In 2003 we went to visit friends who spend their winters in Arizona, away from the Minnesota cold, snow and ice. They bought a lovely town home in Tucson and we enjoy visiting them, over a long weekends, in February, when it works.
There is a lot to do and see in the area where they live: Tuscan Botanical Garden, Saguaro National Park, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, DeGrazia Gallery, Old Tuscon Studios, Mt. Lemon and the Santa Catalina mountains, good restaurants and several places for hiking. Sabino Canyon is one of those places.
Sabino Canyon is a desert oasis in the Coronado National Forest. When you arrive at the park you can take a tram up the canyon and walk back down if you desire. That’s a great way to hike! But there are several trail options available to hike back down. We have hiked in this canyon on several different trips. On this day in Sabino Canyon we were casually hiking down along the canyon in the beautiful, warm, sunshine. There was water in the canyon; water pools in the canyon during winter months and being near water while hiking is a always a treat. As we were walking we caught up with a couple in front of us that had stopped on the trail. They pointed to a rattlesnake coiled up in the sun on a rock along side the trial. We tiptoed past it and kept on going. That’s the first time, and hopefully the last time, I see one of those snakes!
Desert cactus in bloom.
Other than the snakes, the desert landscapes in this park are beautiful and it’s especially nice when one can enjoy warmth and sunshine knowing it’s cold and icy back in Minnesota.
My husband and I went camping in Itasca State Park. This park is a beautiful treasure in Minnesota. In this park, the headwaters of the Mississippi begin. We camped here with our boys when they were younger, but this year it was just my husband and I.
It’s always fun to say “I’ve walked across the Mississippi River.”
One afternoon we took off hiking on a trail from the campground, and I was in the lead. As we were walking along I noticed black in the treetops above me, on my right. I stopped to look and noticed there were two black cubs high in the tree…so then I thought…hmmm, where’s mama?
Tree tops (a photo w/o the cubs).
I looked to the left of the path and there she was, staring right at us. At that moment I couldn’t remember what I was suppose to do. We’ve been to so many parks and read so many signs telling one how to react to bears…black bears or grizzly bears… play dead for one and act big for another, but in this moment – when I needed to know – I forgot! So we stood there, and then slowly stepped backwards. The cubs climbed down the tree, walked over the path in front of us and joined their mama, all the while the mama kept her eyes on us. And we kept our eyes on her too!
The mama bear, keeping her eyes on us.
When the cubs were safely with their mama we watched them scamper off into the woods and we kept going on our hike, happy to have had a safe, and memorable, encounter with the black bears.
In 2014, an article in The Washington Post read “An estimated 94 percent of Lake Superior is covered with ice, enabling sightseers to visit the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore’s sea caves for the first time since 2009.”
Before 2014 I did not know there was a possibility of walking on frozen Lake Superior to visit the sea caves. We explored the sea caves while kayaking one summer, but to see them in the wintertime was intriguing. I love Lake Superior and I loved the idea of walking on it. As soon as I learned about this opportunity we recruited some friends and headed to Duluth for dinner and an overnight, and drove to Bayfield, Wisconsin the next day. A beach near Bayfield was the designated entry point for the trail to the sea caves. There were throngs of people with the same idea. It quickly became a very popular attraction that winter, which made for congested parking and long lines – but it was worth it.
We bundled up in our warm, winter gear, grabbed our hiking poles and walked out to see the beautiful dazzling ice formations, crystal caves, and icicles hanging everywhere off the cliff faces along the Apostle Island National Lakeshore. When the lake is not frozen the sea caves are very popular places for exploring with canoeists and kayakers. But at this point in time people could walk through, and crawl under, these same sea caves and it was awesome!
Our youngest son, Tim, planned our first trip to Africa. He was living there when my husband, oldest son and myself went to visit. Tim met us at the airport as we stepped off the plane. It was so exciting to be in Africa!
A photo of a page from the photo book I made from our trip.
We met the rep from the rental car company and picked up our car. We were soon on the road starting our adventures. The first days were spent at a rustic lodge in Liwonde National Park in Malawi, Africa. We went on an exciting canoe safari and saw hippopotamus’ up close, and in this park we saw elephants in the wild for our first time (but not our last).
Our first hippo sighting from our canoes.A hippo…they’re big!
After a couple of nights it was time to head to the country of Mozambique to see where our son lived. However, the morning we were to leave we had trouble starting our vehicle at the lodge. After several attempts the car finally started and we drove to the park entrance. We had to turn in our permit to the park ranger and by automatic reflex we turned off the car. This time it wouldn’t start again.
