2026 Snowbird Trip
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Death Valley National Park — Day 1
Zabriskie Point Our first stop in the park was Zabriskie Point. This is a popular tourist stop and has a big wow factor. It was a good introduction to what the park had in store for us. Texas Springs Campground The next order of business was to find a place to camp for the night…
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Death Valley National Park — Day 2
Sadly, there are high wind warnings starting later today, so we must bid goodbye to Death Valley sooner than we would like. We’ll definitely have to come back since we haven’t checked out the west side of the park yet, plus there are more hikes we want to tackle. On our way out, we made…
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Viva Las Vegas!
Las Vegas. Home of over 160 casinos, 2,500+ restaurants, nearly 40 museums, and hundreds of shows. So, what’s the first thing that we do upon rolling into sin city? That’s right. We find a strip mall with a hair salon so Lisa can get her hair trimmed. Just another not so glamorous part of van…
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A Long Dam Train Trail Bridge Hike
One day on the Las Vegas strip was enough for us. We needed another hike! We left the Vegas KOA for a day trip out to Lake Mead to walk the Historic Train Trail that sits within the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. Lisa had read about this trail online. She told me it had…
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Valley of Fire State Park — Day 1
As we approached the gate of the Valley of Fire State Park, it was clear that this is a popular spot. We joined a line of about 20 cars at the west entrance, and the line stayed about that long as people were issued their passes. The scenery is amazing, beautiful, gorgeous, sublime, etc. Words…
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Valley of Fire State Park — Day 2
Most of the hikes in the Valley of Fire are short, so this allows visitors to see several different rock formations in a day’s visit. There are two main roads in the park with several places to stop on each one. Some stops are photo opportunities and some are hikes as well. Fire Wave &…
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From the Valley of Fire to a Winery
Can’t say enough good things about the Valley of Fire State Park as we leave it behind. Before we do though, we had a couple of more hikes to do as well as a few more stops to see the remaining points of interests. Petroglyphs Seven Sisters Lone Rock and CCC-built Cabins Clark Memorial Elephant…
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Walnut Canyon National Monument
Walnut Canyon is home to cliff dwellings along the canyon walls and pit houses along the rim that were built by one clan of ancestral people to the Hopi tribe. This canyon was occupied from 1125 to 1250, at which point the people moved away and assimilated into Hopi culture. The Hopi have migration stories…
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Grand Canyon National Park
Lisa and I hit up the Grand Canyon for the first time back in June 2017. We were in a rental car from Tucson then. This time, though, we rolled in with Usain. The Grand Canyon wasn’t even on our radar for this snowbird trip (not that we really had an itinerary) since it’s usually…
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Sunset Crater National Monument
Sunset Crater is the remains of a cinder cone volcano that erupted over 900 years ago. Every “mountain” in this area is really a volcano. This type of volcano typically erupts once and the cinders and ash pile up around the vent to form the cone. Sunset Crater was a primary vent among smaller ones,…