4th of July in Door County

Even though we live in IL, we LOVE Wisconsin. Or maybe I should say because we live in IL, we LOVE Wisconsin. But even with all the time we've spent in WI, we had yet to make our way to Door County. The area is known for it's lighthouses, beaches and state parks. So needless to say, it was about time for our adventuring family to "head up north" (as the Illinoisans like to say). 

I did very little research and so our campsite was in Sturgeon Bay at Tranquil Timbers Resort. The campground was actually really nice, with big spaces. It had activities planned for the holiday weekend (like an outdoor movie) but a most exciting surprise was that it had 2 camping spots that it does not sell this weekend, which overlook the water and city fireworks display (more on this topic later). Anyway, the reason I said "...and so our campsite was in..." is because now after spending time in Door County I wish we had chosen one of the smaller towns further north, and perhaps stayed in a campground in one of the state or county parks. 

On Saturday our first stop was Cana Island Lighthouse, known for it's unique location that you have to cross a causeway to explore the island. The water was low enough so that you could cross by foot, but as you may know, Lake Michigan is pretty cold and we did not have proper water shoes. So we did the next best thing, and took the tractor pulled hay wagon ride across!

After that we drove across to the west side to Peninsula State Park. We had a picnic lunch, then biked on the paved Sunset Bike Path. Someone really wanted to hit the beach (no, it wasn't me) so Alex & Liam dropped us off at Nicolet Beach while they checked out some of the MTB trails. After their ride we packed up and headed into the town of Fish Creek to figure out dinner. We decided on Wild Tomato and after a short wait, were rewarded with really yummy woodfire pizza. To build up our appetite for dessert, we climbed the new Eagle Tower viewpoint. Then it was back into town for Not Licked Yet frozen custard. Our timing was really on point this weekend because once we had our treats the line was super long!

 

The next day we checked out the Sturgeon Bay ship canal pierhead lighthouse, which is located at the Coast Guard station. It's interesting to take the designated public walk path to get back to the pier and on either side is coast guard property. 

Afterwards we drove north to Whitefish Dunes State Park for the afternoon. The water was cold, but the day was warm. And even though it was the holiday, and there were a lot of people, it did not feel crowded. I guess that's why the Great Lakes are called inland oceans-they are SO big!

Everyone was excited for the evening's fireworks so we had our dinner and s'mores back at the campsite, then packed up the wagon with our chairs, bug spray and glow sticks and walked the 2 blocks to the reserved spots. Once the spaces filled up the party got started, as the campground staff handed out frozen ice pops and "parade" candy. Then a "DJ" started congo-ing thru the crowd carrying his boombox with America-themed tunes such as Firework by Katy Perry and Despacito by Luis Fonsi😂. The display was lengthy (more finale, less build-up please) but there was no sitting in traffic to exit, no ride home to fall asleep during, which were the best parts in my opinion. And so we walked back up to our campsite, and fell quickly asleep to the sound of residential fireworks going off in the distance. Happy Birthday America!

Since the 4th was on a weekend we had Monday to make our way home, stopping at Renard's Cheese Store, finally pulling into the driveway in the afternoon. Because no matter how many hours we have to drive in a day, it seems we always make the trip last all day! Final thoughts: 

Door County gets 3 Thumbs Up 

(that's a Triple V thing in case you didn't catch it)

Part III

 Sat June 5: Moab, UT- Arches National Park

We got an early start leaving from the Grand Canyon to make our way to Arches National Park. We (I) had planned poorly and only booked us for one night there. However, I think we fit in most of the site-seeing I wanted, even if the boys did not get to do any MTB riding. 

