The great retirement escape

Nate just retired and there’s an eclipse coming up - so here we go! Les mer

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The great retirement escape
Blooming Cacti Galore!
17. april 2024, Forente stater ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C
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The great retirement escape
Second day in Big Bend National Park
17.–20. apr. 2024, Forente stater ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C
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The great retirement escape
First day in Big Bend National Park
19.–22. apr. 2024, Forente stater ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C
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The great retirement escape
The Chinati Foundation in Marfa TX
19.–21. apr. 2024, Forente stater ⋅ 🌬 16 °C
The artist Donald Judd established The Chinati Foundation/La Fundación Chinati as a site for the permanent installation of large-scale works of art in 1986. We visited the grounds of the foundation and some of Judd’s work.Les mer
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The great retirement escape
Chinati Foundation B&W Abstracts
19. april 2024, Forente stater ⋅ 🌬 17 °C
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The great retirement escape
Carlsbad Cavern National Park
20.–22. apr. 2024, Forente stater ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C
What an absolute gem of a as park! *Easily* the most stunning cavern I’ve visited - and we just did Mammoth and Wind caves this past year…
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The great retirement escape
Guadalupe Mountains National Park
21. april 2024, Forente stater ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C
After Carlsbad, We spent two days in Guadalupe National Park. The first afternoon we hiked up the Devil's Hall Trail, a wash trail that takes you to a narrow slot and a bedrock bottom. The next day we hiked Guadalupe Peak, the highest peak in Texas at 8740ft.Les mer
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The great retirement escape
Beautiful Camp under the Organ Mountains
23. april 2024, Forente stater ⋅ 🌙 25 °C
Camping at a trailhead in front of the Organ Mountains just outside Las Cruces. There's was a beautiful sunset followed by a great moon rise from behind the mountains.
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The great retirement escape
White Sands National Park
24. april 2024, Forente stater ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
We unfortunately couldn’t enter the park at opening time because of a missile test in the vicinity! Still a fun time very roughly following the Alkali Flat trail.
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The great retirement escape
Chiricahua National Monument
25.–27. apr. 2024, Forente stater ⋅ 🌬 19 °C
We did a couple of short hikes when we first arrived but then hiked the “Big Loop” including the “Heart of Rocks”loop and Inspiration Point on our second day. Chiricahua is a very cool and surreal place to explore!Les mer
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The great retirement escape
Titan Missile Museum
27. april 2024, Forente stater ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
Tucson was once home to an Air Force air wing responsible for operating a set of nuclear ballistic missile silos. The Titan Missile Museum has taken over the silo and preserved the place as it was decommissioned. The 45 minute tour takes you through the history and operation. Anne was even selected as the watch commander and ran a mock launch.Les mer
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The great retirement escape
A day in Saguaro National Park
28. april 2024, Forente stater ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C
A two nights and a full day in Saguaro West National Park. We hiked the King Canyon/Wasson Peak loop. Cactus's were in full bloom up the trail and it was interesting to see how elevation and aspect changed both the type of cactus seen as well as bloom. Bonus offtrail hike to Amole peak, which had lots of stuff trying to impale us. Finished the day at Gates Pass for sunset with 300 of our best friends 🙂Les mer
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The great retirement escape
Blooming Saguaro
30. april 2024, Forente stater ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
Finally found a Saguaro with blooms that aren't 40ft off the ground. Plus moon set over the mountains.
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The great retirement escape
Mt Ajo - Organ Pipe National Monument
1. mai 2024, Forente stater ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C
We set our sights on a climb of Mt Ajo (4783 ft) in Organ Pipe National Monument. It's the highest peak in the monument and it connects with a popular loop of Estes Canyon and the Bull Pasture. The trail to Bull Pasture continues and turns into a rough trail that ascends steeply up to gain the top of a rock band. It's harder and steeper than I expected, but the views over the valley below were awesome. The peak had a couple false summits before revealing the true summit with a radio station on top.

