‘The National Parks Journal’ helps you log every park visit

‘The National Parks Journal’ helps you log every park visit

The National Parks Journal

“The National Parks Journal” helps campers plan and record trips to national parks. Pam LeBlanc photo

I lost my first tooth biting into an apple while picnicking at Mammoth Cave National Park as a kid. I learned to love the desert at Big Bend National Park. I realized the importance of letting land burn naturally at Yellowstone National Park, and I pitched a tent in the most beautiful campsite I’ve ever seen while backpacking at Glacier National Park.

I’ve experienced some important life moments while exploring our country’s parks, and I want to remember them all. “The National Parks Journal” by Stefanie Payne helps me do just that.

The 208-page book is broken into two parts. The front section includes a short history of all the national parks in the United States and its territories, plus maps, tips on visiting responsibly, and a checklist where readers can mark off ones they’ve visited. (I’ve made it to 29 out of 63 – almost half so far!)

Then it explains the differences among park types, from the 63 full “national parks” to the other 423 sites that are designated national monuments, preserves, scenic trails, memorials, seashores, battlefields, parkways, recreation areas and more.

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The second section of the book features 167 pages where readers can log their own adventures at parks they’ve visited. There’s room for notes on how you planned each trip, what you packe, and what happened while you were there, from wildlife sightings and people you met to your favorite campsite.

Payne, a content strategist for NASA, writes articles and blogs for National Geographic and Lonely Planet. In 2016, she documented 59 U.S. national parks in 52 weeks.

The book, published by Adams Media, costs $15.99.

I’ve tucked my copy of the book into Vincent VanGo, my Fort Transit campervan.

My goal? Fill every page.

 

 

 

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My Mountain Hardwear down pants are the bomb – thanks to a Greylag goose in China

My Mountain Hardwear down pants are the bomb – thanks to a Greylag goose in China

Mountain Hardwear down pants

I love these new Stretchdown pants by Mountain Hardwear. Self-timer photo by Pam LeBlanc

First let me say I love the new slate blue insulated pants that Mountain Hardwear sent me to test drive.

They’re light. They’re fluffy. They’re slightly stretchy, yet oh so strong.

I tugged on the pants, which you might mistake for a down jacket, when I woke up to 48-degree temperatures last weekend while staying in Vincent VanGo, my campervan, at Seminole Canyon State Park. I slipped them on in the morning, when I got up to heat water for hot tea.

In a word, yum. Pulling on these pants felt like curling up in a bird’s nest lined with clouds, whipped cream, and silk.

Truthfully, I didn’t expect to love them. Who wants puffy pants? The Stay Pufft marshmallow man?

I was wrong.

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I’ll wear these pants on cold mornings when I’m camping. I might even wear them around the house on really cold days. They’d have come in handy during Snowpocalypse in Austin last February.

But I’m still chuckling, because the $250 pants came with an RDS – that’s Responsible Down Standard – tag to reassure me about the contents of the fill. Curious, I logged into the www.trackmydown.com website and typed in the lot number on the tag. Within seconds, I knew everything about the exact batch of down that was used to craft my puffers.

What are my Mountain Hardwear down pants filled with?

Mountain Hardwear down pants

These slightly stretchy down pants are perfect for camping. Pam LeBlanc photo

My pants, it turns out, were made with down from grey goose in China. The down was a byproduct of the food industry. The geese in question were Greylag geese, which are larger than ducks, and therefore grow larger down clusters.

It all reminded me of the episode of “Portlandia” in which a couple visits a restaurant and asks about the organic chicken on the menu. The waitress shows them paperwork with the chicken’s name (Colin) and the farm where it lived.

“They do a lot to make sure their chickens are happy,” the waitress clucks.

My down-filled pants have two hand pockets, one hidden zippered coin pocket, and elastic bands at the cuff. I’m not sure the name of the grey goose that contributed the fluff that fills them, but I certainly appreciate the animal, and I’m glad it was raised under strict animal welfare standards.

You can buy your own pair at REI or online at www.mountainhardwear.com.

 

 

 

About Pam

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We bought a Wayfarer campervan in Colorado!

We bought a Wayfarer campervan in Colorado!

Meet Vincent VanGo, covered in snow after last night’s storm. Pam LeBlanc photo

Vincent VanGo’s maiden voyage proved a harrowing one yesterday, as we drove our brand-new campervan into the teeth of an April snowstorm.

We picked up the Ford Transit, kitted out by the team at Wayfarer Vans in Colorado Springs, yesterday.

