camping – Better Living Through Literature

Weekend In Moab

September 19, 2016September 19, 2016 Karen

If you can arrange it, you should always have people who like to offroad and people who are serious nature photographers and explorers in your group of friends, because that means you get to know about the best places to camp, the best places to shoot sunset, and you have a built-in convoy for learning how to hit the back roads, where the secret arches and dinosaur bones are.

Picture Frame Arch, with nature photographer friend for scale

Sunset (looking east) over the Fiery Furnace in Arches

Doc and the natural cast of a dinosaur bone outside of Green River

Another arch on the way to Picture Frame arch. Yes, there are pirate flags on my car. Everyone in the convoy got flags.

I took the “Roo” off road for the first time and surprised myself with how much fun I had. She did great, too–just stepped up over rocks, straddled ruts, and even made it through some sand that gave a Land Cruiser some trouble (!).

Moab may be my favorite place on earth. It was good to be back with my favorite people and be able to see even more now.

Where’d I Go?

August 17, 2015 Karen

Camping! Doc and I headed up to the Uinta mountains Thursday night after work to try to catch some of the Perseid meteor shower–and to take my nephew camping for the first time.

We saw some meteors (no pics) and we also saw a tasty view from the camp breakfast table the next morning:

And some lakes with waterlilies and good clouds:

The pictures get a little scarce after my brother’s family showed up Friday afternoon (and if I thought I was “adulting” poorly, I feel much better about my skills after keeping a 4.5 year old safe in a riverfront campsite…) but this one about sums it up:

Family tents:

My brother’s favorite part of camping–fire:

And using group persuasion to convince my nephew to brush his teeth (it takes a village):

Whew! Kids are tiring (newsflash) but I’m glad I got to be there for Skyler’s first camping trip. Thanks to Doc for going along with my plan and helping to wrangle him–he had a great time.

Things I Learned Over The Weekend

July 20, 2015 Karen

Staying in a yurt is a cool way to see the backcountry while still car camping.

Trips with just girlfriends are really great.

Watching the forest and finding deer beds is a nice way to spend a day.

The trees have eyes.

And finally, if you are staying at a place called Grizzly Ridge Yurt and you are being a not-terribly-aware hiker and climbing quietly up a hill with your friend, you shouldn’t be surprised to see a black bear running up over the hill from the other side. You should definitely remember your bear safety right that minute and put your arms over your head and have your friend help you to make a lot of noise (and not just run, which is what the caveman brain really wants to do), and then you should walk back to camp singing show tunes at the top of your lungs just in case. And then travel in a pack with your friends for the rest of the night.

Such an educational weekend! Bears aside, I highly recommend yurt camping with girlfriends.

Camping!

April 23, 2012 Karen1 Comment

For the weekend, I went and slept in a tent for the first time in about five years. The trip was to Capitol Reef, where I’d never been, and that is some lovely country.

There were pictures taken from passenger windows:

There were pictures taken from the back:

There were side canyons:

There were views to admire:

There were trails that turned out much longer than we thought they’d be:

There were miles to go before we slept:

There was golden desert light:

Needless to say, it was a good weekend for my inner hippie.