Though we all started the night in our hammocks, at some point, Kati moved into the car and G3 got out his sleeping pad and pillow and...

Balmorhea State Park has the largest spring fed swimming pool in the world. It was built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Yep, G3 and I went swimming in the Rio Grande—near the Cottonwood campground—and what’s more exciting—we swam to Mexico…

I enjoyed the hike, even though I was alone. It reminded me of all those trips I took abroad before G3 was born.

Today was somewhat of a lazy day. We have one more night here at Guadalupe National Park, but we did more yesterday than we expected.

While Carlsbad has the biggest cave chamber in North America—so large that two US Capitol Buildings could fit inside—Mammoth Cave…

White Sands National Park—unlike Petrified Forest—is exactly what it sounds like. Miles and miles and miles—275 square miles to be exact.

Breaking Bad for G3. Petroglyphs for me. Wine for Kati.

For lunch, G3 wanted to go to Twisters, which in Breaking Bad is Los Pollos Hermanos.

The Petrified Forest is not a forest, as Kati was disappointed to discover. In fact, there are practically no trees in the park.

Our big stop of the day was at Mesa Verde National Park to see the Pueblo cliff dwellings.

Canyonlands is the last of the Big Five National Parks in Utah and it was our destination for the day. It was also my least favorite park…

Arches National Park has more than 2000 arches. It’s the largest collection of naturally formed arches in the world.

Capitol Reef, in the words of G3, “is pretty, but not stunning.”

Next, we dipped into Arizona for a tour of Antelope Canyon. G3 has wanted to see Antelope Canyon ever since we first flew into Arizona…

The last half a mile was the fun part. Pure rock scramble. So precarious that a metal chain was embedded into the mountain…

G3, however, never wavered in his confidence as to which way we needed to go. I’ve done enough hiking with him to trust his sense…

Bryce Canyon is gorgeous. It is so much prettier than the Grand Canyon,

Great Basin National Park is also the only place in the world the flower holmgren buckwheat grows.

However, when we arrived and stopped into the visitors center, we learned that a twenty year drought has left the lake relatively empty.