Filed under: Activities & Attractions, Family Camping, Outdoor Recreation & Hiking, State & National Parks

Camping Goals for 2013!

It’s that time of year again; time to lay out our goals for the New Year. As many of you know, every year my family and I look back at our accomplishments of the year past, then focus forward and set some goals for the New Year. As I sit here at my computer, I am looking out and watching the snow fall, covering the ground with its glistening white magic. Even our little camper is covered, which brings me to some of the goals we have not met for the year. As I do every year, in this post, I would like to set some camping and RVing goals for the new year to give use something to “shoot for”, as it were.

Last year, as some of you may know, our goals included selling our home in Wisconsin, closing the mental health clinic we have run for more than ten years and moving ourselves and all of our worldly good to the home we purchased in New Mexico. Another goal was to continue teaching college classes online at Kaplan University. I am happy to say, we accomplished all of that, and was also hired to teach a Psychology class at UNM-Taos in our new community, but, alas, many of our camping goals remain unsatisfied. We had rather optimistically had planned to camp for three to four weeks in Glacier, our current favorite national park as well as take numerous other shorter trips with our little camper.

I am sorry to say, the only trip our little camper made this year was then Terry pulled it from Wisconsin to New Mexico. While it did step in and save us when our refrigerator went out at home,  both of us were feeling so displaced from our major move that we could not bring ourselves to take more than day trips from our new home while getting settled. We did take many day trips, one nearly every weekend to hike or sight-see some of the beautiful areas near our new home, but no camping this summer. That leads me to my goals for 2013:

• Spend three or four weeks camping in our beautiful National Parks, including Glacier. This is a slightly modified goal from last year as, due to my year round teaching schedule we will not be able to camp for three to four weeks at a time, but we will be able to spend this amount of time in smaller increments and plan to head to some of the Rocky Mountain Parks.
• Climb one or two more of Colorado’s Fourteeners (peaks in excess of 14,000 feet—Colorado has 54 such peaks) this year. Last year we climbed none. I’m anxious to head north and perhaps pick up the Gray’s and Torrey’s Peak combination we had planned several summers ago and when we had to revise our plans due to road construction. This could be the year.
• Take a trip with Ryan and Meghan again this summer. Last summer they each spent several weeks with us helping with the move and getting settled. This summer we would like to be with them simply to enjoy their company in a beautiful outdoor environment.
• To explore more of our surrounding states of Arizona and Colorado, and more of New Mexico. While we focused largely on our new home state this year, we have not traveled to farther destinations such as the amazing compound at Chaco Canyon, site of one of the earliest human civilizations. This has been on my “to-do” list for several years; it is time.

While this list is a bit shorter than those of years past, I believe it covers trips and activities that will keep us busy for most of the year. If not, I am certainly not averse to planning an extra impromptu adventure if we find ourselves with extra time. Happy 2013 and Happy Travels!

To plan your trip to one of our beautiful National Parks, read 25 Quick, Easy Weekends at a national park near you.

Last 5 posts by Diane Berry

• Racing the Chama Chili Ski Classic - February 17th, 2013
• Another Winter Family Adventure - February 10th, 2013
• A Winter Family Adventure! - February 3rd, 2013
• The Forest in Winter - January 27th, 2013
• A Lookout in Winter - January 20th, 2013