Ian Horgan, founder of Wayfarer Vans, left, and the two guys who built out our van, Wolf and Jordan. Pam LeBlanc photo

Ian Horgan, 34, started the company six years ago because he wanted an adventure van. Now he’s got two workshops, one in Colorado Springs and a new one in Reno. Since opening, the company has converted more than 500 vans into campers.

I like Vincent because it’s basic – no frills, no fancy décor, just a bed that reclines, a sink coupled a pair of 5-gallon water jugs, cabinetry and storage space.

Looking at the camper features. Pam LeBlanc photo

The guys finished installing the bed, cabinets and kitchen sink, I applied two name stickers, and we rolled out of the workshop just as snow started to fall.

Things started to go sour when we hit massive traffic on Interstate 25, on our way to my sister’s house in Denver, and we got diverted into unfamiliar terrain. But when we passed Vincent Drive, I took it as a sign.

Back on the interstate, the snow started stacking up. We took it slow, but things got scary when a small sedan whizzed past, hit an ice patch and spun a 360.

Somehow, we didn’t mangle our van in the first hour we owned it.

Ian shows Chris how to use the heater. Pam LeBlanc photo

This morning, Vincent wore a 4-inch layer of snow. We’re headed back to Colorado Springs to do some hiking at Garden of the Gods. And tomorrow, we’re taking falconry lessons.

We’re taking the long way home, without an exact plan other than visiting friends in Red River and Angelfire.

That’s the point, I think. We’re wandering.

Stay tuned for the adventure.

Here we are with our new van! Pam LeBlanc photo

About Pam

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It’s official: I’m hooked on vanlife

It’s official: I’m hooked on vanlife

My husband and I spent a week driving a campervan around Colorado. Chris LeBlanc photo

After spending a week rambling around the cool, aspen- and pine-shaded mountains of Colorado in a customized Dodge Ram ProMaster 1500, I’m convinced I need a campervan in my life.
I love sleeping in a tent, but snoozing in a cozy nook in the back of a van, then flipping open the rear hatch to watch the sun rise, makes me swoon. You just drive up, park, and voila – your campsite is set.
And because nearly 36 percent of the land in Colorado – roughly 23.8 million acres – is publicly owned, that means ample places to spend the night, even if official campgrounds are full. By contrast, only about 1.8 percent – or roughly 3 million acres – of land in Texas is publicly owned.

The “dispersed” camping in Colorado is amazing – drive onto U.S. Forest Service land, park, and sleep. You can see Ivan in the lower part of this photo. Pam LeBlanc photo

We rented Ivan the Terrible from Native Campervans (www.nativecampervans.com) in Denver, which also operates locations in Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. Several models are available, but we went with the “Biggie,” which comes with a mini fridge, two-burner stovetop, interior lights powered by a solar panel, and a bed that sleeps two. (If you’re taller than 5’10”, you’ll have to curl up.) It didn’t have a toilet or shower, but we didn’t really need them.
Rates vary depending on the model, length of the trip, and season, but Ivan the Terrible (all vans get names) goes for $239 a day in the summer, $199 a day in the fall, and $169 a day in the winter for a week-long rental. By comparison, a “Smalls” style campervan from the same company rents for $149 a day in the summer.
I learned a lot during our week on the road.
We made a big loop, starting in Denver and heading to Buena Vista, where we found a campground in the nearby national forest the first night. From where we parked, in a pine-dotted canyon accessed by a bumpy gravel road, we couldn’t see any other signs of human life. We hiked up on a ridge and soaked in the wilderness, happy for the need to zip up our puffy jackets.
We spent the next day in a rubber raft, running a hit parade of rapids through Browns Canyon with a private guide from River Runners, then parked Ivan for the night at a roadside campground in Almont. From there, we boogied our way to the fruit and wine region of Paonia, where we stayed two nights between the peach and apple trees at Big B’s Orchard. We visited the north (less visited) rim of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, peering 2,200 feet nearly straight down into the steepest, sheerest gorge I’ve ever seen.
Mid-week we indulged in a hot shower and a longer bed at the Bross Hotel in Paonia, then we hit the road again, stopping to camp in Redstone and, finally, Twin Lakes.

