a former gymnast with a neverending case of wanderlust
While we were camped at Vedauwoo (if you missed last week’s post, you can read all about Vedauwoo here), we took a few hours out of our day to visit nearby Laramie, Wyoming. Laramie is the third largest city in Wyoming and home to some interesting museums and quite a lot of frontier history. We… Continue reading Eight Hours in Laramie, Wyoming
I love my job. But by the end of the semester, I’m usually pretty burned out. Part of it is the workload; toward the end, I spend my weekends grading assignments and writing exams rather than being out in nature. The other contributor is the fact that I’m an introvert, and standing in front of… Continue reading Colorado Day Hikes: Goose Creek Trail
As I mentioned briefly last week, Capitol Reef gets the ‘reef’ part of its name from the fact that, from a distance, the towering line of colorful cliffs appears to be an impenetrable barrier. This 100-mile (160 km) long wrinkle in the Earth’s crust is called the Waterpocket Fold. Sometime between 50-70 million years ago,… Continue reading The Waterpocket Fold – Capitol Reef National Park, Utah (part II)
Wheeler Peak, located in the southern reaches of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, is the highest point in New Mexico. Pat and I summited it over Labor Day weekend 2021, which I wrote all about last week. Encircling Wheeler Peak is the Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway, connecting the towns of Taos, Red River, and Angel… Continue reading Driving New Mexico’s Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway
Next up on our Montana history tour: Deer Lodge, a small town with a surprising amount of history! We arrived mid-morning and our first stop was Grant-Kohrs National Historic Site. This is an old cattle ranch that’s still semi-active. They have horses and cattle on site and park workers give tours, talks, and demonstrations of… Continue reading Montana road trip 2021, part IV: cowboys, old cars, & the prison museum
Five of the six days of our Montana road trip were beautiful – warm, sunny, no rain to speak of. Perfect weather for exploring. But naturally, the one cold rainy day of our entire trip was the day of our boat tour. Just the kind of weather you want when you’ll be sitting on a… Continue reading Montana road trip 2021, part III: First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park & Gates of the Mountains
If you know me – or you’ve been following this blog for a while – you know I’m a planner. Some might say I’m an overplanner. I usually have a lengthy and well-researched list of things to do at each destination. Such was not the case for these first couple days of my mom’s and… Continue reading Montana road trip 2021, part II: Fort Benton & the Missouri River Breaks
For someone who spent 18 years of her life in Montana, I’ve seen a remarkably small amount of the state. In my defense, it’s a huge state. I’ve done a reasonably thorough job exploring the area around my hometown. But most of my trips to other parts of the state were for gymnastics or track… Continue reading Montana road trip 2021, part I: waterfalls, birds, & the Lewis and Clark expedition
(Gold star to anyone who can figure out the random inspiration for the title of this post. Hint: it came from the TV show I was bingeing at the time I sat down to write this.) If you’ve ever heard of Dinosaur National Monument, you probably specifically heard about the dinosaur quarry… a building that… Continue reading The Land of Prehistoric History – Dinosaur National Monument, Utah
After exploring Scotts Bluff and learning the history of the Oregon Trail, Chelsea and I continued north to our next stop: Agate Fossil Beds National Monument. Here, we would learn about a very different time in Nebraska's history. With my semester wrapping up just a couple days prior to our departure, I hadn’t really had… Continue reading The Devil’s Corkscrew – Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, Nebraska
Handstands Around the World 