There’s something uniquely peaceful about walking along the shoreline with the sound of waves lapping at your feet and the fresh breeze off Lake Michigan filling your lungs.

Beachcombing is an art of patience and attention to detail. While walking the beach, keep your gaze low and look for small, colorful glints among the stones and pebbles. Beach glass often hides in the soft sand or just beneath the shoreline rocks, blending in with the environment. The fun is in the hunt—there’s something immensely satisfying about discovering a perfectly smoothed piece of glass, shaped by nature.

​Beach glass often comes in shades of greens, blues, and browns—colors from old bottles or broken glassware. On rare occasions, you might find a piece of white glass or even a less common shade of red or purple. Each fragment has a story, its history softened and transformed by the lake’s ebb and flow.

​Here are my 2 favorite locations to find beach glass.

​Simmons Island, located just north of Kenosha's bustling downtown, is one of the city’s most scenic and historic parks. With its iconic lighthouse and stretches of golden sand, it’s a popular spot for locals and visitors alike. But for those who take a slower approach to exploring the beach, it holds a secret treasure: beach glass.

This is probably my favorite spot for a Sunday morning stroll. The Beach House at Simmons Island is a great location to grab food/snacks and also adult beverages. During the summer months the Beach House has live music and is beautiful location to enjoy summer. 

Beach and Lakefront AccessGrant Park is also home to a beautiful stretch of Lake Michigan beach. It’s a perfect place to relax, swim, or beachcomb. Just beware that the beach is much rockier than Simmons Island. This offers a great opportunity for some great glass finds. In my experience, the glass pieces found were bigger than pieces founds at Simmons Island. The beach is easily accessible from the Seven Bridges Trail, making it a popular spot to rest after a scenic hike.

Seven Bridges Trail: A Must-Do HikeOne of the highlights of Grant Park is the Seven Bridges Trail, a nature trail that winds through woodlands, ravines, and over—you guessed it—seven wooden bridges. The trail feels like stepping into an enchanted forest, with lush trees, wildflowers, and the soothing sound of babbling creeks accompanying your journey.
The entrance to the trail is marked by an arched stone gateway with the welcoming message: "Enter this wild wood and view the haunts of nature." It’s one of the most photographed spots in the park, and for good reason—this hike offers one of the most immersive natural experiences in the Milwaukee area.
As you make your way along the Seven Bridges Trail, you'll encounter scenic views of Lake Michigan, especially from cliffside overlooks. The trail is well-maintained and offers both easy and moderate hiking routes, making it accessible to hikers of all skill levels.

Our travels from Port Angeles to Concrete Washington included taking a ferry ride from the peninsula. This was a cool experience and cheaper than I thought. Some locals on the ferry said that they have seen whales from time to time, but we did not have luck. We used the Port Townsend to Coupeville route. It was suggested to reserve your spot, which was a $10 fee online and then it was $21 when we got there. Pretty reasonable I thought. 

Ovenell’s Heritage Inn​-This was a really nice cabin in Concrete, Washington. It was very secluded. It had nice walking paths to the river and a view of Mt. Baker in the background. The cabin itself didn’t have a lot of amenities, but it worked just fine for what we where there to do. Fresh towels and replenished soaps and coffee were brought to us daily. The only downfall is the distance from the national park. In the picture above you can see one of the cabins, how remote it is, and Mt. Baker in the background. 

Thunder Knob
This was a really cool hike if you like hiking. If you are just going for a great view of Diablo Lake, skip it and just go to the overlook. Much better view at the overlook then at the top of Thunder Knob. We enjoyed the trail with the winding trail through the woods, a neat little stream crossing, and definitely a steady incline to the top.

Diablo Lake Overlook​-The Diablo Lake overlook is a must stop. This was the best view and you don’t have to work for it!

Trail of the Cedars and Gorge Powerhouse-Short little trails with cool suspension bridges in Newhalem. 

Maple Pass was so beautiful, even though we didn't get to do the entire loop due to too much snow on the top. We went as far as we could before it got really steep. I would love to do this hike after the snow melt to see all the wild flowers. Lake Ann is breathtaking with the mountains in the backdrop.

Rainy Lake-very easy, flat 2 mile hike that is paved. This trail veered off of the Maple Pass trail so we just combined it. It brings you to this beautiful lake with waterfalls all around it. This lake reminded us all of Avalanche Lake in Glacier National Park. 

Ross Lake Dam-This hike was straight down for the first half and then straight back up, about 3 miles total. You could get to the dam and walk all the way across the top. Ross Lake resort is across the lake also. It would be amazing to stay there, you definitely need to reserve earlier than we looked. You have to hike to this resort and take a boat ferry across, would be a fun experience. 