We stayed at Slick Rock Campground:

After having a late lunch/early dinner at a local Mexican restaurant in downtown Moab, we went right into the park.  First stop was Park Avenue (no picture but was very cool and worth the stop to view), then onto Balanced Rock, which I wouldn't even call a hike, but more of just a walk up a path and around it. Cute story on the placard about the history of Balanced Rock said there used to be a smaller similar formation that was called Chip off the old block standing next to Balanced Rock, but alas it did not survive. That is the thing about this landscape, it may not seem like it but it's fragile and always changing:

We then followed the road to the Fiery Furnace:

Then kept driving the road north through the park to Skyline Arch. Again, not really a hike, but a walk up the packed dirt path up to the Arch:

We continued to head north and make notes of the hikes we would want to do the next morning prior to our departure. We had already decided to forego the most popular hike in this park which is to the Delicate Arch (also featured on the Utah license plates) as it would be too long/time consuming to fit in with all our other stops, so instead we headed back to the lot that puts you at a short trail up to a distant (aka "upper") viewpoint of the arch. We did this for sunset and the kids had great fun getting some pictures with the La Sal Mountains in the background:

Okay, so in the pictures below, on the far left you can see the iconic Delicate Arch. You can also see the tiny little dots to the left of it, which are people waiting in line, after their hike up to the arch, to get their picture under it! I am SO glad we decided against that hike and did this shorter one for the view and sunset instead. It was just the relaxing evening our family needed after a long day in the car.

On Sunday morning we woke up early, got donuts from Doughbird and headed out (with a generous 1pm late checkout granted by our campsite) to do the rest of our site seeing. We stopped at the Visitors Center (of course) to get our ranger badges, then first up was the hike to Landscape Arch. It is the largest arch on the planet, with a width of 290 feet. The arch has had chunks break off over the last centuries, so one never knows how long it will remain standing. 

Then I headed into Sand Dune Arch while the boys took a break. I think they missed out. The trek in was short (but tough because you are walking entirely through sand) but viewing this arch in the shade within all the red rocks gave it a kind of glow. So of course I did a selfie:

Our next stop was Window Arches, the north window was the easier one to stand in/photograph:

Much to Gavin's delight, a very friendly young girl ranger stopped to talk to him about his badge and “bio-crust.” I think he was in love. Remember folks, Ranger Gavin says:

After a very busy morning we got on the road to Denver. Even though it was one of our shorter drive times, it seemed long because we left so late in the day. However, it was one of the more interesting drives, going through all the ski resorts that are west of Denver. We hit rain at the very end, but alas the evening cleared and a rainbow showed up. We always say that's Grandma Voigts painting the sky. I guess she was approving of our vacation.

We stayed at Denver East/Strasburg KOA. We used the oven in our camper first the first time. I know I haven't said much about the new camper, but we were not roughing it (bigger beds, bigger fridge, a freezer, microwave, and yes a TV-GASP!).

We woke up early and hit the road to our final stop on the way home, Omaha NE. The campground was West Omaha KOA. We actually took advantage of a campground pool finally-we arrived a decent hour and it was HOT in Omaha (just like it was hot back home). The kids also enjoyed the playground with bounce pillow and zip line.

Our final trek home from Omaha to Algonquin was relatively uneventful, though everyone was very anxious to get home. We stopped at the I-80 "worlds largest truck stop", I am not necessarily making a recommendation here, I'm just sayin' we did. The kids were very helpful unloading, but really they were just excited to get ST (Screen Time on their iPads) after a 2 week hiatus. I am proud of them and their attitude about this "Grand" trip and participation in making our family memories. We are excited already for our next trip over 4th of July.

The End. For Now.

Part II

Oh Sedona, how I love you so. But you come with a warning: Pictures do not do you justice.

First thing's first, Sedona has the ONLY McDonald's in the whole world that does not have golden arches. Please fact check. 😝

Secondly, Sedona has Oak Creek, which not only ran directly behind our campsite at The Rancho Sedona RV Park:

But also created Slide Rock State Park, which is a natural waterslide created from the creek carving it's way through the rocks and the algae on the rocks giving it a natural lubrication (which is actually not that gross at all, see the picture below of Gavin and the clear water). The water was refreshing (cold) and the scenery was beautiful.

We picnic'd at Airport Mesa Viewpoint our first evening in town. 

Day 2 in Sedona had us visiting Chapel of the Holy Cross:

Then we headed over to Bell Rock to test out our Mountain Biking skills. Needless to say, Liam and Alex split off to session a bit on their own. The elevation does not look that bad, and the picture of the main trail below looks easy enough, but lets just say I REALLY enjoyed the return trip.

