Every national park has a lot of competition from its neighbors – especially when the parks are famous or especially beautiful! It can be difficult to choose which one to visit, especially with limited time and resources. In this post,…


Every national park has a lot of competition from its neighbors – especially when the parks are famous or especially beautiful! It can be difficult to choose which one to visit, especially with limited time and resources. In this post,…

One of my favorite things to do on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon (I only do it every time I visit!) is to take the Hermit’s Rest (Red) Route Shuttle out to Hermit’s Rest and back, stopping at…

I had two goals (among many lesser goals) for my most recent adventure: 1) Visit White Pocket in Arizona, and 2) Hike all the trails I’ve never taken in Bryce Canyon National Park. Both were ambitious, but both were also…

They say not to hike the South Kaibab Trail rim to river to rim in a day. And having done it, I’d say they’re wise to advise against it. But since some of us are in excellent physical condition, very…

This week we’re celebrating a huge milestone: 30 years of traveling together as a family! Back in 1995, we set off to do what they said couldn’t be done (you don’t just cross the continent with kids ages 7, 5,…

If you read my last post, you’ll know that we were in the middle of Death Valley, following routes instead of trails and having a marvelous time hiking off the beaten path. We were about to have even more excitement…

I’ve been to the Grand Canyon more than any other national park. I’ve also almost died in the Grand Canyon more times than in any other national park, but maybe we’d better not dwell on that in this post! Instead,…

I finally did it: I hiked the South Kaibab Trail rim to river to rim! It’s been a dream for so many years that it’s hard to imagine that it’s now a memory, too. And it was everything I hoped…

Grand Canyon is my most-visited National Park – with good reason! The views are spectacular and generally easy to access. The good news is that most of these views are also wheelchair accessible or accessible to the mobility impaired. In…

I’m always on the lookout for cool new hikes in my favorite national parks. So I was super excited to read about hiking to Jicarilla Point, well west of Hermit’s Rest, on the rim of the Grand Canyon. It seemed…