Category: Photo Journal

Grand Teton National Park Photo Journal

Stage 2 of our National Park to Park Highway has begun! Our first stop? Grand Teton National Park. I loved this alpine wonderland. The wildflowers, mountains, alpine lakes and animals were so beautiful.  Here are our favorite photos from Grand Tetons.
Larkspur at the base of the Teton Range.
This is the land of cool waters.

Phelps Lake

Little G 
Sky, land and water.

The whole Mountain Fam swimming in an alpine lake.
Rivers, lakes and streams. Grand Teton has them all.

Little G at Jenny Lake.

Big E was an awesome biker on the Grand Teton multi-use trail.

This may be the most beautiful bike ride I’ve ever been on.

Wildflowers

Zion National Park Photo Journal

Our first stop on our National Park to Park Highway trip was Zion National Park. We chose Zion to start Stage 1 of our National Park to Park Highway tour because we’re already familiar with it and hoped that would make it an easy introduction to full time camping. 
Only camping by definition is not easy. 
While I wouldn’t count this Zion trip a resounding success (more on that later) I will say that we had fun. After biking the Pa’rus Trail and swimming in the Virgin river all day Tuesday, Big E said “This is one of the best days of my life!” So obviously we did something right. 
Enjoy these images of Zion National Park as the first entry of my National Park to Park Highway Photo Journal series.
The view from Canyon Overlook Trail

Little G hiking

Big E looking out
Red rocks and pinyon pines
Big E calls these blossoms “flower bombs”

We hiked to a secret waterfall and swam all afternoon
Mountain Mom with her tots.
The sun peeking through the sandstone walls of Zion Canyon.

Swimming in the Virgin River.
Rock climbing. Go Baby L!

Biking the Pa’rus trail.
Biking the Pa’rus Trail.

Celebrating The National Park Centennial

We’re getting excited for the start of our National Park to Park Highway adventure. One way that we’re preparing is by getting the word out! @MountainMomTots will be co-hosting next week’s #outfam twitter chat with Outdoor Families Magazine. The theme is Celebrating the National Park Centennial with an Epic Overland Trip and we’d love for you to be there.

Join me Wed May 25, 2016 at 2:30 MST to talk about road trips, national parks and exploring new things.

If you’ve never done a twitter chat before it’s easy! Just search for the hashtag #outfam (short for outdoorfamilies) from 2:30 – 3:00 MST next Wednesday. It’s the best part of twitter.

We’re not the only ones planning a special trip for the National Park centennial this year. These other outdoor bloggers have some pretty spectacular adventures planned as well.

59 National Parks
Shelly and Don Hafner accomplished their goal to visit 59 parks in 59 weeks in June of 2015 but that hasn’t stopped their adventurous spirit. As the host for #campchat Wednesday evenings on twitter, @59NationalParks continues the National Park love. He’s planning an awesome road trip for the Centennial with fellow blogger Missouri Howell.

Missouri Howell
Jeff and Don will be traveling #arch2arch in August in honor of the actual 100 year anniversary on August 25, 2016. Their National Park Service Centennial trip begins at the Gateway arch in St. Louis and continues until the iconic Roosevelt Arch in Yellowstone.

National Park Quest – A Journey of Artists
Karla and Andres began their journey to visit all of the National Parks in April of 2016. Their goal is not only to visit all of these outdoor places, but to create artistic maps and posters for each of the 59 National Parks.

OurVie
A young couple travels to all 59 National Parks in their 1989 Toyota Motorhome named Vie. Along for the ride is their cat – the adventure kitty!

Ranger Doug – The WPA National Parks Poster Restorer
As a retired park ranger and artist, Ranger Doug is traveling through all of the National Parks speaking about his artists’ work restoring and reproducing National Parks Posters. In the 1920s and 30s the Works Project Administrations created promotional posters for the National Parks. Very few are left, but from those Ranger Doug has remastered the look and created unique posters for many more National Parks and Monuments.