Cascadia Rafting-This was a great experience. We had a blast rafting down the Skagit River. Pretty views and some fun rapids made for a memorable experience. This was mostly class 1 and 2 rapids and a really fun class 3 section. Definitely a great starter rafting trip or if you just want to see the North Cascades from a different vantage point. Nick was our guide and he was really knowledgable about the area and keeping us safe on the raft. He allowed for us to jump into the cold river if you wanted. Not a ton of pictures, I only took my camera out when we were in the "lazy river" section. 

Our next stop was this cool lake house right on Lake Sutherland. The water was very cold, but that didn't stop us from jumping in! Gorgeous sunsets and a great location for the next leg of our trip.

Mount Storm King-This hike definitely made our top 10 list of coolest hikes. This hike was over 2000 feet elevation gain and a steep incline the entire way. It finished with a scramble to the top and a rope to help get yourself up to the summit. Only 2 of the 4 of us did the final leg of the hike. Thankfully the boys took lots of pictures. My fear of heights would not have allowed me to complete this last leg of the hike. 

Marymere Falls-A short hike with a bit of stairs at the end, leads to this beutiful waterfall. We added this on our Mount Storm King hike since it is on the same trailhead.

Hurricane Ridge-This hike was a paved path and steady incline all the way. It was pretty cloudy for us on top, but a clear day would be spectacular. We saw a black bear in the valley on our hike and then we saw another black bear much closer when leaving the parking lot. The wild flowers were just starting to pop too!

Sol Duc Falls-Short easy hike, about 2 miles. This hike was our wettest of all. It was raining pretty hard so the trail was muddy. 

Salmon Cascades-Short stop to a view point of the salmon cascades. No salmon today, but I'm sure it would be cool to see in the fall when the salmon swim upstream!

Devil's Punchbowl-Easy 3 mile hike to this perfect spot to jump in! We did not partake today, due to not being able to check into or next rental spot for a few more hours so we were not prepared to take the cold plunge. We did get to see some people jumping in off the bridge into Devils Punchbowl, it looked really cold. I bet this is a popular spot when the temperatures start rising. Travis is also pointing to the top of Mount Storm King, which we hiked the day before. At least this is where he thinks it was! The tunnel was fun to walk through as well. This path is part of a bicycle trail that goes around Lake La Crescent. Nice trail to check out if you have your bicycles. 

Forks is a small little town known for vampires, Bigfoot, and rain. It is one of the rainiest towns in the US. The vampire popularity is because the fictional Twilight book/movie series was based in the town of Forks. For the big Twilight fans there is even a museum with movie props in town, we skipped that so no reviews here, haha! Although vampires are not up our alley, Mia did enjoy the Bigfoot swag in town. Apparently this area has a lot of claimed sightings. 

Olympic National Park is our next stop on our Washington tour. This park is huge so we split it up into two locations. First stop is Forks, WA. We stayed in a rental very close to the elk conservancy, great location and amenities. At this stop we were able to see some ginormous trees, mossy rainforest, and explored multiple beaches at low tide and a cool sunset!

Worlds Largest Spruce Tree-right on Lake Quinault is this quick stop. 

Hoh Rainforest-There was a little wait (maybe 15 minutes) to get into this entrance because the parking lot is so small. Definitely worth the wait to walk the the Spruce Nature Trail and the Hall of Mosses Trail. Very cool to walk among the giant mossy trees. 

Ruby Beach-We had great luck tide pooling here, low tide is a must. Sea stars were everywhere around the rocks by the big island. Got lucky that low tide just happened to be around 1 pm this day, which was the time we were driving through the area.

La Push-great spot for sunset

Rialto Beach Hole-in-the-Wall-This is about a 3 mile hike on the rocky/sandy beach. Definitely a must to go at low tide. We arranged our day around low tide to make this hike. This was one of the busiest spots on our trip due to the fact that everyone has to go at low tide. 

Our family trip this summer was a little different than in the past. We usually travel via truck and 5th wheel camper, however, the Pacific Northwest was a little past our range in the time frame we had to travel. 

Our first stop along our PNW tour, is Mount Rainier! Wow was she showing off for us. We were a little nervous with weather, not knowing how much snow was still left on the mountain. I decided to make room for our microspikes, just in case. It paid off! 

The Paradise entrance was the only entrance open June 11-13 while we were there. The road to the Sunrise entrance was not open yet due to snow. You also need a timed entry for this park and make sure to purchase the correct entrance. The drive up to the Paradise Visitor Center was beautiful and you could see gorgeous views of Mount Rainier and surrounding mountains the whole way. Like I said, we really lucked out with the weather and views.

This is the view point at Reflection Lake. As you can see the lake is still partially iced over. Still got a little reflection today! 

Perfect day to get some great shots of Rainier on our way up to the visitor center.

