headed down to the lake to relax. Here’s a photo of Leah enjoying the trumpeter swans.

We ate dinner and headed to bed. We were planning another long day the next day.

Hiking: South Lake Desor campground to West Chickenbone Lake campground – 15.6 miles

Day 3

We woke up in the morning and made breakfast. We were just minding our own business and then all of a sudden there was a crashing sound coming down the trail. We looked up from our oatmeal to see a moose just chilling in the lake next to our campsite. We very quickly and quietly stopped what we were doing and got into a better position to see the moose. Here’s a photo of the moose taken from our campsite. This is the best photo I was able to take.

The moose just spent its time munching on lily pads and looking around. Leah attempted to move to a better vantage point and the sound seemed to startle to moose and it took off along the lake shore. I climbed down to the edge of the lake and was able to take another photo of the moose. You can see it just off in the distance.

We were thrilled to have an amazing moment seeing a moose up close and for such a long time. I was glad that I got the moose experience I was hoping for—much better than briefly seeing a moose run away. I felt satisfied. And lucky. A couple passed our campsite on the trail and we warned them about the moose. They ended up setting up camp further down the trail and when we passed them again they said that they had good views of the moose as well.

We eventually packed up our gear and climbed back up towards the ridge. Once at the top, I took a photo looking back over the inland lake.

It was another beautiful day and we were preparing to hike our last long day of the trip. Here are a couple photos from the day; the first of moose antlers (they shed them annually) and the other of a cool mushroom formation.

There was a couple that was hiking roughly the same direction and pace as us that we leapfrogged a few times during the day. I couldn’t tell if they were romantically connected, friends, or just strangers who had recently met and decided to go on a hike together. Here are a few of my favorite landscape photos from the day.

About halfway through the hike we stopped for lunch at Mount Ojibway which also has a lookout tower (but this one you could kind of climb). We took a quick selfie after shedding our heavy packs.

I also saw a familiar face on top of Mount Ojibway. At first I wasn’t sure but then I got a closer look and knew who it was. It was a guy named Victor that was in my study abroad program in China back in 2009. We were friendly during the program, but I didn’t really click with any of the people in the program so I hadn’t spoken to him in about ten years. If you know me, you know that I didn’t say anything and pretended like I didn’t know him. And we can only imagine what he remembered about me. If you’re keeping track, that’s the second person we knew that we randomly ran into while on a big island in a big lake. Victor, if you’re reading this I’m sorry that I didn’t say hello.

Here’s a photo from as high as you could climb on the lookout tower (the platform was covered by a gate and locked, but you could still get pretty high). The views from this spot were great.

Here’s a photo of Leah with the lookout tower in the background for scale.

We had a choice of staying on the ridge or dropping down to the shore of Lake Superior to finish the rest of the hike. We opted to stay on the ridge so that we could continue to get great views. We hiked along until Mount Franklin and then followed the Mount Franklin Trail (go figure) as we dropped down to the shore of Lake Superior and towards our campground.

We were headed to a campground called Threemile which I think got its name because it’s three miles from Rock Harbor. There was a chance of rain in the overnight forecast so we were hoping to get a shelter. Some of the campgrounds (pretty much just the ones along the shores of Lake Superior) had four-walled shelters—one of which was screened—that seemed like real plush digs after being on the trail for days. We were leapfrogging a different couple on the hike into the campground and we ended up getting in just before them. We also ended up getting the last of the shelters (and one of the last open campsites in general). Sometimes it pays to be a little competitive. Here’s a photo of the shelter from the outside. Notice Leah’s rain pants—prepping for the chance of rain.

The shelters were quite roomy inside, especially for just the two of us. We were hoping that nobody would show up at our site desperately looking for a place to stay and asking if we would share the shelter with them. Thankfully, nobody did and we had it all to ourselves. Here’s a photo of our setup on the inside. No tent needed. Just sleeping pads and sleeping bags. We also had plenty of room to air out our dirty clothes.

After settling in to the campsite, we strolled down to the dock to relax next to Lake Superior. The water was pretty chilly. We filled the reservoir for our water filter. The water from Lake superior was cold and clear and tasted great. Here’s Leah out on the dock.

We headed back to the shelter and had dinner. It did start to rain so we were glad that we had a roof over our heads. The majority of our hiking was behind us so the next couple of days would be pretty relaxed. I was glad that we were able to get so many more miles in during the first couple of days because it allowed us to take advantage of the nice weather early in the trip. Also, we didn’t have to worry about rushing at the end in order to catch the ferry in Rock Harbor.

Hiking: West Chickenbone Lake campground to Threemile campground – 15.6 miles

Day 4

In the morning I walked down to the dock again to get water to filter. The lake looked so calm and beautiful. And the sunshine was reflecting off the lake through a gap in the clouds.

We had breakfast and packed up to leave. We only had three miles to go to get to Rock Harbor which was our next camping destination so it was going to be an easier day. The National Geographic map that I brought along with us (and I would highly recommend a detailed map if you plan to hike or camp on Isle Royale) showed a marker on the map simply labeled “Cave”. We stopped to check it out and sure enough it was a cave.

While hiking to the cave we ran into a couple that was staying at the lodge in Rock Harbor. They were older and seemed like they were past their years of roughing it. They also told us that they arrived on the island via seaplane. We saw a few seaplanes take off and land while we were on the island, but they were the only people that we met who had flown in on one. They took this photo of us in the cave.

We got back on the trail and continued hiking towards Rock Harbor. Here’s a cool tree growing on a boulder that we stopped to look at.

We eventually made it to the Rock Harbor campground. It was only about 10 AM but already there were slim pickings for the shelters. We grabbed what appeared to be the last shelter available. There were some that were along the shores of Lake Superior that looked magical, but unfortunately those were occupied. Since there was more rain in the overnight forecast we were glad to have a shelter again. We dropped our gear at the shelter and headed into Rock Harbor. Here’s a photo of the harbor with its rocky beach.

Our first stop was the restaurant. Actually, scratch that. My first stop was the restroom facility to enjoy the first flush toilets and running water that we had seen in days. Then we headed to the restaurant. We were both craving something other than freeze dried and trail mix. There was some confusion about their breakfast vs lunch menu and which part of the restaurant was open for which meal. Eventually we were seated and we both got a burger and beer.

The burger was decently fulfilling, but not the type of euphoric meal that I was expecting. The beer was also underwhelming. It was from Keweenaw Brewing Company in Michigan’s UP. It tasted very carbonated and I don’t know if it was the beer or the method of storage and delivery of the beer. Either way, the beer was a letdown.

After lunch we did some hiking around the Rock Harbor area since we had an entire afternoon to explore. First we walked out to a dock on the other side of the harbor from the visitor center. You can see the Isle Royale Queen IV docked in the harbor.

We thought about doing one of the guided boat excursions that left from Rock Harbor. One went out to the Passage Island Lighthouse and sounded cool. We decided instead to go on a short hike. Maybe next time we go to IRNP we’ll go on a boat tour. We headed out on the Stoll Trail to Scoville Point. Here’s a photo of Leah enjoying the beautiful shoreline during the hike.

Here are a couple more photos that I took on the hike. The first one is of the rugged shoreline and the second one is a small section of tide pools.

Leah managed to snap a candid shot of me taking a load off on a bench.

Here are a couple more photos that I took near the end of Scoville Point. The first one is Leah walking out towards the point and the second one is a private building that is on National Park property. We learned a little bit about how some of the people that had property on the island when it was made into a national park were allowed—or rather grandfathered in—to keep their property on a temporary lease with the government. There weren’t many buildings left that were still privately owned at this point.

Leah captured a kayaker out in the open water. It seemed like a great day to paddle.

We finished the loop back from Scoville Point. The trail was well maintained and easy to hike on. Tobin Harbor is on the other side of the point and is the location that seaplanes land for service to Rock Harbor. We got to see a few planes take off and land while we were hiking. We finished the hike and headed to the visitor center to take our national park sign photo.

We got some snacks from the general store including beer (better than the stuff on tap at the restaurant), boxed wine, a Doritos knock off, and candy. We ate dinner—which included a freeze dried meal—on a bench next to the harbor.

The harbor was beautiful. And it wasn’t very busy, either. I kind of thought we’d see more people at Rock Harbor.

After dinner we headed to the ranger program. Here’s Leah on her way in to the auditorium.

The ranger program was about the history of Isle Royale. Like many stories about U.S. history it began with the original inhabitants of the land being kicked out so that white settlers could mine/log/harvest the resources of the Island. There was a big copper rush in the upper Michigan area decades ago and that was the main resource that was sought after on the island.

The program was very interesting. That is until the ranger really went in on Minnesotans. He pulled out some article from the Star Tribune that was asking why Isle Royale is part of Michigan and not Minnesota (since it’s quite a bit closer to Minnesota than it is to Michigan). He claimed that he would very clearly answer that question, and I feel like he didn’t. There was something about how the geologic formations that made the island were more closely related to the geologic formations that created the upper peninsula of Michigan. And there might have been some story about land rights or disputes or whatever. Either way, I didn’t appreciate how this guy really disparaged Minnesota.

