Trekking the National Parks with the Grandsons

I got to spend two weeks with my youngest grandsons traveling through National Parks in Colorado, Utah, Nevada and California. We had so much fun!

It hadn’t hit home that my youngest had spent most of (really all) of his life in the desert of Arizona until we started seeing the green trees, grass and mountains

of Colorado. He was taking so many pictures and I was having trouble understanding exactly what he was taking pictures of until he was taking pictures of until he

turned to me and said that everything was so “green” and so “beautiful!” Something that I grew up with and apparently took for granted, took seeing it through

my grandson’s eyes to see the simple beauty of it all again. Not the majestic mountains and view points but the beauty in the green flowing grasses and the

striking allure of the trees in the distance. Simple but oh so poignant when seen through the eyes of a young child.

SNOW!   Who would think that snow would be a huge thing to a 13-yr old! At the first sight of snow in the distance it was, “Are we going there? When will we be there!” We did eventually make it to the snow and was this kid happy! Snowball fights did happen, snowballs were put into the freezer to be taken to California for a future snowball fight, and thankfully I had extra pairs of gloves and hats in the RV, so we didn’t freeze our hands and ears! Playing in the snow entailed more than snowball fights¸ we also made Sven and tried to find different animal tracks. The thing we were lacking was boots so by the time we finished playing our feet were freezing and our shoes were wet for several days. Lesson learned but nothing that we would regret.

 The next big thing was finding camping spots. After a few days of boondocking the boys would be itching for electricity and water but even more important were a basketball court and swimming pool. I tried to have the boys do research on the camping locations for a couple of reasons. One I wanted them to learn how to do it and second, they were the ones with the requirements. They were doing great at it, especially with being new, it was funny as they both don’t like to talk on the phone so when it came to speaking to someone at the campgrounds, they would quickly shove the phone in my face. As they became more adept at what they were doing I became a little laxer at checking out where they were picking as they knew what my stipulations were and so I trusted them to stick to the guidelines I had set out. This eventually led to us being reserved for a campground 200 miles behind us instead of in front of us, which we found out quickly enough when we put the location in the GPS. It was resolved by calling them back immediately and thankfully they understood and refunded our money. There was one other time where we had a campground that everyone was looking forward to finally reaching but when we got close it turned out instead of a campground it was an army base! The boys were both freaking out and afraid that we were going to get arrested because there were these army guys with guns greeting us. They laughed and said that they get a lot of people through there that think the same thing as the base took over the campground, but it is still listed as a regular campground on the internet. Thankfully they just turned us around and we were on our way with a suggestion from them on a local campground that would meet our needs. The boys were leery about trusting google or Siri for a while after that and would double check everything to make sure it was legit.

While the National Parks are great places for hiking and the boys did do a fair amount of hiking wherever we were, it was HOT! That made us look for other things to do while we were at the parks.  Both boys love swimming, and we spent many opportunities at beaches and lakes so they could spend time in the water. We stopped at lakes in both Sequoia and Kings National Parks. While at Channel Island National Park we toured Santa Cruz Island, and the boys swam in the ocean. (If you go, plan on renting a kayak before leaving for the island as you can’t rent one on the island.) We were allowed to camp in the parking lot of the cruise company the night before we left and the night we came back so the boys were able to once again swim in the ocean! We then moved on to my favorite beach, Coronado in San Diego! We were able to spend some time playing in the water there before meeting my daughter Mindy for dinner. While I love the water also, I enjoyed sitting in my chair, soaking in the joy of them spending time together and just being free in the water. Even with using the shower on the outside of my RV and the showers at the beaches I am still finding sand in my RV, and it brings back great memories every time I do!

Setting up and tearing down is just a part of camping. With the boys it got to be an interesting part of our day. Sometimes they would be up and ready to go before I was, and it would be let’s go Grandma! Others would be pulling teeth to get anyone out of bed, and I would get most of the things done before anyone else would even crack an eye open. Usually, they were really good at picking things that they would do (each boy had certain items that they like to do best.) Some days when we were at a campground and were getting ready to tear down the boys would want to get in every minute, they could at the basketball court so they would be up early and be off saying let us know when you are ready to go! One night we had gotten in late, but the boys were up tearing down early as we were heading to Sequoia NP. One of the boys was doing the electrical when he came screaming around the RV that he had been bitten! I calmed him down to see what happened and he had been stung by a wasp. After making sure he wasn’t allergic I went to check out the electrical cord and there was a wasp nest right next to the cord. Apparently when I hooked up the night before it was cool enough that I didn’t disturb them and so dark I didn’t see them. I’m allergic to wasps to I wasn’t going to unhook the cord so I went to the office to see if they had anyone that could help. Nope, they would have to call someone in. Several hours later someone comes to unhook the RV, and we are finally on our way. After that experience we were more cautious about hooking and unhooking the RV!

Both boys are gamers, and I will have to admit that there was a lot of time spent where they were playing each other on games. I was okay with it if they were interacting with each other. They would sit side by side and play, joking and carrying on a conversation. Occasionally they would get to a point where they had too much of each other and needed time apart and go to respective beds for alone time or sit up front with me while I was driving. That usually didn’t last too long, and they were back together again.

Food! Man can 13-year-old boys eat! We were constantly cooking or replenishing our food supplies. How many times can you shop at Sam’s Club in two weeks and still run out of food? I try not to stop at fast food places when I’m traveling and with these two that would have sent me to the poor house.  We did stop a couple of times when we were all so exhausted that cooking was not an option or maybe they just wore me down with their pleas. The boys did some of the cooking, Ramen being their food of choice.  Ham and cheese sandwiches were also a quick lunch option and oatmeal started out as the first choice for breakfast but after about a week changed to regular cereal as the oatmeal took too long to cook. Plus, as long as we had cereal, they could have it throughout the day. We started the trip using dry milk which is what I always use when I travel as it doesn’t spoil as I don’t use milk on a regular basis but the boys didn’t like it as well so we started using regular milk which meant going to the store more often as my refrigerator is small so we could only buy a small jug and went through it quickly. What a complete change in mind set!

Traveling with my grandsons was an experience that I would not change for the world! It brought me closer to both boys and helped me to really appreciate my travels in a whole new light. It brought laughter, tears, frustration, creativity, joy, love, and regret that I didn’t get the chance to do this with my other two grandsons. I would highly recommend setting out on a journey like this with your family, if possible, it was an experience that I would redo in a second if possible.

For me, family is the most important thing there is and spending time with them on an adventure/experience is more important than just spending a lot of money on them. It is something that they will remember long after you are gone.

“The most important thing in the world is family and love.” John Wooden