This was definitely one of our top 10 hikes! We wore micro spikes which helped a ton. This was not easy, with 1,115 feet of elevation gain. The mileage was only 3 miles total, but that elevation gain in snow was no joke. 

We did not get to finish this hike all the way due to melting snow. Rangers were stopping people at Glacier Vista because of the dangerous conditions up to panorama point. Although, we didn't get to complete the entire hike...it was still in our top 10 for difficulty and gorgeous views.

Narada Falls-quick stop and short walk

Trail of the Shadows and the Longmire Museum-easy little walk to see some really big trees

We stayed in a mountain view cabin in Packwood. It was a great location and very cozy. We had elk right out our window in the morning. 

Sand Boarding at the Dunes
For a small fee you can rent sand boards near the National Park, they do not rent inside the park. We rented for a the day and really had a blast around sunset. There were clouds rolling in, which gave us some nice shade. Definitely go early morning or near sunset, because the sand is super hot!! We went again the next day around 11 am and we didn’t last very long. The sand was unbearably hot!

Zapata Falls
Short, easy, rocky hike to the creek. If you follow the creek upstream you will come to a beautiful waterfall. The water is ice cold! This is not in the National Park, but just down the road from the park entrance.

Such an interesting National Park. Lots of history and some neat views of the ruins. Many pit houses and cliff dwellings. I would highly recommend booking a tour of a cliff dwelling. We weren’t so lucky. You have to book online at 8 am, exactly 2 weeks in advance. I missed it by a day and looked daily for openings with no luck. They no longer take day of reservations for tours, everything is done online…pretty disappointing. A guided tour is the only way to see the ruins up close. There are no more self-guided tours at Spruce Tree House. I does look like they have plans to renovate it in the future, so I really hope that happens.

Also, summer of 2023 the park was doing road work. We were only able to see half of the park. We tried to make the most of our time at Mesa Verde even though we were unable to see the whole park and also missed out on a guided tour.

​Petroglyph Point Hike
This was a really fun hike. It was advertised as strenuous, and it was. You could walk just the top half to climb down to see the petroglyphs and go back, but I would suggest doing the whole thing. It was a beautiful hike!

We stayed at many dark sky parks on this trip, but Mesa Verde was the best view of the stars due to a full moon at the other parks. I never figured out how to take a night sky photo with our Cannon camera, so my iPhone is all I could get! 

Page, Arizona is a beautiful town. So much to see and do in the area. Some of our favorite excursions were near Page! Hiking The Wave, touring Antelope Canyon X, seeing Horseshoe Bend at sunset, and swimming at Lone Rock were all such fun experiences! 

This was definitely a bucket list hike! Months in advance I applied for a permit for this hike and somehow won! They only allow up to 20 groups and 60 people to hike per day. I really didn’t realize how hard it was to get a permit until we were here. Many locals were shocked we got one and said they knew people that were trying for years!

The day before the hike, we attended their safety meeting. Road conditions, safety for hiking in the heat, and trail tips were all covered. Honestly, besides road conditions the rest we were already prepared for. The meeting actually was more of a scare tactic for us, we are pretty experienced hikers and this meeting made us be over prepared.

The hike itself is about 3-4 miles one way, depending on how much you venture off to see surrounding features. I would say the hike is a moderate hike, about 1000 feet elevation gain. There were actually more trail markers than we thought and you can see other hikers tracks in the sand. We downloaded the AllTrails map and had no problems navigating our way. We even went to see some other rock formations that were off the trail.

The hardest part of the hike was beating the heat. We started at sunrise around 5:30 am. It was going to be in the 90’s by 10:30 am so our goal was to be back to the truck by then. A sunrise start was perfect. We were in the shade pretty much the whole way to The Wave.

​Pay $10 for the parking fee and walk about 1/2 mile to see the overlook. We went and sunset and saw some spectacular colors!

We chose to take the Antelope Canyon X Tour because we wanted smaller crowds in the slot canyon. “X” is the same canyon as the iconic Antelope Canyon just a different part. We only had 13 people in our group and were given lots of time to wander around the slot canyon on our own. It was exactly what we were looking for in our slot canyon experience. Our guide was great and took pictures for us and gave tips on camera settings.

​With the heat we definitely needed to cool off. We checked out two swimming spots. Lake Powell is huge, so I'm sure there were more in the area. 

We spend two days exploring the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. 

Cape Final Trail
About a 4 mile trail. Perfect if you don't have a lot of time. Mostly shaded through the forest, perfect for this hot day. The trail leads to some beautiful views!

Bright Angel Point Trail
Easy walk to a lookout, less than a mile. Close to the visitor center.

Cape Royal Trail
Easy paved trail, about a mile. Great views of the canyon and a natural bridge. 

