Our Trips

Arizona
• Visited the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum a number of times, certainly the best tourist attraction in the Tucson area for my money.
• Hiked nearly every trail in Saguaro National Park East
• Backpacked for the weekend at Molino Basin Campground
• Visited the infamous Tombstone
  • Got to walk through the actual site of the OK Corral where the famous gunfight occurred between Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp, Virgil Earp, Morgan Earp, against Ike Clanton, Billy Clanton, Tom McLaury, Frank McLaury, and Billy Claiborne. Seeing the cramped quarters it's hard to imagine that the shootout lasted for 30 seconds.
• Visited Bisbee for some nice shopping and walking around the quaint town. We'll return for the mine tours and other attractions.
• Camped in Chiricahua National Monument
  • Volcanic eruption 27 Million years ago, 1000 times the size of the 1980 Mt. St. Helens' eruption, left interesting rock formations.
  • Monument is at meeting point of Sonoran Desert, Chihuahuan Desert, Southern Rocky Mountains, and Northern Sierra Madres.
  • Recognized as one of the premier plant and animal diversity sites in the Northern hemisphere.
  • Excellent hiking
• Hiked to Fort Bowie National Historical Site
  • Focal point for military operations for 30 years until the surrender of Geronimo here in 1886.
  • Nice 1.5 mile hike to the ruins
• Visited Tumacacori National Historical Park
  • Ruins of 3 ancient Spanish colonial missions.
  • Very nice self guided tour including the main Church built from 1800-1822 and abandoned in 1842.
•    Visited Tubac
  • Tubac Presidio State Park. Not too exciting, actually. They do have the actual printing press that printed the first AZ newspaper. A man was there who used to do typesetting and printing for a living back in the old days. He was very interesting to talk to.
  • Walked the Tubac shops, ate a nice lunch, had a relaxing day.
• Toured the Titan Missile Museum, a decommissioned ICBM silo near Tucson, AZ. Denise got to turn the key that would have launched the missile.
• Camped many time and hiked many peaks around the Coronado National Forest. Very nice diversity with elevations from 3000 ft to over 9000 ft.
• Had a picnic lunch and did the hike at Cochise Stronghold. Definitely recommended. Fairly easy hiking but very pretty.
• Visited Coronado National Memorial. Some very nice hiking, didn't go into the cave, maybe next time.
• Spent a few days around the Safford Ranger District of the Coronado National Forest. Did some nice hiking, the dog found a nice dead animal to rub her head in. Denise had to wash her a few times to clean her up.
• Went to the Quartzsite RV Show, the world's largest. Had fun, were the youngest people by far in the whole place.
• Hiked to Roger's Canyon cliff dwellings/ruins. Very nice, well preserved ruins. Got back to the truck not only in rain but it hail. What a long day.
• Hiked almost to Mt Wrightson (9453 ft), ran out of time. Really nice hike but we need to leave earlier in the morning next time.
• Trekked around the Wilcox Playa a bit. I wasn't too impressed but the dog had a lot of fun. To be honest I found it because it was windy and I saw a huge cloud of dust 15 miles away. I had to drive down and see what it was. Sort of neat I suppose.
• My mom and I visited Kitt Peak in March, 2005. Really impressive stuff, very pretty walking.

California
• San Diego (not a very good link)
• San Diego Zoo
• Carlsbad, they had hotel rooms when we showed up, nice walk to the beach with a Starbucks on the way
• Old Town San Diego State Historic Park

Maryland Trips
• Baltimore Aquarium, a very nice aquarium
• Annapolis, spent a nice day exploring a nice town. Home of the US Naval Academy
• Ocean City beach, with its boardwalk. Really enjoyed a nice day or so walking around.