After the ranger program, we headed back to the shelter and fell asleep. We had to make sure we got up early in the morning so that we didn’t miss the ferry going back to Grand Portage. We also got a weather update from the ranger station that there was some stormy weather on the way that was going to be creating some big waves on Lake Superior. We were a little worried that we wouldn’t be able to get back safely, but there was nothing we could do at that point.

Hiking: Threemile campground to Rock Harbor and the hike out to Scoville Point – 8 miles

Day 5

We woke up to a cold and stormy morning. Our ferry ride back to the mainland was waiting for us at the dock. Here’s the Voyageur II.

All of the ferry riders were gathering around the boat. There weren’t many of us. We met a couple that was doing a bike tour from Grand Portage, MN to Copper Harbor, MI. They were using the ferry as a “fun” method of transportation so that they didn’t have to do an out-and-back loop. We asked a park ranger what the chances were that the ferry would make it back to Grand Portage that day. The ranger told us that the Voyageur II had been in the same family for years and that if anyone knew how to navigate these waters safely it was them. We also got word that another ferry, the Ranger III, had already canceled its service to and from the island. And the seaplanes were temporarily grounded (watered?)

We loaded the boat and left at the regularly scheduled time which was 8 AM. At first the ride wasn’t so bad. This was mostly due to us still being in the protected waters of Rock Harbor. There was a string of barrier islands that sheltered the shore (and the ferry) for the first part of the trip. We made our first stop at Daisy Farm and picked up a few passengers. Next we headed out into open water. The waves immediately started to pick up. One of the passengers that we picked up at Daisy Farm headed straight to the back of the ferry to vomit into the cold waters of Lake Superior. The waves were big. The deckhand said that the waves were probably 12 to 15 feet high.

After about fifteen minutes of trying to navigate the rolling waves—and without saying anything—the captain whipped the boat around. We knew we were headed back. We were about an hour into a six hour journey, and it was all for nothing. I can’t say that I was that disappointed. I was really feeling sick and there was no sign of conditions improving. I felt like if we had kept going either the boat was going to sink or I was going to puke. Or both.

The captain dropped us back off at Rock Harbor and told us to meet him back there at 2 PM and maybe they’d give it another go once the waves had calmed down. We didn’t know what to do. Should we go get a campsite again? Should we eat? We ended up heading to the restaurant and getting breakfast. It seemed like all of the other ferry passengers were doing the same thing.

We then needed a way to contact the mainland to let them know that we were okay but that we wouldn’t be back when we had planned. The lodge wouldn’t give out their WiFi password and Leah was not pleased. An older couple that we had befriended (and that were staying at the lodge) gave us the password and we emailed our family and coworkers to let them know that we’d be delayed. Here’s Leah posing cheerfully in the crappy weather.

We hung out (with pretty much all of the other ferry passengers) in the lodge guest lobby which was open to the public. There was a small fire going in the fireplace and everyone was damp and unhappy. At 2 PM we all headed back to the ferry and loaded everything back on again. We left for attempt #2. Again the first part was easy. Once we hit open water, the boat was rocking again. This time the waves weren’t as bad but it was by no means a pleasant ride.

The ferry continued on and made a couple more stops where we picked more people up (who knows what they were thinking this entire time). I managed the wavy ride by simply putting my head between my legs and closing my eyes. The key word is managed. Neither Leah nor I puked during the ride. The same woman that was puking before was puking again. What was even left for her to puke?

The deckhand was a rugged looking man who looked like he’d seen some shit in his life. He was bearded and scraggly, and kept bounding around the boat giving people advice about seasickness and telling stories. He seemed to really be enjoying the wavy ride.

The ferry made its last stop on the island at Windigo where we picked up a large number of people. The ferry, which before was mostly empty, was now full. And one of those new people was our friend Kate. We knew that she was going to be on Isle Royale at the same time as us but we didn’t know that she’d be on our ferry or if we’d even see her. If you’re keeping track that’s the third person we saw on the island that we knew. We took advantage of being stopped and not slowly rocking from side to side as an opportunity to eat some food and drink water. We were pretty hungry and dehydrated.

The ride from Windigo to Grand Portage was pretty calm. There was a slight rock to the boat but nothing too bad. We even had a few more snacks. By the time we got back to Grand Portage it was almost 10 PM. We looked for places to stay in Grand Marais but since it was so late we decided to just head back to the Grand Portage Casino for another night. We were both exhausted, hungry, and a little sick so any amount of time in a car seemed miserable.

When we checked in to the hotel, the desk attendant made some joke about all of their rooms being full. Not very funny. They also commented about how we had just stayed there. Yes, we love casinos. They also had the same promotion going on, a five dollar casino voucher for each adult staying in the hotel. We declined again. Instead, we unloaded our crap in the hotel room, ordered pizza and cheese curds from the hot food station in the casino, and got drinks from the bar to take back to the room (I got a PBR tallboy and Leah got a large wine pour in a plastic cup). We showered for the first time in days and devoured the hot, greasy food.

Day 6

We got up and packed the car for the drive home. We stopped in Grand Marais for breakfast. Then we stopped for wild rice burgers and beer at Fitger’s in Duluth (a tradition of ours). We arrived home later than planned and had to take an extra day of vacation. But overall it was an amazing trip and I’d definitely go back to Isle Royale National Park again.

Northern Minnesota – August 2020

August 8, 2020December 20, 2020 bringram Hiking, Minnesota, Minnesota State Parks McCarthy Beach State Park, Scenic State Park, Schoolcraft State Park

Day 1 – Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area, Schoolcraft State Park and Scenic State Park

Leah and I decided to set out on a camping and hiking adventure in northern Minnesota. The trip was in part to explore some new state parks but also to celebrate what would have been our wedding weekend had there not been a global pandemic. We left on a Saturday morning, August 1st (the original date of our wedding). On the drive up, Leah got a call from her friend Jamie who wanted to wish us well on the postponed wedding date. Jamie also mentioned that we should find a place to pull over so we could watch a video that she organized that featured dancing, toasts, and well wishes from our entire wedding party. It was a really special moment and we both cried while sitting in a Highway 169 turn-off somewhere near Zimmerman, MN. We continued driving north, almost getting into a small fender bender at one point as traffic came to an abrupt stop in front of us.

We eventually got to our first destination, Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area. It’s a large park with multiple sections that all focus mainly on mountain biking. Most of the hills and lakes are remnants of when it used to be a mining site. The mining companies abandoned the area over 30 years ago and the land has been a state recreation area since 1993. Here’s Leah in front of a lake on the only tiny little hike we did.

Since the park is dedicated to mountain biking, we were really only there to get a stamp in our Minnesota State Parks passport book. We didn’t find the stamp in the main parking lot area but we did find a kids loop.

We headed back into town to see if the stamp was at the park office. Luckily it was and we were able to check off another stamp. We hit the road again, driving to Grand Rapids to stop for lunch. Leah found an organic cafe in Grand Rapids (beats Subway or Jimmy Johns) where we grabbed some paninis. Unfortunately, we couldn’t visit the Forest History Center (one of the Minnesota Historical Society sites that we’ve been wanting to go to) because it was closed due to COVID-19.

We headed on to Schoolcraft State Park, a cute little park along the Mississippi River. There were only about 2 miles of hiking trails total and we covered them all. I loved the smell of hot pine as we walked through the old growth forest. We found the hiking club password and made sure to get the passport book stamp there as well. There were a couple watercraft campsites along the river that looked pretty cool. There would definitely be more to explore at Schoolcraft State Park if we had a canoe or kayak to take out on the Mighty Mississippi.

Next we headed to Scenic State Park, the place where we would be camping for the next two nights. We got the stamp on the way in, found our campsite, and set up our tent. Here’s Leah posing with our brand new picnic table covering (thanks to Leah’s mom, Allison) with a bonus shot of our tent in the background.

We wanted to get in a hike before dinner so we set out on a loop past the fire tower. Unfortunately, the fire tower was closed to the public. We didn’t know if that was due to the pandemic or if that was how it always was. The hike started out fine, but as we got further into the forest the mosquitoes got really bad. We basically power-walked the rest of the hike. We kind of saw two backpack sites that were on a lake and maybe nice but it was too buggy to tell. The trail also wasn’t marked particularly well and there was a snowmobile trail that met up with and crisscrossed the hiking trail multiple times. We got slightly turned around a couple times but eventually finished the hike. On our way back to the campsite we stopped at the dock to sit and enjoy the water.

Once back at the campsite I made a fire and we drank some beers. We roasted veggie dogs for dinner and enjoyed the clear night sky. It started to get darker and we headed to the tent and fell asleep.

