Gallery — Hytreks

Rocky Mountain National Park

Way back in March 2015, we got married in this National Park. It was a small, outdoor ceremony that required a short hike through the snow to the dock at Sprague Lake. This park is particularly special to us, and we enjoyed sharing it with Owen for the first time.

Gateway Arch National Park

With striking architecture, a sprawling museum, and many stories to tell, Gateway Arch National Park is not your typical National Park. And, as we learned the hard way, unlike a typical National Park, having bear spray in your backpack is not advisable here.

Indiana Dunes National Park

Set on the southern shore of Lake Michigan, Indiana Dunes was an oasis in an industrialized area. We frolicked in the sand, and took in the views of this great lake.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Set just south of the city of Cleveland, Cuyahoga Valley National park offered us waterfalls, unexpected rock formations and authentic 3-Way Cincinnati Chili nearby.

Niagara Falls State Park

A massive and iconic waterfall, some electric boats, and delicious donuts. Our Niagara Falls visit was a success.

Acadia National Park

The delicious “popovers” were the unexpected surprise at Acadia National Park. We also had a blast exploring tide pools, climbing mountains and visiting lighthouses.

Washington DC

Not technically a “National Park”, but our trip through D.C. and the National Mall had no shortage of National Monuments and other historical sites. It also had bugs…

Shenandoah National Park

A long and narrow park, it’s possible to drive the entire length of Shenandoah along Skyline Drive. That drive is certainly scenic, but our favorite part of the park was a hike through a boulder field at Blackrock Summit.

New River Gorge NP

New River Gorge is America’s newest National Park. First we drove across the gorge, then down into it, then we hiked around it. Supposedly the white water rafting here is amazing, but not ideal for a four year old. Alas, that will be an adventure for a future visit.

Mammoth Cave National Park

Mammoth cave is mammoth big. With 400 miles explored and potentially another 600 miles unexplored, it’s the longest known cave system in the world. We also came across a tiny bat that we named Nugget.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the #1 most visited National Park in America. We hiked through the woods and drove through banks of fog on our trek up into the “smokies”.

Congaree National Park

Lucky for us, the “Mosquito Meter” at Congaree National Park was at a tolerable 2.5 out of 6. For the record, the National Park service describes level 6 as a “War Zone”.

Dry Tortugas National Park

Taking a seaplane to visit the remote Dry Tortugas National Park, 70 miles off the tip of Key West, was one of our favorite experiences of the journey so far. We also found out that Owen is rather skilled at snorkeling.

Biscayne National Park

Our Biscayne experience included a guided boat tour and a picnic lunch at Boca Chita Key, which we learned was the former private party island of Mark Honeywell.

Everglades National Park

Lizards, alligators, crocodiles, manatees, dolphins and more! The Everglades caught us off-guard with its abundance of wildlife, and we had a blast exploring this park on foot and by boat.

Hot Springs National Park

Four thousand years ago rain fell to the earth, seeped into the ground, got heated up, and eventually rose back up to the surface. And then we drank it as coffee, and it was delicious.

Big Bend National Park

Big Bend is described as one of the most remote and least visited parks in the lower 48…we can attest to that. Our isolated campground had full hookups, and wifi good enough to write this blog post, but no cell service. The closest city was 45 miles away. It was awesome.

Guadalupe Mountains National Park

This park is Carlsbad Caverns lesser known nextdoor neighbor. Just a few miles down the road, and across the border into Texas, Guadalupe Mountains offers an above-ground and high-elevation perspective of the area. Roads are in short supply, but hiking trails are abundant!

Carlsbad Caverns National Park

How does a 1.25 mile hike down 750 feet into the earth on a slippery and dimly lit trail sound to you? Well it sounded like fun to us, so that’s what we did to check out Carlsbad Caverns National Park. The hike was totally worth it though, the caverns were other-worldly.

White Sands National Park

One of our favorite parks so far, we had a blast romping around the dunes, making “snow” angels, and rolling down the hills. You’re not supposed to take any sand with you when you leave…but we were cleaning it out of, well everywhere, for the next week.

