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I’m back!
We’ve been back home for more than a week now and it’s about time I publish a blog post about our national parks road trip, don’t you agree? I’ve been really busy catching up on work last week, which is why there wasn’t a post earlier.
I’m pretty much back on top of things now, though, so lots of new content will appear on the blog in the course of the following weeks. For now, let’s start with this bunch of national park road trip photos.
Most of the many hundreds of pictures that I took on our six-week road trip are processed and uploaded to my personal and stock portfolios. For this summarizing round-up post, I’ve selected my favorites. If you want to know where we went, you’ll find a summary at the bottom of this post.
Enjoy!
50 National Parks Road Trip Photos
1. Jumbo Rocks in Joshua Tree National Park, California
2. View from Double Arch, Arches National Park, Utah
3. Scorpion Anchorage on Santa Cruz Island, Channel Islands National Park, California
4. Sand boarding in Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado
5. Blue Mesa, Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona
6. Desert wildflowers in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California
7. Coyote in Death Valley National Park, California
8. Echo Canyon, Zion National Park, Utah
9. River Styx Spring Trail, Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky
10. Viewpoint in Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
11. Zabriskie Point, Death Valley National Park, California
12. Raven, Channel Islands National Park, California
13. Zion Canyon in Zion National Park, Utah
14. Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado
15. Dante’s View, Death Valley National Park, California
16. Thor’s Hammer in Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah
17. Route 66 in Southern California
18. Petrified wood in Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona
19. Sunset at Dante’s View, Death Valley National Park, California
20. Cliff dwelling in Cliff Canyon, Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado
21. Chimney Rock in Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
22. Humpback whale in Channel Islands National Park, California
23. Colorado Desert, Joshua Tree National Park, California
24. Cracked desert floor, Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona
25. Green River Overlook, Canyonlands National Park, Utah
26. Hot Water Cascade, Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas
27. Garden of Eden, Arches National Park, Utah
28. Camel statue in Borrego Springs, Anza-Borrego Desert, California
29. Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado
30. Cholla cactus, Joshua Tree National Park, California
31. Peek-A-Boo Trail, Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah
32. Road in Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona
33. Jumbo Rocks Campground, Joshua Tree National Park, California
34. Big Sur, Highway 1 in California
35. Bright Angel Trail, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
36. High Peaks Trail in Pinnacles National Park, California
37. Old Studebaker on Route 66, Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona
38. Grand Wash Trail in Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
39. Waterfall in Muir Woods National Monument, California
40. Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park, Utah
41. Campfire in Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado
42. Devil’s Golf Course, Death Valley National Park, California
43. Joshua Tree National Park, California
44. Bryce Amphitheater in Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah
45. Medano Creek, Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado
46. Landscape Arch in Arches National Park, Utah
47. Road in Death Valley, California
Road in Death Valley, California
48. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah
49. Camping in the Painted Desert, Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona
50. Plateau Point in Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
Road Trip Summary
Basically, we did an enormous clockwise loop around the southern United States, from Virginia to the Southern California desert parks and back. We drove through the following fifteen states: Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky. (This brings the number of states I’ve been to to 28.)
The main focus on this trip for me was visiting as many national parks as possible and doing at least one strenuous hike in each one—Caroline’s was attending two floral design workshops.
We ended up visiting fifteen different national parks: Hot Springs, Petrified Forest, Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree, Death Valley, Channel Islands, Pinnacles, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, Arches, Mesa Verde, Great Sand Dunes and Mammoth Cave. Additionally, I also spent time in California’s Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, and we drove through Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and visited Muir Woods National Monument near San Francisco. (I’ve now visited seventeen national parks in the United States. My goal is to get to twenty by the end of the year, a target that should be easily reached.)
This is just to say that it was a pretty epic road trip. Naturally, you can expect lots of blog post about this trip in the near future, so make sure to check the blog regularly.