Day 2 – Scenic State Park

We woke up, had breakfast, and then set off on the hiking club trail at Scenic State Park. The first section we did was a loop on the forested side of the park and it was again very buggy. We had to power-walk that section as well. Then we crossed over the park road and started hiking on what ended up being the best trail in the park—the Chase Point Trail. It followed the ridge of a glacial esker and had beautiful views of the lakes on both sides.

Another bonus of this trail was that there were basically no bugs. Here’s another photo, this one of Leah walking through a sea of tall red pines.

Eventually we made it out to the point (and we also found the hiking club password along the way). Here’s a selfie of us from the end of the trail.

Next we found a picnic table back in the parking area and had lunch. Then we decided that we should hike an out-and-back trail that passed by the watercraft sites. It was pretty much the only section of trail that we hadn’t hiked in the park. It was, shockingly, very buggy and we power-walked again. We did find the watercraft sites along the trail but they were all occupied so I couldn’t do any snooping. From the trail they all looked very nice. Afterwards we headed back to the campsite and grabbed our camp chairs, snacks, and books and headed to the beach area. I was talking a big game about how I was going to go swimming in the lake. There seemed to always be children swimming in the beach area and I eventually chickened out and never got in the water. Leah took a couple micro naps and we both enjoyed the fresh afternoon air.

Then we headed back to the campsite, got a fire going, did some more reading, drank more beers, and had veggie dogs again for dinner. We turned in a little earlier as it had been a long day.

Day 3 – McCarthy Beach State Park, Iron Range Off-Highway Vehicle State Recreation Area, and Duluth

We woke up, ate breakfast, and packed up the campsite. Our next destination was McCarthy Beach State Park. We took a more “scenic” route to get there along a bunch of gravel country roads. Once we arrived at the park we got the stamp and then explored the campground. We found the main campground to feel very much like a resort. There appeared to be more long-term campers there and the lake next to the campground was full of boats and jet skis. We hiked a nice little trail along the lake and then crossed over to the other side of the park where there was a massive parking lot for a large beach and swimming area. It definitely had a summer vacation vibe, but as it was a Monday morning (and also a pandemic) there weren’t very many people out and about. Here’s a photo of the swimming area with a big floating dock thing with slides out in the lake.

Next we drove to a trail parking lot and had lunch. Then we headed out on the Pickerel Lake Trail and Big Hole Trail Loop (both making up the hiking club trail). The trails were beautiful and fairly quiet. Here’s Leah looking out over Pickerel Lake.

We did another loop trail out along some ridges that were covered with red and white pines and thick forest vegetation. These trails become cross-country skiing trails in the winter and we both agreed that they would be very pretty to ski on. There were also a lot of cool mushrooms along the hike. Here’s my favorite mushroom photo that I took.

We finished the hike and headed off to our next destination—Iron Range Off-Highway Vehicle State Recreation Area. The name is a mouthful, and there didn’t seem to be any hiking to do there, but I wanted to get the stamp. It was also barely out of the way on our drive to Duluth. When we arrived at Iron Range Off-Highway Vehicle State Recreation Area there was a truck just leaving and the man driving the truck kind of gestured to us. Then he turned his car around, parked behind us, and proceeded to ask us if he could help.

We finally realized that he was a DNR employee. He was staffing the state recreation area and was just about to leave for the day. His name was Carl and he told us that normally he leads tours of the Soudan Underground Mine but since it’s closed due to COVID-19 he was reassigned to this state recreation area. We chatted for a little bit and I eventually admitted that we were there to get the stamp (shocking, considering my Corolla clearly wasn’t hiding an “off-highway vehicle”). He very kindly went back into the park office to give us the stamp. Lucky for us we just barely caught Carl in time or else we wouldn’t have gotten the stamp.

Next we continued on to Duluth so we could get Fitger’s wild rice burgers for dinner. Also, the hotel at Fitger’s happened to be the place where we proposed to each other so there was a really cute tie in with it being our originally scheduled wedding weekend and all. We sat outside at Fitger’s and enjoyed our delicious burgers—a great meal to end the trip. I also talked us both into going to the Portland Malt Shop next door to get a malt. At least we only got one and shared it between the two of us. We ate the malt while looking out over Lake Superior. We both felt uncomfortably full (though obviously worth it) as we walked back to the car and drove back home. What a wonderful weekend.

Florida: Orlando, Miami, and southeast Florida – February 2020

March 29, 2020June 13, 2021 bringram Florida, Hiking, National Parks Biscayne National Park, Everglades National Park, Florida, Miami

Leah and I have made a point of traveling to warm places during the winter in order to escape the bitter Minnesota cold and to explore locations that are more pleasant destinations in the winter. This year we picked a trip that coincided with a work training that Leah was doing in the Orlando area. I flew down to meet her and then spent a day working remotely from various locations.

Day 1 – Orlando

Leah headed off to her training and I headed out to find Wi-Fi so that I could get some wok done. First, I stopped at a Starbucks where I got a free, tall, sugary, caffeinated drink (after purchasing my first one) because a new employee was in training. It definitely made me a little jittery for a few hours. Second, I headed to the branch of the Orange County (not just in California) library system that was closest to the airport—where I would be picking up Leah once she returned her rental car. I was actually able to get a decent amount of work done and flying out earlier saved cost and inconvenient travel times.

Once I picked up Leah from the airport we headed straight to our hotel. It was a Baymont just off a main highway in some crappy part of greater Orlando. It was also cheap. Leah and I sometimes make a habit of traveling frugally. Upon inspecting the quality of the room and the surrounding property, we made a pact to never stay at a Baymont again.

We made peace with our current situation and headed to a brewery in Orlando. We went to Broken Strings Brewery, a low-key brewery in an industrial part of town with a modest taproom and okay beer. Leah made me finish hers.

Afterwards we headed to Brick & Fire Pizza for dinner. It’s a pizza place that we have been to before and enjoyed the last time so we decided to go back. It was February 13th and they were having a Galentine’s Day special—free wine for women with the purchase of a pizza. Nothing for the dudes. Leah did get her free wine, though. We got a different pizza from the last time and Leah didn’t like it as much. That’s what I get for suggesting something new.

We headed back to the Baymont and went to bed. We were only staying there for 1 night so it wasn’t a huge commitment. In hindsight I realized that maybe we should have just started our drive to Miami that night and stayed at a hotel along the way since we didn’t really have any specific reason to be in Orlando that night.

Day 2 – Miami

We got up and treated ourselves to the free breakfast. Nothing quite like a hotel waffle machine. They tried to double charge us for the room when we checked out—an issue we’ve had with Baymont hotels in the past. We got that taken care of and hit the road for Miami. It’s about a 3.5 hour drive from Orlando to Miami. Neither of us are huge Disney fans, and although I like amusement park rides, Leah does not and we both hate big crowds and waiting in lines. That’s why (in part) we decided to spend the vast majority of the trip in southeast Florida, a place that neither of us had been to before.

Our first stop in Miami was Versailles which is, according to its website, “THE WORLD’S MOST FAMOUS CUBAN RESTAURANT”. The guide books also considered the restaurant a must-see and one of the staples of Little Havana. Once we arrived it became clear that even though the restaurant was world famous, it definitely catered to locals. Almost everybody there, both working and dining, was speaking Spanish. There was a take-a-number system for counter ordering and we watched as our number was inexplicably jumped on the screen. It’s a classic trick to play on tourists. Confused, we walked up and just asked to order.

I got a medianoche (similar to a Cuban with the exception being soft and sweet bread instead of crustier Cuban bread) and a tarta de Santiago to share for dessert. Leah got spinach and cheese puff pastries and empanadas. Leah also made me order everything because she gets very nervous pronouncing words in foreign languages. The food and environment was great, the service… so-so.

Our next stop was Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, the former villa and estate of businessman James Deering built on Biscayne Bay in Miami. We weren’t sure what to expect, but we do love a historic home tour. Here are a couple photos of rooms inside the mansion. It was intentionally built in the renaissance style, which seemed a little out of place at times.

The center of the mansion had what used to be an open air atrium but has since been closed in due to the effects of weather (rain, wind, salt, seawater, etc.) which they clearly didn’t account for in the original design.

On the garden tour we checked out the grotto which is no longer in use but had some intricate designs on the roof.

There was also an interesting concrete ship built in the bay behind the house that was used as both a breakwater and a party destination. Pretty cool spot to hang out if you ask me. Unfortunately, the elements had also damaged this part of the property.

Here’s Leah chilling next to a massive mangrove tree which, ironically, are being reintroduced now that we’ve realized how vital they are in protecting the shorelines of Florida from wind, sea level rise, and hurricanes.

Here’s a photo overlooking the gardens.

I’m not an amphibian or reptile expert so I’m not sure what all of these are, but the Vizcaya property, and southern Florida in general, had these little guys all over.

Here’s a photo of Leah next to one of the structures at the far end of the garden.

Here’s a photo of the property with some coral rock features visible. Coral rock is limestone mined in the southern tip of Florida that has a wide variety of fossilized shell and coral embedded in it.

Here’s a photo of the mansion looking back from the far end of the gardens.

