Category: Motherhood Moments

Camping Fail at Mount Rainier National Park: My Son Will Tell His Grandkids About This

Camping Fail Rainier Pin

We’d traveled along the National Park to Park Highway for nearly 7,000 miles, camping all the way. We thought we knew what we were doing, but what happened when we got to Mount Rainier? Camping Fail. Continue reading “Camping Fail at Mount Rainier National Park: My Son Will Tell His Grandkids About This”

What is Home?

We are in the midst of our long anticipated National Park to Park Highway tour. Being away from home on this extended adventure has brought up the question “What is home?” Many phrases talk about it – Home sweet home, There’s no place like home, Home is where the heart is – but what is it?
Is home a feeling or a place? As we’ve been traveling from park to park this last week Little G will often say things like “When we get home can I go to Eden’s house?” or “When we get home can we watch Kung Fu Panda?”
To her home is a physical place, our house that we won’t be seeing for another month and a half as we travel along the National Park to Park Highway. But home is more than a house, more than a place to sleep, eat and rest.

Is home a feeling? When you’re in a place that feels ‘homey’ you know you can kick off you shoes and relax, you don’t have to worry about who you impress or offend.
To me home is both a place and a feeling. It’s somewhere you feel safe and comfortable, where you know what to expect and what is expected of you.
We’ve already had several homes on this trip. We carry the main one on our truck like a turtle shell. The Ultimate Adventure Vehicle holds our things, both the essentials and luxuries. It’s where we eat, sleep, travel and spend time together. Compared to our house back in Sundance, Utah it’s cramped, disorganized and requires constant shuffling of things, but it’s a place we can be where we feel safe, can sleep and know what to expect.
We’ve stayed in other people’s homes and will again on our National Park to Park Highway tour. This trip includes two family reunions, one near Yellowstone and the other in Southern California. For those gatherings our family rented other people’s homes. I like renting a home when we’re traveling for the luxury of hot water, a comfy bed, laundry and a kitchen. Since Big E is allergic to wheat, eggs and nuts we make a lot of our own food on the road. It’s just easier than custom ordering baked potatoes from Wendy’s for every meal.

The final home away from home we’ve had on this trip is Togwotee Mountain Lodge. Located 16 miles east of Moran Wyoming, Togwotee Mountain Lodge is close to Gand Teton National Park but far enough away to avoid the crowds. It’s secluded, which is good for feeling connected to nature, but bad if you want quick access to Grand Teton or Yellowstone. Driving to and from the park each day required an extra 40 minutes, which feels extra long after driving hours to get there, but it’s comparable to other lodging options in the area.
What I loved about Togwotee was the private family cabin with sleeping for six. The beds were comfy, the stovetop, microwave and fridge in the kitchen handy and they had an on site gas station, restaurant, convenience store and laundry. Plus they offer horse rides and snowmobile rentals on site (Mountain Dad’s already interested in a winter trip).
Although the cabins feel like a home away from home with all of the luxuries of a hotel, there are still reminders that you’re in the middle of Targhee National Forest. One night of our stay a lightening strike in Moran, Wyoming knocked out power to the resort for several hours.
At first I was annoyed. I was staying in a hotel and as such had certain expectations, like being able to turn the lights on when I wanted. But then I stopped my mental complaining by reminding myself that this entire National Park toPark Highway tour is essentially an extended campout. Instead of feeling annoyed, I dug through our Ultimate Adventure Vehicle for flashlights. It’s not like Togwotee controls the weather anyway.
On this adventure the concept of home is important. For me, home is a feeling of safety and peace. A place I can relax and sleep. Whether that is in the back of our truck, in a rented home or at Togwotee Mountain Lodge, it all feels like home.
Togwotee Mountain Lodge is a National Park to Park Highway tour sponsor. Visit our sponsor page to see more.

 

Motherhood Moments: How to be a Mountain Mom


What does it take to be a Mountain Mom?

1. Have a kid

2. Get outside

Okay, maybe that’s an over simplification, but loving the outdoors with your kids really can be easy. Whether it’s celebrating Kids to Parks Day May 21, 2016, picking up trash along a river trail or camping in your backyard, spending time with kids outdoors makes memories for the whole family.

This Mother’s Day I wanted to share a photo essay of some of my favorite outdoor moments with my kids. You may not see the packing, wrestling, bribing and crying that went into some of these moments, but to be honest once I’m out on the trail I don’t see those things either. Happy Mother’s Day! Enjoy!

You might also like these Mother’s Day Posts from some blogger friends:

OutdoorsMom.com – What it Means to be an Outdoorsy Mom

TravelingMel.com – Mother’s Day and Pine Creek Lodge and Yellowstone

Tanya Koob of FamilyAdventuresintheCanadianRockies – Mother’s Day Glamping Weekend

TalesofaMountainMama.com – Quick Gift Ideas for Mother’s Day

What’s Your Kind of Wilderness?

