In visiting Petroglyph National Monument, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this area is widespread with lots of geographic- and geologic!- variety. We were traveling with friends, and we were debating how much oomph we had, and we determined that we had enough oomph to tackle The Volcanoes Day Use Area of Petroglyph National Monument.
This area is about a 15-20 minute drive from the Visitors Center. I had read some warnings that there could be some crime and violence in the area and to secure your vehicles. The area is in a pretty remote area, so maybe that is why they said that. We had no trouble on our visit, except the trouble we caused ourselves. 😀 We only ran into one other person while we were out there.
We had experienced a very delightful hike prior to this. When we arrived at The Volcanoes area, it was very windy- there are no trees or rocks to block the wind up here. You are on top of an escarpment overlooking the city of Albuquerque. It was absolutely stunning. And, as I mentioned, windy. We had experienced a little rain up to that point, and as we hiked, we got to experience even more. And wind too!
This area is home to three volcanoes- JA Volcano, Black Volcano, and Vulcan Volcano. A little further north is Bond Volcano. There are a few trails, and we ended up looping all three volcanoes, ascending them and walking up and down. The trail is not especially difficult, moderately rugged, and did feel long due to the wind. Our kids were troopers and it was fun to say we had climbed volcanoes!
Another fun experience was catching the tumbleweeds. I had never gotten to experience one up close like that. It was pretty cool!
On the top of the first volcano- the one you could truly summit- it was so windy, I was worried about the little ones! It was strong. But we had amazing views. The pictures do not do it justice at all, and you can barely tell we are on top of anything. 😀
We did also get to experience sweeping vistas of the city and the Rio Grande Valley. It was gorgeous. We were on the fence about continuing or returning to our car. We continued and conquered the most difficult of all the climbs. Again, the kids did great, so did the adults, and we were all proud of ourselves!
This was a unique and fun hiking experience that I would totally do again in a heartbeat. But was not even my favorite on our New Mexico adventure!
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!
**This post has been in draft since August. Thought about saving it, but I’m just going to go ahead and finish it and put it out there.**
We finally were able to check float off our summer bucket list just in time for school to start!
We floated in the Lesterville area on the Black River with Horseshoe Ranch Campground and Floats. They’re a small operation that is family-oriented, which we appreciated. We went on a Sunday and our exposure to drunk, young floaters was minimal. We did not camp the night before or the night of which is an unusual choice. The place we went through does offer camping and most float outfitters do. I think next year we will camp.
We did a six man raft, which was perfect for us. The raft is the least tippable option and while we did lose a few people after an unfortunate run in with a tree stump and Kareem lost his sunglasses, ultimately, we did pretty good.
When we hit that stump, Nick, Rami, and Kareem went flying out the raft. I did not notice because I was trying to stabilize until Nick yelled. I was able to get Nick to grab my oar, but Rami and Kareem were getting swept down. The river is not that deep, so I was telling Rami to touch the bottom. He was getting panicky, so finally I yelled in a deep voice RAMI SWIM TOWARDS THE SHORE AND TOUCH THE BOTTOM. He reacted to that. He had a hard time touching because of the current, but he got there. He did immediately swim sideways which helped a lot more than trying to swim back to me against the current. Then we tried to get Kareem. I was having trouble getting the raft to the side of the river, and I thought for a minute, well we are going to totally leave Kareem and Rami here! But I managed it and I felt very proud. At this point, I noticed another family down from us a little ways. They clapped for us, ha ha. They were in canoes and apparently had gotten it much worse through that point. But we all made it, and it was a fun story to tell later.
Jimmy fell out once, but it was at a slow part and we immediately grabbed him and plucked him out the river and back into the raft. Here he is post incident. Clearly very bothered by the whole situation.
Part of the fun of floating is the people you meet.
The Black River is definitely one of the best rivers in Missouri to float, though we are not without lots and lots of options here in our gorgeous, floatable state. We drug once which is not bad for this time of year.
The Black River is so clear with a rocky bottom! Very typical of the area. Very swimmable. Gorgeous scenery everywhere you look.
I will admit, though I am super adventurous, I was slightly nervous to take four kids and a dude who has floated once or twice as a young man on one of those kinds of floats we were trying to avoid. But we were safe and the kids had a blast. Properly fitting PFDs are an absolute must. We own ours because we do spend a lot of time in and around water with our children. It’s an investment worth making!
I was slightly concerned about the weather. They weren’t calling for rain or storms, but you know you can feel it coming. And I just felt a pop up storm coming. You can see that high cloud there int he above picture. It rained very lightly just for maybe ten minutes while we were out- it was absolutely spectacular. I was worried we might have thunder and lightening- we did, but not until we were out of the river.
It was really cool to see the kids step up and help, and you could tell they felt more and more confident as the day went on.
Beginning and before Kareem lost his sunglasses
The end- no sunglasses, but feeling proud!
