Last Wednesday, Jim and I headed to Sedona, Arizona to get some early season hiking in and enjoy some sunshine. Unfortunately we seemed to have taken the Seattle weather with us. Unknown to us, I happened to book the only hotel in town with a straight on view of Capital Butte. It immediately became a…
We decided to take the long way to Moab so we could see Capital Reef National Park. I had driven through the park several years ago with Erika but we only had time for one quick photo stop. Jim and Brooke were eager to stop at all the interesting rock formations. It was brutally cold…
We arrived the Watchman Campground in Zion National Park to find others camping in our spot. They were in no hurry to leave and hung out to watch us put up our tent. They actually milled around all night long. After setting up camp, we head into the park. We only had the afternoon so…
After spending a day at Cousin Chrissy’s eating, drinking, and doing laundry, we headed off to Yosemite. Our plan to avoid the wild fire smoke had worked. There was only a lingering haze in the air. We started off by heading to Glacier Point. Along the way, we stopped at Tunnel View for a quick…
After a quick trip to Florida to see Derek, we headed off to California to start an 18 day road trip through Southwest. Brooke, Jim, and I started planning our road trip before Brooke even left Australia. What we hadn’t planned on was the California wild fires which returned to full force after 80 mph…
Brooke, Jim, and I were able to squeeze in a trip last weekend. Friday had good weather. Saturday not so much. We decided to do an overnight trip and just plan to hike out in the rain on Saturday. What we didn’t figure in were the high wind gusts on Friday night. Oh well, it’s…
Brooke has been drooling over Jim’s Golden Larch trip photos for years. Since this could be Brooke’s one and only Golden Larch trip, Jim wanted to make sure it was a trip she would never forget. With news that we would be going to the Chelan Sawtooths, several of our friends joined in. We woke…
For our next adventure, Jim combined Brooke’s desire to do the Maple Pass Loop with a climb of Black Peak. As we left Winthrop, we were pleased to have sunshine on the snowy peaks. Any mountain enthusiast can tell you how special it is to be in the mountains on the first sunny day after…
Brooke had a 10 day break from teaching and she wanted to spend as much of it as possible in the mountains. Our weather forecast was cold and heavy rain to start the trip. Jim took us east of the mountains had me book a hotel and then found a lovely day hike full of…
Last weekend, we headed out to Mt Rainier National Park with Brooke, Erika, and Bryan for a day hike loop starting and ending at Mowich Lake. We started by heading up the creek basin towards Knapsack Pass. Once we reached Knapsack Pass, clouds had come in and completely blocked all views of Mt Rainier and…