 |
Andrea & Dustin, 1978
Arches National Park |
In 1974 we were living in married student housing in Madison, WI. With two children, we could not afford luxuries such as hotels or long distance phone calls. Following tradition set by Tom's grandparents and parents, we spent our free time exploring the western United States by car, with overnight stays at campgrounds. Before long our car trips started to include short overnight hikes. These backpacking trips grew longer as Andrea and Dustin grew older; eventually turning into major backpacking excursions.
1975 Utah - Arches National Park
In 1975 our friends from Washington DC, Henning and Martha Leidecker, arranged (by mail) to meet us in Nebraska and travel together to Utah. Their son Jonathan was about Andrea's age (five), while Dustin was just over two. Our first stop was Arches National Park, where we settled into a nice campsite.
We had our big tent and they brought a small backpacking tent. We put Andrea and Johnathan in the small tent while the four adults and toddler Dustin slept in our big tent. One night the wind picked up and started collapsing the tent. Tom and Henning piled rocks in the corners of the tent to hold it down, but it was an all night struggle to keep a roof over our heads. The only ones to get much sleep that night were Andrea and Jonathan, whose low backpacking tent was not affected the windstorm. Lesson learned.
 |
| Arriving at Arches National Park, 1975 |
 |
| Wind collapsed our big tent on night in Arches National Park, 1975 We switched to backpacking tents. |
 |
| Martha and Mary under Landscape Arch, 1975. The area is blocked off today. |
1975 Utah - Zion National Park
We moved on to explore Zion National Park where we saw giant rock formations, scrambled over slickrock and took desert hikes. One day we watched Jonathan while Martha and Henning climbed the steep trail to Observation Point; the next day they stayed with the children while Tom and I joined a ranger-led hike to Angels Landing.
 |
| Mary, Andrea, & Dustin. Zion National Park, 1975 |
 |
| Mary, Andrea, & Dustin, Zion National Park, 1975 |
 |
| Angel's Landing, The ranger who led our hike is left front. 1975 |
 |
| Dustin and Andrea scramble up slickrock in Zion National Park, 1975 |
 |
| Dustin and Andrea enjoying a Utah Juniper tree in Zion National Park, 1975 |
1976 Wisconsin River
In 1976 we bought two Eureka backpacking tents, a couple of backpacks, and lightweight cooking gear. We added our canoe plus a bike and headed toward the nearby Wisconsin River. After leaving the bike at our take-out landing, we drove upstream for a few miles and loaded our canoe with the tents and overnight supplies. A leisurely drift downstream brought us to a nice sandbar suitable for camping. We enjoyed the isolated campsite with its private beach for a couple of nights, then loaded the gear back into the canoe and floated to the take-out landing. Tom bicycled back to get the car and we headed home.
 |
| Camping on a sandbar in the Wisconsin River, 1976 |
1976 Upper Peninsula - Sylvania Wilderness Area
Next we headed to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, stopping first at the Sylvania Wilderness area. We loaded the canoe with all of our gear and paddled to a couple of walk-in (from a canoe) campsites. The backpacks worked well for portaging our tents, food, sleeping and cooking gear from the canoe landing spots to the campsites.
 |
| Dustin, Andrea & Mary, Sylvania Wilderness, 1976 |
 |
| Andrea, Dustin, & Mary, Sylvania Wilderness, 1976 |
 |
| Sylvania Wilderness, 1976 |
1976 Upper Peninsula - Porcupine Mountains
Then we headed north to the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park on Lake Superior to hike on the Escarpment Trail above the Lake of the Clouds. This hike of about six miles is generally considered a day trip, but we figured that three miles was as far as we could travel in a day, so we packed enough gear to camp along the way. After a sunny, hot walk the first day we set up the tent to provide shade for rest/nap. Then we packed up and hiked further until found a good a campsite at about the halfway point. The next day we finished our very first backpacking trip.
 |
| Andrea, Mary, & Dustin, Porcupine Mountains, 1976 |
 |
| Mary & Dustin, Porcupine Mountains, 1976 |
 |
| Porcupine Mountains, 1976 |
1978 Utah - Arches National Park
By 1978 I had job with only two weeks vacation. We no longer had time to drive west, but we could fly and rent a car, saving six days of driving. We took our backpacking gear as luggage, and it proved to be very useful. In Arches, we were allowed to camp anywhere within 150 feet - and out of sight - of an unpaved road. We obtained a wilderness permit and put up our tents among the rocks, cooked at tables in picnic areas, and enjoyed impressive sunrise and sunset views.
 |
| Dustin, Mary, and Andrea, arriving at Arches National Park, 1978 |
 |
| Ready to camp near Balanced Rock, Arches National Park, 1978 |
 |
| We could camp just about anywhere in Arches National Park in 1978 |
 |
| Dustin and Andrea, Arches National Park, 1979 |
1978 Utah - Canyonlands National Park
Next we went to Canyonlands National Park, just South of Arches, where we checked out Mesa Arch and camped near the classic view at Green River Overlook. We experimented sleeping without tents and decided we could leave the tents behind on our backpacking trip.
