#camp vibes

354 Extrabybravery914 on Flickr.

Been adventuring around the tri state area. We have rescued two amazing dogs that will now be adventuring with us on our travels. Unfortunately our teardrop couldn’t handle all four of us. We sold our teardrop to a family in Richmond. So for the time being we have been using our VW bus for our trips. Starting to sketch up plans to build a bigger teardrop. Stay tuned!!

Our new camp mobile. Time for adventure.

Last weekend we went to Glen Onoko Falls in Pennsylvania. Tahoe had his first sip of cold mountain water and took his first breath of fresh mountain air, a very important moment for an adventure dog. We had lunch together next to the waterfalls, he munched on his dog food and I had my peanut butter banana sandwich. We scrambled rocks, hopped across streams, howled at the trees and enjoyed the sounds and sights of the waterfalls together. Mans best friend. Although it was a shorter hike, it was refreshing to be in the woods again. This upcoming weekend Jess Tahoe and I with a few friends will be taking a camping trip to upstate New York. Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring.

Arches National Park is by far the coolest, oddest, strangest most beautiful place I have ever been. These pictures do not do it justice. This is a place that must be visited to truly understand the strange beauty of it.

Jess and I started out with one of the more popular hikes to • Delicate Arch •
It was a little under 4 miles round trip. Although 4 miles isn’t very long, we were nervous with the harsh summer desert heat. With lots of sun screen and water we prevailed. The hike to the arch was beautiful to say the least and well worth the sweat. The next hike we did was to Landscape Arch, which was a quick 2 mile hike. The landscape arch is the longest natural arch in the world, pretty neat.

Thanks to my friend Darren with lots of recommendations for the Moab area. We ended the daylight with a burger and milkshake from Milts. A cool outside seating burger joint that has been serving Moab since 1954. I couldn’t think of anything that I would have wanted more after a long day.

I wish I had more time to spend at Arches National Park and the entire Moab area. So much cool hikes, history and beautiful scenery to check out. Will be coming back in the future without a doubt. Tomorrow I think we will head to Bryce Canyon National Park.

Cheers!

We had about a 4 hour drive from Great Sand Dunes National Park to Mesa Verde National Park. The directions took us down route 160, such a beautiful drive. The winding road takes you right through the Rio Grande And San Juan National Forests. About 2 hours into the drive we stopped at a local farmers market and got some delicious food and checked out some crafts made by the local artisans. Lots of beautiful hand made items.

We booked two tours at Mesa Verde National Park. The first tour we took “Balcony House” was incredible. Starting off the tour with a 30 foot wooden ladder that takes you right into the heart of the cave dwellings. The Puebloan’ s created these insanely beautiful seated dwellings in the 12th century. It’s pretty cool that 800 years later we can be blown away in awe by their creations. The second tour was called “Cliff Palace” which is the largest Native American cave dwelling in North America.

Needless to say Jess and I can’t get over how cool Mesa Verde is. Tomorrow we are off to Arches National Park. Which we didn’t plan on going to. I think that’s the best part of this trip, freedom. Rolling with the punches…

Feels nice that the weather cooled down as the sun dropped behind the mountains. Can’t wait to crawl into bed..

Happy 4th of July from The Great Sand Dunes National Park!

We left The Great Smoky Mountains National Park around noon on Wednesday. As you can see our route changed a bit. Some of our reservations were cancelled in Arizona due to fires. So, we high tailed it to Colorado stopping only for fuel and food. I didn’t get any sleep and drove the entire day Wednesday, Wednesday night and most of Thursday. Jess hopped in for a few hours here and there giving me a few breaks. You also might notice there is a picture of Jess driving and not me. That’s because Jess slept most of the time :) . Luckily I had some good driving tunes and coffee to keep me awake. We did get to stop and check out Cadillac Ranch outside of Amarillo, Texas which was a cool piece of art.

We got to the campsite late Thursday afternoon and went to sleep pretty early last night. We did get to meet our great camp neighbors who are from Minnesota and travel the U.S. every chance they get on their motorcycle while pulling a trailer tent. They have been doing it since 1990 and had some great tips and ideas for camping/the camper and cool recommendations for areas in the U.S.

Jess and I woke up at at 4am to hike around the Sand Dunes at Great Sand Dunes National Park. For the first hour as the sun was coming up we were the only people in the park, that we could see at least. The Great Sand Dunes in Colorado are the tallest dunes in North America. Such a surreal natural beauty.

Now to take a nap in the hammock…

We started our journey yesterday and already it has kicked ass. We stayed at Cosby Campground in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Very quiet, shady and beautiful campground. Our campsite was next to a creek, which made a great backdrop. We stopped at a veggie stand on the way in to buy some local produce. We broke out the cast iron skillet and made some badass veggie tacos. On the way out of the campground we stopped at Ozone Falls. Great photo op and swim spot. The falls drop 110’ into a cool little swimming hole. Summertime vibes.

Tailgating at 5 Point Adventure Film Festival in Carbondale Colorado last weekend.  What an awesome community of people stoked on the outdoors and who embrace distilling life down to the most pure experiences.