We pulled out, the bus pulled up, and we all piled in. Moments later, thunder cracked, the sky opened up, and we were being driven like a bat out of hell down the dirt road on the side of that mountain. My kids (and I) did NOT enjoy this part at all. Lucy was crying, Nicky was praying, and I was doing some kind of holy mix of cussing and laughing while trying to remain calm for the kids.
We got back in one piece but definitely changed after that bus ride! We started home after that, and of course, everybody immediately fell asleep in the car.
All we wanted to do after this float trip was. book another one! Unfortunately, we didn’t get to go again last year, but we are already talking about where we’re floating next summer!
So President’s Day weekend was calling my name, and we are just coming off a bit of a financial slump with Kareem having lost his job etc. Too cold to camp, we were racking our brains to find a fun getaway we could treat our kids to…. after throwing around LOTS of ideas (and now generating lots of fun long-weekend getaways to try out some other time!), we landed on Kansas City. Mostly due to a deal on lodging that I got for there- I have said it many times, but flexibility is key when trying to travel on a budget! Be open to the deals.
I have been to Kansas City a handful of times, but never was super enthralled with it. Had a good time each time, but was never really compelled to return. I was usually there because of an event happening, not as a destination. Well, this time it was a destination and I was determined to find some fun- and as close to free as possible!- things to do there.
We arrived late- later than I wanted to- Friday night. We got some food and got to the hotel to get some sleep- I knew we were going to be busy!
Being Presidents Day weekend, I wanted to include some presidential stuff, so on Saturday we hit up Independence, MO. Truman Home National Historic Site includes multiple sites that were significant to President Truman’s life, and guess what- it’s all free! Some of it was still closed due to COVID, but we had a nice home tour and saw some other sites as well.
We hit up the Presidential Library and Museum. We spent much more time here than I thought we would. The kids were very engaged, and it was awesome. The tickets for this were $12 a piece, but all the kids were free, so total was $24. Pretty great!
We hit up Clinton’s soda fountain for ice cream, which was super affordable. This was the spot where President Truman worked as a kid.
We walked around some other sites in Independence including the Community of Christ Temple which will reopen to visitors on March 1. We also visited the Visitors Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We did the (free!) tour and watched the (free!) films and did the (free!) exhibits and playroom. The kids really enjoyed this stop.
We also stopped by the National Frontier Trails Museum. I don’t remember the breakdown in ticket prices, but it cost us about $24 total for our family of six. We really loved this museum. And afterward, we hiked out to see the swales (ruts leftover from the wagons on the Oregon, California, Mormon, and Santa Fe Trails) which was one of the kids’ favorite parts of the whole trip. And that was free, of course.
When doing places like this where we know that evening entertainment may be limited, if we are staying in a hotel, we try to get a hotel with an indoor pool for some (free!) wear you out type of evening activity. We also like a hot breakfast provided. 😀
On Sunday, we visited two art museums. At the Nelson-Atkins, we did the outdoor sculpture park trail. We did not do the interior of the museum this time, but it is free. We also visited the Kemper Contemporary Art Museum which is much smaller than the Nelson-Atkins which was a contributing factor to our choice of bringing small-ish kids with us. This museum also had free entry and free parking. There was also an area for the kids (or any visitors, it was not just for kids) to create art.
After that, the biggest ticket item we did was the science museum. The tickets were $14 each. However, we had FIVE HOURS of fun there and could have stayed even longer. It was definitely worth it.
The science museum is located in Union Station which is still a working train station. We walked around there and enjoyed the beautiful architecture. We walked across the freight bridge over the tracks, and they have a model train exhibit which stole Jimmy’s heart. All the kids really enjoyed it. And this was all- you guess it- free!
We ate at Fritz’s restaurant and walked around Crown Center. Fritz’s is very reasonably priced, and the kids loved seeing the trains deliver the meals. It was very fun.
We did an evening sunset at the Liberty Memorial high atop a hill in the middle of the city. Which, of course, was also free. And a really lovely memory together.
On the way home, we went out of our way to visit St. Joseph, MO and the Pony Express Museum. This Museum charged $8/adult and $2-$3 per child, depending on age. Kareem wasn’t able to join us, so we did this very cheaply as well. This was very neat, but it was the only site we really enjoyed in St. Joseph, so I’m not sure I’d go out of my way to go there again.
We hit up Let’s Make Art. If you’ve followed me for long, you know that we are big fans of LMA and their YouTube channel. We got to see the store and the kids got to go in the back and see their filming studio. They loved this! We let them pick something out from the store, but my cousin had given them each $25 to spend on the trip, so it was free for me. 😀
We needed some outdoor time- it was so gorgeous out! So we went hiking at one of the four remaining covered bridges in Missouri. (More about that here.) This wasn’t a long or strenuous hike, so we lingered and had a lovely time.
