The Hiker Mama

Category: Camping

  • Spring Break Road Trip to the Redwoods – April 2018

    Spring Break Road Trip to the Redwoods – April 2018

    My family has been itching for a road trip (well, some of us…), and this year we were able to get away for Spring Break. The weather is always tricky in April, but we got lucky and were able to time our trip for a brief window of good weather. We split the drive down […]

  • Great American Eclipse – Trip Report, August 2017

    Great American Eclipse – Trip Report, August 2017

    The Great American Eclipse of last August is probably fading in your memories, but I wanted to document our trip to Central Oregon to see it. A lot of planning, ruminating, advice-getting, worrying, gear purchasing, and refining packing lists over and over went into this trip. Aaron elected to stay home to save his vacation […]

  • Super Quick BC Road Trip to Banff – July, 2017

    Super Quick BC Road Trip to Banff – July, 2017

    Our kids were at camp together for a whole week in July, so we thought we’d take a little trip without them. Aaron had a doctor appointment he had to go to, and one that would be difficult to reschedule, so we didn’t get out of town until 7:30 Monday evening. We made it smoothly […]

  • Trip Report: Grand Tetons, June 2016

    Trip Report: Grand Tetons, June 2016

    Day 6 of our Grand Road Trip, Continuation: After we finished visiting Yellowstone back in June, it was time to move on to Grand Teton National Park. We drove into the north entrance from Yellowstone, and the landscape changed from volcanic lodgepole biome to more familiar flowers and shrubs. We drove through Lizard Creek Campground, […]

  • Trip Report: Yellowstone National Park

    Trip Report: Yellowstone National Park

    Our family was fortunate to be able to take a big road trip this summer, and we chose Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons for a visit. We were gone for nine days, driving and camping along the way. We stopped at Craters of the Moon on the way back. Wow, what a trip this was! […]

  • Birthday Camping with Annika

    Birthday Camping with Annika

    Annika’s birthday was last month, and one of the things she asked for was a mommy-daughter camping trip. You don’t have to twist my arm about that! She had gotten sick that week, though, so the trip was in jeopardy. But at the last minute she started feeling better, and we were able to go. […]

  • North Cascades National Park – National Park Week 2016

    North Cascades National Park – National Park Week 2016

      North Cascades National Park is one of my favorite places to explore. Rugged mountains, jade-green water, few roads, autumn colors – all these things and more draw visitors to the park. North Cascades is smaller than Mt. Rainier or Olympic NP, and gets far fewer visitors. It’s still possible to find solitude in the […]

  • Teanaway Camping

    Teanaway Camping

    Last week Gabe was at camp, so I took Annika camping for one night. With the weather taking a turn, I chose the sunny Teanaway for our excursion. We set up at Beverly Campground. This Forest Service campground has less than 20 spots, and felt kind of scruffy, but we got an awesome spot right […]

  • Coal and Independence Lakes Trip Report – 7/15/15

    Coal and Independence Lakes Trip Report – 7/15/15

    Some friends joined us today for our hike. We’ve been on the search for a good swimming lake, and a friend suggested Independence Lake on the Mountain Loop Highway. On the road up, we stopped at Coal Lake. It’s a pretty little lake that sits right next to the road, with a short path up […]

  • Metolius Camping and Newberry Volcanic Monument

    Metolius Camping and Newberry Volcanic Monument

    Back in June we had our almost-annual camping trip on the Metolius River near Sisters. We had a smaller family group this time, but we had perfect weather and lots of fun. We took a hike one day along the river trail, from the Gorge Campground up to Camp Sherman. There we all got ice […]