States

River Rafting on the Colorado River

Posted on May 28, 2016 by Heather Gebbia

We decided to try river rafting while we were in Moab, Utah.  This was super fun and now the boys really want to do an overnight river rafting/camping trip sometime.

Moab has several options for river rafting outfitters.  We went with Canyon Voyages and they were awesome!  Our guides were friendly and knowledgeable.  They pointed out areas of interest along the way, and told lots of interesting stories.  We did the full day trip which included a stop for lunch.

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The water was calm for most of the trip, with only about 6 rapids along the journey.  The rapids were the most fun though so we wish there had been more.

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That is Fisher Towers off in the distance where mountain climbers climb all the way to the top!

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Here come the rapids!

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That water was cold!!  Supposedly people jump in the water to swim on these trips, but that must happen later in the summer.  At this time of the year I didn’t see anyone jumping in the water.  And when the water splashed on us from the rapids it was quite cold.

The snow-covered mountains off in the distance are the La Sal Mountains.  I think there is snow up there most of the year.

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This was where we stopped for lunch.  Canyon Voyages brings along a delicious lunch with many options like turkey or ham sandwiches, hummus, veggies, quinoa and fruit.

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In the morning we were on the raft with a single guy from Poland who is touring America’s national parks for 6 months.  He gets from place to place by hitchhiking.  It was very interesting talking to him and getting to know him.  In the afternoon we were on a raft with a really nice family from NC.  One thing I love about our traveling lifestyle is meeting all kinds of different people from many different parts of the world.

I love these next pictures of the boys.  The expressions on their faces show me just how much they were enjoying themselves.  I love my boys, all 3 of them!

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What a fun day!  This trip was appropriate for young children.  They allow kids as young as 5.  Jesse is not quite old enough yet for a trip with more advanced rapids.  Someday we’ll try that when he’s older and maybe an overnight rafting trip too.

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Categories: Utah | Tags: , , , , , | 5 Comments

Arches National Park

Posted on May 24, 2016 by Heather Gebbia

After we finished visiting Capitol Reef we headed over to Moab, Utah to visit Arches and Canyonlands National Parks.

Rather than just try to visit these parks in the evenings and on Saturday, we took a few days off work to more fully experience these parks.

Jake got a Utah Rocks t-shirt last year when we visited Bryce Canyon.  This year the rest of us decided to get those shirts so we all wore them while visiting Arches one day.  We all think that Utah ROCKS!

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On our first visit to Arches we went to Balanced Rock and Double Arch.  How does that rock stay up there??

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The scenery at Arches is simply stunning!

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One day we went on 2 separate hikes, totaling over 8 miles.  The first hike was to Landscape Arch, and then we went on a little further up to Partition and Navajo Arches.  We didn’t make it all the way to Double O Arch; we’ll have to save that for next time.

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Landscape Arch.

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Climbing up to see more arches.

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There was such a beautiful view through Partition Arch.

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This is standing under Navajo Arch.

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We hiked to a few more arches in this area and then took a lunch break.  After lunch we went to the Delicate Arch hike which I think is probably the most popular, and I can see why.  The hike up to it was strenuous, but with amazing views.

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We hiked up lots of slickrock.

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Then hiked around this narrow ledge.

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The hike was worth it to come around the corner to see this!

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We rested up at Delicate Arch for a long time, but eventually decided it was time to hike back down.

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And then we went back to the Visitor Center so the boys could turn in their activity books and earn their Junior Ranger badges.

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We really loved Arches and plan to return again someday to hike some of the other trails we didn’t make it to this time.

Categories: National Parks, Utah | Tags: , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Capitol Reef National Park

Posted on May 23, 2016 by Heather Gebbia

We just enjoyed a very busy couple of weeks visiting 3 of the beautiful national parks in Utah.  I think Utah might just be my favorite state now, or at least a tie with Colorado.  Utah is extremely beautiful, you must go!

The first park we visited was Capitol Reef National Park.  I heard that many people skip this park in favor of the more popular locations.  We almost skipped it too, but I was unable to book 2 full weeks in Moab, so we needed a place to go for a week before we could go to Moab.  That turned out to be a blessing because I am so glad we came to this park!  It was incredible, and in my opinion it is a place you should not skip if you are planning a trip to Utah.

The drive from southwest Colorado to Capitol Reef was one of the most beautiful drives we have had in our travels.  If your travels take you in that direction, I would highly recommend taking highways 95 and 24.  Both are incredibly scenic, but make sure to fill up with gas before getting on 95.  It is a very long drive with no place to stop for anything, and no cellular coverage either.