Our UTV guide showed the kids the fun of Spear Grass! All our hikes afterwards involved Spear Grass wars, LOL!

Kanab was our home to see lots of amazing features in this area. We stayed at Crazy Horse RV Campground. It was very small, but had a really nice pool…exactly what we needed in this heat. It was high 90’s and even 100’s while we were there, so a pool was a necessity for our Wisconsin blood!

E-Bikes
About an hour drive from our campground was Zion. We spent one day at Zion National Park. We chose to rent E-bikes from Zion Peddler, highly recommend!!! We picked our bikes up at 6 am and headed on the Pa’Rus trail in Zion. This trail is only for bikes, pedestrians, and shuttles! We didn’t see a soul until we hit the Scout’s Lookout trail! It was amazing! Seeing the park from an E-bike was so cool and so fun!

Scout Lookout
​This is a very challenging trail, 3.6 with over 1,000 feet elevation gain. This is the trail that leads to Angel’s Landing. You can do all of the trail except for the last 1/2 mile of Angel’s Landing unless you won a lottery reservation, which we did not. Highly recommend doing Scout Lookout even if you didn’t get an Angel’s Landing reservation. It has some amazing views!

The Narrows
This is definitely one of my favorite hikes of all time! It definitely lives up to the hype! We chose not to rent the boots, socks, and walking sticks, but its a great option if you don’t have your own equipment. Mia and I wore our hiking boots with wool socks, Travis wore an old pair of sneakers, and Jess wore his Keen sandals. I would say it all depends on your skill level and experience hiking through water. I personally need the ankle support on uneven terrain, so my hiking boots were perfect. Travis and Jess are more agile and don’t have the weak ankles so their choices worked for them.

We hiked 8 miles in total and the further we got the less people we saw. The highest water levels we had to walk through was chest deep, Mia was happy to get a ride from her big brother! It was about 10:30 and a little cooler in the Narrows so she wasn’t ready to get soaked yet. By the afternoon, we were all swimming in the deeper parts to stay cool! The water was actually not as cold as I thought and with my hiking boots, my feet never got too cold. It was a beautiful hike! 

Sand Caves
Fun little scramble up the sandstone to see the Sand Caves. Easy to get to, just park in the lot next to Moqui Caves and follow the path to the sandstone, scramble up and walk to the caves. Make sure to wear good shoes for traction, although my kids did it in their crocs…I wouldn’t recommend!

​Belly of the Dragon
Literally right off of the parking lot, fun little walk for the kids and a nice place to stay cool!

Sunset Point to Sunrise Point
We missed the glow of sunset, I would suggest getting there at least an hour beforehand. The next morning we woke up early for sunrise and it was spectacular!

We had a short 5 hour drive to Torrey, Utah. We were able to get set up and enjoy some pool time at our campground, Thousand Lakes. Then we headed to the National Park for a couple of fun hikes!

WOW! This National Park is so underrated. We were here for two nights and only had time to explore the South Rim. Definitely worth the stop! We went to a lot of the viewpoints and hiked a little. We even took a drive to the bottom of the canyon. 

Rim Rock Trail
This hike was a little over one mile one way. Really nice views of the canyon. We stopped at the campground and walked around one of the loops. Pretty flat trail, but I was dying. Hiking in elevation is no joke!

Sunsets
Our first night we caught a sunset at Dragon Point Overlook. Our second night, we went to Sunset Overlook. Both were spectacular, but I think Sunset Overlook lived up to its name.

Lake McConaughy
Known to the locals as Big Mac Lake, Lake McConaughy did not disappoint. The lake itself is huge. There are many options for campgrounds on the lake, we stayed in Cedar View Campground. The campground was really nice and had great views of the lake. We were on the northwest end of the lake which seemed to collect all the driftwood. Not the greatest swimming on this end, but teepee building looked like a very popular activity.
If you are up for boon docking, you can also camp right on most of the beaches! With this being our first stop on a 3 week trip, we needed electric to keep 3 weeks worth of food fresh! Would love to camp on the beach someday!

Beach Days
Not only can you camp on the beach, but you drive your truck right on the beach as well. Very nice not to have to haul all of our beach things. Being our first time, it was a little nerve wracking (mostly for me)! We didn’t get stuck, thankfully! There was a tractor that was cruising the beaches, looks like he was waiting to pull people out of the sand! We never saw him pull people out, but nice to know there was a back up plan.

Ash Hollow State Park
While in Ogallala, we toured Ash Hollow State Park. Here you can see ruts from the Oregon Trail. Kinda cool to imagine what these explorers had to go through. We climbed Windlass Hill and saw the steep hills the wagons had to cross without brakes. Very interesting.