Photo from our safari in Krueger National Park…there was no hiking in this park…must stay in the open-top jeep with your guide.
We called the rental company and they said they would send someone right away but of course we were a couple of hours from the city, so we each took out our books and started to read. After a while I decided I wanted to take a walk. My oldest son said he’d go along so we started walking down the road. Immediately the park ranger came running after us and said in broken English…”No! No walk…elephants.” So, of course we had to go back to the car.
Finally two mechanics showed up at the park to fix our car. Thankfully they could do it on the spot and they worked quickly. Soon we were on the road again driving to Mozambique.
A photo of a photo of the sunset we saw as we were paddling back to shore from our canoe safari.
Shortly after we arrived home to the USA I noticed an article in the newspaper about a young mom and her baby attacked by an elephant in Kenya, Africa and they died. Of course I immediately thought about our attempted hike in Liwonde National Park. I guess the ranger knew what he was talking about.
In 2016 my husband and I took a road trip and met up with friends in Québec, Canada. We spent our time in Old Québec, a quaint section of the city with a European flair and a lot of history. French is the primary language spoken in all of Québec, and the signs, including road signs, are in French.
Looking out from Old Québec…the trail went along the top of the walls surrounding the city.
According to Wikepedia, Québec City is one of the oldest cities in North America. “The ramparts surrounding Old Québec are the only fortified city walls remaining in the Americas north of Mexico, and were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985 as the ‘Historic District of Old Québec’.”
The front doors of our B&B.
We spent a few nights in a B&B in Old Québec. Because of the narrow streets with a lot of traffic and limited parking, it was suggested we park outside the walled city in a parking ramp, which we did. We had to travel by foot to visit what we wanted to see in this historic town; Château Frontenac Hotel, wonderful restaurants, outdoor markets, sea vistas.
Château Frontenac
The memorable hike was our walking on the city wall. The circumference of the fortified wall that surrounds Québec City is 2.8 miles. It was a leisurely hike. We stopped to enjoy sights seen from on top of the wall. It was a unique hike and a fun memory from our time in Québec.
Gary and I took another trip to Glacier National Park, this one in August 2013. I wrote the following piece upon our return. It’s a little different from my usual hiking stories. I added information about the memorable hikes at the end.
Horses heading up the mountain.
Giddy up and up and up….clip-clop goes the steady sound of our horses hoofs climbing 3300’ in 6.7 miles to Sperry Chalet. It promises to be another gorgeous day in Glacier National Park. This is our fourth day in the park. This morning we’ve packed our saddlebags and said our prayers for our two nights stay on the mountain.
The horses are sure footed and they know the trail well – going back and forth to the chalet many times a week. We form a line of ten horses and rider’s. My horse, Wyatt, sometimes gets a little too close to Bobbie, the much bigger horse in front of him, so occasionally Bobbie gives Wyatt a kick with his back foot. Although Wyatt deserves it, it can be a little terrifying for the rider on it’s back! That would be me. Gary is on Chester, who behaves nicely.
The scenery is great, the pace is steady and we finally make it up to the hitching rail at the chalet after 3 ½ hours without a rest stop. We have help getting off our horses and we stagger a little to get our hiking legs back but we’re not sore and we are so delighted to be at our destination.
It’s awesome! The smells are divine…mostly pine. The sun is shining on us and the air is fresh. We find our way to the outhouses first, the nicest outhouses we’ve been in, but still outhouses. Next we find the dining room and the welcoming college-age students are ready to take our lunch order that includes fresh, just out-of- the-oven, peach pie.
The beautiful Sperry Chalet.
In 1913 the Sperry Chalet was built by the railroad (JJ Hill affiliation) to attract visitors to the park. The railroad used Italian stonemasons to build the foundation and outside walls, made from the rubble stone at hand. It opened for business in 1914. There are four small buildings: the dining hall, the chalet (hotel with 24 rooms) the old laundry building and the new (10+ years old) outhouses. There is no electricity up here and just two sinks by the outhouses for guests to use for washing up and brushing teeth. No showers. No hot water. Just bedding (1914 era), food, fresh air and mountain goats!
We find our room, take off our backpacks and head outdoors to explore God’s beautiful creation. The chalet overlooks MacDonald Lodge, to the west and down 6.7 miles. I try imaging women in long dresses riding here on horseback and hiking around camp and up to Sperry Glacier, named after Dr. Lyman Sperry, a professor of geology and zoology at Carleton College in Northfield. He was the first to reach the glacier in 1896. Tomorrow we will hike, with a naturalist, to see what’s left of the Sperry Glacier. The hike is 4.3 miles up 1500’, to the glacier, crossing over five ice fields and five rock fields (and of course, 4.3 miles back down). It’s a little farther than it used to be since the Glacier is melting.
