We did not get out hiking on Black Friday as planned. We did hike at TJ Maxx and WalMart and Sam’s… does that count? 😂
Anyway, the next day, it snowed all day long. It was a peaceful, pretty slow snow all day. Absolutely lovely. And I cannot resist a snowy woods, you know I can’t.
Luckily there was one nearby. Sunday morning, my husband’s birthday, we went out to enjoy the peaceful snow and to take the baby out on his first snow adventure!
I was worried about bundling the baby up, and I brought multiple body suits, two hats, his coat, mittens, a couple blankets…. We were very prepared haha! But he was snug as a bug and he enjoyed looking at the snow and the trees.
He also really enjoyed chewing on his mitten. Might have been his highlight.
As most everybody knows, we hike to live and live to hike. Each year, we create goals as a family for the coming year. Our hiking goals go from Thanksgiving to Thanksgiving, and restart on Black Friday. This started years ago as part of the Black Friday #OptOutside movement and my discovery of the 52 Hike Challenge. It really evolved into something so special and important to us. And every year, we review our goals and accomplishments and look to make new ones for the coming year. Which we did over Thanksgiving dinner the other night.
Last year, we did a countdown from 10 list of hiking goals. Here’s how we fared.
10 pre-baby hikes ✅ This felt like a big ask at the time, and it kind of was. But we did it! and then we started taking the baby!
9 dog hikes. ✅
After we lost our dear Marge, I did take Jeff on many more hikes. Marge enjoyed walks, but as she declined into her illness, she was not able to do many walks. Jeff gained a lot of weight during this time, and once she was gone, I took him along with me quite a bit. I don’t really do solo hikes anymore without Jeff since I had a couple weird incidents, so he’s my buddy. Something I especially like doing is going out with him at/around sunrise early on a Saturday or Sunday before the world (or at least OUR world) is awake.
8 hikes with friends ❓
I mean, I have done a bunch of hikes with the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts. Do those count? If so, then yes we did it. Actually, when I think about it, between the scouts, my cousin, and a couple former students, I definitely achieved this. The spirit of this goal was to be intentional around sharing time with friends and other families, but we really didn’t. So I would say yes we did it, but also not really.
7 kid-chosen hikes ❓
I would say we weren’t as intentional as I had hoped (what’s new) but we did go on many hikes the kids chose. Elephant Rocks, JSI, “blue hiking.”
6 hiking dates ✅
We did fit in several hikes. It was not just the two of us- it was typically the three of us- but that was still some good time to get that hiking therapy, the talks, and the connection.
5 new national or state parks/historic sites. 👎
this past year was very difficult financially, to be honest. We did not get to travel like at all. We didn’t even get to camp as much because we were very busy. Not to mention I started the year super pregnant and then delivered a baby. So this didn’t work out, but we are looking forward to adding new places this coming year.
4 special snack hikes (like the hot chocolate hike!) 👎
Better luck next year!
3 water hikes. ✅
Water hikes are definitely a fave in our family, so this one was easily in reach.
2 new state hikes 👎
We didn’t go anywhere. Except like Illinois once or something.
1 overnight hike 👎
This is like my one and only wish!! Can’t wait.
So all in all, we did not meet all our goals. But this year had way more in store than we ever anticipated so I think we did pretty good. There are two main things I’m grateful for as I reflect on my past hiking year. First of all, that we did get out there with our family more than we didn’t. And second, but most importantly, adding our little hiking buddy!
This year, we didn’t meet all our goals for our hiking year. I’m totally good with that.
This year was the definition of life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. We didn’t count on most things that happened to us- our big spring break trip was cancelled due to a huge home repair that cleaned us out, we were engaged in a legal issue for months that we didn’t anticipate at all, and we found out we are expecting a baby! It is a mix of wonderful and weird, but all in all, good things. Each of these things caused some change in plans.
We did not hit our minimum 100 hikes. We got 63- not bad! More than 52 which is how this whole thing began.
We did get 20 new trails in. We traveled to some new places where we hiked. One of our favorites was Palo Duro Canyon in Texas. We also found some new local trails which was part of what this goal was for.
We finally did our wildflower hike which was overdue from the year before. We did a bluebell hike on Easter and it was one of the most memorable hikes of the year.
We did not get our overnight hike in nor did we hit every state that touches Missouri (except Nebraska which we are saving for our future South Dakota). Missouri actually has the most states bordering it of any other state! We did get to hike in Iowa which we hadn’t previously done so that was great. Oklahoma and Illinois as well.
Of course, we hit some of our very favorite Missouri places and local trails too.
And of course, our favorite Missouri waterways. What’s better than a hike that ends in the river?!
I did not feel as much pressure to accomplish these goals this year. As we set goals for the coming year, it’s become more like a wishlist, a hope, a dream. Because we know especially since 2020 that we can plan but our plan doesn’t necessarily survive contact with the enemy. Or in our case, contact with the year ahead. This coming year, we know that the baby will be coming, and we are excited to see how life looks with our new addition. Hope he likes that baby backpack because he has some hikes in his future! 🙂
Pecos National Historical Park was high on my list of must visit places in New Mexico. First of all, I really needed to visit the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Paul Simon mentions them in his Hearts and Bones song, and I’ve always kind of romanticized it and thought if I was ever in the area, I would definitely visit them. And hike in them.