Storms
While here we had a thunderstorm overnight. First time we had hail while camping in the camper. The storm produced quarter size hail, or as the kids said bouncy ball size hail. Fortunately, the only damage was a crack in our shower sunlight. A little caulk fixed that the next day.

We spent Memorial Day weekend at a new State Park. Merrick State Park is our 23rd state park visited. We really loved the campsite. It was so spacious, plenty of room to sprawl out, hang hammocks, let the kids run around, and have campfires. This small campground only has 25 electric sites in the North Campground. The South Campground and Island Campground were closed due to flooding. The campground itself was well maintained and very quiet. Nearby there are train tracks and trains go by quite frequently. We don’t mind the train noise, since we are used to it at our own home.

Every Saturday night, the Friends of Merrick State Park offer a free show at the nature center. Memorial Day weekend was their first show of the season and it was a great one. The RAD Zoo from Minnesota came to show off some of their fun reptiles and amphibians. It was an hour long show with the ability to touch some of the animals at the end. Very fun and informative, even the adults enjoyed it!

Geocaching is a fun activity for the family. This campground had 5 caches that we searched for over the weekend. There was one pesky one that we could not find, otherwise the rest were pretty easily found. Mia loves trading little trinkets in the caches.

There isn’t much for hiking trails. There was one 3 mile trail that pretty much takes you around most of the park. There are some nice views of the Mississippi River along the way. If hiking is your goal, this is probably not the park for you because there isn’t a lot of options within the park.

The South Campground floods each spring from the Mississippi River. It was still closed when we were there, but we took a walk through it. It was still very muddy and very buggy. Lots of sites right on the river. If you can handle the bugs, it would be a cool spot to camp with kayaks when it opens!

Lock and Dam
A few miles south is a lock and dam. You can’t see a lot, but there is some information to learn about the system.

Our trip down to Flordia was filled with dodging tornado warnings and lots of traffic, but we made it safely and spring break 2023 has finally arrived!!! We all were looking forward to this much needed break from our regular routine. Panama City did not disappoint! We enjoyed beautiful beaches, perfect weather, fun adventures, and most importantly lasting family memories. 

All of us loved playing in the waves. We had only one yellow flag day and the rest were red flag days, which means we had big waves! Mia loved using her boogie board and riding the wave. 

St. Andrews State Park
We spent two days hanging out at St. Andrews. The beach was beautiful and it's the only place we could find intact seashells and sand dollars. We definitely had to work for them by snorkeling and diving down to get them, but we found ‘em! Travis is great at this, I pretty much hold the net and he does most of the work diving down to get the shells.
Another great thing about St. Andrews is you get a dolphin show right out in front of you. All the dolphin tours come to the spot to see them too! Jess was lucky enough to paddle board out and he had dolphins surrounding him on the paddle board, such a cool experience!
St. Andrews was also the hot spot to catch Spanish Mackerel. We caught our limit on our fishing charter right off the jetty. People were catching them along the beach and off the pier as well.

There is a nice calm side by the jetty as well, our crew opted for the big waves ocean side! There were also some trails through the marshy area where you could probably see some alligators too. It was a little to warm for us to do that.

We booked a 4 hour fishing charter and we will probably never be this lucky again. We caught our limit in Spanish Mackerel and just had a blast. We were busy reeling them in almost the entire time. Many times we had all four lines hooked, it was so fun!
One of my favorite parts (not so much our captains), was having dolphins steal our fish off the line! We literally had to reel the fish in faster than the dolphin otherwise they would grab the fish and our line. View a quick video on YouTube! 
​Dolphin stealing our mackerel!
Each family ended up with about 35 pounds of fresh mackerel to take home! It is delicious, so there will be lots of fish tacos in our future!

Right across from St. Andrews is a popular spot to get away from the crowds called Shell Island. You can take a shuttle over and it will drop you off and it picks up on the hour. We opted to rent a pontoon boat because for two families it was pretty close to the same price as taking the shuttle. We are so happy we rented our own pontoon. We were able to explore more of the island and we really enjoyed the peacefulness.
We did not find intact shells on Shell Island, only broken shells. Jess and I walked for miles and nothing. Maybe if you snorkeled, you’d be more successful. We didn’t bring our gear on our walk oceanside and the waves were pretty rough that day so we probably wouldn’t be able to see them anyway.

Most nights we would take the kids down to the beach with flashlights and search for ghost crabs. It was a lot of fun catching the little crabs. The kids would try to beat our number caught each night. Our best night, we caught 50 ghost crabs! All ghost crabs were caught and released! 

Catching sunsets and sunrises are one of my favorite things to do on vacation! 

New Glarus Woods State Park is a very small park in New Glarus Wisconsin. Jess and I tent camped here many years ago. This weekend we just visited for a hike. The kids found the one geocache in the park and they loved the playground, that was probably the highlight. Not much to see but woods. 