After a relaxing afternoon sitting on the rocks taking in all the beauty we head back to the dining hall for dinner. Much to our surprise we have a full meal deal: turkey, stuffing, potatoes, gravy, cranberries, homemade bread, pumpkin dessert. It tastes so good. The staff assigned our seats so we meet fellow companions on this adventurous journey. We sit around visiting then get our packs ready for tomorrow, and go back to the dining hall for a night cap of delicious cinnamon hot chocolate.
As we crawl into bed we are careful to put our pants, jackets and shoes near by so when we get up in the middle of the night to go to the outhouse we can easily find our clothes. They say there are no secrets at the chalet since the walls are so thin. We wake up around 3 a.m. and quietly turn on our headlamps, get dressed and head down the stairs and out the door to a star-studded evening sky! We see a falling star and stand in awe. A mountain goat greets us and watches us walk to the outhouse. We are grateful for this interruption of our sleep to experience this stunning sight on a mountain!
Glacier National Park
***This is the end of my story from the first day of our trip to Sperry Chalet***
The following day we hiked with a naturalist up to Sperry Glacier. It took several hours. The scenery was amazing and the naturalist knowledgeable. I identified a lot of wildflowers, we saw many mountain goats, and we crossed ice fields and rock fields to finally arrive at the glacier. Then we turned around and made the trek back down to the lodge. It was an exhilarating day and we were tired (a total of 8.6 miles)
Hiking back to the chalet.
That evening, after another delicious meal, we packed our backpacks. We were hiking 6.7 miles down the mountain the next day, to our parked car at McDonald Lodge. It took us three hours to hike out. Etiquette is that hikers step off the trail on the down side to let horses pass, which we had to do.
The hike down the mountain was a grand way to bring closure our spectacular time at Sperry Chalet.
A sad note: Sperry Chalet caught on fire in 2017 and was severely damaged. There are hopes to have it rebuilt at some point…but it was such a unique and beautiful historic building…it will not be the same.
Our boys were ages 7 and 5 at the time we took two weeks and drove to and from Glacier National Park in our mini-van, and camped for six nights in the park. Our guys were troopers – we took several hikes during our stay and overall we all hiked a total of 23 miles. We made the boys certificates at the end of the week (I can still picture us around the picnic table creating them) certifying their accomplishment and they were pleased.
A favorite picture of my two boys, 1989.
The most memorable part of the hikes was the boys carrying the hiking sticks we bought them early on. The wooden sticks had the name Glacier National Park burned into them and they had a leather loop handle with bells on them. The bells served a purpose. The bells made noise to scare off grizzly bears – to let the bears know we were on the trail. The park is home to many Grizzly bears – in this beautiful place they tolerate humans – sometimes. The first day we arrived we overheard the ranger telling of a grizzly bear mauling some hikers on a back-country trail as they neared the mama’s cubs. One needs to take the bears seriously! Fortunately we did not run into any grizzly bears on the trails.
The miles we accumulated that week were from hiking to or around Hidden Lake, Avalanche Lake, St. Mary’s Lake, Twin Falls via Trick falls and a boat ride, Ptagrin Falls, Swift Current Lake, and Grinnell Lake
Glacier is a beautiful place. It’s one of my favorite national parks and I have wonderful memories of it.
My husband and I and our oldest son took a trip to visit our youngest son living in Mozambique Africa. This was our first trip to Africa and we were very excited to see where our son, Tim, lived, to wander around in his current surroundings, and meet the people in his life. Also, all four of us went on a safari in South Africa. We had a great experience and created many memories. This is one of the memorable hikes we took in Africa: a hike in Ulongué, Mozambique.
Walking to the market in Ulongué.
Ulongué is the village where my son lived. We were eager to see Tim’s small, four-room house, with an outhouse in the back and a water well, and banana tree in the front. When we arrived, near dark, Tim’s friend had made sure the dirt in his front yard had been swept so Tim’s house would look welcoming for us when we arrived (which I found endearing).
One day we decided to hike to the market on the other side of the village of Ulongué, about an hour walk from his house. We walked on dirt paths through neighborhoods filled with children. We took pictures of the children playing and they excitedly ran up to us to see their pictures on our digital cameras. As we walked through streets people watched us curiously.