Here are a couple of pictures from the drive:

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We stayed at Thousand Lakes RV Resort in Torrey, UT.  This was a very nice RV park and we were lucky enough to get one of their extra large back-in sites.  The interior pull-through sites looked a little tight, but the back-ins were nice.  There is no Verizon coverage in this area, but AT&T worked great.  This was the one time we needed our backup AT&T plan.

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The town of Torrey is super cute.  There is a little grocery store and a bakery/deli where you can get lunch on your way in to the park to hike for the day.  When you drive into town, the speed limit is 35 and there is a police car parked on the side of the road.  The first couple of times we drove down the road we thought this was a real police officer waiting to catch speeders driving through town, but after a few times we realized it’s a fake guy behind the driver’s seat.  Really funny, and I guess it works to slow people down driving through town, at least until they realize he is not real.

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It looks like he’s been sitting here for a long time; he’s quite wrinkly!  He looks a little grumpy too.

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Okay, enough about where we stayed and how we got there.  Let’s get on with Capitol Reef.  All I can say is A-MA-ZING!  The scenery is so incredibly beautiful!  It was only a 10 minute drive into the park from our RV park, so we went in each evening after work to hike and explore.  It helps that it doesn’t get dark until 8:30 at this time of the year.  The first night we did a short hike on the Sunset Point trail.

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The second night we hiked to Chimney Rock.  This is a more strenuous 3.5 mile loop, with a lot of uphill climbing.  It was great exercise and incredible views from the top.

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The kids loved all the rock climbing!

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Another night we hiked to Hickman Bridge.

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One evening we did the Grand Wash Trail.  The trail map showed this as being a 2.2 mile trail out and back meaning 4.4 miles total, but it turned out to be a little longer than that — about 5 miles round trip.  We were all pretty tired after that one and probably could have just stopped and turned around halfway through and that would have been enough.

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We saved the best for last.  On Saturday we hiked to Cassidy Arch which was amazing!  Definitely my favorite hike of the week!

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The hike up to this point was all uphill, but it was so worth it to come around the corner and see the arch off in the distance.

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These rock piles are called rock cairns.  The park rangers put these on trails to help you stay on the trail.  They’re very helpful because there are many times where it would be hard to determine which way the trail goes.

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The rock cairns are especially helpful when hiking on wide areas of slickrock like this.  See the little rock piles along the way?  That helped us to know which way to go.

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This is up on top of where the arch is.  It was a great place to stop and have a snack break.

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The view was gorgeous from up there!

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We’re looking down into the back side of the arch in this picture.

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After Cassidy Arch we went down to the campground that is part of Capitol Reef.  The campground is surrounded by orchards and red rocks.  It is beautiful!

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We really enjoyed our week at Capitol Reef.  I would highly recommend it if your travels take you to Utah.

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Categories: National Parks, Utah | Tags: , , , , | 3 Comments

Navajo State Park

Posted on May 8, 2016 by Heather Gebbia

Navajo State Park is located in southwest Colorado, just across from New Mexico on Navajo Lake.  This was the perfect place to rest up after a busy couple of weeks in New Mexico and to prepare for another couple of busy weeks visiting national parks in Utah.

This state park is about 45 minutes from Durango and Pagosa Springs, and you know what?  We didn’t go to either one.  That’s what happens when you’re a full-time RV’er.  Sometimes you realize you just need some downtime and you can’t see and do it all. We’re not on vacation, this is our life.  And sometimes in life you need time to get caught up on work, school, household chores, and time to just chill out.  That’s what we did at Navajo State Park.  Not a bad place to just unwind and rest for a week.

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Chris is walking the cat. 🙂

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The day we arrived in Colorado it was very cold.  It was snowing during parts of our drive that day, but by the time we got to our campground it was only raining.  It was the first time in all of our travels that we had to set up our home in the rain.  And it was freezing!  By the next day the sun came out and the rest of the week was just beautiful.

Jake and I went hiking on the nature trails that we could access just behind our campsite.

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He is getting a lot of use out of his camera he got for Christmas.

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We had a nice backyard for the week to enjoy.

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Jesse was playing badminton by himself!

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Fat Cat settled into a shipping box and asked to be shipped back to Florida. 🙂  Just kidding, I really think she loves these new places to explore (including boxes)!

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Chris took both boys to play golf.  Now they can’t wait to see Grampa again and play golf with him.

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Next up we plan to visit some of the fabulous national parks in Utah.  Be prepared for lots of blog posts.  I imagine I will be taking LOTS of pictures!

 

Categories: Colorado | Tags: , , , , , | 2 Comments

Cochiti Lake Recreation Area

Posted on May 1, 2016 by Heather Gebbia

While visiting northern New Mexico we stayed at Cochiti Lake Recreation Area.  This has got to be the most beautiful site we have ever had.  I could never get tired of these views!

