What's next?

We are home now. Despite two of us (Mike and I) getting seriously sick on the trip, we had a wonderful time when all was said and done. We had long lengths of time in the car to talk about what trips we want to take in the future. I have all of our trip goals sorted in my head in terms of short term, medium term and long term goals.

In the short term (like maybe next summer?) we are planning to go to Cascade National Park, and Ranier National Park and points in between in the Pacific Northwest. We also would like to spend some time in the fall when the weather cools off in Southern Utah in the parks there. I would like very much to go back to Zion. Canyonlands and Capital Reef are definately in my sights and a return trip through Bryce Canyon and Arches would be awesome. In the medium term we would like to go to the Smoky Mountain National Park. In the longer term we have Alaska--we would like to take a whole summer for that. And in the distant long term I want to hike in the Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana. This goal however, is the farthest away for a number of reasons. #1 I don't want to take the kids into the Bob. I think it is way to dangerous for children. #2 I need to get past my fear of large predators before I will be able to do it. The Bob is home to way to many bears and large cats for me to feel comfortable with a backcountry trip there.

You can read more about the Bob Marshall Wilderness here: http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/flathead/wilderness/bmwcomplex.shtml

I hope you have enjoyed reading the trip blog this year. It was a lot of fun writing it.