Quack Pack 2

On Saturday we were able to get another campsite in our same campground and then headed back down to Panther Junction. We were hoping to start the day by catching the park film, usually one of our favorite parts of the parks, but unfortunately the theater was broken and we were never able to see this one. Instead we continued on with our day, heading down to the Rio Grande Village section of the park. After taking advantage of their laundry facilities we went on two relatively short hikes. The first one was a nature trail just off of the campground. This hike was only a 3/4 of a mile, and it went out over some ponds and then up a small hill on a peninsula sticking out into the Rio Grande. It was a lovely. We saw lots of wildlife, ranging from road runners to beautiful fish and turtles in the ponds.    The hike did show us how surprisingly small the Rio Grande really is.  So small in fact that Entrepreneurs from Mexico regularly ride their horses across the river, leaving ...

We were super excited to hit Big Bend National Park for a couple of reasons. First, it is the first park we got to in the Southwest, which is the hotbed of national parks. We've finally hit the part of our trip where we'll really be seeing a ton of national parks. Second, it was the first truly scenic park we've seen in a while. And it was great to see some real mountains! The park can be broken down into three main section, the Rio Grand region in the east, the Chisos Basin in the center, and the Ross Maxwell scenic drive. Really there is enough to explore in each of those areas to spend multiple days but we gave each area one day, and we'll brake the blog into three post, one for each of those days. Official NPS Map . Click and zoom in to enlarge for details.  We entered the park from the North and hit the Persimmon Gap Visitor Center first (red arrow on map). There wasn't much at the visitor but we did ask the ranger if there was anything we should see on our way...

We started out the week near Memphis desperate for showers. Luckily for us, February 9th was National Pizza and Bagel day and Planet Fitness was inviting anyone to work out at their gyms and get free bagels in the morning and pizza in the evening. We took full advantage of both times, getting two free workouts, bagels, pizza and WiFi to watch the Ducks get their revenge against Arizona State. From Memphis, we drove to Little Rock, Arkansas, where we took advantage of free scavenger hunt tickets we received though the Let's Roam app we used in Austin . We walked all around the town, seeing sights and learning a bit about Little Rock history. Little Rock Capitol Building We ended the day in Hot Springs, AR. There we visited Hot Springs National Park . It got a bit cold that night and made for a really cool looking fountain at the park. After visiting our 11th National Park, we headed west towards Oklahoma City to try and catch up with a friend of Kathleen's from the Peace Corps. ...

Hot Springs was yet another national park where we had absolutely no idea what to expect, which always makes for a nice treat. Until the Gateway Arch in St. Louis became a national park in February of 2018, Hot Springs was the smallest of the national parks. It has a long history and is the oldest "entity" in the system, having become a "Reservation" in 1832.  Part of becoming a reservation was the agreement that they would always offer free water to the public, so there are fountains all over offering fresh, warm spring water. The national park is formed around a collection of upwellings of a natural hot spring. The water comes to the surface with an average temperature of 143º F. People have been coming to the hot springs for bathing and rituals for as long as there have been people in the area. The Dunbar-Hunter Expedition "discovered" the hot springs for the United states in 1804 while they were exploring the new Louisiana purchase. Almost immediately ...

Wow, its already been six months since we left Bellevue, and what a six months it has been! In Review We started out by heading north, driving through the heart of British Columbia , up the Cassiar Highway into the Yukon Territories . We did the whole circuit of paved roads in Alaska , from Fairbanks , to Anchorage , via Denali National Park . Next we headed down the Kenai Peninsula , and Kenai Fjords National Park, then over to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Valdez, before heading back out the Alcan Border. We took a short detour down into Skagway on our way back through the Yukon before returning down the Cassiar Highway. We stuck to the coast on the way down, taking a ferry from Prince Rupert down to Vancouver island, returning home for a short time before continuing on. In Oregon, we attended a wedding and then quickly headed east to catch another wedding in Washington, D.C. two weeks later. We took almost the most direct route through Idaho , Wyoming , and Nebraska befor...

On Sunday we wrapped up Great Smoky National Park  and drove towards Knoxville to get another oil change. Monday was mostly a driving day with a stop for a great hike at the Twin Arches . We also wanted to make sure we ended the day somewhere we could catch the Ducks take on UConn in the evening. We tried an Applebees but they didn't have ESPN, so we ended up at a sports bar called Sidelines. We met a bar tender from Seattle who spent time living in Portland. We wanted to talk with her about how she ended up in Kentucky but didn't get a chance. It was a great game, with the Ducks making a statement win, handing UConn its worst loss in their current arena. In trying to keep up with our schedule of being up to date with blogs before we go into the next national park we spent all of Tuesday at the library, before going into Mammoth Cave National Park for Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday we woke up to a snow! It can get cold in the RV when the weather is bad because our heater doe...