59 Before 18
This outdoor adventure family had a goal to visit all of the National Parks before their kids turned 18. As an outdoors mom I can get behind that! They reached their goal in the summer of 2015.

Switchback Kids
Cole and Elizabeth are traveling to all 59 National Parks on their own dime. They’re taking the journey in sections, returning to their home base in Kansas City between weeks of adventures and exploration.

The 100 Years Tour – Visiting more than 400 National Park Service Sites
This young married couple wasn’t satisfied with just visiting the 59 National Parks. Ryan and Jenn included all of the National Monuments, Historic Sites and areas that come under the National Park Service jurisdiction on their itinerary. The adventure begins in Florida in June 2016.

Our National Park to Park Highway adventure fits right in with these other epic journeys. Each of these bloggers have different circumstances and pressures on their time, but they’ve found a way to enjoy the outdoors and celebrate the National Park Centennial.

That means you can too! Even if your National Park Adventure is to visit ONE place you’ve never seen before – GO DO IT! And be sure to tell us all about it when you do.

Happy Adventuring!

Stage 1: National Park to Park Highway Tour

This summer 2016 we’re taking a seven week road trip to tour the National Park to Park Highway. But before we even get there we wanted to make sure we could do it. So we’ve divided our National Park to Park Highway Tour into two parts. Part one will be a one week tour of Utah starting May 30, 2016. 

George A. Grant, Photographer (NARA record: 1226390) – U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Zion National Park
Zion National Park was part of the original National Park to Park Highway. The 1920 road followed the Arrowhead Trail from southern California into Utah. Unfortunately the 1920 Auto Tour group never made it to Zion National Park because of poor road conditions.


 We wanted to visit because not only was Zion National Park the only National Park in Utah in 1920, it’s a beautiful place! We’ve visited before and especially enjoyed biking the Pa’rus Trail, Riverside Walk and swimming in our secret swim spot on the Virgin River.

In addition to Zion National Park we’ll be visiting Bryce Canyon National Park and Cedar Breaks National Monument on stage one of our National Park to Park Highway Tour. Although Bryce Canyon and Cedar Breaks weren’t part of the National Park to Park Highway, they still have an interesting history.


 Utah Parks Company
In 1923 the Union Pacific Railroad formed a subsidiary, The Utah Parks Company, in order to promote tourist travel to Zion, the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and Cedar Breaks National Monuments. The railroad built a spur line from Lund to Cedar City, Utah and from there employed white touring buses to take tourists to these remote locations. 

Image from desertpearl.com/en/story/history

The Utah Parks Company built lodges and cabins in Zion National Park, the then Bryce Canyon National Monument and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in the 1920s. Their financial investment in the parks was substantial. Some sources report the Utah Parks Company discriminated against private automobile travel to these parks because of the large stake they held there. Luckily that is not an issue today. With the popularization of automobile travel and improved roads now more people than ever can visit these uniquely beautiful places.


 Our Utah Parks Company Tour
Visiting Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park and Cedar Breaks National Monument seemed like the perfect “dry run”  camping trip to test our sage brushing (1920s term for car camping) skills. Although this tour technically came after the 1920 National Park to Park Highway tour, it included some major sites that we did not want to miss on our adventure.

On May 30th we’ll set off with our Woom Bikes and Burley Bike Trailer for some biking on Zion National Park’s Pa’rus trail. We’ll be hiking Navajo Trail and Queen’s Loop in Bryce National Park and enjoying a Star Party at Cedar Breaks National Monument. And we’ll be letting you know how it goes every step of the way.

We’d love to have you along for the ride on our National Park to Park Highway Tour. We want your input on what adventures we should include. Do you have a favorite hike or bike ride in one of the National Parks on our route? What adventures do you recommend? Leave a comment or contact me on instagram, twitter or facebook. We’d love to hear from you!