Wednesday, December 22, 2021

2021 Travels and Travails, Including a National Parks Update

2021 was a year of waxing and waning Covid infection rates. It was scary at times, but after our vaccinations and again after our boosters, we felt fairly invincible. Maybe it was wishful thinking, but so far (as of December 22), we've managed to remain well. This, in spite of traveling. Quite a lot of traveling.

Just after that vaccination, we drove to West Virginia to spend a couple days at New River Gorge NP. It was good to get away after the Covid Winter, and the new NP is wonderful. 

In April, we flew to California to hit the national parks there. What a trip that was! Eight (out of nine, and we'd been to that one) National Parks and a handful of other stuff.

Other than a few shorter trips. including the Finger Lakes, we didn't do much in the summer. Part of the reason was watching the Grandkids, and part was due to some surgery on my part. In fact, that caused us to cancel a trip we'd planned for Alaska. Oh well.

In September, after the tour operator canceled our trip to Italy, we found ourselves in an unexpected destination: Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. We sure saw and did a lot there.

An off-season trip to Montana, Washington, and Oregon came up for us in November. We visited five more national parks, some state parks, and weathered some storms. Who says it's risky to travel off-season?

To polish off the year, we went to the Big Island of Hawaii in December, where we did some great hikes, including the one across Kilauea Iki volcano caldera. 

Our list of U.S. National Park visitations has now been updated. As of the end of 2021, we've visited 42 parks and have 21 to go. A few of those visits are planned for January, so stay tuned.









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