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I ran across an “easter egg” in a DeLorme Atlas & Gazetteer for Arizona eight years ago today. Apparently, every DeLorme state atlas has one of these special joke symbols, except for Maine, a tradition that started in 1986. A hero from the UK named Robin has a photo collection of the ones she’s found, but needs help with the last four.

Line art of a frog wearing a sombrero on a topo map
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Hey, it’s a photo from in 2017, a thin strand viewed from the Million Dollar Highway in Colorado.

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Ten years ago today, I was hiking in the Phoenix Mountains Preserve when a haboob blew thru.

Big ass dust storm with well defined edge cresting a desert hillside
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Today’s comes from Saturday morning at Bonito Campground in the Coconino in .

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The two most likely vehicle problems are flat tires and dead batteries. Both of these are usually easily fixable.

Have a spare tire, a way to fix a tire, and a portable tire inflator. And carry a battery jumper (and normal jumper cables too) for your battery. At minimum, they’ll save you a ton of frustration when something eventually goes wrong.

Tire inflator and battery jumper.
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Sharing Sequoia

From a post nine years ago today:

Later today, I’m making a return visit to Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks. Sequoia is a special park for me—it was my first visit there back in 1998 that sparked my excitement about visiting the big name western national parks.

I returned the following summer with Kim, eager to show her the amazing place I had experienced. That trip, captured in the photo below, really launched what would become my lifelong national parks quest and my passion for road trips. I’d return again—several times—each visit bringing someone else who really needed to experience it, too. This trip follows that same tradition, as I’m introducing six of my closest backpacking friends to one of the places I treasure the most in this world.

photo caption: Scott at General Sherman Tree, Sequoia National Park (Aug 1999)

Scott at General Sherman Tree, Sequoia National Park (Aug 1999)
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Blue Mesa, Petrified Forest , in 2016.

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I met this cool ass dude in 2017 in Utah.

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Jumping way back to 2006 for this shot from Rocky Mountain National Park. ☀︎

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National Forest sunset

View of the sky with pink clouds ringed by tree silouettes.
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Hand-carved with love at our USFS campground

SIgn that reads:THE NATIONAL FORESTS&10;Americas&10;Playgrounds&10;yours to enjoy protect&10;and keep clean!
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The appropriate way to watch a sunset over the San Francisco Peaks is from a tailgate with some fancy ice cream.

A subaru with the tailgate open parked along a forest road with ice cream in the foreground
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Loved this fun dark shark-shaped cloud last night, set against a fading sunset background.

Small dark cloud against a reddish sunset background.
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…then stopped by an old house on a rock…

Wukoki Pueblo ruin on a sandstone rock escarpment
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Camped at the edge of a lava flow last night…

Lava flow featuring a number of green plants busting thru the “aa” lava, with cinder cone in the background
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Morning view.

Looking up through a mesh tent at trees towering over the tent.
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Yesterday’s evening view from an International Dark Sky Park

Stars amid a dark blue twilight sky framed by pine tree tops
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Always a view to appreciate when youre escaping Phoenix temps.

The tops of pine trees with a blue sky and a hint of cloud
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Today's is from Jupiter Inlet Outstanding Natural Area in Florida, one of the few BLM sites located in the East.

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in 2019, I completed my decades-long quest to visit all 400+ national parks in the US with an all day boat tour in Glacier Bay National Park.

Of course, I had to riff a little on my somewhat-infamous park number signs…