USA - Overview
For the second year in a row, we decided to visit the United States to do some more hiking, camping, and visiting family and friends. This was almost entirely because Angela was desperate to get to Havasu Falls in Arizona. We ‘won’ a lottery for a permit two years previously, but the reservation was closed for Covid for an extra year.
Where did we go
The trip started with a family reunion in Milwaukee and Ephraim with our second cousins, the Valentines. Their father, Ed, was a legend and lived in Ephraim, Door County. My brother, John and his wife Daniele came from New York as well as my mom from Milwaukee.
After Door County, we went back to Milwaukee, helped my mom pack up as she was moving apartments (in the same building) while she was going to be away. Then we took her out to Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico for two weeks. We started in Sedona, then Flagstaff, the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Moab and Arches National Park, then Monument Valley, Messa Verde and Santa Fe, and a lot more. She hadn’t been to any of these places and was jealous of our trip in 2022. We figured it was a worthy 80^th^ birthday trip
After mom flew home, we headed up to Telluride to camp and hike there, then Crested Butte for more of the same. Then up to Glacier National Park via the cousins in Boulder. After camping and hiking in Glacier, we did the same in Yellowstone, then headed to Jackson Hole. From there we did a three day Teton Crest Trail.
After than we visited friends in Wyoming, Salt Lake City and Payson. Headed to Havasupai to hike down to Havasu Falls and then home.
Where did we stay
It was a real mix of places. In Wisconsin, we stayed with my mom, or in a home owned by our cousin’s family. Travelling in the West with my mom was all hotels and cabins. When we were on our own, we were either car camping, with the larger tent we got at Walmart, or hiking in the Tetons and Huvasu Falls, we used our Zpacks Triplex. We also did stay at a few hotels moving around and stayed with Angela’s cousins in Las Vegas, New Mexico and Boulder.
How did we get around
In Wisconsin, we travelled in my mom’s car. Then we flew out to Phoenix and rented a SUV for the rest of time out West and returned it in Las Vegas before we flew home.
We drove around 4,000 miles (6,400 km) and paid $516.14 for the gas / petrol.
Food
We mostly cooked meals for ourselves. I find eating out day after day pretty horrible. So anytime we could cook, we did. We have a trangia stove that allows us to cook even complex meals, like a curry with rice and naan bread as it has two pots, a frying pan, and a kettle.
On the hikes, we had dehydrated meals.
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