Category: National Parks

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller, Jacque Miller, Matt Miller, Holly Miller, Shane Miller

Date: July 13-14, 2005

Located in northwestern Wyoming just south of Yellowstone NP, this 40 mile long mountain range has many large peaks. The park is named after Grand Teton, the highest peak at 13,350 feet. The town of Jackson Hole and the Snake River runs through the valley.  We camped at the Jackson Hole KOA, had a nice campfire and donned sweatshirts as it cooled off at night.

The next morning was a white water rafting trip down the Snake River. It was fast and rough at times as we hit a few big holes that almost tossed Shane out. During the slower sections of the river it was very scenic with the Tetons to our right, sun glistening off of the river, tall pine trees, buffalo, elk and eagles to our left.

We didn’t spend much time in Jackson Hole but posed by the famous arch made out of moose antlers.  We hopped on a covered wagon for a two mile ride up into the foothills of Cash Creek Canyon for a dutch oven barbeque dinner (chicken, pork, baked beans, rolls) and a wild west musical show provided by the Bar T Five Ranch.  The cowgirl let Shane hold the reins and drive the horses. On the way back our wagon train was “attacked” by cowboys and Indians on horseback much to Holly’s delight.  

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller, Jacque Miller, Shane Miller, Holly Miller, Shane Miller

Expedition Date: July 14, 2005

Located in the southwest corner of Colorado, our kids listed this as one of their favorite National Parks. Established in 1906, it preserves and interprets the archeological heritage of the ancient Pueblo people who made their home here in the cliff dwellings from 600 to 1,300AD. The cliff dwellings and the Cliff Palace are well preserved. There are over 600 cliff dwellings and 5,000 archeologic sites at Mesa Versa.

We steered our van and pop-up camper up the winding Mesa Top Loop Road past archeological sites, overlooks and panoramic canyon views. We hiked the short Petroglyph Point Trail to see the rock carvings then hiked another trail to the amazing cliff dwellings.  The kids enjoyed climbing up several steep ladders and squeezing through many rock openings to visit Balcony House, a single dwelling.  Matt and Jacque then led us up a trail to the incredible Cliff Palace, remains of dozens of rooms and structures. The Pueblo people once lived on top of the mesa but eventually but these pueblos or cliff dwellings under overhangs on the cliff.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller, Matt Miller, Jacque Miller, Shane Miller, Holly Miller

Expedition Date: July 10, 2005

In northeastern Arizona, took famous Route 66 to the park.  The park is huge with 26 miles of paved roads. We hiked the Crystal Forest Trail and the Giant Log Trail, 1.5 miles full of colorful petrified wood, logs and crystals. One giant petrified log called “Old Faithful” was almost ten feet wide.  We saw petroglyphs of Newspaper Rock, an old ruined village, the eroded colorful badlands and many cool fossil exhibits. Matt was appointed the trailblazer to keep on the lookout for poisonous snakes and insects. Holly purchased a large piece of petrified piece of wood at the visitor center that she uses s a paper weight.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller, Matt Miller, Jacque Miller, Amy Bartolo

Date: 1999, July 2003, 2005, 2009, 2018

The giant arch, which scan be seen miles away, is a steel catenary arch located near the starting point of the Lewis and Clark Expedition on the Mississippi River. The 91 acre park holds the arch and a museum.  The arch is 630 feet tall and 630 feet wide at the base.  You can pay to ride a unique tram system to the observation room at the top. We enjoyed the museum and the views of the river. The arch is also known as “The Gateway to the West”.

We left the arch and took the kids to the St. Louis Science Center and Children’s Discovery Museum where the family enjoyed many exhibits and on-hand projects.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller Expedition Date: October 12, 2019

We took a fascinating tour of the NP Visitor Center & History Museum, formerly one of the therapeutic spas. called the Fordyce Bath House. Opened in 1915, The Fordyce Bath House in 1915, had the best reviews rating it as the best along the Hot Springs row. The three story spa plus basement cost $212,000 to build. The tour gave us a personal insight of the spa back then in all its glamour.

The first floor baths (Photo#1#3 &#4) were all marble floors with a stained glass ceiling. The second floor contained dressing rooms and private massage rooms (Photo#6). Electro-therapy was once considered part massage therapy (Photo#7). The third floor contained a music room with a grand piano plus gymnasium that gave us a glimpse of the today’s modern heath club. The basement contains an original Otis elevator and a view of the Fordyce Hot Spring that runs under the bath house.

