A weekend backpacking trip from the Great Sand Dunes National Park to the Blanca group. On the trip I was with Cam Honan of The Hiking Life. Read More ...

Continue reading Sand to Alpine: Great Sand Dunes to Ellingwood at PMags.com.

Our two-year wedding anniversary celebrated in Taos, NM.

I don’t take vacations.

I take trips.

My vacations usually involve hiking, skiing, climbing and sleeping outside. Instead of a Fodor’s guide, I look at a topo map.  Compass bearings direct me more so than street signs.  When I plan said trips, I don’t budget money. I budget how much food I need to pack and how much gear I have to carry.

The only exception to these types of trips are family visits. And, as much as I love my family, these are not vacations. 🙂  Even when my someone and I went to Germany to see her family, it was a family trip more so than a vacation as well.  People to see, catch up with and usually an event (such as a wedding) that the visit is centered around.

Sleeping in a comfy bed, going out to eat, relaxing and no obligations other than what someone and I decide is not something we have done in our five years together.

Continue reading Two years celebrated in Taos at PMags.com.

In my years of being in Colorado, there are quite a few places I have yet to go. Places I want to explore, see and experience. For whatever reason, I just have not been to them yet. Plans come up. Other ideas come to mind. The timing is just not right.

One of those places I've always wanted to see is the Great Sand Dunes National Park.

Something about the mixture of the vast expanse of the dunes against the high peaks of Colorado intrigued me.

I've always wanted to go.

But, I the right time never materialized.

After a shortened trip on the Colorado Plateau, the time did materialize. 

I proposed the trip to someone, she enjoyed the idea and we decided to spend some time in the Great Sand Dunes.

After loading up the Mag Wag (my trusty GMC Sonoma: Stick shift, no power locks or windows, camper shell full of perhaps a touch too many hiking stickers and enough accumulated dirt, leaves and twigs in the bed to form its own small eco-system) we headed down to the dunes.

Continue reading Sand and Snow – Great Sand Dunes National Park at PMags.com.