This is a nice spot to stay if you wanted to visit the brewery or the cute little town of New Glarus. If you are coming for hiking the park doesn't have a ton to offer. The Sugar River Trail is a nice paved bike path through town and the State Park if biking is your thing. 

Yellowstone Lake State Park is located in Southwestern Wisconsin the small town of Blanchardville. The main attraction is a 455 acre lake that is used for swimming and boating. There is a decent sized campground and many sites offer electric. 

We didn't have the warmest weather, but the kids did enjoy swimming a bit. Travis loved magnet fishing and found a small Spiderman fishing pool and hook. He didn't catch anything with his new pole though, haha! 

The bat program on Saturday night was very popular. We missed the information session, but arrived just in time for crafts and activities. Mia enjoyed that, along with watching the bats fly out of their bat houses for the night. 

This was a moderate nearly 7 mile hike with quite a bit of elevation gain. We were the only ones on the trail in mid-afternoon. It was a really hot day so we enjoyed a swim in Emerald Lake before and after this hike! 

We also encountered a black bear and a cub at the basin. The cub quickly scurried up a tree and mamma watched us closely from a distance as we continued on. ​

The Icefields Parkway is one of the most beautiful drives in the world! Mountain views all along the way and many glaciers and glacial lakes to stop and see also! Wish we had more time, but these were our stops along the way!

GyPSy Guide App
I highly recommend downloading this app for the Canadian Rockies. The guide will point out all kinds of interesting facts and worthwhile stops as you drive! It is amazing and extremely helpful!

One of my favorite stops was Peyto Lake, just stunning! Just a short walk from the parking lot you you get to witness this beauty! 

Athabasca Glacier
This was such a fun experience. We got to ride the ice explorer onto the Athabasca Glacier.

The Columbia Icefields Adventure includes the Athabasca Glacier and also the Skywalk. We loved the views from the Skywalk, but honestly there are beautiful views everywhere. We were amazed by the construction of the skywalk, what a huge feat it took to build the structure! We would definitely skip this if we come back to the area a second time though. 

We didn't come across a lot of animals on our trip. We did see grizzly bear and lots of big horned sheep on the side of the road. We came up on a black bear and cub on a hiking trail, but I didn't feel comfortable stopping to take a picture.

The Via Ferrata means "iron path." It is a trail made out of iron rungs, ladders, and permanently fixed obstacles. You can book a Via Ferrata tour at Mt. Norquay. There are a few adventures to choose from and you will have an experienced guide along the way. Unfortunately, Mia was not old enough for this adventure so the boys did the Alpinist 4-5 hour adventure while the girls enjoyed a day shopping and sightseeing downtown Banff. 

Moraine Lake
The color of Moraine Lake is just unbelievable. Surrounded by the Valley of Ten Peaks, the lake is just stunning. We rented canoes to get away from the crowds. This is definitely a difficult lake to see because parking is limited. With a little planning ahead, you can book a shuttle. We were lucky to get a parking spot one day, but we also had a shuttle booked later in the week so we took in the views twice! 

Lake Louise
Another very popular spot in Banff National Park is Lake Louise. You can book a shuttle ahead if you are worried about parking. Since the lake is a short distance from the parking lot, it was very busy. I suggest walking past the main entrance to enjoy the scenery. We also hiked up to the Fairmont Lookout (1.6 miles) to get away from the crowds. There were many more trails we wanted to explore, we just didn't have the time.

Consolation Lakes Hike (4.7 miles)
The sign at the beginning of the hike recommended to travel with 4 or more hikers due to bear activity. We did not see any bear on this hike. The trail was fairly easy until you get to the lakes. The kids had a blast hopping on the boulders around the lake. Climbing the boulders reminded us of Devils Lake in Wisconsin, only here we were surrounded by mountains! 

Johnston Canyon lower falls-1 mile
Johnston Canyon upper falls-3 miles
Ink Pots-7.3 miles
This is a very popular trail, so choose your timing wisely. We arrived around 2pm and there were only 12 parking spots left in both parking lots. The walk to the lower falls was extremely crowded. We chose to continue walking past all the view points for the lower and upper falls to try to beat the crowds. That strategy worked and once we past the upper falls lookout, we had the trail mostly to ourselves to the Ink Pots. At the Ink Pots, there were a handful of people, but not overly crowded. On our way back to the falls, we were able to stop at the viewpoints by about 5pm, the crowds died down. 

This is a fairly easy 6.4 mile out and back hike to Boom Lake. The lake was peaceful and no crowds! Not as popular of a hike, but still beautiful scenery! 

This was our last camping spot for our trip and it was our favorite! The campground is in a great location, great pull through sites, close to hiking trails, and beautiful mountain views! 