 |
| Mesa Arch, Canyonlands National Park, 1978 |
 |
| Experiment: Can we camping without a tent? Near the Canyonlands Green River Overlook, 1978 |
 |
| Sunrise at Green River Overlook, Canyonlands National Park, 1978 |
1978 Utah - Canyonlands NP - Needles District
Then we moved to the Needles District in the southern part of Canyonlands National Park where the main event of our Utah trip was an eleven mile, three day backpacking trip. We camped at the beautiful Needles campground, then loaded gear and water into our backpacks and headed to Chesler Park over a spectacular trail. We set up camp after three miles, then backpacked three more miles and stayed near Durid Arch. With much of our food and water gone, we had lighter packs for the five miles trip back to the car.
 |
| Dustin found an arch at the campground, Canyonlands Needles campground, 1978 |
 |
| Andrea enjoys flowers along the route, Chesler Park Hike, Canyonlands National Park, 1978 |
 |
| Backpacking in Chesler Park, Canyonlands National Park, 1978 |
 |
Tom playing a recorder at our campsite near Durid Arch, Canyonlands National Park, 1978
|
 |
| Heading back to the car, Canyonlands National Park, 1978 |
1978 UtahIn the remaining week of our trip we drove through Blanding to Natural Bridges National Monument, then north on State Route 95, one of the most scenic roads in Utah, to Capital Reef National Park, and finally to Salt Lake City to catch our plane home.
 |
| Natural Bridges National Monument, 1978 |
 |
| Capitol Reef National Park, 1978 |
1979 New Mexico - Gila River
In June, 1979 Tom attended a physics teacher's conference in Las Cruces, New Mexico, so we planned a camping trip to see the state. We added a child's backpack for Dustin to our gear and sewed bags for all four backpacks to make them easier to bring on an airplane as luggage. We flew to Albuquerque, drove to the Gila National Forest, and went on an 11 mile backpacking trip up the middle fork of the Gila River and back through Little Bear Canyon. When we got back to the car, we discovered a stash of walnuts and M&M's in the cigarette tray - critters had moved them there from our food bags in the trunk. We learned that food should be in critter-proof containers even in the car.
 |
| Crossing the Gila River, 1979 |
 |
| Walking up the Middle Fork of the Gila River, 1979 |
 |
| Middle Fork of the Gila River, 1979 |
 |
| Little Bear Canyon, Gila National Forest, 1979 |
 |
| A critter stashed away some snacks from the trunk of the car, Gila River, 1979 |
1979 New Mexico
We explored the nearby Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, dropped Tom at his conference, then checked out Carlsbad Caverns National Park. After the conference we went to White Sands National Park where we backpacked to a campsite a mile from the parking area. On the way back to Albuquerque, we explored more of New Mexico, including Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument.
 |
| Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument, 1979 |
1980 Colorado - Rawah Wilderness
In 1980 we got serious about backpacking. We bought a couple of super lightweight Gore-Tex tents and flew to Denver. We started with a "warm-up" hike in the Rawah Wilderness area, taking the Blue Lake trail five miles and spending a night at the lake. Then we backpacked a couple of miles over a ridge to the West Branch Trail and headed north a mile or so to Island Lake, where we camped for two nights. We did a day hike to Clark's Peak - Tom made it all the way and signed the register. It was another six miles downhill to our car at the West Lake Trailhead, nine miles by road from our starting point.
1980 Colorado - Rocky Mountain National Park
Next we went to Rocky Mountain National Park, where we drove up Fall River Road to the Alpine Visitor's Center and back down Trail Ridge Road. Then we joined a ranger-led hike at Glacier George Junction. The hike was five miles out and five miles back, which was too long for us, so we got a permit to camp at the end. The ranger took us to Alberta Falls, Mills Lake and finally Black Lake, where we camped. The next day we took a side trip to Sky Pond on the way back to the car and camped in the Moraine Park campground. From there we took a shuttle to Bear Lake for a day hike to Nymph Lake, Dream Lake and Emerald Lake, then a side trip to Lake Haiyaha on the way back to the shuttle at Bear Lake.
 |
| Light Dimension Gore-Tex Tent by Early Winters, 1980 |
1980 Colorado - Rocky Mountain NP - Wild Basin
Next we drove to the south section of Rocky Mountain National Park and set out on a backpacking trip from Wild Basin Trailhead. We backpacked three miles, left our camping gear, and hiked to Ouzel Lake and back to our campsite. The next day we backpacked three more miles to Thunder Lake, where we stayed for three nights. Our day trips from the campsite took us to Tanima Peak one day (Dustin and Andrea signed the peak register) and to Snowbank Lake the next day. It was just over five miles to backpack back to the car.
 |
| Hike through Ouzel fire area on the way to Ouzel Lake, 1980 |
 |
| Camping half way to Thunder Lake, 1980 |
 |
| Thunder Lake, 1980 |
 |
| Signing the Tanima Peak register, 12,480 feet. 1980 |
 |
| Probably the youngest signers in the Tanima Peak register, 1980 |
 |
| Falls near Snowbank Lake, 1980 |
 |
| The fastest way down the mountain, 1980 |
 |
| Copeland Falls on the trail back from Thunder Lake, 1980 |
1980 Colorado We concluded our trip to Colorado with a stay at Great Sand Dunes National Park. Tom helped Andrea and Dustin build a sand fort in Medano Creek, an intermittent snowmelt flow which held water at the time. We stopped at The Garden of the Gods near Colorado Springs on the way back to the Denver airport.
 |
| Andrea climbing a dune, Great Sand Dunes NP, 1980 |
 |
| Andrea, Dustin and Tom building a sand fort in Medano Creek, Great Sand Dunes NP, 1980 |
 |
| Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs's, 1980 |
