Our adventures continue as we travel across southern Colorado. We traveled over the continental divide and Rangeley got to p[lay in the snow. Click on the link to read about our amazing couple of days. Great Sand Dunes

We had another fun and adventurous day yesterday arriving in Colorado and visiting Mesa Verde National Park.

Here is the link to visit our page – Mesa Verde

The link before had an error, Here is the updated link to our page – Petrified Forest

Oops, I updated the page but never set up the links or sent out the notice. We are off to a great start. Rangeley continues to amaze us with what a good pup he is and he is only 4 months old. Here is the link to our page – Petrified Forest

In just over a week Elizabeth and I will be loading our 4 month old silver lab – Rangeley into a rented minivan and taking off on an 8,000 mile journey around the United States. We plan to visit 27 National Parks and at least 25 states as we do a big clockwise loop, ending back in Phoenix in mid-November. The map below shows the loop we plan to take (the red one).

There are dog restrictions at many of the Parks, but this is more about the journey. Just outside the parks are tons of outdoor experiences that are dog friendly. There are lots of dog friendly lodging options now, as well. We figure this is a great time to get out and support the travel industry. When I first proposed this idea to Elizabeth, I figured there would be no way she would go for it. I had 3 options – Going through Colorado and Utah – doing California and Oregon (the green loop on the map) – and my choice – going for 27 Parks. It actually took very little persuading – she has enjoyed doing research on things to bring, dog activities, etc. With the hot Phoenix summer we have had, it has been great fun planning a getaway.

This trip will take us right through central Ohio, where we picked up Rangeley in mid-June. Elizabeth has been in contact with the young Amish family who raised Rangeley and we plan to stop and visit. It will be fun to see his reaction to being back on the farm. He has already flown across the country, now he will be driving cross country, something Elizabeth will be doing for the first time as well. I have only done it once.

Last weekend we made the trip to Ohio to visit Cuyahoga Valley National Park (and to pick up a new 8 week old silver lab puppy!) Click on the link to see our write up and photos. All the travels went well and we had an awesome time. It was a wonderful getaway during these odd times of the corona virus and racial unrest. Hopefully things will settle down soon and we can continue our journey of visiting the remaining National Parks. This was park #9, only 53 to go.

Our Pacific National Park tour finished with Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. This was an amazing park and we loved the Big Island of Hawaii. The volcanoes are currently dormant, so no lava flowing. We were here about 20 years ago and took a helicopter ride out over an active flow. Click on the link above to read our journal and see the many pictures.

After a few days in American Samoa it was off to the Island of Maui and a visit to Haleakala National Park. Click on the link to view our pictures and read our journal. Thanks for travelling along with us on this incredible journey.

Our adventures on this trip are off to a great start with our journey to American Samoa National Park. Follow the link to read and see our pictures. Our updates for Haleakala and Volcano will be coming soon.

Well our quest for 61 parks did not last long. Last week Whites Sands in New Mexico officially became our 62nd National Park. Who knows how many parks there will be when we are chasing our last one. This is the third park added in the past 20 months.

Our Plans for January are to visit 3 more parks. Elizabeth has a job in Kona, Hawaii, so her travel expenses are covered to get there and back. I will join her at the end of her program. (My flight, nonstop Phoenix to Kona was only $402 round trip.) We will fly to American Samoa, then to Maui (Haleakala), then back to the Big Island (Volcano) before returning to Phoenix.

We are getting this journey off to a quick start, getting 7 parks in just over a month. This includes going from the eastern most park to the western (and southern) most park. Virgin Islands and American Samoa are 7,500 miles apart, by far, the greatest distance between any two parks. Biscayne and Everglades are less then 20 miles apart.