Camping
We camped at the St. Mary/East Glacier KOA Holiday for 6 nights. It was the perfect location to see a lot of the east side of the park, about 6 minutes to the entrance at St. Mary’s. It’s also about 30 minutes from the entrance of Many Glacier and 45 minutes from the entrance of Two Medicine. The campground also offers kayaking (the water level was too high for our stay), a nice pool and hot tub, and beautiful views of the mountains!

Going to the Sun Road (GTTSR)-This road is the only road that will take you from east to west through the park. It will take you over Logan Pass and the Continental Divide. It's opening is never predicted because it all depends on snow removal and avalanche danger. Two years ago, we missed the opening to Logan Pass by a week. Before it is open to cars, hikers and bikers are allowed to travel unless there is a hard closure. Two years ago, we biked to Logan Pass, with actual human powered bikes...no electric! Don't get me wrong, that was an amazing experience and one we still talk about often, but we were really hoping to drive the GTTSR this year. Unfortunately, mother nature did not cooperate! Glacier had lots of spring snow, and the GTTSR had its latest opening to date (July 13th). So once again, we were denied driving the GTTSR! Instead we parked at the Jackson Glacier Overlook, and walked to the hard closure at Siyeh Bend, no Logan Pass for us this year! Just means we will have to come back!

Many Glacier Boat Tour-We took the Many Glacier Boat Tour, which takes you across Many Glacier Lake, you hike about 1/4 mile to Lake Josephine and take another boat across to the other side. From there you have the choice to go back on the boat, or stay and hike and take a later boat ride back or walk back. Of course we hiked! ​

Hiking
These are the hikes we had time to complete. There are so many hikes in Glacier, you can’t pick a bad one!

Grinnell Glacier and Grinnell Lake Trails-These are the hiking options from the boat ride. We did both. First, we took the trek up to the Grinnell Glacier Overlook, the complete trail was not open yet due to avalanche risk. It was our first sight of the beautiful blue/green glacial lake, just stunning!

Unfortunately on this hike, Mia ate a protein bar that didn’t agree with her stomach. She made it all the way to the top, before she started feeling yucky. We brought hammocks in our packs and Mia enjoyed a snooze at the top of the Grinnell Glacier Overlook, not a bad place for a rest and snack. Thankfully, she felt much better after that!

On our way back down, we spotted our first moose from a distance in the marshy area near Lake Josephine. After getting the amazing view from the top of Grinnell Overlook, we hiked over to the base of the lake and had another rest in the hammocks!

Since we took the boat tour, we had the choice to ride the boat back to the Many Glacier Hotel, or walk the extra 3 miles back (the shorter trail on the East side of the lake was closed due to bear activity, otherwise I think it would have been 2 miles back). We missed the boat and had to wait another hour, so we decided to just walk back instead of wait. It was a pretty easy, flat trail. We ended our day with 11 miles hiked.

Cracker Lake-This hike was our favorite! It was a long and challenging hike, about 13 miles round trip and 1600 feet of elevation gain. The first two miles of the the trail is also a horse trail, so we experienced how much hiking on a horse trail stinks…both figuratively and literally!

On our way back, we also had our first bear encounter on the trail, yikes! The only time we saw others on the trail was when four men, stopped us to tell us they just turned back because a grizzly and her three cubs were on the trail ahead! So all 8 of us moved forward slowly, with bear spray in hand, on high alert. Sure enough, we turned a corner and there she was, this time with only one cub. The last thing we wanted was to get between her and her cubs. We all started making noise and she started to walk away. We continued forward, and spotted her once again along the trail, but this time she ventured back into the woods and allowed us to pass! Very scary experience and I'm glad those four men were there to warn us!

Mia's response after the bear encounter was "mom, did you get any good pictures?" My response "No Mia, I didn't get any pictures...I was too busy playing mama bear myself!" 

All of these things combined definitely made the Cracker Lake hike memorable. My kids are starting to appreciate the hikes we have to work the hardest for because those are usually the most rewarding and memorable ones!

Baring Falls, St. Mary Falls, Virginia Falls-If you had to skip one of these, I would say you could skip Baring Falls, but to do them all was about 7 miles and fairly easy hikes. St. Mary Falls and Virginia Falls are awesome! Definitely don’t skip those! We also spotted our second moose on the island right before St. Mary Falls. Virginia Falls is so powerful and you can get pretty wet! It was really roaring when we were there! 

