Great Lakes Rendezvous: A Road Trip Through the National Parks of the Midwest

By Michael Young and Joan Young

A collection of daily journals and photographs from a retired couple’s four month trip through the National Parks of the Great Lakes States.  Sometimes funny, sometimes informative, but always an honest look at the stunning beauty and interesting history to be found in seventeen of our nation’s jewels.  Join the Youngs (and their Corgis, Smooch and Fleur) as they travel through a wonderful collection of experiences.

• Language: English
• Publisher: MisterParks Travels
• Release date: May 17, 2019

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Monument

Introduction

The Youngs On the Road

This book is a travelogue - a collection of daily journals describing our travel experiences over a four-month period in 2018. This wasn’t our first road trip, and surely won’t be our last. But it is the first one that we have documented in a book format. We have posted daily blogs about this, and previous trips, either on a travel blog site (www.mytb.org/MisterParks), or on Facebook, or both. This time, though, we decided to make our experiences available to like-minded folks in an ebook format.

Stunning Sunset over Lake Superior, viewed through the trees, from Isle Royale.

Before we dive into the first day on the road, it is appropriate to give a bit of background - who we are, why we are doing this, and how we manage to put these trips together. So this chapter serves as an introduction and puts this trip in context.

Joan and Michael Young - Just Who Are We?

We are a retired baby-boomer couple, living in a small town in Northern New Mexico. We are both on our second marriages, and this time around, are very happily married. We used to live in Albuquerque, but we built an unusual, off-the-grid home in the mountains north of Taos and, upon retirement, left the big city for the more relaxed, and very quiet, atmosphere of rural New Mexico.

Joan was born and raised in sprawling Los Angeles, got married relatively early, and moved to Albuquerque nearly 40 years ago. Joan worked, mostly, as an accountant, after raising her family, but she never really enjoyed what she did.

I was born in Casper, Wyoming, a small, windy city, but moved to Los Angeles as a teenager. From there I began a series of moves which have taken me to Denver, Minnesota, North Carolina, New York City, Connecticut, and, 25 years ago, to Albuquerque. (I like to tell people that I have had more than 23 different mailing addresses during my lifetime.) I made a living as a database/software consultant and developer, working for a number of small and large companies both back east, and in Albuquerque. Although I had a few moments of success in my career, I too was very happy to retire.

We are an unlikely couple. Joan, prior to meeting me, really only knew two different cities, while I’ve already traveled, and lived in a number of locations. Joan is a small cute redhead, while I am a massive brute at almost 6’5" and well over 300 pounds. After our first marriages failed, Joan and I sort of stumbled onto each other (with the help of a mutual friend), and, after several years of dating and living together, we finally got married a month after 9/11.

As we became more and more alienated from our jobs, we found the escape offered by leaving for the New Mexico mountains more and more attractive. Finally, in 2012 we both retired, and moved to our mountain getaway full time.

OK, Now What Do We Do?

Retirement kind of crept up on us a little bit faster than we had expected, so we weren’t fully prepared, either financially, or mentally. Our savings accounts aren’t exactly as large as we would have liked them. But sometimes you have to do, what you have to do, and, for us, that meant quit our jobs.

We floundered for a bit, but over the course of a few years, we settled into a plan that involved traveling. For me, it was kind of natural to move around some more, since that is what I had done most of my life. For Joan, it was an opportunity to see parts of the world she had heard and read about, but had never had the opportunity to actually visit.

It all started when we decided to go to my 40th college reunion in 2014. We were trying to figure out how we could make all the travel and lodging arrangements when it dawned on us that a travel trailer offered several possibilities. Being a big man, airplanes do not get along with me very well. I really don’t enjoy paying a lot of money to have my knees crushed while sitting, shoe-horned, into a too-narrow seat. Since I can’t afford to upgrade to first class, flying is a painful experience.

Additionally, a travel trailer offered the possibility of an ‘extra’ room for guests who visit our small mountain home. The light weight of many contemporary travel trailers meant that even our SUV could tow it, and that meant we didn’t need to buy a new vehicle. And that also meant that we could take it with us when we went to visit the kids (Joan’s son Brad, his wife Aimee, and our granddaughter Annabelle) in Colorado - we could park it in their driveway and, instantly, have a place to stay. Seemed like an attractive way to solve some lodging problems. At the time, though, we hadn’t figure out how to actually ‘travel’ with a travel trailer.

