Author: Van-Tramp

Westbound to Grand Junction 0

Westbound to Grand Junction

Once again I am heading West towards California. Nothing special, comparatively speaking, but a different route than the past few trips; back to the I-70 / Hwy-50 route so I can re-visit some places as well as visit Colorado National Monument for the first time. Today, I left home in...

Roosevelt National Forest, Hewlett Gulch Trail 0

Roosevelt National Forest, Hewlett Gulch Trail

Just up Highway 14, north of Fort Collins, is a hidden little gem of a trail. Hewlett Gulch is a 3 mile long, easy trail that runs along and crosses a stream multiple times, all while staying in a tight valley to maximize scenic value. It was very lush with...

Big Cat Wildlife Sanctuary 0

Big Cat Wildlife Sanctuary

We learned something new today, and that was that just down the road, less than 40 miles, is the oldest and largest nonprofit Sanctuary in the US dedicated exclusively to rescuing captive exotic and endangered large carnivores and it is open to the public! Even better, they are open until...

Rocky Mtn National Park, Kawunecche Valley 0

Rocky Mtn National Park, Kawunecche Valley

Since we were unable to do the road trip this past weekend, and I was all packed and itching, I went ahead and took a small one by myself to a part of the Rocky Mountain Ntnl Park that I had not visited before; the West side of the park...

Black Chasm National Landmark 0

Black Chasm National Landmark

Black Chasm is a natural underground cave located in Volcano California, only few minutes drive from where we are staying in California. Tim and I took a break from the afternoon heat (high 90’s today) to take the 45 minute guided tour in the 57 degree chasm. While Black Chasm...

Yosemite National Park, Mariposa Grove 0

Yosemite National Park, Mariposa Grove

We rolled out from just before 6am for the three hour driver into the park. When we arrived, all was looking good, though we were denied any camping spots (full + waiting list) that we were hoping to get for a single night. No big deal though… we figured it...

Bald Eagle sighting 0

Bald Eagle sighting

On our way out of town, heading West on Hygiene road at 45mph, a large brown and white figure at the top of a tree caught my eye from a couple hundred yards out. I was hoping that it may be a Bald Eagle, but I was not hopeful. As...

Fossil Butte Ntnl Monument 0

Fossil Butte Ntnl Monument

After an entire day of driving through two National Parks and hundreds of miles of lonely (but scenic) country roads, we ended up a few miles outside of Fossil Butte Ntnl Monument at the South-Western corner of Wyoming. This got us out of the foul weather, but no where near...

Into a snowy Yellowstone Ntnl Park 0

Into a snowy Yellowstone Ntnl Park

As we drove up and into the Flag Ranch area to find our Forest land camping area, we were greeted only with a road-closure sign which prevented us from going any further. This really threw a wrench in our plans and moved our entire trip forward a few days. We...