North Carolina
• Asheville Zoo, quite a nice zoo. Large fields where animals roam in herds, a fun trip.
• Kitty Hawk, home of the famous Wright Brothers' flight.
• Cape Hatteras National Park, where we stayed at the Cape Hatteras KOA.
• Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
• Bode Island Lighthouse
• Ocracoke Lighthouse

Oklahoma
• Tulsa (not a very good link), Big city, ate some good food, had some fun with our friends, Brett and Michele
• J. M. Davis Arms Museum, without a doubt the most impressive gun collection I've heard of. Also contains some extremely rare mounts of eagles and other now endangered animals. Has several guns that belonged to famous Old West outlaws, even the nooses and hoods worn by several famous people who were hung.
• Pensacola Dam
• Grand Lake O' the Cherokees, where we stayed many weekends with Brett and Michele at Roger's Cabins

Colorado
• Hiked to Echo Lake, a nice hike, a peaceful lake, although really windy the day we went.
• Visited the city of Denver

Northwest US
• Trip to the West #1
  • Flew into Portland, OR
  • 1 day Mount St. Helens
  • 3 days along the Oregon Coast
    • Saw Umpqua River Lighthouse
    • Saw Heceta Head Lighthouse
    • Saw Yaquina Head Lighthouse
    • Saw Cape Meares Lighthouse
  • 1 day Crater Lake National Park
  • 1 day Bend Oregon (lava tube caves, lava butte, 3 sisters)
  • 1 day Columbia River Gorge (lots of waterfalls)
  • 1.5 days Mount Ranier National Park
• Trip to the West #2
  • Flew into Idaho Springs
  • Toured EBR-1, the first nuclear reactor
  • Hiked part way up Bora Peak (started too late to get to the peak)
  • 3 days in Glacier National Park
  • 1.5 days in Yellowstone National Park
  • 1 day in Cody, WY
  • Drove the John D. Rockefeller Parkway
  • 2 days in Teton National Park
• Visited Capulin Volcano National Monument
  • Volcanic eruption
• Biked from just East of Seattle to the Columbia river. My brother Eric and I did a few days on mountain bikes. What a great trail to ride, what a blast. Look here for pictures.

Virginia Trips
• Hiked 120 miles of the Appalachian Trail in Southwest VA
• Visited Colonial Williamsburg
  • Contains a wealth of historic sites including the first VA Governer's Palace, an amazing site.
  • Has people in period dress demonstrating various trades of the time.
• Monticello, Thomas Jeffersons Home in Virginia, nice tour and exhibits.
• Peaks of Otter, Several hiking and camping trips were here.
• Hungry Mother State Park, Slept/froze on the snow, nice hiking, three trips to Walmart for supplies.
• Mountain Lake Resort, where we got married. One of only 2 natural lakes in Virginia.
• The Cascades, a nice hike not far from where we went to college, Virginia Tech.
• The famous Roanoke Star.
• Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. I suppose it's nice to note we drove it, for what that's worth.
• Virginia Beach, got lost in an undesirable part of town, found our way to safety camping near the beach.
• Blue Ridge Parkway, we've driven every mile of it in Virginia
• Skyline Drive, we've driven every mile of this, too

Washington, D.C.
• Washington D.C., speaks for itself. Museums, theater, you name it.
• And, of course, Tyson's Corner. Seemed unbelievably huge until we moved to Dallas.

Upcoming Trips, we need to get busy:

• Way cool bike tour from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon to Zion National Park end of May 2005. We're planning for a week on our bikes. I'm already very excited and starting to gear up and it's only March 2005!
• Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument
• Casa Grande Ruins National Monument
• Tonto National Memorial
• Montezuma Castle National Monument
• Tuzigoot National Monument
• Walnut Canyon National Monument
• Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument
• Petrified Forest National Park
• Wupatki National Monument
• Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site
• Canyon de Chelly National Monument
• Navajo National Monument
• Grand Canyon National Park
• Lake Mead National Recreation Area
• Rainbow Bridge National Monument
• Pipe Spring National Monuument
• Carlsbad Caverns National Park
• Joshua Tree National Park
• Cabrillo National Monument
• Zion National Park
• Bryce Canyon National Park
• Arches National Park
• Capitol Reef National Park