Our next stop was hiking up to Boynton Canyon Vista. We may have taken a wrong turn at some point and had to backtrack, making this a bit longer hike than necessary but the spire/vortex was worth the extra work.

The boys did some shopping in downtown Sedona while Gavin napped and then everyone rebounded for my MOST FAVORITE HIKE of the entire trip: The Birthing Cave.

Perhaps it was my favorite because Gavin decided to walk (or run) the entire hike himself. Or because we did it later in the evening when the weather was perfect.  Or because we ran into very few other hikers, having the cave almost entirely to ourselves. Or because the shape of the cave lends itself to some fantastic pictures.

PS We rewarded ourselves further with a stop for ice cream in town at Rocky Road.

Last but not least on our final morning in Sedona we went to explore Red Rock Crossing.

It seemed fitting to get a pic with the hubby in front of Cathedral Rock, since he is MY rock.

Goodbye Sedona, we hope to meet again, love,

The Voigts Family

                        

 Tuesday, June 1:

                    The   GRAND Canyon

The first thing to distinguish is where we stayed because there are 2 primary locations people visit in the Grand Canyon, The South Rim and The North Rim. We stayed on The South Rim. We were fortunate enough to book an RV site at the only full hookup RV campground within the National Park, called Trailer Village RV Park. It is designated on the map below at the end of the southern blue line on the east side of the blue loop. The campground is well centered and has bike trails leading to all the main areas of the South Rim. While I didn't realize this when booking it was perfect for our biking family. We were able to leave our vehicle behind most days and just bike up to our starting point for the day.

One of the other things we noticed right away, besides the bike trails, was the wildlife. The elk were very comfortable in our campground. I guess it had been so dry they were desperate to get water wherever they could, even if off someone's water hook up to their RV (Ranger Kelly also says: Don't feed or water the wild animals). We saw elk, rabbit, squirrels, many ravens, and even a javelina on our last day!

 Of course we couldn't resist seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time as the sunset at Mather Point.

On our first full day at the park we decided to take the scenic Desert View Drive which heads to the East entrance of the park, and the Desert View Watchtower. The view of the Colorado River from this viewpoint was amazing and the canyon had an entirely different/darker look to it:

 

We then headed back along the drive, stopping at the many different view points (Grandview, Navajo, Moran), but ultimately parking at the Shoshone Point for a 1 mile hike and the payoff of a nice quiet, almost private, picnic spot:

And of course because we were so close and could just ride our bikes up after dinner we walked the Trail of Time on the South Rim after dinner for another sunset:

On Day 3 we rode our bikes to the Hermit Rest bus stop, and took the shuttle which  stops at all the best viewpoints on the way.  We hopped off at a stop and hiked about .75 miles along the rim to the next bus stop, which was enough "rim hiking" for this scare-dy cat:

At Hermits Rest I was under-whlemed. It was nothing exceptional in my opinion.

On Day 4, our final full day at The Grand Canyon, we opted to bike the trail to the South Kaibab Trailhead (orange in the table/map below). This was a very pleasant bike ride.

We hadn't really talked in depth about hiking below the rim. I pretty much told Alex he could if he wanted but I would keep Gavin back. Gavin is not a wanderer, and he is sure-footed, but I'm just a worrier (hi to those that are nodding their heads reading this right now). So, when we came to South Kaibab, I'm glad he decided to take the big boys down a bit. It also gave Gavin (and I) time to chat up the ranger that was at the trailhead, doing an awesome job checking that visitors know that "hiking down is optional, coming back up is mandatory". He was busy with the number of hikers at this important trailhead but also made time to answer all my questions (when did you become a ranger, why did you become a ranger, how did you become a ranger) and Gavin's questions (do you like my hat, do you like my water bottle, do you like my shoes).

We finished up our final evening in the GRAND Canyon with one more unbelievable sunset. 

PSA: If you haven't been to the Grand Canyon, you simply must go to see it for yourself.

To be continued in Part III....