The Journey

A shorter hike north of Rt 23 and west of I-287, from Otterhole south toward Butler on the Blue trail. It's marked difficult because it's very hilly, but the views are spectacular, especially the NYC skyline. Thanks to Mark W. for suggesting the area.

A 6-mile loop after a 10-day Caribbean cruise: Blue to Green to Red up to Wyanokie High Point and its full 360° view, then the windy Yellow trail and the White trail past Chikahokie Falls. The streams were swollen and parts of the trail were under water. It was fun!

From the Skyline Drive lot down the Yellow trail to Ramapo Lake, then the Red (Cannonball) trail and up the White trail to the ruins of the Castle mansion and its tower. Very interesting stone buildings.

Ten days of driving, hiking and viewing: Calgary to Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper, with side trips to Lake Minnewanka, Yoho's Natural Bridge, Emerald Lake and Takakkaw Falls. After day 2 we ran out of superlatives. I took over 1,000 photos and 200 short videos; Sue took almost 4,000. If you like mountains, wildlife and glaciers, this is the place.

A lot of campgrounds in the first six weeks, and things mostly went very well. New motto: no running in campgrounds, even when it's raining. We dodged severe storms with the weather radar, and the wind was dicey, especially in Iowa. Along the way: a juvenile bear in Tennessee, pelicans in Minnesota, and 360° sweeps from Clingmans Dome and Skyline Drive.

One unique place. We drove the loop road and the gravel Sage Creek Rim Road twice for buffalo, pronghorn, prairie dogs and a burrowing owl. The campground had owls across the street, gorgeous sunsets, and stars from horizon to horizon. My chest-cam recorded the Castle Rock hike until the battery ran out.

Lots of wildlife and scenery, above and below ground, interrupted by a quick flight home for a closing. Wild weather all around; Rapid City got clobbered a few times, but our campground led a charmed life.

Five nights at the base of the Big Horn Mountains. The Clear Creek Trail started near the campground and ran out into the forest, US 16 offered close-ups of the snow-covered peaks, and the old Occidental Hotel still serves meals.

Three weeks at Red Rock RV Park, an extraordinary setting just half an hour from Yellowstone's West Entrance. Wildflowers, pelicans (and non-pelicans), and the Harriman State Park ridge hike.

Mountains, rivers, waterfalls, geysers and wildlife: black and grizzly bears, wolves, coyotes, foxes, buffalo, bighorn sheep and mountain goats. Up by 5 AM for the Lamar and Hayden valleys, with bear spray at the ready. We saw everything except the elusive moose, plus a hair-raising drive over the Beartooth Pass.

No foothills; the Tetons just rise from the valley floor and look new every day. The 19-mile hike to Lake Solitude repeated one I took 30 years earlier on leave from Bell Labs, and it's my favorite hike in the world. A ranger said the moose were hiding this year; three hours later I'd run into five. Side trip: Craters of the Moon.

Like the Grand Canyon seen from the floor up. We arrived during historic flooding (the park closed for just 5 hours), and once the Virgin River dropped from 4,000 to 40 cu ft/sec we hiked The Narrows, a bucket-list item for Sue. Also Kolob Canyon, Coral Pink Sand Dunes and Cedar Breaks.

The loop road, the Queen's Garden / Navajo Trail, Red Canyon and Utah's Scenic Byway 12, with wonderful sandstone formations everywhere. We were running out of superlatives again.

Like flooding the Grand Canyon, with a 20-ft drought "bathtub ring." In Antelope Canyon the camera saw colors I didn't, and we caught sunbeams reaching the floor. The boat tour to the huge Rainbow Bridge arch was very cool.

A break from the West to visit family back East and my relatives in Germany: Berlin, Dresden, Saalfeld, Nuremberg, Munich and Frankfurt, plus Schloss Neuschwanstein.

The photo albums for this stop were on Picasa, which Google has retired. The videos still work.

Two weeks taking in the sights: the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Sabino Canyon, Kitt Peak Observatory, Mt Lemmon, Saguaro National Park, Biosphere 2 and San Xavier del Bac.

Dec 15 through March 15 at Pueblo El Mirage RV & Golf Resort. We became snowbirds! Museums, parks, Spring Training, NASCAR, Sedona and the Desert Botanical Garden.

Back at the end of March for a different boat tour through Navajo and Antelope Canyons, hikes to the Hanging Gardens and the Toadstools, and a visit to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. Our campsite was closest to the lake. No big RVs in front of us; we were the big RV!

Two nights and the sunset deluxe tour into areas off-limits to the public. Very informative, and the sunset really lit up the monuments.

Jeep Week filled Moab, so we spent 2½ weeks in Bluff instead, and it was closer to many sights anyway. Ancestral Puebloan ruins (700–1200 AD) on the canyon walls, Hovenweep, Natural Bridges, Mesa Verde, Canyon de Chelly and Newspaper Rock.

The photo albums for this stop were on Picasa, which Google has retired.

