Best of 2021: Our favorite places
Dec. 2021
From April through December 2021, we travelled over 12,000 miles, visited 17 states, 19 National Parks (14 of which we had never been to before), 19 other National Park units, 33 state parks, and several BLM lands, public gardens, and city and county parks.
Alley Springs Mill, Ozark Scenic Riverways, MO
We saw lava fields in Idaho and New Mexico, and dune fields in Idaho, Oregon, Utah, and New Mexico. We saw lots of mammals and birds, such as sandhill cranes, snow geese, bald eagles, killer whales, otters, mountain goats, and moose.
We saw the world’s tallest trees, and SO MANY colorful rock formations and mountain vistas,
Fire Wave, Valley of Fire SP, Nevada
Temple of the Sun glowing at sunrise, Capital Reef NP, Utah
A small part of the remote Cathedral Gorge area in Capital Reef NP
Painted Desert, Petrified Forest NP, AZ
Tioga Road vista, Yosemite NP
as well as miles and miles of sagebrush-covered desert, a real cattle drive, and many beautiful waterfalls, lakes, ocean views, and sunsets!
Samuel Boardman Scenic Corridor, OR
We visited towns with the heritage and flavor of Europe: the Swedish town of Lindsborg, KS, the Danish town of Solvang, CA, and the German towns of Leavenworth, WA, and Fredericksburg, TX.
Lindsborg, Kansas
Leavenworth, WA
We saw quirky tourist attractions, such as Carhenge in the Nebraska panhandle, Hole ‘n the Rock on the way to Moab, Utah, the Wigwam Motel along Route 66 in Holbrook, AZ, and the Idaho Potato Museum in Blackfoot, ID.
We didn’t go here. We just liked the roadside sign!
Our route was a bit convoluted! We had to first travel from our former home in suburban St. Louis to Florida to establish our domicile, then double back to enjoy the spring blooms, before heading west. We had to time our trip so that we would arrive in Portland, OR in late August to welcome the arrival of our third grandchild. We also wanted to visit places at an optimal time weather-wise: trying, but not always succeeding, to avoid very hot conditions and/or large crowds. A couple of sites on Native-American lands were still closed due to Covid in the spring, so we had to cancel or rearrange some plans, and ended up retracing our steps in eastern Arizona in the fall. We ended the year in Texas in order to visit our other grown kids and their families in Dallas for Christmas.
We both chose our favorite places we saw this year. We had so many favorites that we had trouble narrowing them down, and so we divided them into the categories listed below:
Favorite National Parks (Craig)
Yosemite National Park
Glacier National Park
Kings Canyon National Park
Favorite National Parks (Julie)
Yosemite National Park
Olympic National Park
Death Valley National Park
We agreed that the scenery in Yosemite was simply spectacular. Craig liked that there was such a variety of things to see and do. Craig thought Glacier was beautiful, but I was put off by the crowds. I liked Olympic better, because of the variety of places to see. The park is huge, the rainforest is cool, and the beaches are beautiful! Craig loved the fall color in Kings Canyon, plus it felt like we had it practically all to ourselves. I was surprised by the colorful scenery of Death Valley. It exceeded my expectations.
Glacier N.P., Montana
Kings Canyon, CA
Sol Duc Falls, Olympic, N.P.
Golden Canyon, Death Valley
Favorite state parks (Craig):
Valley of Fire SP, Nevada
Cathedral Gorge SP, Nevada
Columbus-Belmont SP, Kentucky
slot canyon in Cathedral Gorge, NV
Favorite state parks (Julie)
Valley of Fire, Nevada
Columbus-Belmont, Kentucky
Mushroom Rock State Park, Kansas
Civil War earthworks, Columbus-Belmont S.P., KY
We again agreed on our first choice. Valley of Fire has so many colorful rocks and great scenic drives and trails.
We also chose our favorite campgrounds, both public state parks, and privately owned RV parks. We didn’t stay in as many state park campgrounds as we would have liked, because we couldn’t nab a reservation in a lot of places—they were all taken! We agreed that the best state park campground we camped at was Mother Neff State Park in Moody, TX, half an hour from Waco. We liked it because the sites were huge, the pads were level concrete, and we had full hookups for a good price. It did have a couple of downsides, though. We occasionally heard booms from artillery at Fort Hood, and roars from a SpaceX rocket test. It wasn’t super loud, but definitely noticeable. We also liked Henrys Lake SP, Idaho, about 15 miles west of the West Yellowstone NP entrance. We had a great view of the lake.
Our favorite privately-owned RV parks were Rancheria RV in Hat Creek, CA, and Welcome Station RV in Wells, NV. We had a large, shaded site with a pretty lake view at Rancheria. We didn’t have cell service, and only occasional internet, but it was quiet and a restful place to unplug. It was close to Lassen National Park, which was unfortunately closed at the time of our visit due to forest fires. Welcome Station was an oasis in the Nevada desert, with trees, grass, and flowers growing because of a spring-fed creek. There was noise from the interstate, but it quieted down at night.
Then we had favorites in Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands, and in other natural areas, as well.
Craig’s other favorites:
Alabama Hills National Scenic Area (BLM), CA
House on Fire, Bears Ears NM (BLM), UT
Thor’s Well, Oregon
House on Fire, Utah
Julie’s other favorites:
Alabama Hills, CA (BLM)
The entire Pacific coastline (but especially in Oregon!) Ok, I couldn’t narrow this down!
Red Rock Canyon Natl. Conservation Area, NV (BLM)
We have so many great memories of our first year of traveling, and look forward to 2022! This coming year will be spent in the eastern half of the U.S. We plan to camp in a lot more state parks than we did last year, and we expect the sights to be quite different—more trees and green fields, for one thing, and probably a lot more rain! But we’ll see mountains again, and the Atlantic coast instead of the Pacific. We’ll see the Great Lakes, too. It should be another fantastic year!