In 2016 Jan and I decided to spend two weeks visiting the national parks in southern Utah. We wanted to do some camping during the trip so we brought along minimal camping gear. We filled a duffel bag with a small tent, sleeping bags and pads, a stove and a few cooking utensils. We didn’t even bring a tarp, because we weren’t expecting any rain in that climate. We flew to Las Vegas, picked up a rental car, and drove to Zion National Park. We stayed at a bed-and-breakfast just outside the park. We took some nice hikes in the park, including the 10-mile round-trip to Observation Point, which overlooks the Zion Valley and Angel’s Landing, and The Narrows water walk up the Virgin River. After Zion, we headed to Cedar Breaks National Monument and were able to get a space in the campground. Then it was on to Bryce Canyon. We found a National Forest campground outside Bryce and spent a couple of nights there as we walked around the park We then went to Grand Staircase-Escalante, stopping to see arches in Kodachrome Basin State Park, and got a dispersal camping permit that allowed us to camp pretty much anywhere we wanted. We went down a dirt road and found a pull over and set up the tent near our car. We had an overlook not far from our campsite, and were treated to the sunset turning the rocky ridges facing west to changing shades of brilliant orange, red and purple. It was a very hot afternoon and evening, but that’s the desert in July, The next day we walked five miles in the heat to the waterfall of Lower Calf Creek. It’s a beautiful walk to a stunning waterfall. More importantly, there was a beautiful blue plunge pool at the bottom of the waterfall. Everyone who got there before us was swimming or wading. Hot and sweaty, Jan jumped in a lost her sunglasses. I followed. It was bliss on such a hot day. After our long hike out, we headed to Capitol Reef National Park. We took great hikes there in a fairly empty park. From there it was on to Moab. We went into Arches National Park and walked to Delicate Arch and other arches and landscape features. We were able to score a campsite in the park because the heat persuaded someone to leave. It was a great night, and in the evening we walked from our site to a gorgeous arch.. After Arches, we went to Canyonlands and camped at Dead Horse Point state park. We only scratched the surface of Canyonlands, but got some sense of its immensity as we walked about. From Canyonlands it was on to Monument Valley. We spent a day there viewing all the monuments that we’ve seen in western movies. We drove from there to Page Arizona and saw The Bend and Lake Powell before returning to Vegas and heading home.
In 2017, we spent two weeks at Glacier National Park in Montana and Waterton Lakes just across the Canadian border. We again filled a duffel bag with the tent and other camping essentials and flew to Kalispell. Heading on to Glacier, we spent our first night at a motel just inside the park at Lake McDonald.. The next morning we hustled to the Avalanche Lake campground in the park and got a site for a couple of nights. From that base camp we did some great hikes in Glacier, including the 12-mile High Line Trail. We then moved on to Many Glacier and stayed in both the lodge there and at a campground, where Erin and Ross joined us. We twice did the 10-mile round-trip hike to Iceberg Lake, which looked quite different on both days in terms of how filled the lake was with small icebergs. The lake was ice-choked the first day, but the next day was quite open, apparently because wind had pushed the ice to one end of the lake. We saw grizzlies and moose on those hikes. From there it was on to Waterton Lakes and we camped at a private campground, Crooked Creek, just outside the park. Our big hike was the 12-mile Alderson-Carthew Trail. We traveled back to Glacier after Waterton and camped on a reservation near Two Medicine. We also stayed in some cabins in the area for a few nights. As with the trip to the Southwest the previous year, we loved being able to camp for part of the trip.
In 2018, it was on to Mt. Rainer and Olympic National Parks, and then over to Vancouver Island. We flew to Seattle and then drove down to Rainer, staying at a cabin just outside the park. We then were able to stay at a lodge in the park. Luckily for us, the weather was clear and we could enjoy the snowy summit of Rainer the entire trip. Some people visit and never get to the see the peak. There is great hiking in the park and we took some long ones. We saw some people heading for the summit and other people learning how to travel over a snow field. Nice to see all that snow in July. There are also great views of other high mountains in the Cascades. We then headed up to Port Angeles and hiked in Olympic National Park before heading over to Victoria by ferry. We camped in two campgrounds on the island. We had two nice sites in Goldstream Provincial Park and then at Englishman River Falls Provincial Park. We did hikes around both parks and also went to Pacific Rim National Park Preserve and walked the coastline. After ferrying back to Port Angeles from Victoria, we headed west around the Olympic Penninsula and camped at Bogachiel State Park. We walked at Ruby Beach and hiked in the Hoh RainForest.