Category: Pacific Southwest
California Idaho Montana Mountain West Pacific Northwest Pacific Southwest South Central Texas Trip Planning WyomingTrip planning: Northern Rockies, California in the fall: What’s open in the national parks?
This planning post was for what ended up being Big Trip #3 in fall of 2020! UPDATE! Here are the places we ended up visiting on this trip: Big Trip #3 Catch-up #1 Big Trip #3 Catch-up #2 Big Trip #3 Catch-up #3 and the retrospective post! If you look at our maps, you may…
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Tarantulas!
All through my formative years, my aunt and uncle had a pet tarantula. A strange choice of pet, no doubt, but Uncle Jim loves the Desert Southwest more than just about anyone else I know, so I guess it made an odd sort of sense. My first tarantula-cousin was a male named Fred who came…
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Four days in Tucson, AZ (visit #1)–Big Trip #2
We were in Tucson at the very end of November 2018, as part of Big Trip #2. Read about our second visit in 2021 here, our third in 2022 here, and our fourth (and fifth?) in 2023/4 here. And I finally wrote a Tucson Favorites post! J and I have a past relationship with Tucson:…
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Saguaro National Park
We visited Saguaro National Park in November 2018 while staying in Tucson during Big Trip #2. Close your eyes and picture a cactus standing in the desert. I’m going to guess your imaginary cactus friend is a saguaro! Am I right? Saguaro (pronounced “sah-WAR-oh”) cacti, standing tall with cartoon arms, are all over pop culture,…
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Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument
We visited Organ Pipe in November 2018, during Big Trip #2. This magical land of desert delights is an International Biosphere Reserve, home to virtually all the organ pipe cacti in the US. The organ pipe cactus, with is cluster of upright stems growing from a single low trunk, is named for its resemblance to…
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Joshua Tree National Park
We visited Joshua Tree in November 2018, during Big Trip #2. We finally got to California in the Airstream! Bugsy got a new state! (She’s up to 36 now!) For some reason–ignorance, I guess–we weren’t sure if Joshua Tree was worth rearranging our schedule and driving many extra hours to visit. The answer is yes.…
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Four days in Flagstaff, AZ (visit #2)
We visited Flagstaff in late November 2018, as part of Big Trip #2. Read about our first visit in 2016 here during Big Trip #1, and our third in 2023 here during our Tucson for Christmas trip. Flagstaff was one of our favorite cities on Big Trip #1, and we were excited to return for…
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Grand Canyon National Park – South Rim
[FOR GRAND CANYON NORTH RIM, SEE HERE!] [This is the original GCNP post from Big Trip #1 in 2016, updated with details from our 2018 visit on Big Trip #2.] If you’re planning a visit to the Grand Canyon, GET THERE EARLY! Even in late March and mid-November, outside tourist season, the park got crowded quickly.…
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Grand Canyon North Rim
We visited the North Rim in October 2018, as part of Big Trip #2. The North Rim of the Grand Canyon is visited by only 10% of all Grand Canyon visitors. It’s a 24-mile hike across rim-to-rim, but driving from the South Rim Visitor Center to the North Rim Visitor Center it’s 212 miles! We…
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Great Basin National Park
We visited Great Basin in October 2018 as part of Big Trip #2. Great Basin National Park is one of the least visited National Parks in the entire system. Sure, it’s a million miles from nowhere (but really, not far from Las Vegas or Salt Lake City), but the remoteness means no crowds. Seriously, the road…
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