Tag: Mountains

Nature

North Cascades National Park

Posted on Butte, Montana

When I wake up it’s already starting to become light. I open the back door of my car while I stay in my bed. Now it feels even more like camping, because I can hear and smell nature from my mobile home. The visitor center opens in about an hour, so I have to wait a bit if I want to go there. Since I’m on a campsite I realize I can my my own coffee on the stove. That’ll be a good start of the day. It’s nice to be in adventure mode again, but it just takes some adjustment from waking up surrounded by loving people to waking up alone. I remember what my grandma often tells me: you are never alone. And that’s true. I’ve got many friends back home in the Netherlands and here in America. The other day I realized that I don’t feel like going back to the Netherlands yet, though it will be nice to see my friends and family again.

While making my coffee this morning I suddenly start to see how someone like Ana can travel around for three years. Of course it’s not an easy life, but it’s a free life. No office you need to go to every day, no obligations at all. You work for a while to get some money and then you travel further.

Nature

Mt Raineer National Park

Posted on Olympia, Washington

Today it’s time to pack my bag again and travel further. I’d love to stay longer with this lovely family, but there are more places to go and more people to see. I say goodbye to the children when they go to school and then hang out with Darin for a while longer and talk more about life. Darin is good in reading people, seeing how they really are. I ask him what he sees when he looks at me. He tells me the exact same thing as another spiritual man told me on the ferry from the South Island to the North Island of New Zealand. Things about my character and the path I’m on in life. I’m impressed and keep things in mind. In some way this is again an adventurous journey as also a spiritual journey. That’s one of the things I love about traveling, you learn a lot about yourself and life as you travel to new places and meet new people.

I say goodbye to Darin and hope to see him soon again in the Netherlands.

Nature

Switzerland of America

Posted on Kanab, Utah

Today the road trip continues. After having a relaxed day with Wes and Amy yesterday, I feel like traveling further again. In the morning Wes tells me that I’m about to travel to the most beautiful part of Colorado. He didn’t say too much, it is indeed an amazing landscape. It makes me think of the beautiful nature in New Zealand. High mountains covered with snow and many rocks and wide views.

The first destination of today is Black Canyon of the Gullison National Park. This wasn’t originally on my list, but we saw it in my book about the National Parks yesterday morning while looking at my route.

History

Visting old mining towns

Posted on Woodland Park, Colorado

When I wake up in the morning I see it’s 4AM again. I seem to be quite consistent in my waking up time here so far. Unfortunately I’m not feeling well. My body has to get accustomed to the high altitude here in Colorado. We’re at 8500ft here, that’s about 2,5km above sea level. It’s about twice as high as Helena, Montana where I more often go. Quite different than in the Netherlands where we are below sea level. Last night I had a few nose bleedings and right now I have a headache and feel nauseous. I hope it’ll get better soon and in any case I’ll be driving to Arizona later this week where the altitude is lower again. After writing for a while, I go back to sleep and wake up again at 7.30AM when some light is entering my room. I quickly get up so I can say goodbye to Amy before she leaves for work. I feel quite a lot better than a couple of hours ago and I’m full of energy again.

After I said goodbye to Amy, I have breakfast with Wes and together we look at my map and the route I’ve planned out. He gives me some recommendations for places to see and I adjust the route. We find some more National Parks to add to the map and some towns to visit.