As They Are: Exploring the National Parks

Tag: Camping

  • Badlands National Park: Traveling to a Wilderness Sunset

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    Although legislation to establish a National Park in the White River Badlands of South Dakota was introduced into Congress by Senator Peter Norbeck in 1909, the measure stalled and was almost destroyed completely by a Park Service in its infancy after 1916. The Badlands would not be declared a National Monument until 1939 and would not become a National Park until November 10, 1978 (two days before I was born).

    Badlands National Park would be the first that I would visit for a second time. I’d already spent a cold, exhilarating January afternoon there with my friend Lisa over ten years earlier. That earlier trip anticipated my move from Ann Arbor to Chicago and this one felt that it helped mark my tenth anniversary in the city.

    Sean and I took a mid-morning flight on American Eagle to Sioux Falls on Friday, September 5. (The previous evening we’d taken in a fantastic concert by Owen Pallet at the Metro.) The 9:30 – 11:05am timeframe was ultimately civilized, allowing us to wake up at our normal times and to grab breakfast at Frontera Tortas, our O’Hare tradition.

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  • Big Bend National Park: To the Rio Grande

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    Cerro Castellan from Cottonwood Campground

    Sean and I flew from Chicago to El Paso on Friday evening, November 8, after work and after having both taken our gear to work that morning. There’s something fun about wearing a full backpacking pack on the CTA during the morning commute. I had been a bit nervous that our backpacks would surpass the 50-pound limit, but without water, they didn’t. It was the first time we’d checked our big packs.

    In what has become a new tradition at O’Hare, we had dinner at Frontera Tortas. Complete with vacation-launching margaritas.

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  • Pinnacles National Park: At Camp, Part Two

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    Tule Bluet Damselfly

    After our long morning hike on Saturday (June 1), we were back at our campsite by early afternoon. We lunched on tortillas filled with peanut butter and potato chips. We were considering an evening walk, but for the afternoon, we decided it was time to relax in the campground, particularly since it was so hot.  (We’d learn later that it hit 104 degrees in the park that afternoon.)

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  • Pinnacles National Park: At Camp

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    It was Friday afternoon, May 31. We’d finished our hike into the High Peaks at about 1:45. Now we needed to drive around the south end of the Gabilan mountains to the park’s east entrance in order to reach Pinnacles Campground.

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