Vacation
Acadia 2025 – Day 1: Great Head and Gorham Mountain
We had a great first day in Acadia. This was our first time seeing the park in the winter and we had a great day with a morning swim and 2 hikes to a couple of our favorite spots. Thank goodness for micro spikes!
Read MoreGoodbye Grand Canyon, Hello Petrified Forest
I somehow managed to convince Kasper to go on one more hike on Thursday morning. It seems like a long shot based on the day before, but we were both feeling pretty good when we woke up so we decided to hike the Bright Angel Trail. You can hike as far as 12 miles round-trip,…
Read MoreSouth Kaibab Trail – Grand Canyon
Yesterday we hiked the South Kaibab Trail on the south rim down to Cedar Point, about 3 miles round trip and about 1000 feet of elevation. When you start the trail you start dropping in elevation immediately, switchback after switchback after switchback after (well I think you get the idea). The picture below is from…
Read MoreHello Grand Canyon -South Rim
Yesterday was a long day all around between the flight to Vegas and the drive to the South Rim. It was successful in just about every sense except that I realized on the flight to Vegas that I had forgotten my National Park Pass that we bought in Death Valley. Much drama ensued trying to…
Read MoreColumbian Style
I realize that I am a little behind the times by blogging about our trip to Columbia over a month after returning. But in my defense, April was a very crazy month in the Smart household. But I won’t get into that here. I’m sure the pictures from our phones don’t quite do the trip…
Read MoreHello Guadalupe and Carlsbad Caverns
After saying goodbye to Big Bend National Park and a long drive (about 300 miles or so) we said hello to our next national park, Guadalupe Mountain NP. It’s definitely small by National Park standards but very pretty. We decided to hike into McKittrick Canyon despite being road weary and a little hiked out after…
Read MoreGoodbye Big Bend
We left BigBend this afternoon and had an amazing time there. Only real downside was the smog from Mexico, which was obscuring some views depending on which way the wind was blowing. Yesterday we let the smog dictate a different hike mid way through. We started up Emory peak, but opted for the South Rim…
Read MoreFarm to Market Road
Below are a few highlights of our drive from Marfa (along the Rio Grande) to Big Bend National Park. We seemed to stop every 5 min because it was so beautiful and you know how we love our pictures. We did a couple short hikes and had a wonderful picnic overlooking some enormous plateaus/mesas. We…
Read MoreTexas Sunset
We flew Manchester to Orlando, then to Houston and finally to El Paso yesterday and were only delayed about 20 min total. We followed that up with about a 4 hour drive to Marfa, TX to set us up for this morning. It’s worth noting that we also found a slightly seedy Mexican restaurant for…
Read MoreHome Again
We arrived home this afternoon and were greeted by a very happy and excited little girl (who changed so much in just 5 days it’s scarry). We had an amazing trip and I for one can’t believe it’s over. I hope to have much more to say about our adventures in the next few days…
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