The LandCruiser and Travel Trailer ready to go.

So we found a small trailer that seemed well built and bought it. We put a hitch on the LandCruiser, and towed it home. When June, and the reunion, arrived, we towed it north a thousand miles from New Mexico to Minnesota and started to discover that not only was this practical, but it was kind of fun. Joan had never been to Minnesota before and she had a blast seeing all kinds of new worlds in states like Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa, as we traveled north.

I decided to take a different route home, after the reunion, and wanted to show Joan a favorite spot of mine, Devil’s Tower National Monument in northeast Wyoming. I had been there a couple of times as a young kid - having been born and raised in the same state - and had taken my own daughters there when they were younger. Even still, I love the natural beauty and the spiritual connection of the place and wanted to share that with Joan.

To get from Minnesota to Devil’s Tower requires driving the entire way through South Dakota. And since this was our first big trip with the trailer, we didn’t want to make our driving days too long, so we didn’t make it entirely in one day. Instead we decided to camp out and spend a couple of days at Badlands National Park. Joan was driving as we headed down into the park and when we rounded a corner, a huge section of the Badlands opened up in the vista below us. Joan was spellbound - she really had no idea such places existed. She fell in love with the park at first sight.

We spent a couple nights there, including surviving a really bad thunderstorm, all of which combined to say that, especially for Joan, visiting National Parks was a whole lot of fun. We also used that as a homebase to explore Mount Rushmore and parts of the Black Hills. Then we moved on to Devil’s Tower. Joan didn’t find the monument as exciting as the park, but still, camping out under the stars and in the shadow of the monolith was a lot of fun.

From there, we went south, making our way back home. But, importantly, the seeds had been planted. For both of us, this traveling thing was fun, and the National Park system was an important part of that experience. In recognition of our new-found passion, we bought the National Park passport book to record the stamps of places we might visit.

The Travel Team

In addition to Joan and me, there are two more members of the ‘Traveling Youngs’ - our dogs Fleur and Smooch. I really have to talk about them because they are important members of the team. Joan and I are both ‘dog’ people and have had dogs with us most of our lives.

My parents got our first Pembroke Welsh Corgi, when I was five years old, more than sixty years ago. Since then there have been at least one, often two, and a couple of times three, corgis in the family. I tried to count them all up and, if my memory is correct, Smooch is corgi number 22 in my family. We love the breed and, although I know there are plenty of mutts that need homes out there, it has been too difficult not to have corgis. They are smart, affectionate, and very loyal. If you treat them right, they return the love many times over.

Joan fell in love with Toby, my Mom’s corgi, when I took her to ‘meet the family’ many years ago. Since then, she too, has become a corgi Mom and these days, anyway, it is Joan who is arguing for a second, or even third, corgi in the family.

The Four of Us: Joan, Michael, Smooch and Fleur

So, it isn’t too surprising that Fleur and Smooch go with us everywhere. Even with a small trailer, there is always room for them and on travel days, they jump into the back seat of the car and are perfectly happy sleeping there most of the day. (Obviously, we take them out a couple of times and, when on the road, we try to find restaurants that will allow us to bring the ‘girls’). They love to travel and, as you can see in several pictures, they enjoy hiking the parks with us. They have become important members of the travel team and we plan as many events to include them as possible.

Although not exactly a member of the ‘team’, I should mention our travel rig, because, obviously, if you’re going to use a trailer to see the world, you have to own one and have something to pull it.

I’ve talked about how we ended up with the trailer, although I didn’t say what kind it was. It is a small, 19’ (not counting the tongue), 2014 Keystone. We bought it largely because it seemed solidly built, although trailer construction isn’t exactly outstanding. I also bought it because it had a heating package and because the toilet was located in the middle of the back wall, not in a corner. (If you are a big man, that little detail can make a huge difference in how useful the trailer is. I can’t use the shower, because it is too small, but at least the toilet is accessible.) The trailer is light weight and even fully loaded, weighs only about 5500 pounds.

