There was a hurricane coming as Dad and I drove to our final highpoint of this epic road trip. We drove down the back country roads to beat it before the rain was expected to start at Driskill Mountain Louisiana. We figured I should have time to hike it and continue driving as far as we could for a bit. They were calling for flooding and crazy winds so I knew I had to hurry.
hike
Black Mesa, OK
I was excited/nervous as Dad and I made our way to the trailhead for Black Mesa in Oklahoma. I figured the hike would be sort of like White Butte in North Dakota, only longer. I thought the hike started at Black Mesa State Park. We pulled in and asked a few people if the hike starts there and one man replied, “Well, you can start the hike here, but it’d take you a day or two!” before giving us directions to the spot a bit farther down the road where the trail ACTUALLY starts.
White Cliffs of Conoy – #OPTOUTSIDE 2017
Another Black Friday – another year I chose to Opt Outside. It has become a tradition to take my nephew and now that I have ANOTHER nephew I figured he could join the fun! I wanted something fairly easy as I was going to be carrying my youngest nephew on my back in one of those packs plus walking JoJo who is always frisky this time of year due to the cold weather. I also wanted to go somewhere I had never seen before. I had read about the White Cliffs of Conoy awhile ago, but never got a chance to check them out so I decided that would be our destination! My dad, both nephews, JoJo and I headed out to the Northwest Lancaster County River Trail and parked at the trailhead in Bainbridge, PA.
still time to enter the GIVEAWAY!
If you haven’t entered the GIVEAWAY – CLICK HERE for your chance to win an ornament from the ETSY shop South Ranch Creative. Click the link above and don’t forget to leave a comment about what your outdoorsy New Year’s resolution is!! The winner will be announced on 12/10 – GOOD LUCK!!
GIVEAWAY 2016
It’s that time again! Last year I found so many cute ornaments on Etsy and had so much fun doing a giveaway that I decided to reach out to a few different shops this year and do the same thing – so here are the adorable ornaments I found this year! Instructions for the giveaway will be at the end of this post! 🙂 Click on the shop names to check out more items from their Etsy stores! All the items are handmade and one of a kind – a perfect gift for the adventurer in your life!
Trouble With Trekking Poles…
What am I doing with my trekking poles in this picture? Ohh just weighing them to see how much it would be to FedEx them back to home….
V-Bar-V Heritage Site
I absolutely love petroglyphs (pictures carved into rock – most are so old no one knows what they mean anymore). There are some amazing petroglyphs in Red Rock Canyon and Vally of Fire which I have seen on other trips to the Arizona/Nevada area so when I was planning a trip to Flagstaff I decided to see if there were any close by.
I found the V bar V heritage site which was about 45 minutes away. The area used to be a ranch and in 1994 became part of the Coconino National Forest to preserve the petroglyphs. The site was easy to find – we parked in the lot and headed down to the visitors center to get a parking pass ($5).
Humphreys Peak – 1st Attempt
After I flew into Las Vegas my BFF Jen picked me up from the airport and we drove to Flagstaff, AZ to spend a few days of sightseeing. On the list of planned activities was hiking Humphreys Peak. We were up before the sun and headed out to the trailhead which was only about a 15 min drive from Flagstaff. The sun was just coming up as we started down the trail at 6am – I was seriously wishing I had some gloves as it was a little chilly, but I knew it would warm up as the day went on.
Centralia’s Graffiti Highway
On the way back from my camping trip to Watkins Glen we stopped off in Centralia, PA – this is a whole town that was evacuated due to a fire that started in the Coal Mine below. The fire has been burning since 1962. Some people didn’t want to leave, but eventually most of them were forced out. I am always surprised at how many people come to see this — well — area of nothing but shrubs, weeds and cemeteries – there was even a person selling hotdogs at a stand on the side of the main road (that’s a new one).
You can wander around the abandoned roads and hope to see smoke that still escapes from the cracks in the pavement and dirt to this day, although to be honest each time I go there, there is less and less smoke visible. We didn’t see any on this hot summer day. I am going to go back in the winter because supposedly you can see it better then so I’ll talk more about the town in that post.
Camping and Trails At Watkins Glen
I can not say enough great things about this campground and State Park – I love it here. This trip was not the first and certainly won’t be the last time I will visit. The campsites are large with a picnic table, fire ring and room to park your car. There are flush toilets, warm showers and electric in the bath house.
I brought my friend Cathy with – this was her first camping trip and she LOVED it. We were driving up right after work so I called and told them we would most likely get there late. They told us that wouldn’t be a problem, just to set up when we got there and check in in the morning. We ended up arriving at 9:30 which meant unfortunately it was dark. Setting up the condo (as my tent is lovingly nicknamed) in the dark is a pain – actually setting up the condo in the day time is sort of a pain because it’s so huge and old. As we were putting it together we noticed one of the tent poles was missing the hollow metal end that fits into the peg attached to the tent – bummer! We couldn’t find it anywhere so we ended up rigging that side of the tent up with extra stakes and the ring attached to the tent that the stakes go through and trying to jam the pole in the hard ground – hey it worked – even if it was a bit lop sided!
blisters and bug bites 