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The morning after we got there we woke up to a very cold morning and an amazing view of snow-covered mountains off in the distance.

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I was super excited to find out that the Boyink family of Ditching Suburbia was staying at the same campground for the first few days we were there.  I have been following their blog since before we “ditched suburbia”.  What a treat to have the chance to meet them in person and get to know them better.

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Just before we took this picture with them, we got to admire this awesome rainbow.

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There was so much to see and do in this area, and no way to see and do it all in the time we were there.  I guess we’ll just have to come back again someday.

While there we did make it to several fun places including Tent Rocks National Monument, Santa Fe, and the Turquoise Trail.  They all have their own blog posts.

We also met up with some other Fulltime Families in the area for a couple of roadschooling field trips.  It’s always fun to find out there are other FtF’s nearby.  We went to the ABQ BioPark Zoo in Albuquerque.

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And the Explora Science Center also in Albuquerque.

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I sure will miss the spectacular view at this campsite, but at least I know we’re moving on to more spectacular views.  I love this nomadic life and the constantly changing scenery!

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Categories: New Mexico | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Tent Rocks National Monument

Posted on April 26, 2016 by Heather Gebbia

Tent Rocks in Cochiti, New Mexico is one of the coolest places we have hiked.  It almost ranks up there with Bryce Canyon and Grand Canyon, a couple of our favorites from last year.  Beautiful views, rock climbing and a slot canyon all add up to awesomeness!

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We had never hiked through a slot canyon before.  A slot canyon is a narrow passageway between tall cliffs and rocks.  You have to be very careful not to hike through those when there is any chance of rain because flash flooding has been known to occur in these narrows and hikers have unfortunately been trapped and killed in places like this when that happens.  We hiked here on a day with no rain in the forecast.

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The view from the top was incredible!  My pictures really don’t do it justice.

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Jesse is trying to stuff a pine cone in a hole in the rock and Jake is just looking silly.

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This park is pretty small and the hike only takes about an hour or two.  There is also no Junior Ranger program or Visitor Center here.

For such a small park, it really was an incredible hike! I love being back out west where we can hike in places with views unlike anything I have ever seen.

Categories: National Parks, New Mexico | Tags: , , , , , , | 2 Comments

A Drive Down the Turquoise Trail

Posted on April 25, 2016 by Heather Gebbia

We drove along the scenic Turquoise Trail between Santa Fe and Albuquerque.  There are a few cute towns with shops and places worth stopping for a visit.

Our first stop was in the town of Cerrillos.  There wasn’t much going on in this town, but we did find a gift shop with a petting zoo that the boys loved.

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Jesse really didn’t like the animals slobbering on his hands.

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Jake didn’t mind.

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Then we stopped in the town of Madrid which had a lot more going on.  This town was a little crowded and it was harder to find a parking spot for the big truck.

There was a cute little spot called Connie’s Photo Park where we took lots of these types of pictures.

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There were lots of cute gift shops like this one.

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And we stopped at Jezebel’s old fashioned Soda Fountain for some milk shakes.  Yummy!

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We continued down the trail to the drive up to Sandia Crest.  Tinkertown was a cute museum that we stopped at along the way.  This is a collector’s paradise.

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I think that Mark Twain might have liked our traveling lifestyle based on this quote.

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We made it up to Sandia Crest which is more than 10,000 feet above sea level.  It was freezing cold up there so we didn’t stay long.  We were all wearing shorts because it was in the 70’s down in Albuquerque, but in the 40’s up on this mountain.

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The most exciting part of the day for the kids was finding snow up on the mountain.  They only wished they had worn warmer clothes and shoes so they could have played in it longer.

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And the least exciting part of the day was a flat tire on the truck.  My goodness it seems we have been keeping the tire companies in business lately!  And Chris has become quite the expert at changing tires.

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At the end of the trail we got to Albuquerque where we rode on the portion of historic Route 66 called the Musical Highway.  For about 1 mile you can hear the song America the Beautiful playing as you drive along the road.  I really didn’t believe we would hear anything, but we did and we could hear it very clearly.  It was so cool!

We had planned to visit Old Town Albuquerque but the flat tire put a wrench in those plans.  Once we were fixed up and back on the road we were all ready to find some dinner and then head home for the night.

Categories: New Mexico | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Posted on April 24, 2016 by Heather Gebbia

Santa Fe is a very interesting and cultural town.  I loved the look of all the little adobe houses and buildings.

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We parked at the visitor center that had plenty of space for a big truck.  Then we walked around and looked at some of the interesting sights.  First we saw the oldest church building in the USA.

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Then we visited the Loretto Chapel with the Miraculous Stairway.

