We are at a KOA in Williams for a 5-day stay, and the Grand Canyon is my most anticipated park of the trip. I actually stayed at this same campground when I was a baby and we had our pop-up trailer. The Grand Canyon did not disappoint! It was amazing.
Instead of driving from our campground, we took a train from Williams to the Grand Canyon, on the Grand Canyon Express. Our seats were on the Pullman car. It was the only one they had that was over 100 years old, though I will admit it was a little bumpy. The trip there took 2 and a half hours, but it felt way shorter. Pictures do not do this place justice because it might have been the coolest thing I’ve seen in my life! The cliffs stretch over 277 miles! At the top, we took a walk along the rim to where we got such an awesome viewpoint and we could see the whole canyon. I also noticed the elevation while walking. It was only a mile, but I found myself getting out of breath really fast.
The rest of our time in Williams, Az we explored a zoo called Bearizona and also Walnut Canyon National Monument near Flagstaff. We were able to feed the otters at the zoo which was awesome and see bears, wolves, buffalos and a lot more on the driving section of the zoo.
After a couple days with our friends in Tucson, we decided to have a couple of chill days after 5 full ones. We didn’t do much here expect for some camper chores, cleaning, grocery shopping and hanging out. We also did some school work. We were excited that there were some kids at this campground so Eli and I both had some kids to play with in the game room/common area.
We are in Tucson, Az and staying at Davis Monthan Air Force base. Our campsite is super cool because it is near the Boneyard. The boneyard is a place where they park old military airplanes. There were 100s of planes all parked there.
First stop was Sagauro National Park. The cool part about this park is that it contains hundreds of saguaro cacti. They are all really cool to look at considering they grow up to 40 feet tall! At the visitor center, we found that Saguaros have these rib-like sticks on the inside to help support their massive weight. Birds and other animals love to make homes inside these cacti. Saguaros can live with only one tablespoon of water every month, which makes them great desert plants!
The next day, Uncle Nate and Aunt Chrissy arrived! My dad and mom have been friends with them for a long time. They live in California. They were staying at a fancy resort near our campground.
The girls went shopping and the boys went to the aviation museum called the 390th Memorial Museum. We got to see over 200 different airplanes. My favorite was the Boeing 387 because it was just massive!
We spent the rest of the trip mostly hanging out at their resort because it had an awesome pool, a massive waterslide, and a hot tub. Mine and Eli’s favorite parts was definitely the water slide. We went down it some many times.
We had a 5-day stay. All in all, it was really cool to see our best friends and spend a couple of days with them.
As we make the log drive from Alamogordo, NM to Tucson, Az, we are stopping twice at places called harvest hosts. We have done this before at the Tallahassee Car Museum and the Alpaca farm in Maine. We get to stay for free there overnight but have to patron the business. First us was Lescombes Winery in Demming, NM. Since there are no hookups here and we are boondocking, my dad got to try out our new generator, which we named Jenny. We are going to be able to boondock way easier now and even being able to run the A/C and Internet. My mom and dad enjoyed the winery and bought some wine for our trip while Eli and I hung out and played some video games.
Current leg: 113 Miles
Total miles: 7055 Miles
Wilcox, AZ
Next Harvest host overnight stay was a brewery in Wilcox, Arizona. We had dinner at the restaurant on site and walked around the grounds which were really pretty.
Of course, I got a cheeseburger for dinner and I was really happy with it. I’d give it a 8.1/10.
We are at Holloman Air Force base in Alamogordo NM for a 3-day stay. My dad and mom actually lived here for 6 months right before she had me. My mom’s favorite place there while pregnant with me was an ice cream place called Caliche’s. It isn’t actually ice cream but frozen custard and it was delicious! I got a flavor called Cookie Monster with blue vanilla ice cream and cookie dough and Oreo pieces inside. It was probably the best custard I’ve ever had, and I’ll give it an 8.1 out of 10, not bad!
Very close to the Air Force base is a national park by the name of White Sands. The endless sand stretches on for miles, ending right on a mountain range. One of the cool things to do here is sand sledding down the dunes. We went and rented our gear at the gift shop, including boards and wax to make us slide faster! Then we drove out to the “slopes,” waxed up our boards and found a track in the sand from someone else. That allowed us to immediately slide down. It wasn’t as good as snow, not even close but still unique experience to be able to sled in the hot desert rather than the cold mountains. What was also interesting is that even in really hot days the sand doesn’t get super hot like at the beach. The sand is actually cool to the touch.