Saguaro National Park

The giant Saguaro cacti are an iconic symbol of the American southwest, and this park is full of them! The desert has its own harsh kind of allure and we found it in abundance here.

Grand Canyon National Park

We rang in the the 2021 new year in a style perfect for us, by visiting Grand Canyon National Park. Even though it was a little busy, we consider ourselves lucky to get a glimpse of the canyon with snow on the ground.

Petrified Forest National Park

225 Million years ago. That’s when the trees that would eventually become the Petrified Forest lived. As humans, it’s hard to wrap our brains around that kind of time scale. It was wild to walk amongst these fossilized tree trunks and think about all that has happened since they fell.

Mesa Verde National Park

The first National Park that we visited that was primarily archaeological in nature, Mesa Verde left us inspired and awestruck at the engineering capabilities of the ancestral Puebloan people.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

One of the lesser known, and least visited National Parks, Black Canyon of the Gunnison turned out to be one of our favorites. A massive winter storm dumped over a foot of Colorado snow on us, testing our RV cold weather preparedness. We survived, and were rewarded with the experience of seeing the park blanketed in snow.

Canyonlands National Park

Canyonlands National Park is like the movie Inception, but with canyons. There are canyons inside of canyons and the deeper you go, the more canyons there are. The hikes were breathtaking due to both their beauty and the terror of having a three year old with us that loves to make sudden moves. Nonetheless, we loved this lesser known park that is just southwest of Moab.

Arches National Park

Arches National Park contains an unbelievable assortment of natural stone arches, but that’s not all we found there. We visited this park a few times over several days and found several hikes and features that the whole family enjoyed.

Goblin Valley State Park

This state park was recommended to us by several people, and we sure are glad we decided to check it out. With hoodoos as far as the eye could see, and the ability to simply explore the valley without the confines of a trail, this ranked among our favorite destinations so far.

Capitol Reef National Park

Capitol Reef was the third of Utah’s “Mighty Five” on our agenda. We were struck by the coloration of the rock walls and unusual geology this park had to offer. We even managed to squeeze in a great hike through a slot canyon!

Bryce Canyon National Park

From hoodoos and fins to natural bridges, Bryce Canyon National Park was a dramatic landscape. We walked along the rim of a canyon that’s not technically a canyon and tried to wrap our minds around the natural forces that could have created such wild terrain.

Zion National Park

One of the more well known and popular National Parks, Zion is known for its red-walled canyons combined with lush green plant life. We got a few surprises at this park, and we also found some hidden gems.

Great Basin National Park

This National Park is one of the most remote places we have visited so far. The trek through the Nevada desert rewarded us with surprising Fall colors, and gnarly 4,000 year old trees. This isn’t a park you experience on your way to something else, but if you choose to plan a visit here, we’re certain you will enjoy it.

Olympic National Park

Olympic has three distinct ecosystems that each warrant their own National Park. We were battling smoke and poor air quality from a particularly severe wildfire season, but we were still able to get in a short visit to each area of Olympic.

Mount Rainier National Park

We were excited to visit this National Park, but the scale and beauty we experienced at Mount Rainier surprised us all. From thousand year old trees to glaciers, we thoroughly enjoyed our visit to this park.

Glacier National Park

Driving on Going-to-the-Sun road was an experience all it’s own, but the dramatic mountain vistas and crystal-clear, glacier-fed lakes were on another level entirely.

Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone was the first National Park ever created. It remains one of the most popular parks, and with good reason. The park is huge, and contains an astonishing number of breathtaking features. We spent five days on the West side and then decided to spend another two on the North side. Needless to say, Yellowstone impressed us.

Grand Prismatic Spring

Midway Geyser Basin as viewed from Fairy Falls trail.

