
Rocky Mountain National Park (5)
Temperature: not sure, but definitely cold enough to snow Visit Date: May 29 Partner in Crime: Kim Thomas Route taken: Estes Park to Grand Lake over Trail Ridge Road, then back to Estes Park via the Fall River Visitor Center Kim is a recent transplant to Colorado from Charlotte, North Carolina. We planned to go to Rocky Mountain National Park, hoping that the rangers are able to clear Trail Ridge Road early enough that I can show it to her. It opened the day before, but tenta

Carlsbad Caverns National Park (4)
Carlsbad Caverns is rather indescribable. Jaren and I decided to take the natural entrance hike in, and the elevator back up. Instead of trying to adequately describe the caverns, I'll just post a gallery here for your viewing pleasure. The Caverns were cool enough to require a layer heavier than just a sweatshirt, which was interesting given that it was over 100 degrees above the surface. There was a fair amount of moisture in the air, and being so dimly lit, the caverns

Big Bend National Park (3)
Side note: I will post a gallery since I found so many phenomenal photos of Big Bend- check back to see more! My friend Jaren and I left El Paso for Big Bend National Park Friday morning. Mental note: this park is remote, so if you have less than ½ a tank of gas, and you see a gas station, fill up! The weather was beautiful- warm, but not unexpected for mid-May in southern Texas. After hours of travel across flat, tree-less plains of Texas, I was starting to feel incredulous

Guadalupe Mountains National Park (2)
My friend Jaren and I headed down to Guadalupe this morning. I had checked last night, and while there was a fire, inciweb had reported it 30% contained two days ago. I couldn't find a current report, but the NPS website showed that three hiking trails were still open. Mental Note: Be sure to check conditions before you go... just in case of another lightning strike forest fire. The firefighting helicopter flew over us as we pulled up en route to fill up its water buckets. Th