A lot of Catching Up To Do: A Summer’s Worth of Wandering

By Perri

It’s been more than two months since I last put fingers to key pad and blogged out a new adventure.

I have a few excuses: It has been a busy summer, and a hot one. The heat had us seeking higher altitudes. And higher altitudes meant no cell service. In Winter and Fall, we were able to use libraries and coffee shops to access WiFi, but we couldn’t leave Milo in the van for long, so no air-conditioned working spaces for us.

Also, the last few months were a bit of a whirlwind! (If you ever want to know what we are up to, check out our instagram account. We pretty-well add a “vanlifediary” entry every day.)

Michigan and the Upper Midwest

We started the summer in our adopted homebase of Michigan (My sister’s family lives here, and we have lazed around their comfy house many a week since we started van living)

Her youngest had his Bar Mitzvah in June, and we enjoyed hanging out with our kids and theirs and much of our extended family for a few weeks.

Then it was time to hit the road again.

After much debate, we decided to journey up through Northern Michigan, including the Keewayden Peninsula. It’s an area we hadn’t visited much. Also it’s known for remote, agate-strewn beaches and copper mines, which piqued my interest.

We did find many lovely, wild, rocky beaches… not so many agates though.

While in the area, we enjoyed some interesting local foods: A pannakaku (Finish baked pancake) in Houghton Michigan and (of course!) a pastie or two (still aren’t crazy for them though).

Then it was on through Northern Minnesota and North Dakota. We “camped” in our first casino parking lot (Northern Minnesota) and enjoyed the broad skies and quiet of the high prairies. My heart just feels lighter under a big sky. The west feels like home.

Eastern Montana

We slowed down in Eastern Montana, and camped along the (swollen) Yellowstone River and a few other spots. I did some Rockhounding, though the gravel bars were waterlogged while we were there. Dan did some working. We attempted a few rough roads then backtracked when those didn’t work out for Stevan.

And then it got super hot.

We decided to head for cooler elevations, and pointed the van towards Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountains

Wyoming

Have I mentioned that I love Wyoming?

It is big and wild, full of remote places and wildlife. Also, agate and petrified wood and other nifty rocks abound! We spent a week and a half in the Tongue River Canyon and Eastern Bighorn Mountains.

Then we crossed over to the western side of the Bighorns for laundry, groceries, and a visit to Ten Sleep Brewing Co.

In Worland, those mountain roads caught up to us and we needed to pause for new brakes and rotors.

Then it was on to a few weeks in the towns and forests of the Eastern Wind River Range: Lander (Loved it!) and Thermopolis (a free dip in the Wyoming State Hot Springs).

Lander opens up their city park for camping, and we joined the throng of friendly climbers, hikers, and RVers beside the Popo Agie. We also checked out Sinks Canyon, climbed Fossil Hill and camped on the Eastern edge of the Wind River range.

Then we spent almost a week in the Dubois area, exploring the Shoshoni National Forest.

I couldn’t resist a visit to my favorite bleak and windy patch of high desert beauty: The Big Sandy Reservoir. To scout about for petrified wood and agate.

I don’t know why I love it so much here, but I do. It could more accurately be named “The Big Windy” or “The Bug Sandy”, but to me, it feels like home.

Utah

The ride south through the awe-inspiring beauty of Flaming Gorge Reservoir was hot, witheringly so.

We took a detour up to Spirit Lake in the Uinta Mountains just for a break from the heat. It was so lovely up there, we spend four days– hiking and lounging under the trees.

We drove around the south end of the Flaming Gorge and attempted to drive to Jones Hole, CO. But the road was so awful, we ended up backtracking to Vernal, UT and, the heat being once again unbearable, we headed for the mountains once again.

Colorado

The mountain-high state of Colorado was our summer “plan”. We wanted to explore higher, cooler altitudes and scheduled some time with my sister and brother-in-law there as well.

We moseyed toward the roackies, ending up in Meeker, a nostalgic stop as we’d visited 25 or so years ago to watch the Sheepdog Trials with our border collie, Maggie.

