- Visit National Parks;
- Hit up mountain bike trails across the country;
- Explore the U.S. in general, and while we're doing that;
- Scope out potential new places to live when vanlife came to an end.
My brother-in-law and his fiance bought us one of the best gifts anyone could have given us last Christmas which was an annual pass to the national parks. Considering each park carries an entrance fee of generally $25-$35, that adds up really fast. As we're on somewhat of a limited budget for the year, we wouldn't have stopped at half of the parks we did if it wasn't for the park pass. Of course, we would have purchased it for ourselves if it wasn't gifted to us, but it was nice not to have to shell out the money for it, especially when a significant amount of money was being dumped into the van build and getting our house ready to sell during that time. One thing to consider is that you order the pass online and it gets mailed to your address. I don't recall that it's something you can buy at any national park office on the spot so if you're planning on traveling, order the pass before you hit the road so you have it in hand when you leave.
I like to people watch and one of the things I have enjoyed doing while traveling is to observe other people's experiences and reactions from my single, one sided point of view. I want to know what folks are looking for when they are out in nature. My first observation as a whole is the large number of rental RV’s we’ve seen around the country and the amount of people traveling in camper vans like ours. As we moved further towards the west coast, we encountered more and more RV’s and vans. It’s evident that a lot of people want to explore our beautiful country and they want a more personalized experience in lieu of booking hotel rooms or staying at resorts, none of which are bad options.
The national parks are hotbeds for visitors, especially in the summertime, obviously. You usually really need to plan ahead if you want to stay at one of the campsites, many of them booking up a year or more in advance. Since we only decided to do van life last September and had no idea what travel trajectory we were taking, we made no campsite reservations at any of the parks and opted instead for drive throughs or short hikes in some of the parks.
It’s really a beautiful experience to see the amount of people, all ages, all nationalities, all everything that want to see what our national parks have to offer from sweeping views, canyons, waterfalls, wildlife, mountains, wildflowers, all of it. Some just seem to want the perfect selfie stick picture in front of Half Dome or Old Faithful, others want to just sit in the middle of a field and stare in wonderment at what is sitting before them - a big slab or rock or a waterfall. While some seem mesmerized by what is before them and may feel minuscule in the midst of, say, the Grand Tetons, others want to climb and conquer the rock wall of El Capitan in Yosemite. You can almost definitively pick out the Type A and Type B personalities of the various groups - not really those that cower and those that conquer but those that are content to just sit and revel in the grandeur that is before them and those that want to climb the highest peak to get a better view.
I know there are some people that don’t necessarily like spending time outside or in nature. I’m the sort that needs to spend at least a part of my day outside, whether it was taking a walk at lunchtime when I was working, jogging before work, mountain biking after work or just sitting on my back stoop in the evening for a few minutes. I gain energy from the trees and grass and love watching birds and squirrels do their thing and I think a lot of people feel that same energy and seek it out. We want to be surrounded by things that are bigger than us that have been fixtures in the world for hundreds and thousands of years before us to help us understand that when we don’t seek out these experiences, we can obsess over small, inconsequential things in our life and lose track of what is important. All lessons that need to be learned can be found in nature and time spent there can be a time of reflection, relaxation and recharging. In this silly world of social media likes and unrealistic Instagram pictures or Pinterest projects, nature shows us that it doesn’t need any of that to be something people flock to and want to experience because it’s pure and beautiful whether it’s cracked, worn down, scorched by fire or eroded by wind and rain. It moves and changes on its own time and does what it needs to do to survive and thrive or it knows when to gracefully fade away and incorporate itself back into the ecosystem.
The national parks are hotbeds for visitors, especially in the summertime, obviously. You usually really need to plan ahead if you want to stay at one of the campsites, many of them booking up a year or more in advance. Since we only decided to do van life last September and had no idea what travel trajectory we were taking, we made no campsite reservations at any of the parks and opted instead for drive throughs or short hikes in some of the parks.
It’s really a beautiful experience to see the amount of people, all ages, all nationalities, all everything that want to see what our national parks have to offer from sweeping views, canyons, waterfalls, wildlife, mountains, wildflowers, all of it. Some just seem to want the perfect selfie stick picture in front of Half Dome or Old Faithful, others want to just sit in the middle of a field and stare in wonderment at what is sitting before them - a big slab or rock or a waterfall. While some seem mesmerized by what is before them and may feel minuscule in the midst of, say, the Grand Tetons, others want to climb and conquer the rock wall of El Capitan in Yosemite. You can almost definitively pick out the Type A and Type B personalities of the various groups - not really those that cower and those that conquer but those that are content to just sit and revel in the grandeur that is before them and those that want to climb the highest peak to get a better view.
I know there are some people that don’t necessarily like spending time outside or in nature. I’m the sort that needs to spend at least a part of my day outside, whether it was taking a walk at lunchtime when I was working, jogging before work, mountain biking after work or just sitting on my back stoop in the evening for a few minutes. I gain energy from the trees and grass and love watching birds and squirrels do their thing and I think a lot of people feel that same energy and seek it out. We want to be surrounded by things that are bigger than us that have been fixtures in the world for hundreds and thousands of years before us to help us understand that when we don’t seek out these experiences, we can obsess over small, inconsequential things in our life and lose track of what is important. All lessons that need to be learned can be found in nature and time spent there can be a time of reflection, relaxation and recharging. In this silly world of social media likes and unrealistic Instagram pictures or Pinterest projects, nature shows us that it doesn’t need any of that to be something people flock to and want to experience because it’s pure and beautiful whether it’s cracked, worn down, scorched by fire or eroded by wind and rain. It moves and changes on its own time and does what it needs to do to survive and thrive or it knows when to gracefully fade away and incorporate itself back into the ecosystem.
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