We managed a single Colorado trip this summer to hike Yale, at the beginning of August. The summer was otherwise filled with backyard porch construction and a skosh of rocketry. I’m disappointed that we did very little camping; hopefully the house improvements will be worth it in the long run.

This post is about a family yurt trip we did February 2024 to the Spruce Hole yurt at the NM/CO border, though I’m very late in posting this (eight months late). This was a very difficult trip. We’ve been to this yurt two (three?) times before, and it’s only a

Well, I definitely have a story to report. Got a helicopter ride for the first time ever. Also, first time I’ve been a member of a rescue-d party rather than the rescue-ing party. Pretty good story, actually. Short version We went canyoneering, Emma broke her foot, we effected a high-angle

We just returned from a fantastic family camping road trip to southeast Utah. This time we kept our plans fairly open and flexible. We had a list of possible spots and regions and activities, but avoided putting any specific dates or expectations on anything. In the end, our overall route

I left the family at home to meet up with friends in Utah for some adults-only canyoneering. We had a mix of beginners and experienced types. We drove up Friday, did one canyon each Saturday through Tuesday, then drove back on a Wednesday. For the first two days we had

Karen and I are in agreement on the perfect fall camping trip: the days must be cool enough to warrant a daytime campfire, the nights must be COLD for cozy sleeping, there must be sufficient time for ample laziness, and it must take place beneath a grove of yellow-leaved aspen.

We hiked Handies again last weekend, partially because Emerson has never been all the way up it on his own two feet, but mostly because I convinced some other awesome families to join us for their first 14er and Handies is the best option for that in my opinion. It

Karen went out of town for work, so I took the boys up to do a 14er. They were awesome. I don’t know how long it will last, but they’re currently very excited to get up in the dark in the middle of the night. Let’s ride that wave of

Bolam pass is between Purgatory and Rico(?). Drive north from Durango, hang a left at the Purgatory ski area, drive past all the ski area bits and continue up and West out the Hermosa creek to the end of that valley, hang a right angle turn North and drive close

I found a tantalizing icon on a map of the Jemez Mountains with the label “Ice Cave,” so we recently made a winter adventure out of reaching it. It’s been quite dry so far this winter, but the Jemez gets more snow that here in town so we went with

I hate National Parks for all the right reasons, and I love National Parks for all the wrong reasons. I hate them because they’re overcrowded, super regulated, all paved; they take out all the adventure, leaving no room for figuring things out on your own. I LOVE National Parks because

The boys and I cleared out to go camp in the Jemez, giving Karen a home-alone vacation. Bodie was pushing for a Colorado trip, but we were a bit late getting out of town (not as easy getting everything ready by myself) so I opted for a local trip to

I really enjoyed the transition from Summer to Fall this year—first it felt as if Summer lingered a bit longer than usual, and then transitioned rapidly (decisively) to a beautiful Autumn. Both Karen and I were eager to go camping in the cooler weather, hopefully catch some Aspens in the

Jonny and I hiked El Diente. Rained on us as we arrived, rained on us as we left, great weather while we walked. Still need to go back to do Wilson and Mt Wilson.

Three years ago I took the boys up to Mt Huron by myself, and carried Emerson up while Bodie and Jasper walked. This summer we went up again as a full family, to the same fantastic campsite as last time. We were joined by another intrepid family, so we had

Last week (June 10, 2021), we drove to Utah to float the Green River that runs through Canyonlands National Park, and eventually meets up with the Colorado River. We met up with some old friends from San Francisco – Scott and Kristen – who we haven’t seen in ten years.

Karen held down the fort while I ran away to Utah to hang out with friends for a classic canyoneering trip. We’ve done it with the kids also, but it was nice to have an adults trip. Jon and I were trying to count how many canyons we’ve done to

In April we did a two-week roadtrip to Oregon for some conventional fun—we stayed in rentals, visited museums, ate at restaurants, visited relatives, walked on the beach. To me it represented a coda for Covid, now that Karen and I are fully vaccinated and we’re all trying to safely emerge

It was great to get out of town and enjoy the limited snowfall so far this year. The snowshoe to the yurt is a little over 2 miles. On the way in, there was maybe a foot of snow total, quite old and crusty. Fortunately, for us, a storm moved

Here are some pictures from Friday’s xmas tree hunt, a la Chevy Chase’s classic. It snowed on us just the right amount to improve the experience, coating the forest roads with a few inches, but not so much that we got stranded way out in the middle of nowhere. This

This is another belated addition, from a beautiful camping trip in September to far northern New Mexico. The Cruces Basin Wilderness nearly touches the Colorado border, about equidistant between paved highways 285 (to Antonito) and 84/17 (through Chama to Cumbres Pass). On the map below, the blue circle is the

Back in mid-August, we had a great time camping with the Flemings next to a stream up Forest Road 76, just past Tres Ritos, NM. There is camping all along that stretch of forest road, some in established campgrounds with toilets but plenty of “primitive” pull-offs between and past the

Bodie is turning 9 next week, and like all parents everywhere I have no idea where those 9 years went. This is therefore a perfect opportunity to reminisce about our early camping experiences with baby Bodie. The first time we took him camping… I can’t even remember. He was 7

This past May we drove to Utah to meet up with Jon and Sarah and their 6-month old, Mason, for his first ever camping trip. It ended up being a lazy car camping trip, without any of the usual canyoneering adventures. The Holmes’s hit up Muley point again on the

This is a dorky DIY post about the roof racks I built for our Nissan Xterras. I bought my Xterra new from the dealer in 2005. That was 196k miles ago (but who’s counting). In 2011 when Karen and I returned from the sailing trip to mountain life, I ditched

It’s been far too long since I’ve thrown up a trip report, particularly in this surreal COVID era. We were sent home, to work from home, at the beginning of March I believe. I found myself recognizing and experiencing the Spring with a satisfaction that I can’t remember feeling. I