Next we headed into the heart of tourist Miami—Miami Beach. The drive there was a little annoying and traffic in Miami seemed terrible. We found a place to park near the beach and took a stroll. It wasn’t a perfect day and some rain clouds were rolling in, so it was hard to tell if the beach gets more crowded on a typical day. As it was, we found it not very peaceful. We prefer a little less people and a little more scenery. Here’s Leah’s photo of me walking along the beach. The water was cold, but not unbearable.

Miami Beach is known for its interesting lifeguard stands. Here’s one of my favorite ones. It kind of reminded me of Sonic the Hedgehog.

We walked all the way to the south end of the beach and out onto the pier. Here’s a photo of the city, looking back the way we had just walked.

We also saw multiple cruise ships leave port while we were walking along the beach. They were all docked along the same strip of land that we drove past on our way to South Beach. It was kind of cool to see the massive ships up close. It was a Friday night and they all seemed to be leaving on the same schedule.

On our walk back to the car we took a different route along Ocean Drive in order to see the impressive collection of art deco buildings which help make this part of the city vibrant. Here is a collection of my favorite buildings that I took photos of, including a classic car that makes the one photo look like it could be out of the 1950s.

Next we headed to the Wolfsonian–FIU. It is a museum, library, and research center that uses its collection to illustrate the persuasive power of art and design (taken from Wikipedia). The museum has free admission and tours on Friday nights. The tour was interesting and based on design and globalization elements in the collection. The piece pictured below was featured in the lobby.

After the tour we found a Mexican restaurant and had delicious burritos and beer. The server spilled salsa on my shorts but other than that it was great. We got back on the road and encountered some terrible traffic leaving Miami Beach which turned out to be due to a bicycle accident. It didn’t look great…

Once on the highway I made some wrong turns trying to follow the GPS which lead us to somehow go through the arrivals section of Miami International Airport. It cost us some time, and a few extra tolls, but we eventually made our way to Homestead—where we would be staying for the next 3 nights. Homestead is one of the last cities before you hit the Florida Keys and the Everglades, a perfect jumping off point for adventures. We stopped at a Publix to stock up on breakfast food and snacks for the rest of the trip.
Our hotel was an extended stay that looked new and was decorated like a generic IKEA-furnished college dorm room. The bed was a Murphy bed that laid on top of a couch. It wasn’t particularly comfortable and creaked a lot when we moved. Also, for being an extended stay hotel with a kitchenette in the room, it oddly didn’t have any kitchen supplies. No plates, glasses, silverware, or cooking utensils. Nothing. Just empty cupboards. Oops, were we supposed to bring our own kitchen supplies? All-in-all, it was much better than the Baymont and perfectly adequate for the rest of the trip.

We went to sleep with the plan to head to Everglades National Park bright and early in order to try to get on a ranger led bike tour.

Day 3 – Everglades National Park

We left early to drive to the visitor center at Everglades NP. We talked to the ranger about different things to do and found out that there were still openings on the ranger led bike tour so we signed up for that. We did a quick tour of the visitor center (the gift shop was not open yet) and then headed out to the meetup spot for the bike tour. There were about 10 of us in total and we used rental bikes and helmets from the park service.

The bike ride was fairly casual and went through a more off-road section of the park. The ranger talked about how in the Everglades, an elevation change of a few inches makes a big deal in the type of landscape and vegetation that grows. We biked through sections of prairie-like fields similar to the picture below.

And also more densely forested areas like the picture below (with Leah for reference). And the only difference between these sections is mere inches of elevation.

We also stopped at a sinkhole that had vegetation growing out of it.

The ranger told us that a snake usually hangs around there. So naturally I was the first one to spot it. It was a cottonmouth, a venomous semi-aquatic snake. Here’s the best photo I could get of it.

After the bike tour we headed back towards the visitor center, stopping at a few hikes along the way. Here are a couple photos from those hikes.

At the visitor center we got postcards and my passport stickers (I actually got both Everglades and Biscayne at the same time since we were planning to go to Biscayne the next day and didn’t want another fiasco where I couldn’t find the sticker). We also took our National Park entrance sign photos. Since nobody was there to take them for us, here are our individual ones.

Next we headed to the HM69 Nike Missile Base to take a tour of the Cold War era military base that was positioned is southern Florida (inside of Everglades National Park) because of its proximity to Cuba. We learned a lot of information about what it was like to live on the base and what kind of ballistics were kept there. The tour was something that I was definitely more interested in at first since Leah wasn’t sure if she’d like the military history aspect of it. But I think we both really enjoyed the tour and learned a lot. Here’s one of the hangars with a replica missile inside. Somewhat pictured are the Boy Scouts who got to open the hangar doors.

On our tour were two veterans; one that was stationed at an Italian base in the 1990s that was equipped with Nike missiles, the other a service member that participated in the naval blockade of Cuba in 1962 (and was wearing a St. Paul Saints hat!). Our tour guide was very excited to have them with us and asked if they’d do a Q&A. It was a little awkward, but they did share some cool anecdotes and personal stories about being involved in Cold War era military activities with tie-ins to the missile site that we were touring.

Next we headed over to one of the more popular trails called the Anhinga Trail. As we learned from talking to rangers at the park, the only way to build roads, parking lots, and structures in the Everglades (or even most of southern Florida, to an extent) is by adding fill. And most of the fill is dredged from right next to where it end ups. That’s why the campgrounds have big ponds next to them and why all of the roads have drainage ditches or canals running alongside them.

The Anhinga Trail was no different. The trail left from a visitor center, and that visitor center was created by blasting out and digging a big hole next to it. That hole eventually filled with water because the water table is so close to the surface. Then all they had to do was pave a path around the man-made pond and add a boardwalk and now there’s a trail rich with wildlife due to the availability of water. Now, I’m not trying to pass any judgement about how this trail was created and how all of this human intervention has altered the park. These disturbances to the natural state are the only way that I would ever be able to witness all of the beauty that exists in the Everglades.

Birdwatching is one of the main draws of Everglades National Park, and below are some photos from the above mentioned Anhinga Trail (which we ended up visiting again later in this trip). From top-left then clockwise; a blurry close-up of a red-shouldered hawk (or at least that’s what a ranger told us), a great egret, two male anhingas drying their wings next to the trail (notice the shit stains covering the path, must be a popular spot), and a female anhinga perched on the railing.

Next we hiked a few more of the trails off the main park road on our way to the Flamingo Visitor Center which sits on the southern coast of mainland Florida. Here’s Leah posing next to a very old mahogany tree.

Here’s a photo of a boardwalk trail that got washed out, likely during a hurricane. I bet Leah that I could swim it but she wasn’t taking that bet. I’d obviously win.

Here’s Leah posing next to a gnarly looking mangrove tree. There are 3 main types of mangrove trees in the Everglades and I was trying to learn the differences so that I could identify them. I believe this is a red mangrove.

We finally made it to the Flamingo Visitor Center with the hopes of finding a nice place to watch the sunset. We wandered around one of the campground areas near the water until we found a spot to sit. Here’s a black mangrove tree.

The sunset ended up being pretty underwhelming and the bugs really started to come out like crazy at dusk, so we decided to call it a night. On the walk back to the car I spotted an osprey nest with two ospreys perched nearby. They were making a lot of noise. Probably didn’t like all of the people hanging around nearby. Leah thinks I should submit this photo to a contest or something because she likes it so much.

We got back in the car and made the long drive out of the park. We stopped at a Thai and sushi restaurant in Florida City. Their menu was what you’d expect; about a dozen pages long just about any type of Asian inspired dish that an American could imagine. I ended up getting the volcano chicken (which one of our servers said was his favorite and he eats it every day). It was fine. I don’t think Florida City is known for its foodie scene.

We took some leftovers for lunch the next day and headed back to the hotel. We had decided to go to Biscayne National Park the next day because there were spots left on a boat cruise that we were able to book last minute.

Day 4 – Biscayne National Park

We woke up with less of a time constraint due to the morning boat cruise we signed up for not leaving until 10 AM. We made the short drive to Biscayne National Park and took our park sign photos, again with nobody there to help.

Biscayne National Park isn’t one of the national parks that people talk about very often. It’s located just south of Miami and mostly protects the waters of Biscayne Bay. The park is ninety-five percent water. Biscayne National Park contains Elliot Key, the northernmost of the true Florida Keys—which are formed from fossilized coral reef. The offshore portion of the park includes the northernmost region of the Florida Reef, one of the largest coral reefs in the world.

We headed to the visitor center to confirm our boat cruise departure and took a quick spin around the exhibits on display. I did verify that the gift shop had the passport stamp that I purchased the other day at the Everglades NP gift shop so there wasn’t any need for me to worry.

We boarded the tour boat after a quick safety demonstration. One of the crew members told us stories and shared information about the national park while the other drove the boat across about 12 miles of open bay to our destination at Boca Chita Key (which is Spanish for cheetah mouth key). The boat created a ton of spray on the way out and Leah and I got soaked. It was hard to enjoy the ride while constantly getting splashed.