A great day in the mountains!Les mer
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The great retirement escape
More Blooming Saguaro
2. mai 2024, Forente stater ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
We found a blooming saguaro right in the campground where we could use the van as a ladder to get right up close!
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The great retirement escape
Epic campsite for the night
3. mai 2024, Forente stater ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C
We stayed outside Sunset Crater National Monument at a campsite that had the most incredible panorama of Sunset Crater and the San Francisco mountains.
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The great retirement escape
Paria Canyon and Buckskin Gulch
5. mai 2024, Forente stater ⋅ 🌬 18 °C
Anne and I did a two day hike of the Paria Canyon and Buckskin Gulch. The original plan had been to hike from Wire Pass to Lee's Ferry, a 4-5 day hike. But based on conditions and timing, we changed it to an overnight going the opposite direction. The hike started wet, which we'd prepared for by bringing waterproof socks. The first day was about 8 miles to the confluence of the Paria river and Buckskin Gulch where we camped on a bench that provided safety from and potential flash floods. On the second day we hiked almost 14 miles up Buckskin Gulch to Wire Pass, where I hitchhiked back to the White House trailhead to pick up the car.

The hike was beautiful and mostly through dramatic and narrow slot canyon.Les mer
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The great retirement escape
Exhaust Work
7. mai 2024, Forente stater ⋅ 🌬 21 °C
We've had a couple small incidents on the road. In Organ Pipe we blew a fitting on the air compressor that we fixed in Phoenix. Last week I noticed that the exhaust pipe had shifted and was directly against the steel bumper, which is melting the bumper.Les mer
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The great retirement escape
Glen Canyon Dam
7. mai 2024, Forente stater ⋅ 🌬 25 °C
A quick stop at the Glen Canyon Dam to see the visitors center, take some pictures, and repack the van after our backpacking trip. Water level is obviously low, but still well above dead pool.
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The great retirement escape
Putting the recovery gear to work
8. mai 2024, Forente stater ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C
We meet a guy on the road to White Pocket who managed to get his Tacoma stuck on a rock. One wheel was completely off the ground and his transfer case was resting on a larger boulder. I was able to use my air jack to lift him of the rock so he could back up and free himself.

A valuable set of lessons all around. I was happy to gain some experience without getting my own van stuck.Les mer
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The great retirement escape
White Pocket - Peak Climb
9. mai 2024, Forente stater ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C
White Pocket had a summit listed in Peakbagger, and we'd heard the top of the mountain had very cool formations for another visitor, so Anne and I went for a hike.

Unfortunately, getting to the summit required walking a route that had too much exposure for my comfort, so we turned around. But the formation was indeed very interesting with bonus sand dunes up high in a small cirque.Les mer
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The great retirement escape
White Pocket
9. mai 2024, Forente stater ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C
We've wanted to visit White Pocket for years. Unlike the Wave, a White Pocket does not require permits. But it's also hard to get to; the road requires a capable 4x4 vehicle with high clearance. The sad on the last part of the road is soft and the ruts are deep, as one poor driver of a rented Nissan Rogue found out.

So the Sprinter was our ticket into White Pocket and we were not disappointed! We walked around the formation for hours looking at all the cool formations.Les mer
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The great retirement escape
White Pocket - Petroglyphs
9. mai 2024, Forente stater ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C
We also heard there was a small panel of petroglyphs just north of the formation, so we visited them too.
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The great retirement escape
Campsite for the night
9. mai 2024, Forente stater ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C
Another pretty incredible campsite. We could see and hear the road, but we were the only ones there and the sunset on the rocks was very nice.
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The great retirement escape
Alstrom Point
10. mai 2024, Forente stater ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C
The person at the BLM station suggested Alstrom Point as a relatively unknown but awesome place to visit. She was certainly right. The road is mostly in great shape, easily passable by most vehicles. But the last 2 miles or so are very rough and require high clearance, 4wd and good route finding through the rocks and obstacles.Les mer
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