We also stopped at a tourist trap called Pistachioland. It has the world’s largest statue of a Pistachio outside. We got pictures and got to sample some of the pistachios they had for sale.
Im starting to get excited about settling back in Pennsylvania but also excited about the rest of the trip. I have a feeling some of our upcoming National parks are going to be really awesome.
Next stop is some 1 night stay at some Harvest Hosts as we make of way to Arizona and farther west!
We are at Roswell, New Mexico for a 2 days. You probably already know about Roswell, but the whole theme is aliens from an incident that occurred in 1947. It was just a normal day when a rancher near Roswell reported seeing metal tin foil-like debris. He started showing people the evidence but the US military initially admitted to the idea of aliens but within a view hours changed their stance and denied all claims. There is also evidence to support that they tried to silence anybody who knew the truth. They said that it was merely a weather balloon from their top secret project. The project has something to do with sending up a balloon to retrieve a signal from a nuclear bomb but in testing it, it completely failed and they scraped the whole idea. The whole idea that the government is hiding something is a theory that does seem to have a lot of evidence behind it and may as well be the answer. Me personally, I think they are hiding something but I don’t think they have underground labs with aliens in them, I think it was a weapon that they tested and failed and then fell back down to earth. Because of all the publicity, they had to make up lies because they didn’t want there secrets leaked to other governments around the globe. Now you know The Roswell incident and we went to a museum the first day we were there that had a lot of history and sightings and even a simulation where you got to feel what it was like falling back to earth if you were in the space ship.
After the museum we went to brick land which was a really cool spot that you guessed it, had a lot of legos! Their mega project was a massive alien spaceship that had one 44,000 different bricks! Also in the same building they had a cool VR simulation where we could look around and actually be a part of the Roswell incident as it happened (or the way they think it happened). Also in brick land, we got to make pixel art with little small bricks and put it on a board with everybody else’s. But the best part about it was definitely the Lego trains. They had a bunch that were weaving through a city. We had lunch at a McDonalds that instead of the normal looking building, it is shaped like a UFO. Inside was a regular McDonalds but it was a cool theme for sure. We stopped at a Dairy Queen and got and ice cream cake for my birthday. I decided to get an Oreo one and it was delicious. I’d give it a 9.2/10. I enjoyed having my birthday in Roswell but I don’t know if I’m a believer, just yet.
We are at Carlsbad, NM for a 2-night stay. The best part about this place was definitely the caverns! On the first night, we went to a bat viewing program where you look and see thousands of bats fly out of the cave at sunset and head south to find food. Because it was so early in the bat season, we did not see thousands, but we probably saw hundreds! They formed a spiral as they flew out of the cave and up into the night. The next day, we went to the cave again, but this time we got to explore. The place we were most excited to see was called the Big Room, where it is over 6 football fields, or 2 Empire State buildings long! In total, we walked over 2.5 miles, all underground. After the walk under, we took an elevator back up to the surface and then we drove back, the best part about the cave was that it was nice and cool under the ground and it felt really good after being in the hot sun all day. Overall I think these were the best caves we’ve been in so far on the trip.
We are at Guadalupe Mountains National Park for a 1-night stay. We are just boondocking, so we are only here for one night. Our camping spot is actually just a parking spot at the base of the trailhead in the park, but it has a really cool view overlooking the mountains. The hike we did is called the Devil’s Hill, but we could only do half of it because we had to move that day. At the end we made it to this cool place where we dipped down into a little valley where we could get some shade and drink some water before we turned back to pack up the camper.
