Photo Blog with Waterfalls, Hiking, Outdoors, and other Adventures
Woke up and left Gatlinburg with some time for day hiking before the next destination. Cold and wet weather killed most of our planned hikes, but we decided to try our luck on Max Patch, one of the most popular viewpoints along the Appalachian Trail. Remember that smoky fog from yesterday? Well that doesn’t look too … Read more
Several days into the trip and we finally made it to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. First stop was Clingmans Dome, the highest point in Tennessee and the infamous Appalachian Trail. Views here looking over the mountain range are normally quite amazing, however today Mother Nature had other plans. Driving up the 7 mile … Read more
Last winter I started dreaming up “side quests” for future journeys – mostly to help discover new places to visit, but also as a pseudo bucket-list to keep me moving. One dark and cold night, I was using my Google-fu and came across the concept of highpointing which is to visit all the highest points … Read more
After several weeks of travel and about 5,000 miles driven, I arrived in Las Cruces, NM and reunited with my family. Took one day off to rest and prepare for the elk hunt season. My Dad drew a bull tag for NM unit 34 which is located in the Lincoln National Forest. Based on intel … Read more
After Capitol Reef I had a decision to make – skip some parks and start driving south, or press my luck and go for more. Made some distance calculations with my road atlas (no cell service out here anywhere) and made the call to push onward in my adventures. Only about 100 miles or so … Read more
Cold, windy night in the tent again but wore my snowboarding gear and stayed toasty warm. First day in a while with 8 hours of sleep! Broke down camp and was in the park before 8am but found this wasn’t ideal to photograph the rock formations. Had to wait 30-45 minutes for more light to … Read more
Ended up back in my favorite wilderness shack again last night. Cheap rates, bed, heat, and showers make a very happy and rested camper! Also very happy to be out of Nevada – not my favorite state, but some excellent geological features I wish I could have seen. Maybe some other trip. Woke up early … Read more
Down the highway from Sunset is the Walnut Canyon National Monument. This site preserves the early cliff side dwellings of the Sinagua culture dating back to about 1100 CE, near the same time of Sunset’s eruption. Can you imagine what they saw in the distant sky from their caves on that day? Crazy to imagine. … Read more
I spent a good portion of last night trying to determine my next destination, and still haven’t decided. So instead, I am winding my way through some local monuments. First stop near Flagstaff is the Sunset Crater Volcano. Last erupting about 1,000 years ago, it blanketed the surrounding 800 square miles in ash changing the … Read more
After finding that a) temps get really cold in GCNP during fall, and b) campsites are reserved over a year in advance regardless of what the interwebs say, I had to cave in and stay at a hotel. Upside is I slept like a baby for the first time this trip. Howard Johnson’s beds are … Read more