The Great Sand Dunes in Colorado have been on my bucket list for a long time.  These dunes are the tallest in North America, rising to about 750 feet, and were formed more than 400K years ago.  To read more about how the dunes formed […]

Rocky Mountain National Park We chose to spend two weeks in Fort Collins, Colorado, a college town about one hour north of Denver.  This was used as a base for visiting Rocky Mountain National Park, and just for exploring a new city.  Fort Collins, to […]

We arrived into Colorado via Wyoming, and it was a beautiful drive.  This was another new state for the boys to visit, and it had been a long time since I had been to Colorado. We visited Rocky Mountain National Park on Memorial Day weekend which […]

We have found some wonderful resources that we use regularly to enhance our homeschool.  But my very favorite resource is our National and State Parks.  What better learning experience can you imagine than seeing, feeling, and experiencing the National Parks first-hand? When we first left on our […]

While staying in Camp Verde, Arizona, near to Sedona, we found a few attractions to visit for free (with a National Parks Pass!) Montezuma Castle National Monument From Camp Verde, Montezuma Castle was a quick and easy drive.  A short walkway led to the pueblo cliffside castle, […]

Grand Canyon National Park This was our first visit as a family to the Grand Canyon.  The boys were both really looking forward to seeing it. We had been reading and re-reading a book about it weeks before we had arrived.  It just so happened […]

On our return trip to Chicago, our visit to North Dakota was monumental to us. This was a brand new state for all four of us to visit. Our stopping point was Medora, where we stayed for a week.  It was here that we were […]

Yosemite National Park was high on our list of must-visit places.  As we were traveling in central California, we met some nice people who were long time residents, and gave us some great advice about visiting Yosemite.  We took their advice and visited on a […]

After visiting Bryce Canyon National Park, we made our way back to Springdale, Utah, where we stayed for the week, down the street from Zion National Park‘s entrance.  I must admit that we were very surprised at the crowds for October.  The weather was in […]

Bryce Canyon National Park, located in southern Utah, was a side trip for us from our week long spot in Zion National Park.  We drove the two and a half hour route, through the “tunnel” in Zion. Spending one night in a hotel right outside […]

Yellowstone was one of the places that I could not wait to visit, and it did not disappoint!  We spent 3 separate days exploring, and still did not get to see everything.   For some reason, I pictured Yellowstone as a relatively flat area, with intermittent […]

Glacier National Park was breathtaking.  We stayed on the east side of Glacier in the town of St. Mary. This location was a great jumping off point for the Going to the Sun Road.  We were just minutes from the east entrance and Visitor’s Center […]

As we crossed into Montana, I could not resist the urge to stop at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Crow Agency, site of General Custer’s Last Stand.  In college, I took a Native American Literature class, and after reading the accounts of history […]