I loved the sleeping nook in our van, nicknamed Ivan the Terrible. Chris LeBlanc photo

I learned lots along the way.
First, it may seem like a good idea, but don’t fry chicken and brew coffee on the stove while rolling down the highway in a campervan. (Don’t worry. I didn’t actually try this, although I was tempted.)
Second, watch for freak summer hailstorms. We cracked a windshield when one blew up out of nowhere at the top of newly-paved Cottonwood Pass.
I love mountain passes, by the way. Kebler Pass is home to one of the world’s largest aspen groves, and we spent two days in the area, hiking the spectacular Lost Lakes and Cliff Creek trails.
Also, I hate mountain passes. I had to blindfold myself as my husband Chris drove around hairpin turns with sheer drop-offs on Independence Pass between Aspen and Twin Lakes. I opened my eyes long enough to see a pop-up camper dangling about 20 feet off the road, its vehicle nowhere in sight.
My favorite new Colorado town? Redstone, known as the “Ruby of the Rockies,” with a population of 92 and the ruins of nearly 100 old beehive-shaped coke ovens, where coal mined in the surrounding ovens was once refined. (At its peak at the end of the 19th century, 200 ovens operated here. They fell into disrepair after World War II, and hippies moved into some of them during the 1960s and ‘70s.) It’s close to fantastic hiking at Avalanche Creek, too.
It’s worth the trip to tiny Marble, a cell service-free zone favored by buzzing four-wheelers, if only for the ribs at Slow Grooving BBQ. (They brag about the brisket, which is pretty good, but we’re from Texas and we know better, y’all.)
We finished our adventure in a lovely campground at Twin Lakes, where we popped a celebratory bottle of wine from the Storm Cellar in Paonia and toasted Ivan for carrying us safely around the state.

Chris LeBlanc dances a jig outside the campervan. Pam LeBlanc photo

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Need a socially distant vacation? We’re road tripping through Colorado in a campervan

Need a socially distant vacation? We’re road tripping through Colorado in a campervan

Our campervan has a stove, sink and mini fridge. Chris LeBlanc photo


We picked up Ivan the Terrible, a rental van from Native Campervans in Denver, and set out last week for a socially distant road trip through Colorado.
We specifically chose destinations where we wouldn’t encounter large crowds. We’ve been camping in forests and orchards, hiking and exploring. So far, we’ve visited the less developed north rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, gone rafting (with just a single guide and no other guests) on the Arkansas River, hiked through one of the world’s largest aspen groves, and soaked in a hot springs.
We’ve learned a lot about van life, too, and we love it (even if we don’t have long blonde hair, perfectly formed bodies and floral print sundresses).

Rafting with a private guide lessens the risk of a rafting adventure. Pam LeBlanc photo


Here are a few thoughts and notes:
1. Campervans are a great way to go while traveling during a pandemic. We’ve been cooking our own meals and sleeping in our Dodge Ram Promaster 1500, customized with a bed, mini fridge, stove and sink, but no toilet or shower. We rented from Native Campervans in Denver. Its name is Ivan the Terrible, and aside from an issue with the key cylinder, it’s not at all terrible. (Ivan’s windshield did crack in a freak hailstorm a few days ago. Yes, this is Colorado.)
2. Dispersed camping is the way to go. For Texans not used to vast swathes of public land, this means you can pull off forest roads and set up camp almost anywhere. (There are rules, but you get the idea.)
3. Be prepared to poop in the woods. (Personally, I much prefer this over roadside bathrooms, for the view and the Covid exposure.) Just walk away from popular camping areas and please, cover your work.
4. Be flexible about where you plan to park your campervan overnight. Lots of folks are camping their way through Colorado right now. If you’re looking for a spot in the national forest, don’t spend all day looking for the next best spot. Take it! One night we weren’t in an area that allowed dispersed camping, so we had to park in a campground. The first four that we checked were already full, but we finally lucked out with the last slot at a not-too-scenic highway-side park.

We spent two nights in an apple orchard in Paonia. Pam LeBlanc photo

I swung on the most amazing rope swing at Big B’s orchard. Chris LeBlanc photo

5. Camp in an orchard! We spent two nights at Big B’s orchard near Paonia. Besides parking our rig between rows of apple trees (and a few hundred feet from the peach trees), we got to drink fresh hard cider from the orchard store, listen to live music at night (from a social distance), and swing on the best dang rope swing I’ve ever seen.

The north rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison sees far less visitation than the south rim. We only saw a handful of other cars. Pam LeBlanc photo


6. Go to less visited areas. We opted for the north rim of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, which sees far fewer visitors than the south rim. The gorge is incredible. We peered 2,200 feet nearly straight down from Chasm View trail. I nearly wet my pants.
Today, we’re heading over McClure Pass on our way to Redstone, where we hear the barbecue’s great. We’re from Texas, so we’ll be the judge of that.

The hiking in the West Elk Wilderness area is superb. Pam LeBlanc photo

About Pam

I’m Pam LeBlanc. Follow my blog to keep up with the best in outdoor travel and adventure. Thanks for visiting my site.

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