We are at Marfa for a one-night (but extended into two because of the weather. There isn’t much in Marfa, but there was a small downtown area where we went to the library to do some schoolwork and got some burritos. The library was one of the best of the trip. It had a great kids area that was sent up like a cafe and had a nice outdoor area to relax. Sadly though, we did not go outside much because of the wind and the blowing dust. It was 35 MPH with 50 MPH gusts! When we were watching some TV, the whole camper was shaking! But the reason we did not travel was because A, my parents did not want to drive our camper in that wind, and B, the next place we were going to (Guadalupe Mountains) had gusts up to 80 MPH! After the library, we went to the local burrito place called Marfa Burritos. My brother and I got quesadillas, and they were really good for not even serving them on the menu. I’d give it an 8.2/10. The best part was the homemade tortilla. After that, we had to stay in the camper because there was nothing in the town or the campground and we couldn’t even walk around outside because of all the thorns on the ground, my dad got one in his foot like 5 times, the rest of us thankfully did not.
West Texas, Del Rio, Marathon, and Big Bend National Park
From San Antonio, we drove to Lake in Del Rio, Texas. There is actually a military base there that my dad was at before when he was learning to fly airplanes. We did not do a lot because we were in the middle of nowhere, and it was really hot the days we were there. One good thing to keep cool was the big air trampoline park. They had basketball, slides, bull riding, trampolines, rock walls, and even zip lines! My favorite part was the slide. It was a 90-degree drop into a curve where you went flying and got “big air”. It was the best trampoline park I’ve ever been to, and it was so fun! Other than the park, we went to a short hike and got some really beautiful views of the lake.
Current leg: 157
Total miles: 6171
Next up was Marathon, Texas just north of Big Bend NP.
We are at Marathon RV park for a 3-day stay. There was not a lot in this town, but they had some local food we were going to check out. On the first night, we went to Ghostfire Pizza. It was the best pizza because of the perfect homemade dough and sauce! I ate 4 pieces, and after the owner said, “How do you like it so far?” I said that it was the best pizza I’ve ever had. After that, he offered to take Eli and me to the back to make some food for customers!!!! First when we got to the kitchen, we washed our hands and picked out the dough. After that we put a lot of cheese on it (because we were making a cheesy garlic bread) and put the garlic and olive oil on, then sent it to the bakers to cook it. It was really nice that he let us come into the kitchen and make orders for actual customers, and I think it was the best place we’ve eaten so far on the trip! And after we made the pizza he let us take some dough home to grow and use to make pizzas, we named him Gage, after the guy’s last name who let us cook. Marathon is right next to the border of Big Bend, so, of course we had to take a hike on one of the days. The hike we did was a place called Dog Canyon where we hiked across the desert until we went to the fun part, the canyon where we walked another mile to get to one of the biggest canyons I’ve ever seen! We took a quick break to get some snacks and then we walked back, it was really hot so we stayed inside for the rest of the day
Current leg: 164
Total Miles: 6335
Now on the Teralinga, Tx and Big Bend NP
One of our most highly anticipated national parks was one by the name of Big Bend, where they are known for their stunning deserts and gorgeous canyons. This makes it one of the prettiest parks in the nation, and we got to do 4 hikes for a three-day stay. The best part about this place was the Window Trail, which we did on the first day at Big Bend. The beginning of the trail slowly dips and goes below the valley, down rocks and rivers (dried up). The best part of the hike, though, was the window view at the end. You came up to it, and it was just this perfect cutout in the rock where you could see for miles ahead. We sadly couldn’t wake up at 4 a.m. to catch the sunrise at the window because our camper was a few miles away. After the window, we went to the visitor center and got our stamps and stickers for our National Park books. On day 2, we decided to go to the Santa Elena trail, the most famous in the park. We walked through this massive canyon beside the Rio Grande River until we got to a little part where we could dip our feet in, and it felt really nice after a long, hot hike up the canyon. Dad, Eli, and I waded into the river and touched the other side of the canyon, which was actually Mexico! Following our hike, we traveled along the beautiful route back to the campground, where we stopped to look at the iconic mule ears, a combination of two rocks perfectly shaped to resemble mule ears. On the third and final day, we ventured off to the fossil mine and nature trail. The trail was a short 2 miles where we hiked to the top of a cool rock mountain and got an unobstructed 360-degree view of Big Bend and even a little bit of Mexico! After the nature trail, we took a quick stop to get our stamps and then we rode in the car to the fossil discovery center inside of the park. They had a whole lot of exhibits, and we got to see some really cool fish skeletons.
Overall, I think Big Bend was one of our favorite parks, and we really enjoyed all of the hikes and cool things we learned.
