Mountain Mom and Tots

Happy Birthday Earth Day!

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Happy Birthday Earth Day

This week is not only National Park Week, it’s also Earth Day today – Friday April 22nd. Earth Day started in 1970. This year the Tots and I are saying Happy Birthday Earth Day with a special project we’re doing with our local Hike It Baby branch.

Every week since St. Patrick’s Day the tots and I have biked, strolled and cleaned up along the Provo River Trail. This trail is my Go To Outdoor space, the place I escape to when I need a little outdoor time in the midst of daily life. Because I love this space, I want to see it taken care of. Thus began the Hike It Baby litter clean up series.

Every week the tots and I join other parents of young children to pick up litter on a different section of the trail. The Provo River Trail spans 30 miles from Utah Lake to South Fork Canyon and so far we’ve picked up litter along about seven of those miles. Our efforts combined have removed several gallons of trash from along the Provo River, improving the environment for the ducks, fish and people enjoying the trail.

Why Bother?

It would be easier to ignore the beer cans, plastic wrappers and paper bits we pass. Stopping every few feet means slow going – nobody’s getting a cardio workout on these hikes. But I want to teach my kids to take care of their wild spaces, and what better way to do that than through example?

It’s interesting that for one hour a week my Tots and I are aware of the trash around us and we choose to do something about it. But for the rest of the week I find myself ignoring the litter around me, even the wrappers and discarded plant pots in my own yard. It’s like I have an edit in my eyesight that I disable on the assigned day and time.

It makes me wonder what it would take to make more lasting change. I feel good about the trash our Hike It Baby group has removed from the trail. I feel good about getting my kids outside. I feel good about helping my kids practice riding balance bikes. But I feel bad that I only care for that one hour each week. Green guilt isn’t useful unless it motivates change, but I’m not ready to adjust my life any more than I have already.

The Quest Continues

This weekly litter pickup adventure will continue until the entire trail is clean. Not only because its good for the environment, it’s also good exercise. And we’ve got to get ready for our daily hiking and biking on our National Park to Park Highway Adventure.
Whether you’ll be spending Earth Day at a National Park or cleaning up trash on a local trail, let me know about it. Tag @mountainmomtots on instagram, twitter or facebook and tell me how you’ll spend Earth Day today. You’ll have a chance to be featured in the Mountain Mom and Tots Newsletter.

It’s a day to be grateful for the beauty around us and do something nice for the environment. Now’s your chance to do that something nice. What’s it going to be?

National Park Week 2016

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I’m so excited to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service this year! In case you missed my previous post, our Mountain Fam is planning a reenactment of the National Park to Park Highway Tour to celebrate the centennial.

It’ll be a 7 week National Park adventure visiting some amazing sights along the way. We’ll be posting about the history of the National Park to Park Highway as well as cool stuff to do in each of the 15 parks and 3 National Monuments we visit. So stay tuned over the next few months.

But before we get to that summertime adventure we’ve got to celebrate this week’s beauty. This week is National Park Week, in case you didn’t know. From April 16-24, 2016 every National Park and Monument offers free admittance. FREE! So how will you enjoy your National Treasures?

For a little inspiration I thought I’d repost some of our National Park Photos from years past. Take a moment to #FindYourPark.

Arches

Bryce Canyon

Canyonlands

Capital Reef

Colorado National Monument

Craters of the Moon National Monument

Denali

Dinosaur National Monument

Black Canyon of the Gunnison

Kenai Fjords

Redwoods

Yellowstone

Yosemite

Zion

National Park to Park Highway Adventure

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We’ve got BIG news for you today, the first day of National Park Week 2016. I mean blow your mind, I wish I were you, experience of a lifetime BIG. Are you ready for it?

Good. Here we go.

Did you know that 2016 is the centennial anniversary of the National Park Service? 100 years is no small feat. It deserves a celebration of epic proportions which is exactly why Mountain Dad and I have spent the last several months planning something HUGE.

I’m talking 5,000 miles, 7 weeks on the road, 15 National Parks and 3 National Monuments huge. That’s right. This summer, we’re taking our Mountain Family on an epic road trip visiting some of the greatest outdoor wonders of the world. Using the National Park to Park Highway as our guide we will be hiking, biking and camping our way through 15 iconic National Parks (and 3 National Monuments) of the West and you’re invited to come along for the ride!

The Original National Park to Park Highway Tour

Spearheaded by Stephen Mather, our nation’s first National Park Service Director, the National Park to Park Highway was created in 1920 to link 12 National Parks on a loop of mostly dirt roads spanning over 5,000 miles.

The goal was to promote the National Parks by capitalizing on the country’s booming automobile craze. In August of 1920, 12 vehicles set out on a 76 day tour to see the Parks as no others before them had. Roads were rough and cars were not very reliable 100 years ago, so not everyone finished the journey, but the publicity from the tour helped increase tourism to the National Parks.

Almost 100 years later, we have decided to drive the National Park to Park Highway in honor of the National Park Service’s Centennial celebration. In addition to the 12 original parks pictured here we will also include 3 new National Parks (Great Sand Dunes, Olympic, and Grand Teton) as well as 3 new National Monuments (Hovenweep, Canyons of the Ancients, and Devil’s Postpile) on our tour.

Mountain Mom and Tots National Park to Park Highway Tour

If you’ve read this blog you know we’re no stranger to family camping, but this project is a whole different level of camping commitment. To accomplish the lofty goal of sagebrushing (the 1920s term for car camping) through the wild lands of the west we’ll be turning our Chevy pickup into the ultimate camping vehicle.

No RVs or tents for us. We’ll be sleeping our family of five in a full sized pick up for weeks on end. Even as I write that it sounds crazy, but that’s the plan and if anyone can pull it off it’s me and Mountain Dad.

For seven weeks we will be hiking and biking through some of the most beautiful spaces in the United States, dragging our 7, 4 and 1 year old with us. Literally. Baby L will be riding in the bike trailer or the hiking pack most of the time.

Join Us

Have you ever had a hair-brained idea that you’re so excited about you want to tell the whole world? That’s how I feel about our National Park to Park Highway Adventure. I want to share all the experiences we have along the way with as many people as will listen.

If you’re one of those people, sign up for the Mountain Mom and Tots newsletter for exclusive info on our explorations and discoveries. I promise I won’t bombard your inbox or sell your email address. I just want you to come with me on this exciting adventure and I don’t think anymore people will fit in our pickup truck.

Sign Up for Current Updates of Mountain Mom and Tots and get a FREE Scavenger Hunt for Kids! Just put your name and email in here. Right here in the box after this sentence:

You can also follow along on twitter, instagram and facebook. I’m telling you it’ll be awesome.

What’s Your Kind of Wilderness?

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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.

Happy Birthday Earth Day

Why Bother?

The Quest Continues

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Arches

Bryce Canyon

Canyonlands

Capital Reef

Colorado National Monument

Craters of the Moon National Monument

Denali

Dinosaur National Monument

Black Canyon of the Gunnison

Kenai Fjords

Redwoods

Yellowstone

Yosemite

Zion

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The Original National Park to Park Highway Tour

Mountain Mom and Tots National Park to Park Highway Tour

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