Moab, Utah!!

I know a lot of people saw that we were in Colorado and thought that was it, but actually we were making just a couple of quick stops.

We left Nederland, CO. on July 25th and drove west to Moab, Utah. We are going to be staying here with Jeremiah's Dad for about a month. We will still be doing some traveling, but finally we will be in only one car (very exciting for us)!! So keep checking in for some more of our adventures!!

Our Visit with Molly & Scott in Nederland

We arrived in Nederland Wednesday the 19th of July. Our first few days in Nederland we just relaxed and pretty much did nothing except enjoy the cool mountain temperatures!! Then on Saturday Miah and Scott went mountain biking while Molly and a couple of her friends took me for a hike. We started at the Fourth of July Trailhead and hiked up to Lake Dorothy at about 12,000ft - above the tree line. My highest elevation while hikinG!! There was still some snow up there and when we made it to the lake I had to put on a long sleeve shirt! Unfortunately no pictures from their bike ride, but here are some from my hike.

The Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado!!

Theses Dunes are HUGE compared to the ones we hiked at White Sands in New Mexico. Unfortunately I wasn't feeling 100% so we didn't do as much hiking there as we would have liked to. Luckily once we are out here fo a LONG WHILE and will have plenty of oppertunities to go back!!

Carlsbad Caverons National Park, New Mexico

Carlsbad Canyons were one of the coolest places we have gone the cave is huge! The big room is filled with all kinds of crazy formations. We both reccomend checking this National Park out if you ever have the chance!!

Sitting Bull Falls

The falls were look extremely small, but they privided enough water for people to swim around and cool off. We had planned to camp in the National Forest, but it seemed kind of shady, b/c there were a lot of people hanging around so we headed back to Texas and camped out in Gaudalupe National Park.

White Sands National Monument, New Mexico

White Sands National Monument is very cool. We did a small hike in the morning while it was still pretty cool out. It only took us a morning to hike the dunes so after that we headed to Sitting Bulls Falls in the Lincoln National Forest.

The Last of the Big Bend Pictures!!

These are the pictures of the view from our Lost Mine Hike, and the Hot Springs with the Rio Grande River in the background, and of course the Pirate Flag at the Chisos Basin!!

More Pictures of Santa Elena Canyon Trip

Big Bend - Trip to Santa Elena Canyon

Big Bend National Park ~~ The Window

Sorry everyone that it has been like forever, but here are the pictures finally for Big Bend! Enjoy!!

Colorado!!!

On the 18th we arrived at the Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve!! These dunes are much, much larger than White Sands. We hiked along the dunes for about 3 miles and then crossed over the creek and hiked a mile up a STEEP dune. Unfortunately there were some storm clouds and thunder moving in so we decided to get off the dunes and just camp in Indian Grove, a back country campground right next to the dunes. Then today, that's right this is finally up to date, we hiked up the first couple of dunes.

Now we are hanging out in Nederland with Scottie and Molly. It is nice and cool here in the mountains so we are going to hang out here for a few days before we head back into the heat and make our way to Moab, Utah.

Well that is all for now...we will get those pictures to you soon hopefully!!

New Mexico!

Our first stop, July 16th, in Mexico was White Sands National Monument, but due to a lightening storm we headed 24 miles past and camped out at Oliver Lee Memorial State Park.

Then on the 17th we got to go to White Sands and do a 4.6 mile hike through the dunes. Although the sand was wet and easy to hike through the sun was hot, so we headed to Sitting Bull Falls in the Lincoln National Forest. The Falls were smal but there was enough water to swim around a bit and cool down. We ended the night in Guadalupe National Park (Back in Texas) where we camped out.

On the 18th we crosed the border again and entered New Mexico again and headed to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. The caverns were amazing and considering that it is only 56 degrees in there it was an awesome break from the 103 degrees outside! Unfortunately most of our pictures from the caverns didn't come out, but we did get one of the "Three Giants" which were three really cool stalagmites in the Big Room of the Cavern.

Big Bend Continued

We are having some trouble uploading the pictures so as soon as possible we will get them to you, but in the mean time here is the rest of our trip in Big Bend...

On the 14th we hiked the Lost Mine trail. It would have been an easy hike,but it was so hot that the glue holding Jeremiah's boots together melted and the soles of his boots came off!! It made for an interesting hike back down the mountain.

Then we drove to Rio Grande village and walked back to the Hot Springs. The water was 105 degrees, believe it or not that was cooler than the air's temp.

Big Bend National Park

Okay it has been a while, but we finally have the internet. We have been pretty busy so Ryan and Fred better get a bunch a push pins ready!!

Okay we left San Antonio and headed to Big Bend National Park. It was so awesome!! We got there on the 12th and set up camp at Chisos Basin. The following day we did a short hike to "The Window". Then we took a drive to Santa Elena Canyon to check out the Rio Grande River. Okay we have lots of pictures from our first two days so I'll continue Big Bend in my next posting.

The Alamo!!!

The Alamo was really cool! We walked around and saw the only two buildings that are left of the Alamo as well as the gardens which are really nice! Then we heard the story of the Alamo battle and how Texas was an Individual Territory. Then we walked along the River Walk for a bit (also very nice). We were surprised that the Alamo was right in the middle of the city, but we didn't mind because the city of San Antonio is so clean. Well tonight we are going out to celebrate Jeremiah's B-Day! So hopefully we will have some fun pictures for you next time we update this!!

On to the Lone Star State (7-10-06)

Our first stop in Texas was the Welcome Center on Interstate 10, which was at the Blue Elbow Swamp. It was a really neat stop b/c there was a little walkway over part of the swamp. There were lots of turtles, giant grasshoppers, and a frog (Blahh!)
Afterwards we made it to the Roadway Inn right out side of San Antonio. Tomorrow the Alamo and Jeremiah's B-Day!!!!

New Orleans

July 8th we went to Bourbon Street where we both agreed that the cheap "huge ass" beers and some of the bars were really cool. We both had a good time despite the disgusting smell, the cockroaches everywhere and the lack of Blues and Jazz Bands.

Sunday we stayed in the air conditioning of the hostel where we recovered from our night on Bourbon St. (Especially me!) and watched Italy win the World Cup!! Then we walked around the French Quarter on Decatur Street. There we saw Jackson Square and a whole lot more cockroaches. All together our opinion of New Orleans was rather disappointing. It was way too dirty and the smell of Bourbon Street was sickening. So far this was our least favorate stop.