Two national parks basically across the street from each other, a state park next door, and the mighty Colorado in the middle. Two days each in Arches and Canyonlands' Island in the Sky, a day at Dead Horse Point, and scenic Routes 128 and 279.

The photo albums for this stop were on Picasa, which Google has retired.

Capitol Reef and the 100-mile Waterpocket Fold, Goblin Valley, and a return to finish the Calf Creek Falls hike that the heat stopped last year. Lots of water photos, and we've now driven all of spectacular Rt 12.

The photo albums for this stop were on Picasa, which Google has retired.

After a May trip home to NJ (including the NJ Sculpture Garden), we took the Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway, one of the top drives in the US, saw Crater Lake, the deepest lake in the country, and the climbers at Smith Rock.

Rocky beaches, towering cliffs and rainforest right to the shoreline. We stayed on the bay in Waldport, then in an amazing (and expensive) clifftop campground facing Yaquina Head Lighthouse, whale-watching at the tail end of the migration.

Haystack Rock and puffins, the 3 Capes drive, the Columbia River Maritime Museum, and Astoria, where we stumbled into the final day of The Goonies' 30th-anniversary celebration.

Ocean-going ships chugging past the campground, osprey nests, waterfalls all along the Gorge, and three famous mountains: Mount St. Helens with its blown-out caldera, Mt. Hood, and Mt. Rainier in full wildflower bloom.

Rialto Beach, the Hoh Rain Forest (with a black bear encounter), waterfalls, and Cape Flattery, the northwesternmost point in the lower 48. Then the ferry to Seattle for the Space Needle and the first Starbucks.

A wildfire closed half of Going-to-the-Sun Road, but we'd already explored that side, so we still hiked everything on the list: Hidden Lake, Iceberg Lake, Two Medicine, Avalanche Creek and more.

A fairly small park with nifty geology and lots of buffalo, our last stop before heading straight to Virginia for the birth of our first grandchild.

Dodging wind and rain on the way west, we stopped for Carlsbad Caverns (the best caves we've ever seen, though the pictures don't do them justice), flying saucers in Roswell, and the murals of Artesia.

A month of laying low from mid-November: Sabino Canyon overland, Tohono Chule Gardens, the OK Corral in Tombstone, the mining town of Bisbee, Gates Pass and western Saguaro NP. We love saguaros!

Two more months at the same campground, busier this year with no hospital visits. White Tank Regional Park, the Tonto, Montezuma Castle and Tuzigoot cliff dwellings, Prescott, Jerome, Cave Creek, and Frank Lloyd Wright's school.

Yuma, which grows 90% of the leafy vegetables sold in the US from November to March, the London Bridge at Lake Havasu City, and Cibola National Wildlife Refuge.

Not the Vegas you're thinking of. One bakery stop at the Bellagio, then two full days in Valley of Fire and one in Red Rock Canyon, with unbelievable colors and shapes. Sorry for all the panoramas; I couldn't help myself.

Through the Mojave Preserve's volcanic cones to three busy nights of hiking and driving: Skull Rock, Split Rock, Barker Dam, Hidden Valley, and a lookout over Palm Springs and the San Andreas Fault.

California's largest state park and one of our best campgrounds. Metal sculptures, a slot canyon that got too narrow for me, a real palm oasis up Palm Canyon, blooming cacti, and a mountain town famous for apple pie, which we of course sampled.

Location, location, location: a campground on Mission Bay, bike rides to the ocean, the Zoo, Sea World, Balboa Park, the La Jolla seals, Cabrillo's lighthouse, Torrey Pines, and a tour of Griffith Observatory with an old high-school friend. A busy month!

The Alabama Hills, a favorite Hollywood western location, beneath Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the lower 48. Death Valley was a day trip away, the lowest point in North America, less than 90 miles from Whitney. We also paid a somber visit to Manzanar, and ate at Yelp's "best restaurant in the US" for 2015.

A week of wonderful hiking country, though snow still hung around the high trails. We managed the Buttermilks and Convict Lake, and the drives into the mountains were very scenic.

Almost three weeks near Mono Lake's tufa towers, Panum Crater, the ghost town of Bodie and the June Lake Loop. Spring snow kept the passes closed until Tioga opened one noon. We raced to Yosemite the next day and left just ahead of the next storm. We sure got lucky.

The Grand Canyon was absolutely breathtaking: one day on the shuttle along the Rim Trail to Desert View, the next by train from Williams to the Village. Wowee. Also Meteor Crater, Sunset Crater, Walnut Canyon, Wupatki, and the Painted Desert of Petrified Forest.

A couple of days turned into a saga when the big slide-out needed parts from Winnebago, twice. We used the time for side trips to Santa Fe and Taos, then came back to finish the repairs.

Home of the Olympic Training Center. We also visited Cripple Creek, Florissant Fossil Beds, the Garden of the Gods and Seven Falls.

Red Rocks Amphitheatre, light rail into Denver, the fossils on Dinosaur Ridge and, of course, the Coors brewery tour.

Our final visit: beautiful mountains, lots of wildlife, Trail Ridge Road, and many, many trails, plus a moose mom and calf to see us off.