Our Trips

Some of the most special things in our relationship are the great trips we take together. Starting in 1999 with our first trip to Yosemite National Park, we decided to forgo traditional “anniversary” gifts and instead began adopting the idea that we would take a trip as our gift to each other – always centered on our anniversary date.  This has proved to be a wonderful decision as we have created lots of amazing memories over the past 9 years of trip taking. Over the years, our trips have become more sophisticated and ambitious – and we’ve been lucky to take several trips each year.

While we take nearly-annual trips to ASU bowl games, extend Scott’s work-related travel with a few days of personal sightseeing, and embark on occasional trips to visit family (especially Kim’s family in the Pacific Northwest or Scott’s extended family in the Bay Area), our trips almost always include at least a stop at a National Park unit. In fact, it’s no secret that most of our trips are entirely focused on visiting the National Parks.

Our National Park quest

We really enjoy visiting the National Parks. After a few early trips, we decided that the best way to experience the great natural and cultural resources of this country was to visit each unit of the National Park Service – not just the “National Parks,” but also the National Monuments, National Historic Sites, National Battlefields, National Seashores, National Recreation Areas, and other designations. And so it was with that we embarked on this enormous life goal. The current number of units stands at 391 – and there are proposals annually to add new units – but we’re determined to see it through and have already bagged about 40% of them. It’s been an incredibly rewarding, educational, and sometimes demanding quest, but one we’ll treasure throughout life.

A typical roadtrip

Led by Kim, we spend quite a bit of time trip planning and plotting our strategy for completing the NPS units of a certain target region. Care must be taken not to “orphan” a unit so that it requires it’s own future trip to complete a geographic area. Living in the Southwest, our trips usually involve Scott driving long distances in our trusty Subaru Forester while we complete a tightly-packed schedule. We usually camp, but spend little time at the campsite beyond cooking and sleeping, as we’re actively sightseeing in the park from dawn to dusk. We usually sprinkle in a few motel stays (it’s nice to get a shower and hit the wifi), but have been known to spend nights sleeping in the Forester in interstate rest areas. While we work hard to see as many units as possible on each trip, we also take time to hit other interesting attractions along the way, whether that’s a local state park or a roadside oddity. Nonetheless, many describe our trip itineraries as “grueling.”

We have started several traditions for our trips. First, we try to spend our anniversary in a special place, usually scheduling the trip around being in a particular park on July 15th. Even though we’re both amateurs, we take quite a few photos – it’s not uncommon for us to combine for 15,000 during one of our 3-week trips. Luckily for our friends and family, we only post a small fraction of those online; you can see Scott’s here and here and Kim’s here. We collect passport stamps and pins from each park, as well as a Falcon Guide hiking book if they offer one. We also take photos of state “welcome” highway signs, photos of our odometer every 1,000 miles, and our Forester in view of the park entrance sign. This year at our wedding, we started a new tradition of taking a photo of “Brownie the Traveling Bear” at various places. We bought him on the eve of our wedding in Yosemite, though he sustained a serious leg injury a few weeks later when Scott carelessly dropped him as we left Davey Crockett’s boyhood cabin. Finally, and probably most importantly, Scott takes a self-photo of ourselves at each unit. We call these “Scott and Kimmie” photos – check out the slideshow.

Trip listing

Here’s a mostly complete list of our significant trips. We’re working to develop a summary page for each trip but I expect that will take us a fair while. Scott also maintains a listing of trips on his website that lists National Parks and other attractions that we visited on each trip, in addition to other trips he’s taken individually.

2009

• Bayou Roadtrip – December
• San Diego for Larry & Ann Marie’s Wedding – September
• Mojave National Preserve with Victoria & Terry – February

2008

• National Parks of Texas – December
• Canyonlands and Arches – September
• Post-wedding roadtrip through the South – July
• Wedding in Yosemite – July
• Lake Havasu City – April

2007

• Holiday Bowl in San Diego – December
• Vermilion Cliffs and Navajo Natl Mon – November
• Washington, DC for Kim’s 30th Birthday – September
• Great American Roadtrip for our 10-yr Anniversary – July

2006

• Family and the Coast – December
• Fourth of July Reunion in San Diego – July
• Following the Historic Trails – July
• Zion and Bryce Canyon, Part II – April

2005

• National Monuments of New Mexico – July

2004

• Sun Bowl in El Paso – December
• Arches with Robert & Shanna – October
• Our Engagement Trip – July

2003

• Channel Islands – December
• Sequoia and Kings Canyon with Tiffany – August
• Olympic with Jessica – June
• California Coast – March

2002

• Holiday Bowl in San Diego – December
• Mt Rainier and Crater Lake – August
• Zion and Bryce Canyon – March

2001

• Petrified Forest, El Morro, & El Malpais – July

2000

• The Dalles and Mt St Helens – July

1999

• Falling in love with the Sierras – August
• San Francisco with the Altima – March

1998

• Hiking near Las Vegas, our first out-of-state trip together – March