The good news, however, was that once we got off the boat at Boca Chita the sun was shining and we almost immediately dried off. We had about one hour to enjoy the key before the boat departed on its return trip to the visitor center. The main attraction was a lighthouse that was built by a previous owner of the key (Mark Honeywell) in the 1930s. The lighthouse was purely ornamental which caused issues over the years with some people mistakenly thinking it was intended to be used for navigation. Here’s the lighthouse.

There were also some cannons stationed alongside the lighthouse (no word on whether or not they were ornamental).

As part of our boat cruise, one of the crew members unlocked the lighthouse so that we could climb it and get spectacular views from the 65 foot observation deck. Here’s a photo looking out over the crystal clear (and shallow—about 4 to 10 feet deep throughout the entire bay) water.

And here’s a photo looking back at the marina where the boats were docked. Our tour guide said that Boca Chita Key only gets busy on weekends and holidays. And because it was President’s Day weekend there were more boats docked there than normal.

After climbing the lighthouse we took a brief stroll around part of the key and stopped at the beach. The sand was full of shells and coral and was not comfortable to walk on, but the scenery was beautiful. And we finally found someone to take our photo!

We did a little more walking and eventually got into a mangrove section of the key that was very buggy and Leah started to get bitten. I snapped one photo before we had to get back to the boat, both to avoid bugs and to make it back on time. Here’s another black mangrove.

The boat ride back had nearly no spray at all so I got to enjoy the scenery. I tried to spot a dolphin or manatee but didn’t see any. Once back at the visitor center we ate lunch and went on a walk along the short trail that left from the visitor center. After seeing all that we could in the park (without chartering another cruise or renting a boat) we headed out in search of a beach to lounge on for the rest of the afternoon. We asked the ranger at the information desk about seeing crocodiles. We had heard that they congregate by the thousands in the cooling canals of the Turkey Point nuclear facility. Unfortunately, the ranger told us that that area is off limits to the public.

We ended up at Homestead Bayfront Park mostly because it was next to the national park and we didn’t want to drive very far. The beach was on a lagoon in a man-made atoll. It wasn’t exactly what we were looking for, but we had already paid to park and decided to stay. We found a spot on the beach in partial sun and spent the afternoon relaxing—Leah read a book and I toyed with the idea of swimming but ended up just sitting there and people watching.

There was a group of 3 women who looked very young and also had 3 toddlers in tow. It was unclear which of the 3 women, if any, were the mothers. They seemed much more interested in posing for and taking Instagram photos of each other than tending to the needs of the children. We quickly learned that one of the kids was named Zion because we kept hearing that name yelled every time he ran off (which he did a lot). Apparently Zion didn’t like standing still while he waited for someone else to arch their back, puff out their chest, position their skinny arm, toss their hair, suck in their stomach, and catch that sweet golden hour sunshine. We also got to witness one of the women solidly smack Zion across the face. Some great parenting (I think she was his mother?) on display.

The sun started to get lower in the sky and the temps were cooling off so we decided to leave the beach. I convinced Leah that we needed a little treat and could use that as an excuse to visit another tourist attraction that was closed the previous day when we drove past it. We were heading to a place called “Robert Is Here” which is a family-owned and operated fruit stand in Homestead. On the way there we passed the Homestead-Miami Speedway so I got to impress Leah with my very limited knowledge of NASCAR.

Robert Is Here is known for their selection of exotic fruits and vegetables, many of which are grown on site. Here’s me holding a massive Monroe avocado—definitely not your standard avocados from Mexico.

Another popular item from Robert Is Here is their selection of smoothies and milkshakes. And this is what piqued my interest in going there for a treat. You could mix up to 3 flavors from a long list of locally grown items. We got a banana and papaya milkshake. It wasn’t cheap ($7.25 for a pint-sized amount of milkshake) but it was good. I think it’d be fun to play around with the local flavor options. But Leah and I decided that it was a little more expensive than we wanted it to be. I think, understandably, that you end up paying partially for the novelty of it and partially for the local ingredients. It made for a nice treat on a hot day.

Next we headed back to the hotel so that we could shower and clean the sand and salt water off our skin before dinner. Then we drove to a guide book recommended Mexican restaurant in Homestead. They seemed understaffed and there were a few tables of disgruntled customers. Our food came out pretty quick but it took a really long time to get the bill. The food was okay. I was a little disappointed in the experience.

After that we headed back to the hotel and planned out our last day of the trip. We were going back to Everglades National Park to rent a canoe or kayak so that we could head out on the water. There was a ranger led canoe tour that was free, but when we called earlier in the day to try to reserve a spot on the trip all of the spots were full. We decided the next best thing was to head back to the Flamingo Visitor Center and rent our own watercraft. Plus, we hadn’t seen any alligators or crocodiles and I didn’t want to leave the Everglades without at least seeing some crocs and gators.

Day 5 – Everglades National Park and coming home

We got another early start in order to maximize our day at Everglades National Park. We drove all the way through the park to the Flamingo Visitor Center. We did stop along the way at a roadside pond that was full of birds. The photo doesn’t do it justice, but it was really cool to see in person. We saw storks, egrets, anhingas, herons, hawks, and a (sometimes confused with a flamingo due to its pink coloration) roseate spoonbill.

Once at the visitor center we asked a ranger about canoe and kayak options. The ranger told us that she had led the official guided canoe tour recently and that the route had to be altered due to a large bull alligator that was charging the canoes. Apparently alligators are usually pretty docile expect for some males who protect their mating territory. I was a little glad that we didn’t end up on that tour. Later in the day we also overheard another ranger complaining about how one of the people on his canoe paddle tour was too old and out of shape to actually paddle. They ended up tying him up to another canoe and towing him for a good portion of the trip which just slowed everyone down. Again, glad we weren’t on that trip.

The ranger we were talking to gave us suggestions of places to paddle to. There was a canal that was a popular place to see crocodiles and manatees. There was also a bay called snake bite that was a popular bird gathering spot. Even though the name of the visitor center was Flamingo, flamingos themselves are a rare sight in the Everglades. The last recorded sighting was about 4 months ago. According to the ranger, snake bite was our best bet to see one.

Another piece of information that turned out to matter a lot was that it was almost high tide. The ranger noted that we might actually be able to paddle out to snake bite because of this. The bay itself is only about 1 to 2 feet deep at high tide and becomes a mud flat during low tide. Paddling to snake bite was supposed to be challenging and would take about 4 hours round trip. This all intimidated us a little, but we decided to try it out anyways.

We decided to rent a kayak because that was our only option (they wouldn’t let canoes out into the bay, probably because they sat too low below the surface of the water). We also opted for the tandem kayak because it was cheaper and because we make such a good team.

We headed out towards snake bite, following the shore. There were so many birds feeding and nesting in the trees. Here’s a stork in a tree.

We made decent time and eventually saw the mass of birds at snake bite. It’s hard to tell, but they’re the thin line of white along the shoreline off in the distance.

The ranger also told us that the water would be clear and maybe we’d see some manatees out in the bay. If you look at the above photo, you can see that the water clearly was not clear. I don’t know how something so murky would ever be clear, but oh well.

We attempted to continue following the shore towards snake bite, but once in the bay the depth of the water became an issue. Our paddles were hitting mud with every stroke and the kayak was sliding over the bottom, getting hung up at points. The other interesting thing that was happening was that fish were jumping out of the water for what appeared to be no reason at all. Leah was afraid that one would jump into our kayak.

We also encountered what may have been the cause for the jumping fish. The ranger told us that we may find blacktip sharks in the bay, and boy did we. At first we just saw thrashing and surface water splashes whipping past our kayak. Then we finally saw the shark fins poking above the surface as they cut through the water. The bay was so murky that we couldn’t see anything below the surface of the water. So all we could see were these tiny fins and the wake behind them as they buzzed past the kayak, darting quickly back and forth in pursuit of a meal.

This started to freak Leah out, along with the possibility of running aground on a mud patch and needing to get out of the kayak (which was against the rules) in order to push it out. We returned the way we came and attempted another route across the bay. We ran into similar issues and decided to just call it on snake bite and head back towards the visitor center.

On the way back we stopped for a while and watched this osprey attempt to eat a fish it had just caught.

Here’s a photo of a heron (I think it’s a tricolored heron).

We still had time left on our rental and decided that we wanted to keep exploring. We got back to the visitor center and asked the staff if we could transfer to the canal. They said yes, so we unloaded our supplies at the dock and walked over to the dock in the canal and got on a different kayak to continue paddling.

Almost immediately we saw a crocodile. It was basking in the sun on the shore of the canal. I didn’t get a great photo of it. We were so exited to see a crocodile. Right after seeing the crocodile, while paddling up the canal, I spotted a manatee. There was a silver-ish blob moving below the surface of the water and at first I didn’t realize what it was. When I did I told Leah and we were both so excited to see one up so close. It was only a few feet from our kayak. The manatee breached the surface a couple times to breath, and then it slowly drifted beyond visible water depth and it was gone.