Midway Geyser Basin

Viewed at sunrise

Bison in the Firehole

Viewed on drive from West entrance

Owen waiting for Old Faithful

Enjoying a nice hot chocolate

Old Faithful erupting

Shortly after sunrise

Grand Prismatic Overlook

Attempting a family photo with Grand Prismatic

Mammoth Hot Springs Overlook

Upper Terraces area

North Entrance

Masks and tripod used due to crowds

Bison eating breakfast

Lamar Valley at sunrise

Ben meeting bison

Lamar Valley at sunrise

Mammoth Hot Springs

Lower Terraces area

Roosevelt Arch

“For the benefit and enjoyment of the people”

Iron looking like lava

Artist Paintpots

Fumerols with a view

Norris Porcelain Basin

A foggy forest

Hike to Artist Paintpots

Heart Spring

Upper Geyser Basin near Old Faithful

Geothermal features

Norris Porcelain Basin

Craters Of The Moon Monument

This National Monument is found in rural Idaho. The small gateway town of Arco happened to be a perfect stopping point on our travels. We are so glad we stopped here! Craters of the Moon is an incredible, other-worldly landscape. Fittingly, the monument has a partnership with NASA to prepare astronauts to travel to the moon and Mars.

Heart of the Moon

Craters of the Moon - Near Arco, ID.

Moonscape #1

Craters of the Moon - Near Arco, ID

Moonscape #2

Craters of the Moon - Near Arco, ID.

Junior Lunar Ranger

Inferno Cone Trailhead - Craters of the Moon

Grand Teton National Park

“Grand” is an understatement when describing Grand Teton National Park. Our family especially loves the mountains, and Grand Teton was nothing short of spectacular. As an added bonus we learned one of the peaks next to Grand Teton is Mt. Owen. As you might imagine, Owen enjoyed this fact.

Looking up

Jenny Lake - Grand Teton National Park

Teton Range

Jackson, WY

Jackson Entrance Sign

Grand Teton National Park - Near Jackson, WY

Quintessential Teton

Mormon Row - Grand Teton National Park

The Photographer

Jenny Lake Overlook

The Barn

Mormon Row - Grand Teton National Park

Badlands National Park

Badlands National Park surprises us with its diversity of landscape and geology. We were unprepared for the surprisingly drastic changes in elevation and colors. One day was not enough, this one is on our list to revisit in the future.

Pinnacles Overlook

North Unit - Badlands National Park

Family Photo

Sagecreek Rim Road near Hay Butte Overlook

Getting a better view

Pinnacles Overlook - Badlands National Park

Sea of Badlands

Sagecreek Rim Road near Hay Butte Overlook

Badlands Loop Road

Near Ben Reifel Visitor Center

Entrance Sign

Pinnacles Entrance - Badlands National Park

Wind Cave National Park

Visitation of the main cave system was closed when we were at this National Park, but that didn’t stop us from seeing lots of wildlife, and feeling the earth breathe at the incredible Natural Entrance.

Wind Cave Map

Wind Cave Visitor Center

Entrance Sign

Near Hot Springs, SD

Natural Entrance

Wind Cave National Park

Stairs to cave

Wind Cave National Park

Wide open spaces

Wind Cave National Park

Feeling the cave "breathe"

Natural Entrance - Wind Cave National Park

Mount Rushmore & Crazy Horse

Even though neither is a National Park, these two memorials were obvious stops for us when we were in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Both were powerful experiences in their own ways.

The Monument

As seen from the main viewing area

Entrance Sign

Keystone, SD

Junior Ranger

Officially sworn in!

Obligatory family photo

Mount Rushmore, SD

Scale Model

Crazy Horse Memorial - Crazy Horse, SD

Crazy Horse Patio

Crazy Horse, SD

Crazy Horse Memorial

Crazy Horse, SD

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

RV tire and axle trouble couldn’t stop us from getting to Medora and the Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota! Good thing too, because the views, the wildlife and the people were all amazing.

Bison relaxing

Near the Medora entrance (South Unit)

Little Missouri River

Wind Canyon Trail

Medora Musical

Medora, ND

Boots Campground

Medora, ND

Medora Entrance

Medora, ND

Calm after storm

Somewhere, ND

Tree-hugger

Painted Canyon Visitor Center

Voyageurs National Park

This incredible park was the first stop on our grand National Park adventure. On June 15th 2020 we left our home base in the Twin Cities to head north to Voyageurs, which is in Minnesota, right on the Canadian border. The park was beautiful, and the people were friendly…when we saw any. It was almost like we had this wonderful wilderness all to ourselves!