Dash to the Desert

Going on camping trips during the school year can be a real challenge due to schedules, school activities (both for the kids and for Augustus as a teacher and speech & debate coach), church, etc.  Thankfully, though, we close enough to the desert to get there in just a little over an hour and Anza Borrego Desert State Park is at our disposal.  In times of economic hardship and budget crunches, with outrageous camping fees at California parks and recreational areas, the bargain price of camping for FREE (yes, you read that correctly) is great!  All we do is drive out to a pull-off on one of the roads in a designated recreational area, park the van, and set up a tent.  Another huge bonus is that it is legal to have a campfire in a protected enclosure, so we bring the basin to our fire pit which fits the bill.  We have our favorite area in the park called Blair Valley and there are several short to moderate hikes right there that are great for the family during the day.  So, last weekend, knowing that we could only go for a short trip, we dashed out to the desert on Friday afternoon and came back on Saturday around lunchtime, with enough time so that Augustus could get cleaned up to go and chaperone Homecoming.  

Four really cool highlights from our trip:  (1)The three older girls got up in the morning, with their Dad already off hiking, and decided to take a hike of their own.  They started up the big hill directly behind our tent (in my full sight the whole time) and made it half way up.  I loved seeing them go out on their own adventure, helping each other along, and developing camaraderie as sisters.  (2)As we ate breakfast, we heard the tale-tell sound of an Air Force jet coming (the military does training out over the desert).  As the jet came into sight, it was so low, if felt like you could just reach up and touch it and then a second later it had darted over the next hill and was gone.  (3)Before leaving and after packing up,  we went on a short hike to a historic Native American village sight were there are morteros, deep indentations and also more shallow indentations for both grinding grain and rolling out the dough; the Native American people came to these areas seasonally.  Once the girls got going, they kept looking all over to find evidence of more morteros and also old cooking sights in the boulders and campsites.  It was fun seeing them imagine being out there in a different era, having to fend for themselves in that terrain.  (4)And finally, the highlight for me personally was seeing the most brilliant shooting star that I have ever witnessed.  It was glowing red and yellow on it tail end, light a natural firework flying through the sky.  Both Augustus and I were aghast and in awe of this evidence of God's wondrous creation.

The night sky is amazingly beautiful out there.

Waiting for dinner in the dark.  We didn't get as quick of a start as we had hoped for, but we made it.

Enjoying being around the campfire.

Tricks with glow sticks.

Our campsite from up above.

The hubby playing with his camera as the sun rises.

Selah, up the hill, hiking with Isabella and Arianna.

Isabella and Arianna, hiking.

A steep uphill.

Our campsite.

Dakota, basking in the sun.

A Few More Summer Roadtrip Pics

#3, #2, and #1

 One of the really great stops we made that was sort of an after-thought, was at Devil's Tower National Monument. In fact, it was the first National Monument, made so by Teddy Roosevelt, in the era when he really got the National Parks movement off the ground to preserve spaces of natural beauty and wonder in the U.S.  As we drove up to this place, Augustus and I were thinking, "What in the world did we do, stopping off to just see this big thing made of rock columns sticking up into the air?".  Once we got closer, though, we could tell that this was a really great stop and a special place; so neat, in fact, that we stayed right in the campground facing the tower and went back up to it the next morning to get a closer look and let the girls get their Junior Ranger badges for completing their required work.  Incidentally, the Devil's Tower is open for climbing 24 hours a day, 11 months of the year, and if you saw it, you might wonder how anyone could climb up such a rock structure.  Before we went to bed at night, we could actually see 3 climbers at different stages of their climb on the Tower with their headlamps on (actually, the headlamps were the only part of them that we could see).  So, I would definitely recommend this as a great stop for anyone traveling in the northeastern part of Wyoming or the southwestern part of South Dakota (near the Black Hills, Mt. Rushmore, Sturgis, etc.) 

 Devil's Tower

Contemplating a rock, or some other fascinating object at the campsite.

View from our tent.  Pretty awesome!

The next pictures are out of chronological order in our trip because we drove through Sturgis even before arriving at Mt. Rushmore and then drove on to Devil's Tower.  Anyway, we knew that the Sturgis Rally (motorcycle) was starting up just days after our stay in the area, so we drove through town just to get the sight and feel of what goes on.  It definitely is a unique event and almost makes you want to own a Harley, just so you could drive it to Sturgis for the Rally every year.

There are bikers and bikes everywhere.

The History Channel had a truck for their cross-country cookout show in town.

Summer 2012: Travel Tip #2

My hubby and I have learned the hard way that pushing hard for very long distances in the van for 2 days or more results in very grumpy children, frustrated adults, and a road trip where no one is having much fun.  Since the idea of road-tripping is to actually see sights as you drive through the U.S., we decided to make more frequent stops this time around.  After leaving Southern Oregon, we stopped in Portland for a brief visit with my sister-in-law, a quick walk up to Multnomah Falls after leaving Portland, and also a short walking tour of a fish hatchery along the Columbia River Gorge where we saw some sturgeon that were over 50 years old and bigger than many sharks.  That night, we camped in  a National Forest in Idaho.  And the next day we reached our destination of Glacier National Park and camped there for two nights, as well.  So, the lesson we’ve learned is to make frequent stops, plan in several extra days for camping and sight-seeing en route to the destination, and make intermediate destinations between the start and end goal to break things up and keep everyone happy.   

National Forest camping stop-over.

Isabella enjoying the beauty of Glacier National Park.

One of the many old-time tour buses that makes the trek back and forth on the Goind-To-The-Sun-Road.

One of the many waterfalls being diverted through a waterway in the road.