After returning from Burundi, we spent a couple days in Arizona, then eagerly set out on our next adventure- a roadtrip through the Southwest. I grew up in Arizona, but have only scratched the surface of all there is to explore. William was equally as excited to spend some time in the desert. We hooked up BB and started driving west. Our first stop was Death Valley National Park. We were both blown away by the variety of landscapes and terrain. It feels like another world.
We drove to Badwater Basin, the lowest point in the US at 282 ft below sea level. Badwater Basin is typically a salt flat, but there was record rainfall in Death Valley several months ago, which caused massive flooding and a lake to form. The lake has persisted over the months, and we got to see this rare sight!
Next, we drove to Utah and visited Zion National Park. Zion is one of the most visited national parks, and typically has a reservation system and a required shuttle to reduce traffic. However, this closes for a few months in winter, and we had no problem taking BB through the canyon. We did a few hikes in the canyon, but our favorite was the overlook trail, where we got to look down into the park from the east side.
The next day, we drove to Bryce Canyon National Park. There was snow on the ground, and we did some hiking in the canyon and then took the scenic drive.
Later that day, we drove to Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument and did a slot canyon hike. Since we weren't in a national park, Hazel was allowed to go! Most of the creek in the canyon had frozen, so we had a ton of fun throwing rocks for her and watching her slide on the ice.
Next, we drove to Capitol Reef National Park. It's named because early explorers found the immense rock formations a barrier to travel, similar to a reef for sailors.
We did a few short hikes here, then continued east towards Moab.
Hazel enjoying our spot where we stayed that night.
Next up was Canyonlands National Park, which was incredible. We only had time to check out one area of the park, called 'Island in the Sky' because it sits perched above the rest of the landscape. The views were stunning.
We drove the short distance to Arches National Park, where we hiked to the famous 'Delicate Arch', which was massive. That's us standing underneath!
We then drove out of the National Park to nearby state land, where we could take Hazel with us. We hiked to Corona Arch, which was close to the Colorado River. Hazel absolutely loved running around on the rocks!
After exploring a bit of Moab (we could have easily spent a week there), we headed south to New Mexico. After a long drive, which we split into two days, we arrive in White Sands National Park. The big dunes are made out of gypsum, and it feels like soft, powdery sand. This is one of the few national parks that allows dogs, and we had a blast hiking with Hazel. Sledding is one of the main activities at White Sands, so we bought a sled and raced Hazel down the dunes.
William tried to put Hazel on the sled, but she was NOT having it.
Our next stop was Carlsbad Cavern in southern New Mexico. This was absolutely incredible. The sheer size of the cave was overwhelming. The stalagmites & stalagtites were massive. The intricate formations were stunning. The pictures do not do it justice!
Afterwards, we drove 45 minutes to Guadalupe Mountains National Park, located in Texas. Carlsbad Caverns is actually a part of the Guadalupe Mountains range. After seeing the incredible cave, Guadalupe Mountains was a little disappointing. It was beautiful, but nothing really special. However, we had limited time and only did a four mile hike. The tallest mountain in Texas is located in the park, and I'm sure there are incredible views if we had hiked it.
We continued south to Big Bend National Park, which is a massive park on the US-Mexico border. We really enjoyed the hikes we did and we wish we had more time to spend. We did an awesome hike in the mountains where we could look over the scenery. It was a bit cloudy and windy, but still really beautiful. We took a scenic drive to St Elena canyon and did a two mile hike into the canyon, next to the Rio Grande.
Hazel enjoying the scenery.
We saw a roadrunner!
We had another long drive ahead of us, and split it into two days. We took some time in Tucson, Arizona to visit Saguaro National Park. Although I lived in Tucson for four years, I hadn't visited the East side of the park, and it was really nice.
We finished our drive back to Prescott and had about 36 hours before we flew to Alaska for my locums assignment.
We had an amazing time on our Southwest road trip. We visited ten parks and drove close to 3000 miles!
William's favorite parks were Carlsbad Caverns and Canyonlands. I also liked Canyonlands and Big Bend. I would definitely go back to both of these to spend more time there!
We've definitely both enjoyed our trailer travels this year. There were many moments during the building process that we questioned our sanity and wondered if it would ever work. To our delight (and surprise), BB has done amazing through the thousands of miles. The solar works so well that we have never had to plug her in for electricity. Our 125 gallon water tank lasts about a week with liberal water use (hot showers every night!). The minisplit heats the trailer so well that we stayed comfortable, even when it was 15 degrees in Moab. I am so impressed that William designed this trailer from scratch (he did all the real work, I was the assistant) and it has been an amazing home for us in these nomadic months. These are the national parks we have visited since we started our road trip in August:
Badlands
Wind Cave
Glacier
Sequoia
Kings Canyon
Yosemite
Lassen Volcanic Crater Lake
Redwoods
Pinnacles
Channel Islands
Joshua Tree
Death Valley
Zion
Bryce Canyon
Capitol Reef
Arches
Canyonlands
White Sands
Carlsbad Caverns
Guadalupe Mountains
Big Bend
And the Alaskan national parks that we visited in our trip in September:
Glacier Bay
Denali
Wrangell St Elias
Kenai Fjords
Lake Clark
Checking off national parks has been really fun to do together. It started when we were dating. We visited Congaree in SC, then Acadia in Maine. For our first wedding anniversary, we drove up to New River Gorge in West Virigina on our way to visit friends in Pittsburgh. After I finished residency, we took a trip to the Pacific Northwest and visited Mt Rainier, Olympic, and North Cascades parks. Since then, it has kind of snowballed. I can't wait for our future trips!
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