Happy New Year! May the year, and for that matter, the decade ahead be filled with joyful blessings, good health, and peaceful, plentiful times!
We’ve been off the road now for several months, enjoying the holidays, family, and friends. It’s also given us time to catch up with videos from our Jasper to Jackson Adventure, and allowed us to revisit the great times we had in that gorgeous part of the Rockies. See the “Video” tab above to view our three Canadian videos covering Jasper and the Icefields Parkway, Lake Louise and Banff, as well as the most recent one, Waterton Lakes and Glacier National Park. The Grand Tetons video was previously posted and Yellowstone is in the making. We’ve enjoyed capturing memories from our three months on the road and are now in the planning stages of our next extended trip.
We’re calling our upcoming, 2020 excursion the Grand Teton to Grand Canyon Adventure, as we’ll start by returning to Wyoming for Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, and work our way south to Arizona and the Grand Canyon. One might ask why we are going back to northwest Wyoming? That’s easy; it’s incredibly beautiful that time of year, as the aspen leaves turn gold, and we just have to experience it once again. We’re also, however, anxious to visit some new places, in particular the stunning, “Mighty Five”, Utah National Parks: Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Arches, and Canyonlands. The weather will be driving us south, but I hope we get, at minimum, a dusting of snow for both fabulous memory making and spectacular photographic opportunities.
In preparation, we purchased a Jeep Wrangler to take along with us. Although Larry has years of experience towing all sizes of boats, towing a car behind the RV will be new to us. We rented cars, last year, for accessibility to places the RV couldn’t travel. This year, especially in Utah, we know we’ll want to be off road quite a bit, so we’re excited to take the Jeep with us for that purpose. Between now and when we leave in late summer, we look forward to several short trips around the southeast, breaking in the newest addition to the rig. Translation: I have to get used to driving a 40’ rig versus 25’! Larry assures me it will be no big deal! ;-)
It will be difficult to top our Jasper to Jackson adventure. The Canadian Rockies provided one jaw dropping, beautiful sight after another. You can expect to share the experience with a multitude of other sightseers, but it’s definitely worth putting up with the crowds. Since we visited Yellowstone and The Tetons with our children many years ago, we were concerned that returning to those parks might be a let down.
Surprisingly, it was just the opposite. We immediately felt a sense of “home”, and were awestruck by both parks. Being there while the fall colors exploded was incredible, and the beauty far surpassed our previous, summertime visits. I was actually the one that wasn’t ready to come home, but the snow reports were convincing, and the three-month, fabulous adventure had to come to an end. Our Jasper to Jackson adventure surpassed our expectations.
Now we look forward to 2020 and the new adventures to come. Our 50th wedding anniversary is this summer, so it’s a special year for us and will be filled with celebration all year long as we follow our motto: Make the best of everyday!