Burkhardt Adventures

Spring Break 2025 we took our second National Parks Trip out to Arizona      When Bruce and I started discussing our approach, we planned to take multiple three to four week trips to visit as many US National Parks as we could over a one-year period. This plan evolved, and we decided to begin with two shorter nine to ten day trips to see how it went and learn how to plan, tweak, and make things work well before we embarked upon longer treks. Then, we would attempt to see ALL the rest of the sixty-three Parks over a fifteen month period with a series of longer (up to seven weeks), more ambitious trips that will hopefully all fall into place. Our planning has been extensive, as National Park campsites can be difficult to book, and we are trying to be efficient while also seeing each park at the right time of year.           This second trip was pretty laid back. We have some family members who invited us to camp near them just outside of Phoeni...

In December of 2024, we embarked upon our first official US National Parks trip!        Before I begin, I should mention that in July 2023, we had the opportunity to visit the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. So we went ahead and checked that one of the National Parks list as a family. Now that we've seen a few more, the kids would like to go back someday and do the Jr. Ranger Program there and explore a little more. There are quite a few exhibits underneath the arch, and we discovered it had a lot more to offer than we expected. Here we are in front of the Arch... And inside after we took the elevator to the top for a view of St. Louis! Big Bend      Moving on to more recent events, our December trip was our first National Parks trip in our new travel trailer. We used our Christmas break to visit the four National parks in Texas and New Mexico. The road trip down to Big Bend National Park took us one day, but it was a long day of driving. We learned a few...