We were surveying the shore closely as we paddled, trying to see baby crocodiles (which the ranger told us about). Finally, I spotted one. The ranger described them as cat-like in the way that they draped themselves on the branches hanging over the water. If you follow the tip of the paddle straight up to the first branch, you’ll see a baby crocodile slouched there.

We paddled some more and saw other birds and crocodiles, but never another manatee. We felt really fortunate to see what we did. We eventually headed back to the visitor center and returned the kayak. We ate lunch and then started heading back out of the park.

Along the way we stopped again at the Anhinga Trail because we liked it so much the first time and our flight was late in the evening so we had time. This time on the trail (for no obvious reason at all) we saw multiple alligators. Here’s my favorite alligator photo from the trail.

We were glad we saw some alligators. It would have been weird to leave the Everglades without ever seeing an alligator. Here’s a great blue heron we saw on the trail as well.

Next we hit the road heading towards Miami. We were trying to think of quick things to do in the afternoon. We decided to drive to an iconic hotel called the Biltmore Hotel. It was in the guide books and was a free activity. Here’s a photo that some lady took of us. She also told us that she was a professional photographer, so judge the photo how you’d like.

Next we headed to the Wynwood Walls—a stretch of road in the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami with huge and colorful street murals done by artists from around the world. The artwork was beautiful. I was driving so I didn’t take any photos, but a lot are available to view online.

Next we started looking for a place to have dinner. I thought it’d be cool to get an authentic Cuban sandwich from one of the restaurants in the guide books. Unfortunately, they were either closed, not conveniently located, or didn’t have vegetarian options. One place that was also on my list of destinations was Funky Buddha Brewery. We looked them up online and found that they had a pretty good selection of food. We decided to drive up to Oakland Park, Florida and check out Funky Buddha. It was also close to Fort Lauderdale which was where we were flying out of that night.

We ended up really enjoying the food and beers at Funky Buddha. Leah got wine for her second round which I said was okay since she got beer for her first round. After dinner we awkwardly changed in our car in the parking lot. We had to put on our cold weather clothes for the flight back to Minnesota. We got to the airport, boarded our flight, and headed back home. Another successful winter getaway to Florida.

New England Trip Part 3: Western Massachusetts and Madison

January 16, 2020January 16, 2020 bringram Madison, Wedding

Leah and I planned a vacation in New England that coincided with a wedding we were invited to in western Massachusetts. These posts cover the different parts of the trip.

Day 8

We fought a bunch of Boston traffic as we continued our drive to Montague. Along the way we stopped at a rest stop on U.S. Highway 2. Much to our dismay, the restrooms were closed. There was a sign saying that they closed at 5. Can’t have anyone pooping after business hours.

We grabbed pizza in Turners Falls to bring to the wedding venue where Jamie, Rohan, and other friends were working on final decorations for the weekend. Jamie and Rohan’s wedding was the event that had brought us all out to western Massachusetts in the first place. We all ate, helped finish some decorations, and hung out.

Once it got late we said goodbye to Jamie and Rohan and headed back to the Airbnb. It was very close to the venue which was the main reason we booked it. It was also able to accommodate (with somewhat odd sleeping arrangements) the 11 or so of us that were staying there.

Part of the upcoming wedding ceremonies included a sangeet. A sangeet is a term used to describe a celebratory event during an Indian wedding. It usually takes place the night before the wedding and includes food, drink, dancing, and special performances for the bride and groom.

I was attending the sangeet on Friday night and then traveling to Madison, Wisconsin on Saturday for another wedding. Leah was in the wedding party for Jamie and Rohan so unfortunately we had to split up on Saturday.

Part of the sangeet included choreographed dances that we learned as gifts to the bride and groom. Those of us present at the Airbnb did a few run-throughs of the dance routines. Each dance was about 1 to 2 minutes long. Due to the geographical distance of participants, it was taught via recorded video. Leah and I had done some practicing back home in our living room but it was nice to practice with a larger group of people.

It was possible that due to my many years of marching band, I might have had the most experience learning choreography out of everyone there. That and my natural dancing ability which never fails to amaze and impress.

After dance practice, people started heading off to bed. Leah and I had one of the bedrooms with a single twin bed in it. We had rolled a trundle bed (also a twin) into the room. After attempting to fit both of us on the twin bed, I determined that it was uncomfortable and I moved down to the trundle.

Day 9

We woke up and hung out a little bit at the house in the morning. Once everyone was up and moving we headed out to get food and wander around the Montague Bookmill. It’s an grist mill that they converted into a cafe, book store, and art gallery—a really cool space. Here’s a photo of the cafe with the Saw Mill River flowing to the left.

After that, a few of us visited the New England Peace Pagoda. It was a beautiful building in a very peaceful forest setting.

Next we headed back to the Airbnb and had a little more dance practice time. A few more people who were also crashing at the same Airbnb showed up. The people in the wedding party took off to go get ready at the venue. The significant others left behind hung out, chatted, and took naps.

The rest of us headed to the venue a little early to help direct traffic. I was given the important role of telling people not to park directly in front of the venue and to drive up a hill to the parking lot. When the sangeet started, we all headed inside to enjoy drinks and play get-to-know-you bingo. There were some children competing to see who could blackout their bingo card first. No need for me to try, really. I couldn’t compete with them.

As members of the wedding party and guests of the bride and groom and their families, we were given the opportunity to wear clothing more traditionally worn at a sangeet. Here is a photo of Leah and me. I’m in a kurta and she’s in a lehenga.

After dinner, the festivities began. We went through all four choreographed dances and another performance very quickly. I was not prepared for how little time there was between performances. Just like any marching band show; it’s over before you know it, you make some mistakes but nobody notices, and you feel a little relieved knowing it’s over.

Here’s Jamie and Rohan enjoying the very impressive dance performances.

After the dances there was a newlywed game with multiple couples participating. I don’t remember who won but I think it was Rohan’s parents. Then the real dancing started. It was very hot and humid in western Massachusetts. I also dance a lot at weddings. So naturally people started to comment on the sweat-soaked pants that I was wearing.

There was also a photo booth set up at the party. I took the opportunity to throw down some new looks I was working on.

Once the music stopped and the dancing ended, we slowly filed out of the venue. We all got back to the Airbnb and I headed right for bed. I had to get up at about 4 o’clock in the morning in order to start my journey to Madison.

Day 10

I got up early, kissed a very drowsy Leah goodbye, and hit the road before sunrise. I had about a two hour drive back to Boston. I dropped off the rental car and got checked in for my flight to Chicago. I watched someone get kicked out of the security line for budging even though the person behind him specifically said that he could budge. Fun times. I bought a candy bar at the airport for breakfast.

I landed at O’Hare International Airport and had roughly a two hour layover. As I sat at the airport, I thought about how it would have been just as fast to rent a car in Chicago and drive to Madison. Oh well.

I grabbed overpriced lunch at the airport and boarded the plane for Madison. It was one of those small planes with 2 seats on one side of the aisle and 1 seat on the other with basically no overhead storage space. The plane was about 1/3 full and I had an entire row to myself. What luxury.

The flight took barely any time and before I knew it we landed in Madison. The Dane County Regional Airport always brings back fond memories of chartered flights with the marching band. I grabbed my bag and got a rental car. It was a Nissan Versa and to be honest, it didn’t even compare to the Kia Soul.

I headed to my friends Ryan and Annie’s house where I was staying the night. They were not home when I got there but gave me the code to get in through their garage. Their cat Cersei greeted me at the door. I took a shower and got ready for the next wedding I was going to.

I realized that my shirt and pants, after having spent the past week stuffed in a bag, were a little wrinkled. I looked for an iron and couldn’t find one. Without any other options, I put on the wrinkled clothes and hoped that the heat and humidity would eventually smooth out the creases.

The wedding that I was going to was for my friends Treeman and Julia. It was a beautiful ceremony. I also got to catch up with a few friends that I hadn’t seen in a while.

There was a cocktail hour and dinner served outside under a tent. I got a little sweaty chasing around my friend’s daughters Natalie and Clara—the cute little girls pictured with their parents (Kevin and Jen) and me below.

I also made sure to get a photo with the bride and groom (and a Natalie photo bomb peeking in).

Next the dancing started. I didn’t hit the dance floor quite as early as I usually do. Instead I was chatting with some friends. I took an opportunity to escape the conversation and made my way over to the dance floor. They had a live band that played a lot of great songs. They had 3 different sets and took a break in between each of them. During the break they played music from an iPod. I continued to dance, mostly by myself, to the iPod music.

Later in the evening they brought out pizza for a late night snack. I didn’t want to leave the dance floor so I never got any food. In hindsight that was a mistake as I got pretty hungry by the end of the night. The band finally stopped playing and we slowly trickled out into the parking lot. I said some goodbyes and apologetically had people hug my sweaty back.