We tow it with an older Toyota LandCruiser, which has no problem pulling the trailer, even up and down Rocky Mountain passes. It is tow rated at 8100 pounds and so there is plenty of extra power for passing and steep grades. I have to add, though, that we didn’t buy the Cruiser to pull the trailer. More importantly, for us, is that we need a very rugged off-road vehicle because our home is ‘off-road’ and even most four-wheel drive vehicles have difficulty navigating our road in winter snow. It was just a fortunate by-product that it can also tow the trailer. An unfortunate by-product is that the mileage isn’t very good, especially when towing uphill, against the wind!

So there’s the travel team. When you get to Chapter 1 you’ll see a picture of Joan and the girls getting into the car for the first day of the trip. I’m very proud of my team...

The National Park Bucket List

Later in 2014, the year of my college reunion, we stopped for a few days at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in Colorado on the way home from spending a week with the kids. We were both amazed at the dimensions and awesome beauty of that canyon. So the Badlands and Devil’s Tower weren’t the only amazing places in the park system. Here was one we had passed many times, but had no idea how tremendous the park really was. Were they all like this? Would each of our stops at a National Park be that much fun and that interesting?

For better or worse, I operate best when there is some kind of structure within which I can operate. I like it when there are boundaries and goals to help guide me in my decision-making. So, to my delight, I pulled out the map that comes in the back of the passbook one night, and started to study it. I hadn’t known that there were some 408 (more now) National Park Units scattered across the country. There were a couple of isolated states that didn’t have very many, but most states had several.

I began to think about setting a goal of visiting every single one of them! That seemed daunting, especially since our intention was not just to collect the stamp from each one, but rather to spend enough time to fully absorb what the park might have to offer. Looking at the map, that was going to be a real challenge.

After studying the NPS system a little closer, I learned that there are multiple kinds of park units depending on things like size, how they were organized, and what they have to offer. Parks were the biggest and included places like Yellowstone and Yosemite. Clearly, we wanted to go see them. However, some of the other kinds of units might not be as interesting, or as accessible. National Preserves, for example, included areas that were more wilderness in character and didn’t usually offer campgrounds for travel trailers - if there was camping at all, it involved permits and backpacks which wasn’t exactly what we are up for. And National Recreation Areas almost always involved waterways of some kind and that meant either owning or renting a boat. That also seemed like a bit more than what we wanted to do. So we learned that not all ‘parks’ are created equal and that maybe we really didn’t want to go to all 408 units.

Then there some 80 units called National Historic Sites. We’ve been to several of these and they are always very interesting. But they are also, usually, very small. We learned quickly that many of these could be seen in an hour or less. Few of them offered camping facilities. But was it really worth it to travel day or two in order to spend an hour looking at something? We decided maybe they were a bit too much.

In the end, we whittled the Bucket List down to just Parks, Historical Parks, Monuments, Lakeshores, Seashores, and Parkways. Still, even that list numbered more than 200 places scattered across more than 45 states and territories. We decided that would be a manageable number and, looking at a national map of all of them, we were able to carve out a series of trips to cover them. At a couple of trips a year, that would keep us busy for a decade or more. And by then, maybe we wouldn’t be traveling too much anyway. (We’ve debated the notion of ‘full-time RVing’, but we’re just not quite there yet.

Travels So Far

In 2014, the first year with the trailer, we hadn’t really imagined all of this quite yet, so our travels were not huge and were limited to nearby states. We took several small trips that year in New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona. We saw places like Great Sand Dunes, Petrified Forest, and Saguaro National Parks as well as a half-dozen monuments preserving the heritage of the Southwest Indians.

Our second trip of 2015, though, was the beginning of our really BIG road trips. We had gained confidence in our traveling ability and in towing the trailer, so we decided to push and see just how far we could go. We really didn’t have a name for this trip, but it started on the Colorado Utah border and took us through northern Utah, all through Nevada, and into Northern California. Then up into Oregon and back through southern Idaho. We camped at Great Basin, Lassen Volcanic, Redwoods, and Crater Lake National Parks as well as at or near another eight National Monuments in those locations. That trip, the trip with no name, took us two months and we were fairly pleased that we could manage a trip that long. We were also amazed at how much we had seen and learned and how much fun this bucket list thing could be.

