AdVANture Out West 2019

Ever since we bought our van, we have been anticipating our first long road trip out west. We finally set out April 1st and we were gone for 3.5 weeks, but somehow it didn’t feel long enough!

With our dogs, we were able to visit friends and family, national parks and forests, a few state parks all while doing it with the ease and comfort of our van.

Side of the road in New Mexico (attempting to get the dogs to go to the bathroom…) Classy, but hey, we got a cool shot 😉

The route we took wasn’t planned out prior to leaving, we just kind of went with the flow. We knew most of the places we wanted to visit, but nothing was set in stone or strategically planned. It’s our favorite way of exploring. Our route looked a little like this:

Our first stop of the trip was N a s h v i l l e, T N. We only walked around the main strip for about an hour or so, mostly because we had never been there and wanted to see what it was like. We quickly realized that we would need to come back for a weekend to fully experience its wonder and to see some amazing artists perform. Apparently, 11am isn’t a popular time for exploring or playing music in a bar!

Once we left Nashville, we headed to Ozark National Forest in Arkansas. We originally wanted to go here because we L O V E the show Ozark, but then come to find out that majority of the scenes weren’t even filmed in this forest. Ha! 

We, of course, did a couple hikes to our favorite sights (teal water and waterfalls). I didn’t expect the water in Arkansas to be THIS teal and THIS pure. The hikes were so incredible, although short and sweet, well not so sweet for Liz because she fell twice, but they were short nonetheless. I was milliseconds from getting one of her falls on video. Dang-nabbit. 😉 
Majority of the sights that we saw in Arkansas were down a super small and middle of nowhere road. If it would’ve been 20 degrees warmer, I would have 100% jumped in!

Oh yeah, see that photo of the cat in a tree? Well, we spooked him and in order for him to run back to his home, he had to run toward us…Liz thought that it was running AT US and she BOLTED to the van for safety! I haven’t laughed that hard in a long, long time. haha.

Our next big stop had us at White Sands National Monument, New Mexico; a repeat location that we felt that we didn’t fully experience 3 years ago on our first visit. The first time was very hot and it was hard to enjoy walking the dunes in the heat. This visit was much cooler and we went in the evening so it was breezy and comfortable. The dogs had a blast here and it took Zoey 7x too many to realize that the sand was in fact sand and not yummy snow. Poor thing! We explored for a few hours before we watched a glorious sunset over the San Andreas mountains. 

After a night here, we headed to Arizona to see Liz’s sister and brother-in-law. Before we got to their house, we stopped in Tucson to go on a hike where we were surrounded by these Saguaro cactuses. This was my first time seeing cactuses and I was loving them! They were huge, freakin’ cool, and I was in awe. I kept saying, “I can’t believe these exists!”.

Once we got to Kayla and Grant’s house, we noticed that Maddie had a tick on her face. So instead of an excited, haven’t seen you in so long reunion, we spent the first 30 minutes taking care of that. Ew. The next couple days we spent relaxing out by their pool, going to walks around the neighborhood and just catching up. It was so nice! A highlight of staying here was when their sprinkler system flooded their yard overnight and our van sunk about 7″ (all 4 tires sunk) into the wet grass/mud. We couldn’t get out whatsoever and thankfully Kayla knew someone who came to pull us out of the yard! That was fun. haha.

We left Arizona and headed to California to visit our friends, Terre, Derik annnnnd their new sweet baby girl, Harper. It was our first time meeting Harper, who was born in February, so we were really stoked to see her! She was as cute as ever, of course. I was basically obsessed with her the entire week, but it’s fine. 😉 Our time here was pretty relaxed and low-key, which was perfect! We did a couple hikes, went to Laguna Beach, got lots of baby lovin’ and were able to spend really good, quality time with some of our best friends. I couldn’t have asked for a better week together! We also took the pups to visit some Emu on a farm close by and they were not having it. Tbh, I was freaked out too. Birds are creepy!

Leaving here was hard for multiple reasons! (It’s hard to leave people that you wish you could spend everyday with!) We were going to miss these 3, and Chuck, like crazy, the weather was more than perfect every single day, our week was remarkably relaxing and enjoyable, and we were really going to miss Harper. Wait, I already said that…;) 

Before we headed to our next stop, we stopped to visit with one of our favorite duos, Desiree and Nelson. We stopped at a froyo place and chatted for a few hours. It was perfect. You know when you spend time with someone and you leave feeling grateful and fulfilled? Yeah, that’s how we feel every single time we leave these two. We are blessed with them!

After a solid nights sleep at a Walmart, we made it to Sequoia National Park. We went from 65 degree weather to 30 degrees and back to 65 degrees all in one day! It went from no snow whatsoever, to about 4 ft of snow in some areas and back to nothing again. Driving in the mountains is crazy! We saw one of the largest, living trees in the world, which was astonishing. Walking throughout the forest with these massive trees makes you realize how physically small we are in this world!

Having spent another fabulous nights sleep in a Walmart parking lot, the next morning we headed to Yosemite Valley. We had just recently watched the movies Free Solo and The Dawn Wall, so we couldn’t wait to see El Capitan and lay eyes on where these gutsy and talented people rock climb. We actually saw a few climbers (who we could only make out because of moving shadows) on the wall. That was awesome and terrifying at the same time!

Now, talk about something making you feel small in this world… Yosemite Valley is an exact illustration of just that. Mountains are bursting from the ground, waterfalls are pouring over cliffs, landscapes are vast…it’s unreal and seriously, overwhelming. It was crowded and busy when we visited, so we weren’t able to stay or explore as long as we wanted, but we are grateful that we were able to squeeze it into our trip! A tip if you plan on visiting the valley: Bring a bike or be prepared to walk a decent amount. Parking is limited so get there early if you want a spot!

