National Parks of the Southwest

Good news everyone!  We have been able to start volunteering (oh, New Mexico, you were worth us packing our bags once again and moving).  Perhaps even better news is that we have been able to visit two National Parks in the last two weeks J 

Grand Canyon Sunset

First stop Grand Canyon.  We visited the park right before the government reopened and it was being run by the State.  Thank you governor of Arizona - we appreciated your decision.  We spent close to 3 days camping, taking pictures, hiking the rim, and a very steep hike to the bottom of the canyon and back up.  Even though our legs didn’t appreciate the trip, we had a wonderful time! 

Lunch at the bottom of the Canyon



We just got back from a trip to Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado.  The park is famous for its ancient cliff dwellings…which we got to hike right up to!  It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has some of the most amazing ruins we have ever seen in our travels.  One of our favorite ruins was Spruce Tree House that has a wonderful canyon trail linked to it.  Once we hiked to the bottom of the canyon in became apparent we weren’t the only ones who enjoyed this trail.  Yes folks, we saw so much bear scat that we lost count after 2 wet, fresh, piles of poo and a paw print. 

Mesa Verde

The Southwest has treated us well so far and we hope to continue to fill our weekends with wonderful outings.

By the way, check our blog soon for pictures of us sporting our new volunteer ranger outfits!

Wandering New Mexico

So…things haven’t gone quite according to plan this fall.  We intended to spend the fall and winter in Lincoln, maybe working at Cabela’s and maybe building a snowman or two.  But, an unexpected opportunity came up for both of us to spend a few months volunteering for the National Park Service at El Morro National Monument in New Mexico.  Because Park Service positions are quite hard to come by, we couldn’t pass the opportunity up.

Unfortunately, our first day of volunteering coincided with the first day of the government shutdown…

So, we have been allowed to stay in our housing at the monument but now have A LOT of time off.  We have been trying to stay busy-lots of school-work, volcano climbing, ice-cave exploring, and wolf-watching- you’re basic New Mexico activities.

Hopefully the parks can open back up soon, and in the meantime if anyone wants to visit us we have a pull-out couch and a wide-open schedule J

Here’s to hoping, along with the rest of America, that the government gets their act together sooner rather than later!