We also stopped in Marceline to see Disney’s boyhood home and dreaming tree and barn. My stepson is a HUGE Disney fan, so I knew he would love this. And so we enjoyed the sunset from the barn.
So. A very FULL weekend that did not empty our pockets! Attractions for six of us altogether was about $150. Can’t beat that! We used some Christmas money we had gotten and a tank of gas, and it was really worth it. None of the kids wanted to leave, and they all had lots of great things to say about the trip. A success!
A couple weeks ago, we visited the delightful Washington State Park. We have visited there to hike before, but I haven’t camped there maybe ever or at least since I was like ten.
We went with my parents, which means we bring our tent and they bring their camper. Which means my oldest son and my girl child sleep in the AC while my youngest and my stepson sleep in the tent with us- by choice!
Washington State Park is not in Washington state and it’s not in Washington, MO. It’s in Washington COUNTY, Missouri between De Soto and Potosi off 21. It’s a very easy and close drive to St. Louis, but you feel like you’re a world away. Typically we go much further away to camp, so this was kind of nice.
The big draw to Washington State Park was the pool. Well guess what. They closed the pool the week before. Okay, but there are lots of other cool things to do here! There are some really cool hiking trails such as the 1000 Steps Trail, there are swimming and fishing and floating opportunities on the Big River, there are petroglyphs to view, and beautiful stone structures built by the African American Civil Conservation Corps nearly a hundred years ago.
Despite all that Washington State Park has to offer, Nick was disappointed to find out on the way there that we were not visiting his beloved Current River. He ended up having a good time, but not before some initial heartache.
The campground was very nice, but was not near anything cool. There was a playground there for the kids, and we did a lot of scootering around at the campground.
I was really excited to get my dad out to do the short walk to the petroglyphs with all of us. It was very HOT, but my kids enjoyed seeing the petroglyphs. I swear, I have taken them here about twenty times, and every time they forget we were ever there and it’s like a whole new experience. They enjoyed the petroglyphs and exploring the rocky glade. These rocky glades are very typical in the Ozark landscape, especially in the St. Francois mountains. I love them. They are dramatic and beautiful.
Speaking of dramatic and beautiful, the hiking in Washington State Park offers amazing views of the surrounding hills and the Big River below. We also got to explore and see those stone structures.
The 1000 Steps Trail is a trail that was built by that same African American CCC Company. They built the trail and its many stone steps up the ridge, as well as stone shelters only accessible via the trail.
The trail is pretty rugged. It is about a mile and a half long, but it shares a trailhead and part of its trail with the Rockywood Trail, so you can easily spur off, which we did.
If you are going to bring small children- our smallest on this hike was four years old- I would recommend keeping a close eye on them. It is very uneven and steep both up and down, and you are going down alongside of a steep ridge.
We began at the trailhead by Thunderbird Lodge. We went along and then straight up the hill via some of those stone steps. We went early in the morning, but it was going to be a hot August day, so lots of water breaks. The stone shelter along the way was perfect for a magical little break. The kids loved the idea that these steps and shelter were built so long ago.
Now when I say steps, it’s not like stairs. It’s large flat stones that were laid in the 1930s. So many of them are broken, and much of the trail is not steps at all. So don’t expect a staircase, because it is not.
The stone shelter is not the top, but it’s close. We continued to the very top where we hung out at a very pretty shelter with a fireplace that looks great for a family gathering. Then we continued on along the top of the ridge. Then it was time to descend.
Going down is always harder than going up. It takes more concentration and can be more physically demanding, even though going up might feel more difficult. This is the part I supervised Jimmy on the most.
We made it! The older three kept talking about how much they LOVED this trail, especially Lucy. I think they enjoyed the challenge of it and the beauty. It does feel like a magical forest.
We then walked all the way along the bottom of the ridge not far from the river back to our car. I was proud of these buddies!
If you follow me on Facebook, you saw the terrible faces of Jimmy throughout the hike. I take pictures pretty quickly on these hikes and don’t necessarily pay attention- I just kind of hope for the best. Anyway, hilariously, I got about eight pictures of Jimmy looking decidedly unhappy this particular day. He had moments of joy as well, but it was funny looking back at those pics.
Later that afternoon, we took them swimming in the river. There were plenty of people there, but it wasn’t crowded. We had lots of space. Closer to dinnertime, several groups were taking out a bit upstream from their floats.
This beach area is mostly rocks and sand. The river is very shallow here- the kids could walk across easily and not even be waist deep. There is rock and then the other side is a tall bank of dirt, which Nick enjoyed making into mud and getting exceptionally dirty. You can count on him for that! 🙂
The kids really enjoyed the beach time. And so did we! I love sitting my camp chair in the water and hanging out- don’t you??
We then returned to camp for dinner, fire, and s’mores. Early bedtime because everyone was beat!
We had a great weekend at Washington State Park and will definitely visit again.