Are you still with me? If you’re still reading this and looking at all of our photos, you’re a champ and I’m giving you a virtual hug right now! 

Our next stop was Lake Tahoe. I have always wanted to visit here since my parents vacationed here when I was younger and showed me such stunning photos. We didn’t get to do any hiking while we explored around the lake because it was still pretty snowy and with warm temperatures, it could have been dangerous. We were still able to drive around the entire lake and get some really incredibly rich shots of crystal clear, blue water with snowy mountains in the back. The sun was glistening off of everything. It was so spectacular to be able to experience this place. Lake Tahoe is definitely a place we want to go back to and camp for a while! Seeing amazing places like this in a day just isn’t enough. At the end of our day, we snagged a perfect sunset spot and it was b e a u t i f u l.

After multiple nights sleeping at luxurious Walmarts, we were ready to actually stay at a campground! We found this really cool place in Nevada called Rye Patch Dam Recreation Area. As we were getting close, from the highway it didn’t look like there was anything to be seen and we started to feel bummed that this place “wasn’t going to be that cool”…boy, were we wrong! The water was, you’ll never guess, TEAL and it was an awesome little campground tucked into a ravine. We got here around 10am so we set up camp and were able to explore all day long. Despite allllmost getting attacked by someone’s dog who was off a leash, we had a really great time. It was insanely peaceful here and not busy, whatsoever. Definitely a diamond in the rough and HIGHLY recommended!

Funny story, we were sitting at the top of a small mountain/hill and I saw something running up a path. From behind, it looked like a mini donkey! It had light colored fur and a dark tail. I had read that Nevada had wild donkeys, so I was stoked to see a mini/baby donkey! We sat and watched it from a distance, not fully being able to see it clearly. I kept saying, “I can’t believe we are going to see a baby donkey!” We were so excited and kept anticipating for it to come closer. Finally, it did come closer and we watched it zoom from one bush to another….you guys, it was a freakin’ Jack Rabbit. Hahaha! A Jack Rabbit. Here I was, exploding with joy because I thought I saw a baby donkey! To be fair, there WAS a donkey crossing sign right where we crossed the road. 😉

The next leg of the trip was through some upper parts of Utah. If you haven’t ever driven through this state, it is a must! The landscape is so diverse and exquisite. You can go from pine tree forests, to bright red rock/sandstone, to snowy mountains all within about 20 minutes. It’s really delightful! Our last hike of the trip was at a place called Fifth Water Hot Springs. It was a 5 mile round trip hike that took you to some of the hottest springs in the area and you can bet your bottom dollar the springs were supposed to be teal! That’s right, were supposed to be teal water, but of course it downpoured throughout majority of the hike so the actual river was brown and gross. Hot, but not the pretty color we set out to see! There was a small pool that was still green though. I couldn’t get a photo without the couple that was sitting in it, so I just snapped it anyway and it wasn’t awkward at all….

The poor dogs were miserable on this hike! It for real rained almost the entire time and poor little Maddie was cold, soaking wet and so tired. We felt terrible! Zoey didn’t really seem to care about anything at all (she never usually does), so she was still fairly happy as a clam. The last photo is of Zoey covered and getting warm in her bed under a towel after we got back and dried off! 🙂

We made it through the rainy and dreadfully cold hike and headed out to stay the night at Red Fleet State Park . We got there at dusk and there was only one other huge RV there for the night. We were excited to stay here because we were in “Dinosaur Land”. As we were driving, there were signs explaining what life was like in that specific area during dinosaur times. It was pretty neat! 

The next morning we headed to Dinosaur National Monument and I was probably way too excited to go there (being 30 years old), but holy crap was it fascinating! A little history of this place (if you’re a nerd like me), is that Earl Douglass was a paleontologist in the 1900’s who was exploring in the Utah desert and saw dinosaur tail bones protruding out of sandstone. They began their dig and found that there were 1,400 bones from many different dinosaurs. This large selection of fossils was due to a major flood that had washed away many dinosaurs, which explains why they found so many fossils in one place. Typically, they excavate a fossil in its entirety, but they decided to leave all of these fragments in place (since they were finding so many different fossils) and turn it into an exhibit. It’s one of the only places where visitors can actually touch the fossils! A lot of the skeletons they found were excavated and sent to dinosaur museums around the country. There are still places in the area where you can see faint footprints that were left in the sandstone/mud from over 150 million years ago. Fascinating, right?!

The last and final memorable part of the trip is when we saw a moose and elk on the side of the road! When I am driving, I probably (a million times over and over) tell Liz every time we pass a marshy, woodsy area to be on moose or elk lookout. When we saw the elk, they were right in front of us on the side of the road. We spooked them and they ran down a hill and then as I pulled over to get out and go see them (from a safe distance, don’t worry) they suddenly ran across the road a bit ahead of us! It was sweet! Liz was actually driving when we saw the moose and we were also in cow country, so I saw it last minute out of the corner of my eye and thought “is that a cow?….no…its a moose!!” I made her whip around and park on the side of the road so we could get some awesome photos. I felt like this moment just made our trip complete. I was on such a high for the rest of the night! This moment was followed by some sunsets that were on
f i r e!

This entire trip made me feel so fulfilled and energized. We spent time with people we love deeply, saw sights that we will never forget and spent quality time with each other and our dogs. I feel blessed to be able to take needed time away to explore and am already eager for another trip! 

If you made it this far, kudos to you and go take a nap because that was probably tiring…you deserve it! Thank you for reading and following our journey! We are grateful for you and this platform. 🙂

Oh, here is one of my favorite pictures of Zoey from the trip! Hahaha.