I headed back to Ryan and Annie’s. It was late and they were asleep. I called Leah (who was back in Montague) and we chatted about each other’s weddings. I finally went to bed, exhausted from traveling all day and dancing all night.

Day 11

I woke up and headed downstairs. Annie made me French toast and Ryan, Annie, and I ate breakfast and chatted on their porch. They are expecting a baby in November and I’m really excited for both of them. We watched the Wimbledon final between Federer and Djokovic—an instant classic.

I said goodbye to Ryan and Annie and headed to the University of Wisconsin Memorial Union Terrace to meet up with friends. We grabbed lunch, beer, and of course ice cream. We rotated between inside the union and outside by the lake in order to avoid the heat and humidity.

Eventually I had to say goodbye and I headed out of town in my rental car. I was driving the car back to Minneapolis because it was cheaper than flying. I stopped at Subway for dinner on an uneventful drive home. I dropped the car at the airport and called a Lyft to get home. The plan was that I would then pick up Leah when her flight landed at the airport.

I got home and started putting away our camping gear and luggage. When I went to go get my car (which was parked in front of our garage in the alley) I noticed that my key fob wasn’t working. Upon closer inspection, the glove box and center console in my car were open. “Shit shit shit,” I thought. Okay, so someone broke into my car and now the battery is dead. My mind immediately went to the garage. I kept a garage door opener in my glove box. It was gone.

There had been increasing reports this past summer about garage break-ins. The items most commonly stolen were bicycles, especially expensive ones. As I opened the garage door I was hoping that our bikes would still be there. Since I’m telling this story you can probably guess that they were gone. Leah and I each have 2 bikes; 1 nice one and 1 crappier one. The nice ones were gone, but the crappy ones were left behind. After a quick survey of the garage, I determined the only other missing items of note were a few bike lights (though they totaled close to $100 on their own).

I called 911 and reported the crime. I sent a text to Leah (who hadn’t yet landed) that she’d need to find alternative transportation from the airport considering that my car battery was dead and I was waiting for officers to arrive so that I could file a police report.

We never recovered our stolen bikes. We beefed up our garage security and have become much more aware of the possibility of theft.

All-in-all it was a shitty ending to a great trip.

New England Trip Part 2: Maine

September 12, 2019September 13, 2019 bringram Hiking Acadia National Park, Maine

Leah and I planned a vacation in New England that coincided with a wedding we were invited to in western Massachusetts. These posts cover the different parts of the trip.

Day 5: Entering Maine

In Portland we met up with Rachel and Hayley. They were going to the same wedding as us in western Massachusetts later in the week and we made plans to spend time in Maine—specifically in Acadia National Park—with them. The 5 of us and all of our luggage stuffed the car pretty tight, but the Kia Soul held its own.

We drove to downtown Portland to get lunch. We walked to a seafood place (Portland Lobster Co) so people could get their fix of lobster rolls. Market price put them at about $17 a pop. Here’s Leah (a vegetarian but sometimes pescatarian while on vacation) enjoying her first taste of lobster with some local beer. They really embrace the lobster mentality out in Maine. See if you can spot all of the lobsters in the photos.

After lunch we walked around a little. It was my second time in Portland but I was in a different part of the city my first time there. I think Portland has a really cool vibe and architecture—lots of cute stores and brick buildings. We stopped for potato donuts (tastes like donuts, but a little potato-y) and returned to the car. Bob was headed back to Northampton so we dropped him off at the Amtrak station and said goodbye. There was a little more room in the car after his departure.

We headed north out of Portland along the coastal route following U.S. Highway 1. It took a little bit longer but promised to provide more views and passed through some quaint coastal Maine towns. A giant lobster suddenly appeared out of nowhere and it was requested that I stop so we could take photos. Maine really embraces the lobster hype. Here’s Hayley, Rachel, and Leah doing their best lobster impression.

We also stopped in Rockland to check out the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse. The lighthouse was accessible by a long walk (just short of a mile) out on a breakwater. We overheard someone mention high tide just as we started the walk along the breakwater. Might be an issue? Here we are starting the journey.

It wasn’t until the end of the walk that we started to see sections that were flooded with the waves crashing over. My feet only got a little bit wet. Here’s the front of the lighthouse.

And here’s Rachel and Leah looking back towards the mainland across the long stretch of damp granite stones.

Hayley took a very professionally focused photo of Leah and me so I have to show you how great we look. Right out of a Columbia Sportswear catalog.

Next we headed to our Airbnb in Bar Harbor, the biggest city near Acadia National Park. A good chunk of the national park is actually within Bar Harbor city limits. Our Airbnb was the second level of a cute little house just blocks from the main drag in downtown Bar Harbor.

After settling in, we headed out on a walk to find dinner. We ended up getting pizza after looking at a few menus. Pizza is always a good choice in my book. After dinner we continued down Main Street. The park in the city center was dimly lit by lamp posts and the local community band was playing under a gazebo. Leah and Rachel both agreed that it gave off a real Stars Hallow vibe. Of course I had to check out the trombones.

We finished our walk through town and headed back to the Airbnb. We made a plan to check out the main section of Acadia National Park the next day, trying to time our wake and departure with the opening of the visitor center.

Day 6 – Acadia National Park

We got ready and headed out to the visitor center to get a better idea of what we should/could do in Acadia National Park. The ranger pointed out all of the main attractions along the park road loop. I also purchased a sticker for my national park passport book. On a side note, when we got home I realized that I bought the wrong passport sticker because of course there are different versions. I was more than a little bummed out. At least it still fit in my passport book, but I feel like it doesn’t really count.

We started our day in the park by driving to the top of Cadillac Mountain. At 1,530 feet it’s the tallest mountain on the eastern seaboard. The views from the top were quite spectacular.

They say that if you watch the sunrise from atop Cadillac Mountain that you’ll be one of the first people in the United States to see the sun in the morning. Apparently a lot of photographer types get up super early in order to capture this moment. We did not.

The views from Cadillac Mountain were beautiful. There were rolling hills of Mount Desert Island (the name of the island on which we were standing—though my guidebook said locals pronounce it like “dessert”) and the many glacially formed bays and inlets that cut through the land like fingers.

Here’s a photo of me and Rachel where we strategically stood so that we were the same height.

We also wanted to find the USGS survey marker for the summit. It was difficult to locate but oddly enough it was marked in Hayley’s Pokémon Go app.

The parking lot at the top of the mountain can apparently get full during tourist season. We were advised to stop at Cadillac Mountain first in order to avoid the traffic. Luckily for us we never had any issues with crowds in the park. Here’s one more shot of me, Leah, and Rachel hiking near the summit.

Next we drove down the mountain and along the park road. We stopped at a trailhead that was closed due to peregrine falcon nesting. Two rangers were stationed there with binoculars and they answered questions while we tried to spot the birds flying along the mountainside. We learned that it’s easy to spot a peregrine falcon nest because the acid in their poop kills the lichens that grow on the exposed granite. So all you have to do is look for the only white patch on the side of the mountain.

We also learned that peregrine falcons mostly eat other birds. And they kill them by flying really fast and colliding with the spine of their prey. And then they just let the victim fall to the ground. Kind of gruesome.

Luckily for us we had a few sightings of the falcons. They sat still long enough for the rangers to set up their binoculars so that we could get a better look. They were really cool looking birds.

Our next stop was Sand Beach. At this point, Hayley was not feeling well so Rachel took her back to the Airbnb while Leah and I relaxed on the beach. We suspected the potato donuts from yesterday might have upset Hayley’s digestive system. Anyways, here’s a photo of Sand Beach at one of the ends where there weren’t as many people.

Sand Beach was an odd site for a national park. It was strange, first of all, to have a sand beach form in waters this cold. It had something to do with an island just offshore—called “Old Soaker”—that regulated the currents and sediment. The beach was also packed with people that looked like they were going out for… well, a day at the beach. That’s something I don’t normally associate with national parks. The rocks and cliffs were beautiful, though, and I can see why it’s so popular.

Leah and I sat in the sand, eating lunch, and people watching. There was a quintessential young east coast couple with their faded Boston Red Sox and Dartmouth hats and their adorable kids running around. I wonder if we looked Midwestern (though Leah, being from the west coast, might take offense to that). You can be the judge for me.

Next we met back up with Rachel and headed to our next stop, Thunder Hole. It was basically a sea cave that made noises as the tide rolled in and out. We were warned by the park ranger that unless you were there during high tide (we were not) it was not that spectacular. We waited around for a few gurgles and then left. Here’s Rachel and Leah posing for a photo while patiently waiting for a loud sound.

We next stopped at a mountain trailhead to get another hike in and a view from the top. Some man along the way commented on my “lobster legs”. He was referring to the sunburn I had gotten in the white mountains. Must be a Maine thing. Here’s a photo looking back at Sand Beach—note the sandy spot in the far left of the photo and Old Soaker in the far right.