Then we headed up into the Flat Top Mountains for a lovely four days of mountain views and hiking. Can’t recommend this area enough. It was lovely and relatively uncrowded. For the first few days, we had a campground all to ourselves.

From here on, though, Colorado was a little overwhelming. So many mountains. So many (many, many) people out enjoying them.

We planned a “chore day” (Laundry, groceries, showers) in the town of Frisco, and it was so crowdy and so posh and so hot and so trafficky and so…. much, we had to just get going again.

We ended up in Leadville, which felt a lot less frenetic, and boondocked with many others in the National Forest outside of town. From there, we headed for a formal campground at the tip of Turquoise Lake.

The next few days had us hunting out boondocking spots in the Arkansas River Valley. The criterion was tough: a spot big enough for two cars (a tent and van) and accessible by my sister’s no-clearance Kia.

We discovered that roads locals deemed “passable” were pretty darn rugged. Colorado roads are no joke! We finally found a semi-accessible spot nestled into the side of Mount Shavano. From there, we hiked a part of the Colorado Trail, and hung out a lot.

Florida?

At this point, we came to a fork in the road. Or, in this case, a FLork.

My sister and I flew to Florida for our mother’s birthday. While Dan and my brother in-law, Mike, enjoyed some bachelor van-living. I’m not exactly sure what happened, but I know it involved Mesa Verde National Park, Telluride ….. and being pulled out of muddy ditch on some Colorado back road. No pictures of that available– 🙂

Colorado Part 2

Upon my return to Colorado, Dan and Mike and our nephew, Dylan (back from a two week adventure with Colorado Outward Bound), traveled together some more.

We rockhounded in a cool quartz mine outside of Buena Vista, checked out Independence Pass (awesome!) and super-ritzy Aspen (not a fan).

We drove along the beautiful Fryingpan River, and checked out the fossils at Rifle Gap Reservoir, re-visited Meeker, and stopped for an extended time at our beloved Deerlodge Park, Dinosaur National Monument.

Wyoming Part 2

Here, was the parting of the ways. Mike and Dylan headed home to Michigan. Dan and I loafed around at Deerlodge a bit longer then pointed Stevan’s nose North and headed back to Wyoming.

This time, we drove up the West side of the state. We checked out the Western side of the Wind River Range and Fremont Lake, stopped at the lovely Granite Hot Springs and ended up spending a few awesome days beside Granite Creek.

We did some chores in the crowded tourist town of Jackson. (Milo threw up on the busy boardwalk next to a real estate office advertizing milion dollar homes– which pretty well matched our sentiments.)

We drove through the ever-beautiful Grand Teton National Park and camped just south of Yellowstone. Then we woke up before dawn (rare for us) and caught sunrise at West Thumb Geyser Basin.

We ate breakfast among bison at Soda Butte Creek, drove to the Lamar Valley,and spent a few hours watching a bison carcass… with about fifty other people, and waiting for a bear (No luck with that one). Yellowstone was lovely though.

Lastly, Steven inched up the spectacular Beartooth Highway. Where we DID see a bear and many beautiful mountains.

Onward!

We are in Montana now, heading for British Columbia to visit Dan’s sister. One of the most awesome and unexpected parts of “van living” is the chance to spend time with family. This year, we visited folks in Montreal, Toronto, Connecticut, Michigan, and Florida. And we’ll soon add Kamloops, BC and Half Moon Bay, CA to the list.

Another Speedy Summer

When I was teaching, the summer always felt like a mad dash. So many things I wanted to do. So many people and places to visit.

We often took family road trips of a month or more, tent camping all along the way. But it was never enough. That return slog through Ohio and upstate New York always felt a little heartbreaking to me. I didn’t want to give up the freedom I felt on the road, though it was best for our kids and finances and part of being “a responsible adult”.

Strangely, our first summer of “van living” was a similar mad dash. We are already feeling the approach of cold weather, trying to cram in the last bit of mountain time.

Next summer, maybe we’ll find a way to slow ourselves down a bit. We recently upgraded to a Starlink wifi system so that we can, hopefully, stay put a bit more consistently and still connect with family and work.

We are coming up on our 1 year “vanniversary” but we aren’t through yet!