You saw how many National Parks?

Umm, on this trip, 11. That's right folks, 11. Not all of them are spend-the-day, or stay-a-week kind of parks. Some of them are Historic Sites, Recreation Areas or Monuments of some kind. But we are on a bucket list sort of a mission to see them all! It all began last summer when we watched the Ken Burn's documentary for PBS called America's Best Idea. It was so inspiring, and then we remembered that a few years earlier we had received National PArk Passports from Joey's mom and we looked at our upcoming trip to Kentucky and found 2 National Parks in the area we would be staying. Since then we spend vacations and weekends discovering parts of our country and it's history that we would have otherwise never experienced. On this trip, we hit Lake Meredith Recreation Area and Alibates Flint Quarry (highly recommend the quarry if you are ever near Amarillo with a couple hours to spare).

After a morning at Alibates we headed to New Mexico and stayed in Grants and have a new love-KOA. What a lifesaver after a horrible night of camping at the lake. In the morning, we headed to El Malpais (lava flows) and El Morro where early indians and settlers left their mark in the sandstone rock surrounding the waterhole (another little place I would heartily recommend if you have a couple of hours and you HAPPEN to be in NW New Mexico.

It was a pretty short drive from there to Petrified Forest National Park in AZ. You really need to see the painted desert. The colors Mother Nature creates in something as lasting as rock are amazingly beautiful. We went to as many sites in the park as we could and still get to Flagstaff before the swimming pool closed! We even got to stop in Holbrook and have dinner along the famed Route 66.

The next morning we went to Walnut Canyon, Sunset Crater, and Wupatki National Monuments. Walnut Canyon is the home of indians who lived in the sides of the canyon walls. It's a bit of a hike, but stunning. You can walk right into the rooms they built for their families and see where the soot still singes the rock from their cooking fires. Sunset Crater is gorgeous with a lovely hike that's almost eery as you walk through the lava rocks at the foot of the volcano. Wupatki is another indian village that had a ball court and a blow hole where you can sometimes hear the earth "breathe".

Next was the whole point of this adventure which was 7 days and 6 nights in Yosemite and Sequoia/King's Canyon National Parks. I have a special place in my heart for the spirit of Yosemite. I just felt so connected there, and I couldn't open my eyes big enough to take it all in. Some of the highlights were hiking the Mist Trail to Vernal Falls for which Joey awarded me the first of my hiking stick medals. Bronwyn was the only one to get to the top with me, but I had to carry her about halfway down. Another was waking up and seeing Half Dome every morning. I also saw a bear on our last morning there as I ran the bike trails near the village. That kind of freaked me out, but he didn't seem to bothered by the gawking tourist (me).

Sequoia found us in closer proximity to the rest of the family and more hikes. We drove through the famous tunnel log and hiked to Generals Sherman and Grant. Beautiful Crescent Meadow (the gem of the Sierras) brought a bear encounter for the rest of the family. Bronwyn and her Grandpa had a real close one which she likes to tell everyone about. In her version, the bear looked up, surprised and thought, "Is that one of my cubbies?" and then proceeded to let her pet them. Her Grandpa insists they backed up slowly until they couldn't see them anymore.

On the way home, we hit Petroglyph National Monument in Albuquerque. We hiked a couple trails, looking for signs of ancient indians and then we headed home! Joey is already planning our next adventure to coincide with my family's reunion in Cedar City next year!