When we left home late Friday afternoon, we knew we were headed to the Ozark National Forest. Beyond that, we were going to decide the specifics of the trip while we were on the road. We ended up on the Sylamore Scenic Byway which starts at Calico Rock, Arkansas in the heart of the Ozark […]
Hiking to Alum Cave Bluff in the Smoky Mountains was an adventure, just like many of our hikes. The beginning of this trail is flat and goes through and old hardwood forest. Following the Alum Cave Creek for about a mile, we bragged about how easy the trail was and how fast we were going […]
The Stanley Mountain trail head is located at the top of Berthoud Pass on Highway 40 in the Arapaho National Forest. After the first mile, we were hiking above timberline. What a great way to enjoy the amazing mountain views of the Continental Divide in both directions! The most difficult section of our hike was […]
We spent several days in Yellowstone National Park this summer. Our goal was to experience as much of the park as we could while there. This meant each day we arrived to the park early in the morning and left late in the day. We learned quickly arriving early to the park has its advantages. […]
Just off I-80, East of Laramie, Wyoming is a section of the Medicine Bow National Forest called Pole Mountain. After driving the prior evening and all day from Kansas City, we were ready for an activity. We decided to stop since we could see Pole Mountain from the highway. It turned out to be a […]
We had the exciting opportunity of watching TEAM USA Women’s Slow Pitch Softball Border Battle XI Tournament this past weekend against Canada and other competitive woman’s teams. The games were located in Midland, Michigan, which is 12 hours from our home. Although, it was a long drive for us over a short weekend, we decided […]
On our last day in Yellowstone National Park, we opted to exit the park out of the east entrance. We got an early start that day and decided to have one more hike before leaving. We chose the Pelican Valley Tail. Over the course of the prior three days, we had visited most of areas […]
Carhenge in Alliance, Nebraska might be the poor man’s version of the prehistoric and more famous structure in England called Stonehenge. For sure, it’s the American version of a mystical alignment of cars that may chart the sun and moon phases. More likely, it’s just an artful pile of classic automobiles that is sure to […]
The Blue Ridge Parkway is a scenic 469-mile winding road from Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee. We traveled on the top ridge of the mountains as we drove the southern end of the Parkway. The road twisted and turned and each new vista […]
Are you planning a long road trip to your favorite destination? We have a few tips we have learned on how to make traveling more fun. 1. Planning for the Road Trip If you have read other posts on this blog, you know that we advocate for traveling slow through the countryside. The challenge with […]
A Cove is known as a relatively flat valley between mountains or ridges. Cades Cove is in the southern part of the Appalachian Mountain Range and also part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Cades Cove is an 11-mile, one-way loop that winds in the valley where wild life and an old community history […]
We did it! Our first bear sighting in the wild occurred and it did not happen when we were hiking. We will always remember the Smoky Mountains for this reason. Our sighting happened when we were safely in Alice! We had just finished our hike in the rain at Rainbow Falls and the sun had […]