In Spring of 2016, we took a short, two week trip through southern New Mexico just so we could finish up the parks in our home state, which included Carlsbad Caverns and White Sands as well as several other smaller parks.

Shortly after we got back from that trip, we managed our first, and only, trip that we’ve done with someone else. The trip focused on the monuments and parks of the four corners area. Collectively all of these parks preserve the cultural remnants of the Ancient Puebloans, so we called this the Tour of the Ancients. It included such iconic sites as Bandelier, Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde, and Canyon de Chelly. It is the only trip we’ve done that had a subject theme as well as a defined geographic area.

In mid August of 2016, we began another big trip - one we called Northern Wonders, because the intent was to finish up all the bucket list parks in the states north of us. Although we only hit 10 different parks, it included some really big ones like Glacier, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton, so it took some time to see everything we wanted to see. We had planned to end this trip at Rocky Mountain in Colorado, but a big snowstorm ended up cutting our plans short. Even so, this trip ended up lasting more than two months.

In March of 2017, we left early and decided to tackle the Southeastern States before it got unbearably hot. Towing the trailer east on I-40, we visited 17 bucket-list parks including the Everglades, Dry Tortugas (at the very tip of the Florida Keys), Congaree in South Carolina, and Great Smoky Mountains National Parks. The trip included multiple Fort National Monuments, two Southeastern Indian monuments, and five terrific National Seashores. We called this trip ‘Southern Charms’ and it lasted about three months.

We have lots of stories to tell and pictures to show, so watch for future books describing these trips.

2018 - Great Lakes Rendezvous

And that brings us right up to our most recent trip and the one this book is about, Great Lakes Rendezvous. Although I went to college in Minnesota and had been to Chicago a couple of times, I really hadn’t seen much else of the Great Lakes area and Joan had never been there at all. We identified 16 bucket list items on and near the Great Lakes. Joan spent a lot of time researching those states and, including Chicago, identified a list of ‘rebellion’ items she wanted in the itinerary. (‘Rebellion items’ are places Joan wants to see that aren’t on the National Park Bucket List that I created. It is her ‘rebellion against the tyranny of the bucket list...’. I have to admit, though, they are usually very interesting and worth the time.)

The most difficult park to get to on the trip, and probably one of the most difficult in the entire system, is Isle Royale National Park. You have to make reservations - very early - for that place, so we picked a date right around the summer solstice, called the reservation line almost on the first day you could make reservations, and got our spots. Once we had those dates, we plotted a trip on both sides of it, staying at each location long enough to see everything we wanted to see. Throwing in some ‘down days’ to use for resting and in case something happened to interfere with the schedule, we were able to plot out a trip of nearly four months - the longest trip we have ever done.

Great Lakes Rendezvous Route Map

We plotted the routes and, since we were headed in that direction anyway, we added Homestead National Monument in Nebraska, our last bucket list item in that state. This map shows the route we took on this trip. It isn’t exactly correct, for example: we didn’t drive through Des Moines, Iowa, but rather drove across southern Iowa to the Mississippi and then took the river road north. Generally, though, it shows where we went.

So. Let’s get started on this trip...

1

On the Road Again

Towards the Great Lakes Rendezvous

Hitting the Road

Saturday, 4/21/18

Yes, we made it! I was aiming for leaving right around 1:00 and, well, it was more like 1:30. But we actually managed to get everything done - packed everything on the list, and a few things that weren’t; got the car fully gassed up, checked the mail, bought a bag of ice, hitched up, took a shower, and then shut down the house electrical and water systems. Makes me tired just thinking of all that!

But, in the end, everything got done and it really wasn’t too bad. I think it helped to have a detailed exit plan with dozens of things to check off over the last few days. Yes, probably a bit of OCD shining through, but it helps me cope and not forget things.

We took a different approach to exit day this time and think it’s a good idea - don’t try to leave real early and drive a long distance on the first day. Instead, just get out of the house and far enough away so you can’t go back.