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The story behind this staircase is that the when the chapel was built in 1873, no access had been provided to the choir loft 20 feet above the chapel floor.  The Sisters used the chapel daily for Mass but were unable to use the choir loft.  Legend has it that the Sisters asked local carpenters to build a staircase, but none of them had the skill to build a circular staircase, and the chapel is too small for a standard staircase.  So the Sisters prayed for 9 days straight to St. Joseph.  On the 9th day a gray haired, bearded carpenter with a donkey came to the chapel and built the staircase. The reason they call it miraculous is because it was constructed without the use of nails or a center support.  The railing was added later in 1887.  The carpenter who built the staircase needed total privacy and locked himself in the chapel for 3 months.  When he was finished he was gone, so nobody knows his identity.  But the staircase is truly a work of art.

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We took a break for lunch and had the best pizza at Upper Crust Pizza on the Old Santa Fe Trail. Yum!!

Next we visited the beautiful Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi.

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Then we walked down Canyon Road where there are several art galleries.

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Santa Fe is beautiful and I’m glad we had the chance to visit it.  We usually steer clear of cities due to difficulty finding places to park a big truck and we are not exactly fans of large crowds.  Crowds and traffic come with big cities so we usually avoid them, but this was a fun city to visit and on a Saturday it wasn’t that crowded at all.

Categories: New Mexico | Tags: , , , , , | 1 Comment

Amarillo Texas

Posted on April 17, 2016 by Heather Gebbia

Our last stop in Texas was in Amarillo, and we really enjoyed our time there.  There are several free things to do close to the RV park we stayed at.

Cadillac Ranch is free and you can’t go to Amarillo and not go see that iconic roadside attraction.  We bought a couple of cans of spray paint and went to leave our mark.

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The RV Museum is free and super cool!  Well, that is if you like RVs which of course we do.  But my biggest reason for wanting to go there was to see the Gornicke bus from the RV movie, which just so happens to be my favorite movie.  It was so neat to see this bus in person and get to go inside it.

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Another free thing we did was visit the Don Harrington Discover Center.  It was free because it is included in our zoo/science center reciprocal membership.

They currently have the Grossology exhibit on display which was a big hit with the boys. 🙂

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We also visited Palo Duro Canyon which was awesome.  Not free, but only $5 per person over 12.  That needs its own blog post so please click the link if you are interested in reading about that visit.

We stayed at the Fort Amarillo RV Resort which was really nice.  We usually prefer state parks and national recreation areas better than RV parks because typically you have a lot more room at your site and more privacy, not to mention they’re cheaper.  RV parks usually pack RVs in so close to each other that you barely have room to breathe.  But there were no state parks in the Amarillo area other than Palo Duro Canyon and there was no cell phone coverage there so an RV park was the only option.

I’m glad we chose this park because it was very nice and had a reasonable weekly rate.  The people that work there are also super nice!  They have an indoor pool, a nice playground and a fun game room which happens to be underground and serves as a storm shelter.  I guess if you have to spend the night in a storm shelter the game room is not a bad place to be.  I thought we were going to need to go there the first night we were there.  It was so windy that night, the RV was rocking like crazy!  I kept getting lightning and tornado alerts on my phone, yet Chris was sleeping through the whole thing!  How he does that, I don’t know.  I finally woke him up to ask if he thinks we should head to the storm shelter.  He didn’t so we didn’t, and shortly after that the storm quieted down and we were all able to get some sleep.

Anyway, the RV park is really cute.  There was a really cute duck pond where Jesse liked feeding the ducks.

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And at the front of the park is this set of cute, old fashioned shops.

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Did I mention that Amarillo is windy?  This town reminded me of Kansas.  It was very flat and windy.  No wonder we saw so many wind turbines as we got close to this area.

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Fat Cat liked climbing on the fence next to our site.  There wasn’t much of a yard for her so I think she’s ready to get back to another state park where she has more room.  I can’t say I blame her.

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We really enjoyed our time in Amarillo in spite of the wind.  Bye bye for now Texas, we have places to go and things to see!

Categories: Texas | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Palo Duro Canyon

Posted on April 16, 2016 by Heather Gebbia

Palo Duro Canyon is considered the Grand Canyon of Texas.  We wanted to camp there but there is zero cellular coverage in the campground, so we ended up just spending a day hiking there.  And it sure was beautiful!

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I love when they like each other!

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Jake is enjoying his new camera, he took lots of pictures!

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Back at the visitor center they earned Junior Naturalist badges (not the same thing as Junior Ranger badges that they earn at national parks).  Jake looks really worn out.  We did 4 hikes that day.  It has been awhile since we have gone hiking, but it’s good to be back at it.  It’s that time of year for lots more hiking for us!

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Categories: Texas | Tags: , , , , | 2 Comments

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