Fishercap Lake and Red Rock Lake and Falls-This was our only rain day in Glacier, and it was an all day steady rain, unlike the brief storms that rolled through quickly. We really weren’t planning on going very far on the Swiftcurrent trail. Our goal was just to go to Fishercap Lake to look for moose. We did not see any, but lots of people say this is the location to spot them. We all had rain gear on and the trail was wooded, so we decided to just start walking and before we knew it we were at Red Rock Lake. We then went a litter further to Redrock Falls. If we were more prepared with snacks, we would have kept going to Bullhead Lake. But, since we have a teenage boy that eats every 15 minutes, we decided to head back to the car where the snacks were!

Two Medicine Lake

Paradise Point and Rockwell Falls-These trails are about 45 minutes south of the St. Mary entrance in Two Medicine. If you do not hike in Two Medicine, you have to at least drive to the lake. The drive is very scenic and a little scary if you are afraid of heights!

​At Two Medicine Lake we saw our 3rd moose, this time swimming across the lake and came out to Paradise Point! It was pretty cool!

Beaver Pond-This was our last day and we were looking for something close and easy. I really didn’t have high expectations for this hike since it is so close to the Visitor Center. To my surprise, we walked up to a bull moose enjoying an afternoon snack in a pond. We were way too close, but decided to just sneak by while he was enjoying his lunch break. We then walked down to the lake and when we came back, the moose moved and was now on the trail. We took a detour through the woods to give him his space. This was a nice easy trail, with beautiful wild flowers in the prairie and views of St. Mary Lake. 

We did see a few black bears as well, but they were elusive. I never caught a good picture of them! All of these pictures were from the truck, I never got a photo of the grizzly and cub we encountered on the trail. 

Camping and the town of Medora
Our first stay was in North Dakota, our 28th state! We camped at Medora Campground. This was the perfect location for a one day and night stop. The campground is located right next to the entrance of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We were lucky to get a nice pull through, full hook-up, shaded campsite. The campground is small and quiet and gives good views of the badlands. It is right along the Missouri River and families were enjoying swimming in the heat of the day. The water level was low and allowed for a little beach area at the campground. There is a city pool right next to the campground as well for a small fee.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park
This is our 13th National Park visited! We enjoyed the views from the Painted Rock Canyon Visitor Center. We also drove the scenic loop on the North Side. 

Rock Formations
This park provides a lot of cool rock formations. My favorite was the capped rocks which looked like mushrooms. Driving through the badlands makes you feel like you are on a different planet. It is just so vast and you can see for miles and miles.

Sunsets
Wind Cave Nature trail offered a spectacular sunset! The views of the badlands with the Missouri River and bison in the background was unbelievable! Thankfully, we were able to get out of the bison jam in time to run up the trail to see the sunset!

Camping
We were able to reserve a spot at Gulf State Park for the week, we booked our site one year in advance. Immediately we could see why this place is so hard to get into, such a great location and absolutely beautiful! Not only does it offer full hook-ups for campers, but also a heated pool and splash pad. There are two fresh water lakes, Middle Lake and Lake Shelby, available for recreation. Also, there is lots of miles of paved biking trails. Our campsite was a couple miles from the ocean access, but it was definitely doable to bike to the ocean. There are sites much closer, we just weren't that lucky and didn't know better when booking! 

Sunrises and Sunsets
This is one of my favorite things to do, can you tell?!?! Travis likes to get up early with me to see the sunrise at least once too. 

Parasailing
This was the first time parasailing for the kids and they absolutely loved it! This was definitely one of their favorite activities on the trip! We signed up by The Pink Pony restaurant, but there are lots of different locations on the beach. 

Shelling
Another one of our favorite activities on beach vacations, is shelling. On the main beach downtown, we didn't find a lot of shells. One of our last days, we walked down the beach at Gulf State Park to a secluded location and found a goldmine! Travis found a little drop off about knee high (for him, LOL) and found a lot of good shells! 

We had a blast taking the Learn to Curl class at the Milwaukee Curling Club! Such a great experience and I would highly recommend it! The facility was amazing and the staff were extremely knowledgeable and fun! After your two hours of curling, included is the traditional broomstacking activity, where you socialize with the opposite team and eat and drink together. Such a fun time! 

This boys trip was years in the making. Jess has been elk hunting with his uncle a few times, but he has been really looking forward to sharing this experience with Travis. Last year, 2020, definitely had a lot of disappointments and the boys elk hunting trip was just one more casualty of the year. Colorado along with many other western states, battled a horrible wildfire season. The trip was touch and go for a few weeks, but they were hopeful the weather would help get the fires under control. This ended up not being the case, the day they were ready to roll out Jess got news that their hunting area has been instructed to evacuate. Although they were extremely disappointed, I was thankful they didn't have to be that close to danger and was positive they would get another chance at this experience. One year later, they got the experience of a lifetime! 

Hunting
SUCCESS!! Jess and his uncle both filled their tags within the first couple days of hunting. That left plenty of time for harvesting the meat and also gave them time for some sight-seeing.