The rustic Old West Cafe in Fort Garland, Colorado.

We did that this time, leaving later in the day, and just driving a hundred miles. We headed north into Colorado up the San Luis Valley, an agricultural area in southern Colorado known for its potatoes! The road takes you through San Luis, advertised as the oldest town in Colorado, incorporated in 1851. Compared to a lot of places back east or on the coasts, that is a fairly recent date, showing how recently Colorado was settled.

I recently saw a Facebook post on the oldest cities in each state and it was interesting. Yes, it had San Luis as the oldest town in Colorado. The oldest city in the U.S. was listed as St. Augustine Florida, established around 1585 (I could be off a few years on that date, but not much). We were there last year on our Southern Charms trip - it is a beautiful city rich in history. But while it is true that a lot of the west was not settled until recently, people frequently underestimate the length of Spanish history in New Mexico. In fact, the second oldest town in the U.S. is the capital of New Mexico, Santa Fe (also the highest capital in elevation) dating back to 1607. You might think about that a while, the Spanish were establishing a city the same year the English landed in Jamestown. Jamestown, however, didn’t survive while Santa Fe has thrived for more than 400 years. Somehow the history books spend more time talking about our English past than our history from other cultures.

Of course, it is a little perturbing to see dates like that tossed around nonchalantly. What needs to be added to those claims is that these were towns settled by Europeans!. In fact, Native Americans created towns all around the country well before white man even knew North America existed. One of my favorites, Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, was flourishing in the 700’s, and some of the great houses they built were unequaled by anything Europeans created until centuries later. We need to be careful how we word our superlatives.

Anyway, we drove through San Luis and on up to Fort Garland, Colorado which is at the base of Mount Blanc. There we stopped for lunch at the Old West cafe and had terrific burgers with fried chile strips. While I think New Mexico does the best chile, the burgers were very good competitors.

Panoramic view of the lake at Lathrop State Park, near Walsenberg, Colorado.

We had been watching the weather off to the East a little warily, but I checked the Colorado highway web site for alerts on the highways and they were still clear, so we headed East out of Fort Garland to navigate our only mountain pass on this trip, La Veta. The temps dropped to black-ice level (34 degrees), and the snow on the roadside, at times, was very thick. Roads were wet, but we managed to avoid ice and snow. It isn’t a really bad pass by any means, but I don’t like driving in bad weather with the full rig. And this time, I have two bicycles on top of the car to catch the wind. Fortunately, all went well.

Up and over the pass, we drove down towards Walsenberg, a small town right off of Interstate 25, and pretty much right at the point where the Colorado Rockies end and the great High Plains begins. Just before town, there is beautiful Lathrop State Park which was our destination for the day. We found a great campsite in the freezing rain and set up camp for the night. Clouds were low and it was pretty gray, so there wasn’t much to see.

Rough Start, Good Finish

Sunday, 4/22/18

Sunday morning was a different story - the sunrise view of the Spanish Peaks, southwest of the campground, was just stunning. What a fitting way to say goodbye to our mountain home, than with the early morning sun shining on the mountains. After breakfast, exercise, and packing everything up, we started to head out of Lathrop State Park for our second day of travel. After driving not more than a quarter of a mile, I noticed that the TPMS (tire pressure monitoring system) was flashing a warning light. Sure enough, it was telling me that one of my vehicle tires was down to 25 pounds, or simply, flat. I drove back into the visitor center parking lot and got out to check the tires. The right rear tire was looking pretty low. I really didn’t need this, especially on the second day of our trip and a Sunday as well. For a while, I debated about driving on down the road to get to a gas station, but the fact that this was a Sunday, in a small town, meant that might be a disappointing gamble.

Sunrise view of snow-covered Spanish Peaks from Lathrop State Park.

Now, it is possible for me to change a tire - I’ve even done it once on this vehicle. But that doesn’t mean its fun, and it would take me quite a bit of time because I’m not well practiced at it - seemed that we might end up spending another night there which would, of course, cause some headaches for our trip plan. Plus, once I got the tire changed, I still had a bad tire to take care of. So I went into the visitor center and discussed with the office what the possibilities were in Walsenberg, 2 miles down the road. They said none of the gas stations did tires and the two tire places in town would be closed because it is Sunday. One of them, though, apparently had a 24 hour emergency service and they could give me his number. They did and I called.