An interesting historical note – Photo #5 shows Mercury Rubbing (Massage) Rates. Yes, they used to give therapeutic mercury rubs not knowing the horrible effect it would have on the body. In the old days mercury was used in making hats and would drive some men crazy – hence the phrase “Crazy as a Mad Hatter”.

We camped at the Hot Springs KOA Campground. That night it dipped to 39 degrees, perfect for roasting marshmellows over our campfire. the gymnasium, the forerunner of modern gym.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller Expedition Date: October 4, 2019

The trail name implies terror and in a way it got scary but this trail was fun and dangerous. After a short dirt trail walk from the parking lot the trail became a mass of rocks with climbs, squeeze-throughs and crawl-throughs. As you can see in Photo #1, often the rock trail was on diagonal rocks making the climb, walk or crawl challenging but fun. Some of the rocks extended quite high so it is not for the average inexperienced person.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie, Miller Expedition Date: October 4, 2019

We hiked three trails at the park.  My favorite was the 1.7 mile Skull Rock Nature Trail.  Skull Rock is a skull shaped desert granite rock formation with two depressions like eye sockets created by erosion.  We climbed many nearby granite rocks of various heights to get desert views.  The large rocks often took on various shapes like the Teeth of Skull Rock (Photo#4) and The Praying Hands (Photo#8). Along the trail at intervals for informational signs placed at various desert shrubs, flowers and rock formations.  One interesting wild desert plant was Red Top Buckwheat.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller Expedition Date: September 25, 2019

I felt like a real cowboy. We rode horses at daybreak from Sunrise Point on the rim down 1,000 feet to the canyon below.  During the 90 minute ride we viewed hoodoos (irregularly eroded rock spires) up close.  The hoodoos (Photos #5-#8) ranged in size from ten feet tall to a 10-story building. Indians thought these hoodoos were Evil Legend People who were turned to stone by the powerful Coyote Spirit.

Red River was the name of my horse. Our guide Chauncy, lived nearby and only had 130 teens total in his high school. Down in the canyon the temperature was 20 degrees warmer than the rim as the sun rose. On the horse trail we passed Praying Woman Rock (Photo #7), Naked Woman Arch (Photo #8), juniper and pine trees.  There are no waterholes in the canyon in the summer due to the heat. Lastly, if you ever heard the expression “Go shovel some shit”, well Photo#10 shows you that there are job opportunities for that line of work.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller               Expedition Date: October 5 & 6, 2019

Rosie & I camped at the Tucson KOA then attended Catholic Mass at the historic Mission San Xavier del Bac, an old Spanish Mission built in 1797.  After mass, we ate delicious Indian burritos sold by parishioners while fighting off an annoying baby scorpion (Photo#5-#7). 

We drove to Saguaro NP, where we hiked the 2 mile Mica View Trail,  home to tens of thousands of saguaro cactus plus cactus flowers, desert tortoises, gila monsters and javelina (Photo#7-#11).  After driving we slowly drove through the park and saw Mount Lemmon in the distance. We made it a future goal to hike to the summit.  Rosie admitted this was her least favorite national park on the trip due to the lack of diversity of scenery but I felt at home with the thousands of cactus.  For my birthday Rosie bought me a beautiful Saguaro NP orange bicyclist jersey and a Gene Autry Greatest Hits CD at the educational Visitors Center.

We camped at the Tucson KOA, the most fancy KOA campground ever. It has a restaurant, pickleball court, swimming pool & hot tub. Our campsite had a two level platform with chairs on the top deck and table, chairs and firepit on ground level (Photo#1-#4). Orange & other citrus trees were everywhere. If I beat this cancer for the third time we will return and winter here for a month in 2020-2021.

 

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller                   Expedition Date: October 12, 2019

We hiked 3 miles on the Short Cut Trail, the Mountain Trail, the Park Trail and the Zig Zag Trail in the rain (only our second time it rained the entire 30 day trip).  It was a winding trail through woods.  Rix Tower, a lookout tower 1,250 feet tall with a gift shop pavilion was about a mile up the trail.  Along one part of the dirt trail began a section covered with beautiful sparkling rocks of various size.  Back at the trailhead at the Hot Springs National Park Headquarters was a steaming thermal jug water fountain using natural hot spring water.

Prior to hiking Rosie befriended a homeless lady named Robin. We drove her to the local laundry so that she could dry her clothes and we gave her food money.

That night we ate supper at Superior Pub, a former spa and now a restaurant & microbrewery, which used hot spring water in the beer.  Hot Springs National Park is the smallest national park and is the only national park that makes and sells its own beer. I enjoyed a tasty reuban sandwich, hot chili and a cold brewsky.