Always Onward Adventures

Bryce Canyon National Park

Bryce canyon was our second national park of the Utah national parks trip. The park was much smaller than I was used to, but there were still plenty of things to see/do. Bryce is a hikers national park (vs canyoneering at Zion) and most of the things you want to visit are day hikes (although some of them can be quite long for a day hike). There was only one trail that we didn’t do (or at least not all of it) out of the the list of the top hikes in the park.

National Park

Zion National Park

Welcome to Zion! When we had our Galapagos plans fall through, we decided to meet up with the family in Utah for a National park trip - starting with Zion National park. We only spent 3 days here, but we did get a good taste of the park through some canyoneering and biking. Zion is known for Canyoneering - which is where you climb up/down steep walled canyons often by walking through/in the water.

Spring

Diablo Lake - Kayaking version

So - we had so much fun in hiking in the north cascades the last time that we decided to go back, this time with Kayaks. The plan was to drop our kayaks off just below Ross lake dam, right at the end of the Diablo lake trail, and then hike the Diablo lake trail to get to them and kayak across Diablo lake back to the Van - traveling down the long arm of the Diablo lake from Ross dam.

VanTrip

Diablo Lake

Back at it after almost a month since our last trip - Sara’s ski lessons, Angela’s sisters trip, and overall sickness created a perfect storm and prevented the adventures for a bit. We went to the north cascades last weekend and spent some time exploring the area around Diablo lake/highway 20 before the closure. I really love this area, it’s relatively close to Seattle (2.5 hour drive) but it’s so remote, especially before the highway opens.

Winter

Hurricane Ridge & Forks

After visiting Hurricane Ridge ski area a couple of weeks ago, I thought it would be a fun trip to go back with skiis and give the $20-lift-ticket ski area a try. It was super fun and Sara had a blast - grabbing onto the rope tow was a learning experience and she realy had to put her whole body onto it to make it work. :) Anyway, more on that later.

Wine

Wine Tasting in Walla-Walla

No van camping on this trip - but we had such a fun time anyway that I decided to make a post about it. This weekend was Diane’s Birthday and we headed to Walla-Walla for some wine tasting/drinking to celebrate. We hit up three wineries and had a delicious dinner in Walla-Walla - then found a fun hike and brewery on the way back home. We (Angela, Sara, Tom) ended up leaving a bit late on Friday and made it to Walla-Walla fairly late (around 7) and got our dinner on the way.

VanTrip

Ski Trip

Bit a a different trip this weekend, Sara has ski lessons on Saturday morning and I got a half day ticket to ski with her in the afternoon. The plan was to head to a Washington ghost town after that, but more on that later. Sara’s first magic carpet ride with her group lesson - they need to be able to slow down and turn before they go on the carpet.

VanTrip

Hurricane Ridge and Rialto beach

For our first trip of 2022, we had a whirlwind adventure - hiking in the snow to climbing over logs on the beach. Sara started Ski lessons, so our first van trip of the year was Sunday and Monday of a long weekend (Saturday was ski lessons). There was alot of driving on this trip, more than I expected, but we got to see it all, snowy mountains, rainforest, and a very stormy (and rainy) beach.

VanTrip

Baker Lake - with Snow

Welcome back! Baker lake, round two. I think our plans must have changed 3 times before this trip - from Mt St Helens, to Langley, and finally to Baker Lake. The weather called for rain/snow all weekend, but we didn’t let that deter us! Sara made the final decision, she wanted to see snow. Baker lake had some obvious advantages - clear roads (to support the Dam there), I knew the landscape, and the hike I was planning (Baker Lake trail) was in the trees so, theoretically anyway, it shouldn’t be as windy/stormy - as it likely would have on St Helens.

VanTrip

Ft Flagler

We made a last minute decision to head to Ft Flagler this weekend (near port townsend). The origional plan was to head to Mt St Helens but the forecast was for lots of wind and rain, so we decided to change it up a bit. There is a drive-in movie theater that we were going to try and Ft Flagler an old historic fort with lots of trails and places to explore.