I talked to a guy named Chris Daniels who owns and runs Daniels Towing and Auto Repair. I want to give him a big shout out for going well beyond the call of duty. If you need auto help near Walsenberg, call this guy. Apparently he works on all the Sheriff’s vehicles and is fully knowledgeable about vehicles and highways. Now he did charge me, and the charge was considerable, but I definitely got what I paid for. He arrived about 15 minutes after I hung-up the phone, jumped out of his car, and began to release the spare from its holding chain. Within 30 minutes, tops, he had swapped out the tires and had inspected the bad tire, all without unhitching the trailer. Then, as icing on the cake, he suggested we follow him down to his shop where he would inspect the tire for us. He couldn’t fix the flat, because it was Sunday, but he could at least let us know what the problem was so we could take care of it down the road.

Deserted dirt road into Smoky Garden Fishing Camp near Goodland, Kansas.

We did that, and, with foamy water he showed me a quarter-inch gash on the sidewall. Unfortunately, according to him, that meant the tire would need to be replaced. And, because I have a full time four-wheel drive vehicle, that means all four tires need to be replaced. He said he could order tires for me, but I’d have to stick around until Tuesday. Or I could take care of it down the road, the option I chose. He did put a plug in the tire so that, in a pinch, I would have a spare until I could buy new tires. I asked what could have caused that and when, and he said, given what he was seeing, that it was a rock or stick puncture and likely happened within the last twelve hours or so. That means it likely happened at the campground itself.

So, yes, I did shell out a bit of money, but we were back on the road in an hour and a half, instead of several hours, or even days later, if I had done it. And I know what the problem is and have a plan to fix it. These were not new tires - they were on the vehicle when I bought it two years ago, and they weren’t new then. And we drive on dirt roads frequently, so the tires do take some abuse. Sometime in the next few days I have to find a Discount Tire store and buy four new tires for the Cruiser. Bummer, but there are just certain expenses that come with driving a vehicle and tires is one of them.

Late afternoon geese in the campground at Smoky Garden Fishing Camp.

Have to add that things could have been unimaginably worse if my TPMS system had not warned me of the flat. It would have been much more interesting if I had discovered the problem driving down the highway at 60 mph.

Once on the road out of Walsenberg, we proceeded northeast to La Junta where we stopped for lunch at Boss Hogg’s, a roadhouse with a killer chicken fried steak- with mashed potatoes and gravy. While there, I ordered a Colorado Bulldog - supposedly the ‘iconic’ mixed drink of Colorado. It was interesting, but sweetened milk with vodka is good, but filling - you only need one! After lunch we continued zigging and zagging East and North through eastern Colorado and into Kansas. And then north towards our campground for the night.

Joan has a knack for finding campgrounds. Lathrop State Park was sort of an easy one to pick, because it was right off the highway on a route we were clearly going to use to get out of the mountains and onto the prairie. I’m not sure how she does it exactly, but that’s her responsibility and she comes up with some, usually great, surprises. Our campground on Sunday night was a different story. Joan had decided that we were going to stay at the Smoky Garden Fishing Camp.

As we drove up Kansas 27 from Tribune towards Goodland, the landscape became pretty much what you think of in Kansas - flat, no trees, and covered with farms. As I scanned the horizon I didn’t see a single landmark except for an occasional patch of trees hiding a farmhouse and barn. As we followed Gladys (the LandCruiser’s GPS) set for the campground address) I noticed that the dark blue line just sort of ended, changed to light blue, and took a sharp left turn. Sure enough, as we approached a dirt side road that looked more like a driveway to some distant farmhouse than a road, Gladys announced that this was the end of her work and we were on our own now. She said something about our destination being off to the Northwest and we should just sort of follow the roads and the compass until we got there. It was only 2.5 miles away, she noted.

We actually drove past the road, not realizing that we were supposed to turn, so further on