Don’t forget to enter my Style in the Wild Kids Giveaway! Today’s your last day. Click here.

Over spring break, my Mountain Fam had a mix of outdoor experiences. We played at a park, biked on a local trail and camped in a beautiful, forgotten corner of the Utah desert. It brought to mind the question, What’s my kind of wilderness?

Urban Jungle
For some people getting outdoors just means a stroll to the neighborhood park. A chunk of manicured green cut out from concrete streets and brick buildings may be all the outdoor love you need.

When Little G was first born, before we moved to the mountains, this was the extent of my outdoor experience. I walked to the park around the corner to push my two tots on swings and spend hours watching Big E dig in the sandbox in our backyard.

A backyard sandbox, herb garden or hammock might be just enough wilderness to get all the benefits of being outdoors without leaving home. It was nice. But it wasn’t enough for me.
Suburban Wilderness
After moving to the mountains near Sundance Mountain Resort in Utah, my daily outdoor experience changed. I live with a forest right outside my front door and a ski hill just down the road. We live far enough out of town to be surrounded by trees but close enough that grocery shopping isn’t an all day ordeal.

In the canyon near my home is my favorite Go To Outdoor Space – the Provo River Trail. I love it because the flat paved trail runs along a river on one side and mountains on the other. It’s nothing if not beautiful.

Since one of my goals this year is to teach my kids to ride bikes, we hit this trail last week on a balance bike from WOOM (pronounced VOOM). Technically its Little G’s WOOM 3 with the pedals removed but since Big E has yet to learn to ride a bike even though he’s in first grade, I put it to use like a balance bike. Big E loved it.

I’m grateful for locations like this suburban wilderness bike trail. It’s only a 15 minute drive from town, easily accessible at multiple parks and it even passes Bridal Veil Falls, a 200 foot tall waterfall. Many hikers and bikers enjoy this trail all year long and sometimes the trail heads and parks can be overly crowded, especially on weekends.
Outdoor Destination
Think of the outdoor spaces within an hour or two of your home. Those places you could drive to for a day activity – beach, mountain, river. People go there for a day or two to enjoy the outdoors and relax.

Most of my camping adventures fall into this category. We live in the vast Wasatch Uinta National Forest where there are loads of hiking, mountain biking, and camping all within an hour drive. These destinations are great for day or overnight trips, to really get out of the norm. I could camp if I want but I usually don’t since it’s close enough to get back home fairly quickly.

These kinds of spaces are usually more remote than the local park or Suburban wilderness. They allude to vast wild spaces before man walked the earth, but the trail heads are still full of people. I like these places because it puts me in a vacation mentality when I go there. They’re far enough away that you take the day off work and do something out of the norm. But they’re not what calls to Mountain Dad.

Utter Isolation
Last weekend we took our first camp out of the year in the San Rafael Swell desert area of Utah. We explored sandstone rock spires, hoodoos, a gypsum sinkhole and desert washes and canyons. We camped on BLM land without seeing another person for more than 24 hours.

This remote kind of wilderness is what Mountain Dad craves. The vast natural beauty and utter lack of people is exactly up his alley. As we explored Cathedral Valley and the Buckhorn Wash pictographs he said, “Any other state, this would be a National Park.” He might have something there. 

Although beautiful, the remoteness of this destination makes it difficult. You must feel comfortable providing for your own needs. Water, bathrooms, lodging, food – there’s no resources nearby. You have to take care of that on your own. The closest ‘town’ to our adventure in Cathedral Valley had two gas stations and no stoplights. Not exactly a destination location.

Yet Mountain Dad was effusive in his praise. Something about getting away from people and enjoying beautiful scenery is like magic for him. I agree it was beautiful and fun to feel like we found something special that few people experience. But when the thought, “What would happen if we got a flat tire?” popped into my head, I wondered if I needed THAT much isolation.


What’s Your Kind of Wilderness?
For me, I prefer the adventure of getting away from home for several days, but I don’t mind sharing my outdoor space with other nature lovers either. For Mountain Dad, the more remote and beautiful (and crowdless) the better.
So what is it for you? Are you content with a stroll in the local park or do you crave to leave the crowds (of whatever size) and find that untouched wild space? Leave a comment and let me know. I’d love to hear your thoughts!

I contacted the companies above to ask for items to review unless otherwise noted. I chose those companies because I thought their products were uniquely designed for outdoor families and relevant for you, my readers. My opinions of their products are my own. I received no compensation other than the product to review.