The curious children looking at their pictures.
We were hiking to the permanent, outdoor market with multiple stands selling a variety of wares along with many produce stands. I bought several colorful fabric pieces. My husband was intrigued by the bicycle shop.
View of the market in Ulongué.The bike shop.
When we finished shopping Tim led us on a longer trek outside of town, on a footpath behind the village, to return to his house. The terrain was picturesque: beautiful, open countryside. As we walked back into town we passed several folks drying maize in the hot sun on blankets.
Photo of a photo on the trail back to Tim’s house in Ulongué.
We enjoyed walking two different routes to and from the market, and managed to take a family photo along the footpath behind the village.
Photo of the family photo on trail outside of Ulongué.
This is one of my favorite photos of me and my granddaughter taken in Portugal, at Christmastime a year ago. And although we didn’t go on any official hikes the two weeks we were there, we did do a lot of walking around Lisbon and I consider this one of my memorable hikes – on Christmas Day 2016.
Norway ~ Your Way was the name of the tour group we went with to Norway in 2007. An American partnered with a native Norwegian naturalist as a guide and he has organized one hiking trip through Norway every year for over twenty years. Ours was a group of about thirty. We traveled by bus for segments of the trip but mostly by our own legs, hiking from mountain lodge to mountain lodge. The good news was when we were not riding the bus it was carrying our luggage.
Hiking lodge to lodge.
Norway is unbelievably beautiful, and indescribable. Ask anyone who has been there. We often wondered why my grandfather, at the age of 17, left this beautiful country to come to America. I know it was for economic reasons but it must have been hard. Thankfully we have contact with many relatives still living in Norway and we have built relationships with them. I love my Norwegian heritage, and my Norwegian relatives!
The hills are alive in Norway.
Because of the astounding beauty all around it’s hard to single out one memorable hike from this trip.
Our first hike was a six mile day hike near Geilo, northwest of Olso, to get our hiking legs in place. On the second day we started our lodge-to-lodge journey. We saw reindeer and mountain sheep while hiking and came upon pools from streams of melted snow and I took off my hiking boots to put my feet in the water. It was cold, but it felt good on the feet.
Sharing the trails.
Every day, after a wonderful European (in this case – Norwegian) breakfast, we would make our lunches from the breakfast buffet and fill our water bottles. We also filled our coffee thermos’ for a morning coffee break, finding a place to sit on the trail and soak in the breathtaking views. We hiked between six to ten miles a day.
Stopping for a coffee break.
Sometimes it was difficult due to steep climbs, rocky paths and some snowy patches. We crossed many streams and one very challenging waterfall where we had to help each other across.
Beautiful waterfalls to cross.
The scenery was spectacular with dozens of waterfalls, lush vegetation, and lots of wildflowers. This area we hiked lodge-to-lodge is known as the Grand Canyon of Norway. After our treks to the lodges we took several day hikes: we took a train up a mountain and hiked back down, another day the bus dropped us off so we could hike a back-country road to a small village on the sea. It was so picturesque and I remember stopping to smell a lot of roses!
A hiker’s hut.
We had a “free” day so we went on our own, without the group, and hiked a couple hours up a steep, defined trail and discovered a small mountain hut…a hiker’s cabin we learned…a one-room hut with a sod roof with a small Norwegian flag displayed outside, a pot belly stove inside with a small bed and table. There were emergency supplies if a hiker was in need of them. It was such a fun discovery. We signed a journal on the table inside and filled our water bottles in the clear mountain stream outside the hut.
A Fjord near the village of Mundal. I had this picture enlarged and framed and it is hanging in my kitchen.
The overall trip included so much more than hiking… we took a boat ride through a fjord, we shopped in Bergen, toured a Stav Church, and learned about Norwegian culture.
An added bonus for us…we extended our stay and spent time with my Norwegian relatives and had many more exciting adventures!
Sabino Canyon is a desert oasis in the Coronado National Forest. When you arrive at the park you can take a tram up the canyon and walk back down if you desire. That’s a great way to hike! But there are several trail options available to hike back down. We have hiked in this canyon on several different trips. On this day in Sabino Canyon we were casually hiking down along the canyon in the beautiful, warm, sunshine. There was water in the canyon; water pools in the canyon during winter months and being near water while hiking is a always a treat. As we were walking we caught up with a couple in front of us that had stopped on the trail. They pointed to a rattlesnake coiled up in the sun on a rock along side the trial. We tiptoed past it and kept on going. That’s the first time, and hopefully the last time, I see one of those snakes!
