05.28.2011

Halley's Hole
Day two at Jacobs Mountain Preserve. Brad finds it hard to leave the luxury of his bed.

And Aaron and Chris get distracted easily during breakfast.
Halley's Hole

Williams Saltpeter Cave
Brad stands at the bottom of Halley’s Hole, a 174-footer.

Williams Saltpeter Cave
Aaron lights up the bottom of Williams Saltpeter Cave (140 foot rappel).

07.08.2010

070810 Campground Panorama
So we found our campsite by a tiny little sign on the side of the road, in the dark. We were tired after a day of the desert sun, made camp quickly and passed out. Unaware of our surroundings in the night, we awoke to this sight. A mere 10 feet away from the tent and we could have walked off the top to the valley below.

We made our way to Santa Fe, on a gravel backroad that sometimes acted like it was going to consume my Nissan in the +foot-high depths. We drove thru the Valles Caldera National Preserve and into the back door of the famous Los Alamos. In Santa Fe, we found a local restaurant to taste the local flair and plan our attack. Chris and I both had to be back at work Monday. It was Thursday afternoon. We said “screw it” and decided to drive the entire 24-hour ride back home without stopping. It hurt us to be in Tennessee, driving by all these great caves, without stopping!

07.03.2010

Sequoia National Forest
Getting breakfast ready at our campsite in Sequoia National Forest. Unfortunately, our laundry didn’t dry much during the night.

Trail of 100 Giants
So we hiked the Trail of 100 Giants in Sequoia National Forest. And this is me standing next to one of these babies . . . she’s a bit big!

Valley of Fire
And we made it to one of my favorite places to camp — the Valley of Fire in Nevada!
We put out or wet laundry and go figure . . . it was dry in 20 minutes!

06.25.2010

Colorado River Campsite
We checked for an open campsite for the night at Arches . . . they didn’t have one. So we found this outside the park along the Colorado River. Yeah, there were a lot of mosquitos.

But we were camped right next to some awesome petroglyphs!
Colorado Petroglyphs

Arches National Park, Day II
Arches National Park
Chris and I spent the entire day hiking the rest of the trails in the park to see all the obscure arches in Arches National Park. Above is me standing in an unnamed arch we found while hiking to Sand Dune Arch.

Arches National Park
Some pretty rippled sand.

Arches National Park
A portait of the two of us at Broken Arch.

Arches National Park
Me being a goober while hiking to Double O Arch.

06.23.2010

White River Camping
Waking up in the morning at our beautiful campsite an Aspen grove in White River National Forest, elevation about 10,000 feet. The plan . . . to spend several days up at high elevation — sleeping, hiking, caving — to get acclimated to it. So when we arrive in Yosemite, at 7,500 feet, it won’t kick our asses nearly as bad.

Our view from a day hike.
White River Camping

And then we got to go caving again with Ken Headrick. He meet up with us after work and took us into Groaning Cave, Colorado’s longest cave at 10 miles, for a short 2.5-hour trip.
Groaning Cave

Groaning Cave
Another photo of Ken.

And the sexy entrance!!
Groaning Cave

08.01.2009

080109 Motorcycle03
Chris and I on a motorcycle trip into West Virginia with Greg and Lauren McCoy and Janet and Rex Tinkham. Group pic taken from the Germany Valley lookout spot.

080109 Motorcycle23
I found a mushroom at our camp site!

080109 Motorcycle27
At Bear Heaven Campground in the National Forest.

080109 Motorcycle29
Rex and Lauren pick out a hike in the Otter Creek Wilderness.

04.12.2009

041209 Assateague Island Chris Sunrise
Sunrise at Assateague Island National Seashore during a weekend adventure to the seashore.

041209 Assateague Island Sunrise Seagulls
Seagulls during sunrise.

04/12/09-(Assateague Island) Assateague Island National Seashore. (Nikki Fox)
An old road taken back by the sands.

Assateague Island National Seashore
A tiny jellyfish on the shore.

04/12/09-(Assateague Island) Assateague Island National Seashore. (Nikki Fox)
Chris takes a photo of a beached whale we found decomposing on the shore.

041209 Assateague Island240
A wild colt and her mamma.

Assateague Island National Seashore
Breaking down the tent.

05.07.2008

050708 Wounded Knee ME
En route to Colorado from the Black Hills, we visited Wounded Knee Memorial on Pine Ridge Reservation. The place was erie and heavy. It saddened my heart to stand above the murdered.

A sweetgrass offering on the fence.
050708 Wounded Knee Sage & Sweetgrass

050708 Toadstool Campsite

Western Wonderland Roadtrip

That night we set up camp at Toadstool Geologic Park in northwest Nebraska’s famous Sandhills. I wanted to roam the hills and take some wicked sunset photographs. We set up camp, with no one else there, had a few beers and then got hit by a spring rainstorm. We waited a couple hours for it to pass, but it kept raining harder. So we quickly tore down camp and drove the 20 miles back to a paved road. We were lucky to make it out of there on the sandy, rutted road, slowly being transformed into a mud wallow. We headed to the nearest town of any size — Alliance — and got a hotel for a dry night’s sleep.