On our first full day in Death Valley, we woke up to catch a Ranger tour of Golden Canyon. Sarah gave us a lot of information about the history of the canyon. The story goes that a caravan traveling west was sold a faulty map of the area and ended up having to burn their …
The drive from Mojave to Death Valley featured the most barren landscape we’d seen yet. The road stretched on for miles with nothing but creosote around us and mountains on the horizon. By the time we reached the park, after hours of ominous monotony, my sleep-deprived mind was a little worried about what the next …
We made it to Mojave National Preserve after a few hours on a road filled with ghost towns and endless creosote. Part of Joshua Tree is in the Mojave desert, so we were unsure if we would see anything new in the Mojave Preserve (We are fools for ever doubting the National Parks Service). After …
We woke up on day two in Joshua Tree to conquer our namesakes: Ryan Mountain and Barker Dam. The climb up Ryan Mountain was a strenuous three miles of 1,000 feet gain. We made it up most of the way when we saw this one lonely juvenile Joshua Tree. Please note that my latest trend …
After Organ Pipes National Park we passed through two Border Patrol checkpoints (we’re good at them by now) on our way to the Sonoran Desert National Monument, and quickly found out there’s nothing there. Oops. I guess that’s kind of the appeal to the wilderness, but we weren’t about to take the Versa off-roading. So …
We made it to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument before the sun went down. This gave us time to grab a site at their more popular campground, Twin Peaks, and get some rest. But not before reading that we shouldn’t help anyone cross the border. As the park sits directly on the border between the …
We packed up our snow covered tent and crossed into Arizona. After a night in Tucson, we hit Saguaro National Park. It’s pronounced suh-WAH-ro, which I’m still working on myself. After weeks exploring all over the Chihuahua you’d think we’d be done being surprised by the desert, but here we were entering the Sonoran Desert …
Our first glimpse of Silver City looked like a field of stars in the valley below us, a welcome sight after the winding mountain roads through Gila Forest with only our headlights and the occasional, distant lightning for illumination. The rainy drive had been a little stressful but uneventful, except for the beautiful fox who …
After hearing a podcast about stealing petrified wood from Petrified Forest National Park that Jules and Steve recommended, we knew we had to have a look. Especially after hearing that people would return their petrified wood years later, believing they were cursed by it. (Photo taken at Rainbow Forest Visitor Center) What do you expect …
We’ve learned that we can’t see everything and that we have to let some things go, so when we went through Santa Fe we were comfortable passing by Bandelier National Monument. But then we found ourselves talking to a ranger who worked there while we were checking out Taos, so we surrendered to kismet, followed …
Beyond the Fold 