Our next stop was Jordan Pond, the location of a restaurant and lodge in the park and a great place to relax. It is also one of the main access points to the carriage roads in the park. The carriage roads (45 miles in total) were built by John D Rockefeller Jr. as a place to ride horses without cars interfering. We hiked a little loop on a carriage road. It was very peaceful but buggy. Here’s me and Leah on one of the carriage road bridges.

Here’s a photo from the edge of Jordan Pond. The lumpy mountains in the background are called the “bubbles” even though they may be more accurately described as “boobs”.

We returned to the Jordan Pond lodge to order their famous popovers with jam. I didn’t know they were famous for their popovers, but Leah had been to Acadia NP before and told us all about them. After a convoluted seating process, we ordered popovers. Leah got hers with iced tea (the classic option) while I got mine with blueberry soda.

Next we headed back to the Airbnb. Leah, Rachel, and I got Thai takeout (Hayley was still not feeling well) and then settled in for an episode of The Bachelorette. We bought tickets for a boat cruise in the morning and headed to bed.

Here’s a cute feature of the Airbnb; this duck presents you with your toilet paper.

Day 7 – Acadia National Park

Thankfully Hayley was feeling better in the morning. A boat ride is not fun when you’re nauseous. We drove to the western side of Mount Desert Island where we were getting on our boat, the “Sea Princess”.

The tour was led by a park ranger and did a loop out past some islands that make up other parts of Acadia National Park as well as private land. One of the first sights was Bear Island Lighthouse.

We passed many massive private houses along the waterfront in places where the land had not been sold to the national park. There were some wildlife sightings including seals, osprey, and a great blue heron.

The boat stopped for a break at Little Cranberry Island. The island itself wasn’t very big. There was a sheet with information about things to see on the island and the ranger made it known that we should not miss a visit with postmaster Joy. Of course our first destination had to be the post office.

As promised, Joy was a real hoot. I tried some of her gingerbread and she showed us her massive selection of stamps. She had binder after binder full of specialty stamps.

We even got to see Joy’s cat named Zipcode that she said was 27 years old.

As the real stamp enthusiasts that we (mostly Leah) are, we had to buy some stamp sheets. I think we ended up with 5 and Rachel and Hayley with 3. Joy even showed us stamps that were commemorating the 50th anniversary of the moon landing (but she couldn’t legally sell those for another week). Here’s all of us in front of the post office with our brand new fancy stamps.

We stopped briefly at the boat making building and the Islesford Historical Museum (where the same ranger we talked to at the visitor center yesterday was working). We learned that the local public school rotates location every other year between Little Cranberry Island and Great Cranberry Island (for fairness I guess).

We boarded the boat again and headed back towards Mount Desert Island. We all agreed that we could have spent more time on the island, especially hanging out with Joy and Zipcode.

The last stop on the boat cruise was a trip up Somes Sound, a fjard that nearly splits Mount Desert Island in two. I don’t exactly understand the details, but there’s technically a difference between fjards and fjords (other than the spelling, which makes it a little confusing). You can google the difference if you want.

Some of the houses along that stretch were particularly spectacular. Leah and I wished we had a family or friend connection with old East Coast money that owned one of those properties.

Once back on dry land, we headed out to a nearby hike recommended by our ranger friend at Ship Harbor. It was a pleasant loop trail that ended on a rocky section of the shoreline that was filled with tide pools.

We spent a lot of time scouring the tide pools for signs of life.

The hike was very pleasant and had interesting scenery. I’d definitely recommend it.

Our next stop was the Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse. It is currently being operated by the Coast Guard and the inside is private property, so no tour. But we did take some photos.

There was also a trail that led to an iconic viewpoint of the lighthouse; the focus of many postcards and magnets.

After leaving the lighthouse we decided we needed a treat so we stopped in Southwest Harbor at what appeared to be the only ice cream place. Thankfully, the ice cream was really good. You could tell it was good because Leah finished hers without even asking me to help her eat any of it.

On the way back to Bar Harbor we stopped for one more hike. It was a little mountain summit that a different ranger recommended. From the top we had views down into Somes Sound.

Rachel wanted to show off her peak bagging skills—284 feet.

We got back to the Airbnb and relaxed a little bit before dinner. There was a desire among many of us to get lobster rolls on our last night in Maine. We did some brisk shopping on Main Street while on our way to a restaurant in the harbor that we figured would have decent views of the sunset. I got a lobster roll and it was delicious.

I also felt the need to get a whoopie pie while we were in Maine since I kept seeing them advertised. Luckily for me this restaurant had a whoopie pie sundae on the menu. I was criticized by the group for placing my dessert order at the same time that we were placing our dinner orders. I thought I was just being efficient. The whoopie pie sundae was okay.

The restaurant didn’t really have a good view of the sunset so after dinner we walked to a parking lot on the bay to get a better look before heading back to the Airbnb.

In the morning we were driving to Montague, a city in western Massachusetts where our friends Jamie and Rohan were getting married. We also planned a few fun stops along the way.

Day 8 – Leaving Maine

We got an early start in the morning so that we could tackle a few important stops. First, we stopped at The Jackson Laboratory. Hayley had seen the building earlier while driving past and wanted to stop for a photo. Hayley is a scientist who has worked in labs, so she was familiar with The Jackson Laboratory. Why, you might ask? Well because they are one of the largest suppliers of mice in the scientific community. Kind of weird, right?

Apparently their main office is in Bar Harbor, Maine and hundreds of people work there in a massive building complex. And we just happened to be there. I should clarify that Hayley did not know that The Jackson Laboratory was in Bar Harbor. It was just a strange coincidence. Once she saw the sign for the building, it triggered memories she had of packaged mice arriving with a Bar Harbor, Maine return address.

Our next stop was a rushed one as we quickly jumped out of the car on the side of the road while we took photos with the Acadia National Park sign.

Then it was back on the road as we headed to Augusta, Maine so I could cross off another state capital. It was on the way back to western Massachusetts so I didn’t feel too bad making everyone detour there.

Maine’s capitol was very pretty. Like Concord it had a flag room, though not nearly as impressive. Our tour guide talked about some residual resentment towards Massachusetts dating back to when Maine wasn’t its own state but a territory of Massachusetts. She also stressed how sacred the chairs in the Senate were, to the point that we weren’t supposed to even look at them or something. Of course she was kidding, but was she?

After the tour I got my obligatory photo in front of the capitol building.

We headed to Hallowell for lunch on the recommendation of our tour guide. It seemed like Augusta was hit hard by the recession and the downtown wasn’t very lively. Our tour guide also warned us that there was a haunted antique store in Hallowell.

We arrived in Hallowell (about 2 miles south of Augusta), ate lunch, and then headed to the haunted antique store. It appeared to be closed, deserted, and full of junk; just the perfect recipe for some haunting.

The building was legitimately creepy and I could see why people thought it was haunted. Our tour guide told us a story about how she was in the store and saw a man. Then she turned away. And when she turned back around the man was now a cat. What other explanation could there be for such sorcery?

While standing outside, a man walked by and told us that it was haunted. Story checks out. He also mentioned something about Tonka trucks in the back so we walked around to the back of the building and found some creepy yard art.

It’s difficult to see from the photo, but there was in fact an arbor made out of Tonka trucks.

Hayley did some research and it turns out the antique store is haunted. Just kidding. It’s owned by some recluse who is at odds with the city on account of his poorly maintained property right in the heart of downtown.

Our next stop was at the L.L.Bean store in Freeport, Maine. It is their flagship store.

We wandered through the store and then checked out the outlet. In my opinion, the items at the outlet were not discounted quite enough. I did not buy anything. The town kind of felt like a tourist trap. But there was a comically large backpack!

And with that, we hit the road again and left the great state of Maine on our way back to western Massachusetts.

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Brian's Adventures

Follow along with all of my adventures!

Utah Part 2: Monument Valley, Zion NP, and Cedar Breaks NM – September 2020

Bemidji – January 2021

Utah Part 1: Arches NP, Canyonlands NP, Natural Bridges NM, and Southeast Utah – September 2020

Lake Carlos State Park and Glendalough State Park – November 2020

Southeast Minnesota: Root River State Trail – October 2020

Isle Royale National Park – September 2019

Trip Logistics

Day 1

Day 2

Northern Minnesota – August 2020

Day 1 – Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area, Schoolcraft State Park and Scenic State Park

Day 2 – Scenic State Park

Day 3 – McCarthy Beach State Park, Iron Range Off-Highway Vehicle State Recreation Area, and Duluth

Florida: Orlando, Miami, and southeast Florida – February 2020

Day 1 – Orlando

Day 2 – Miami

Day 3 – Everglades National Park

Day 4 – Biscayne National Park

Day 5 – Everglades National Park and coming home

New England Trip Part 3: Western Massachusetts and Madison

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11

New England Trip Part 2: Maine

Day 5: Entering Maine

Day 6 – Acadia National Park

Day 7 – Acadia National Park

Day 8 – Leaving Maine