Also Pecos NHP is full of lots of history and I had read that it had some of the best pueblo and mission to explore in the area.
It is located in the beautiful Glorieta Pass of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico. These are the southernmost subrange of the Rocky Mountains and the mountains Paul Simon mentions in his song “Hearts and Bones.” I have always kind of romanticized them and wanted to visit. It was gorgeous.
This Historical Park is comprised of a couple of areas. We visited the mission and had the experience of descending into kivas and exploring the pueblos. Absolutely fascinating and a sacred experience.
I had been a little nervous to do it in front of everybody of fear of falling, but I did finally go and I was so pleased to have done so.
The kids, of course, worked on their junior ranger badge. We also visited the museum here which has artifacts of the many eras that Pecos was significant.
It was super interesting as the Gorieta Pass has been used to traverse the mountains in this area for thousands of years. As they say on their website, “Pueblo and Plains Indians, Spanish conquerors and missionaries, Mexican and Anglo armies, Santa Fe Trail settlers and adventurers, tourists on the railroad, Route 66 and Interstate 25…the Pecos Valley has long been a backdrop that invites contemplation about where our civilization comes from and where it is going. Thousands of years of this rich history is preserved for visitors at Pecos National Historical Park.” It is really a unique experience!
We also did some mountain hiking which I think is so beautiful. It had been overcast for the beginning of our Pecos visit, but the sun came out for our hike. The hike was just what I was seeking and it was totally gorgeous. The kids really enjoyed it too. Lucy had been worried about seeing cactus- we saw some on our hike and she was pleasantly surprised!
One of our priority stops in New Mexico was White Sands National Park. It is something I have always wanted to see, and I wasn’t sure when or if we would be coming back to New Mexico, so I really wanted to make it happen.
Turns out, we fell completely in love with the Land of Enchantment! So we will definitely be back.
Anyway, we had one day to spend in White Sands. We set out from Santa Fe in the morning. We were behind schedule and it has SNOWED- big surprise! I was very nervous driving through the Glorieta Pass due to the snow, but we had a very lovely drive down. It is about 3.5 hours from Santa Fe to White Sands National Park.
We arrived a little later than I had wanted to, which was okay. The family we were traveling with were nervous about things filling up with the crowds that we encountered. We didn’t have to wait long to get in, we stopped briefly at the Visitors Center and then we were on our way. The park is huge, but there aren’t a ton of roads or anything. In fact, there’s pretty much one road. We didn’t encounter traffic, but we did see some full parking lots.
It was an incredible drive in. At first, there’s white sand and plants, and then the road and the plants disappear and you are surrounded by dunes of white sand. It’s incredible!
We found a place to park and began to explore. Something we were very excited about was sledding down the dunes! I had read lots and lots and lots of information regarding the sledding. We had brought a couple sleds, including those slide boards that are very flexible. These were not the best. They worked, but the sand would get caught up. Our friends bought some long plastic sleds and these were great. The best recommendation we found were for saucer sleds. They also recommended wax. The shop was out of wax, and we did just fine without it. I was grateful our friends had brought their sleds!
These dunes were 40-60 feet tall for the majority of what we were sledding. So the trek back up was no joke! I spent a lot of time sitting in the sand. It is not silica sand as many people think. It is selenite basically. It is unlike any sand I have encountered before. The best part is that it just dusts right off with no problem. I imagined we would all be covered and it was really easy clean up! So we took advantage of sitting in, laying on, and experiencing that sand!
My bucket list item was to see the sunset at White Sands. So the sunset hike was top of my list. We played in the sand all afternoon and we wanted to be early to the sunset hike because I had read that the parking lot fills up quick- they were right! We were early so we hung around that area for a while. Then we went on the ranger-led sunset hike. We learned a ton about the formation of the White Sands. The ranger had dug a hole and there was a wood pole in there. You could see that not very deep below us was water! It was very interesting and engaging for both kids and adults!
Nick was sworn in as a junior ranger right there on the hike- a very unusual but special event! He was very proud.
Then the moment we all been waiting for- the sunset! Oh so glorious. We had clear skies, so not a ton of drama from clouds but there was total drama from our surroundings. Definitely in the top ten sunsets I’ve ever seen in my life.
As soon as the sun dropped behind the mountains, the temp dropped a ton! I couldn’t believe how fast it happened. And then we sadly had to make our way out of the park because it closes.
It is located outside of the town of Alamogordo. We stayed there that evening. Inside of the park, there are no services such as food or lodging. The town is really only about ten minutes away from the entrance to the park, so it is okay.
That evening, we got some Mexican food and in the morning, we began our journey home. We had to stop for some souvenirs though- and to see the largest pistachio in the world! Another perk of staying in Alamogordo. 🙂
I am excited to return here soon and share even more that we discover about the park!
**This post have been in draft for nearly a year…. but in preparing for our triumphant return to the Land of Enchantment, I wanted to get this out into the world!
