A few weeks down the road, we decided since Dakota seemed to do well with car rides and we wanted to see the fall leaves, why not attempt a day hike trip to Sedona. We also felt cooped up in the house and at 3 1/2 weeks old figured she was ready :) What better hike to target than one we’ve been loving since 2007, the West Fork Trail in Oak Creek Canyon. Thankfully doing this hike during the week was an option, because this is one of Arizona’s “wait in line to see fall” hikes. I’ve already done a blog on this one so I will just repeat that it never disappoints. And that being fed before and after the hike, Dakota was a champ and slept the whole time in our lifesaving wrap. We skipped eating in Sedona to get the little one home, and were very pleased we made the trip!
It’s been a minute since I’ve posted a blog…preparing for the little bun in the oven had us quite busy, and truthfully I was less than enthusiastic about being outdoors in the heat running around during the 3rd trimester. Dakota Shea Hansen finally came to us a week late on September 23, 2017 at 1 AM, weighing 6 lbs 14 ounces. Nick and I were actually quite surprised when a tiny little girl was born since both of us had been leaning towards thinking it was a boy all along. It’s been quite the rollercoaster with this little newborn around, but we are so in love and blessed by her in our life!
A few weeks down the road, we decided since Dakota seemed to do well with car rides and we wanted to see the fall leaves, why not attempt a day hike trip to Sedona. We also felt cooped up in the house and at 3 1/2 weeks old figured she was ready :) What better hike to target than one we’ve been loving since 2007, the West Fork Trail in Oak Creek Canyon. Thankfully doing this hike during the week was an option, because this is one of Arizona’s “wait in line to see fall” hikes. I’ve already done a blog on this one so I will just repeat that it never disappoints. And that being fed before and after the hike, Dakota was a champ and slept the whole time in our lifesaving wrap. We skipped eating in Sedona to get the little one home, and were very pleased we made the trip!
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Snapped a few photos of Nick and I while in Munds Park while I was about 7 months pregnant. With the rain and lightening storm there was a lot of running to and from the car and setting up the tripod, and unfortunately a bunch of blurry pics. But we got a few!
Things were a little different this year on my birthday, being 5 months pregnant coupled with feelings of just plain getting old. This seemed to warrant a trek out in the wilderness to one of our favorite spots on the rim. I was a little apprehensive to attempt this overnight backpacking trip while pregnant, but was determined to give it a shot. Thanks to Nick carrying double the weight, it went quite well haha. On top of that he baked us some birthday pizza and wings in his make shift stone oven and boy were we howling at the moon. Once again a fantastic time out on the Mogollon Rim!
After our overnight stay in Ainsworth campground near Multnomah falls, we decided to check out a different terrain and hoped we weren’t too early for some wildflowers if we travelled east down the river. After checking out a few trails that looked a little to strenuous for my pregnant liking, I had zeroed in on Lyle Cherry Orchard on the Washington side of the Gorge. This gave us a chance to pass through the town of Hood River and drive a small section on the north side of the river, where the rocky terrain and dark green hills reminded me of something out of Ireland.
We only saw a handful of people on the trail, which surprised me cause it was lovely. The cross between rolling green hills covered in wildflowers, and views down the river both east and westward certainly boasted the different landscape we were hoping for. This pretty much rounded out our hiking time on our Oregon road trip, but we had plenty of “city” fun in Portland and Bend before heading back to the warm and toasty Phoenix, Arizona. Two things combined to make this a fantastic stop at the iconic and ever crowded Multnomah Falls. The Choi’s had made the trek down from Seattle for some Oregon fun, and we had another day of blue skies combined with perfect hiking temps. I almost forgot the pit stop at Pips Original donut shop in Portland that rewarded us with little donut gems and a sugar high for our hike. What a great way to kick off our time in the Columbia River Gorge! Now it was time to camp at our reserved spot at Ainsworth, with plans to visit the Washington side of the river the next day.
After exploring Indian Sands Trail, we had about another hour to spend hopefully viewing Thunder Rock Cove, Secret Beach, and the Natural Bridges. Well we didn’t quite make it down to Secret Beach, and saw a creepy man getting out what looked like a rifle at the trailhead for the natural bridges…Goodbye. Where we did go from the Thunder Rock Cove Trailhead didn’t turn out to be a disappointment in the vantage point we had of these spots. The weather continued to be on our side, and we enjoyed some more hiking before heading off to our yurt at Bullard Beach State Park Campground.
Wow, unbelievable to experience a sunny spring day on the southern coast of Oregon just north of Brookings. Today we would be packing in a redwood hike, along with a drive down the Samuel H Boardman Scenic Corridor. The pictures speak for themselves, but I would highly recommend this section of the coast! Many people will only check out the natural bridges viewpoint, but there are plenty of other trails leading to the coast that warrant checking out. For us we would be exploring the Indian Sands Trail. Loved every minute of this relatively short, sandy hike with gratifying views of the pacific ocean.
The Hansen 2017 road trip was officially underway Northern Cali! This time around would be a “spring break” due to some very exciting circumstances, shared publicly on this very trail. Nick and I were expecting a new tiny addition to the family in September! In a sense this would become a babymoon of sorts for this married couple, coming up on our 7 year anniversary in May. Squeezing the trip into the 2nd trimester meant the spring weather would cause some limitations to our typical backpacking trips, but we were intent on making the best of it, focusing on day hikes, Airbnb’s, and car camping this time around.
For our first hike, we were on the northern tip of Cali just outside of Crescent City in Jedediah Smith State Park. Our intent was to camp at the state campground here, but a 3 hour detour on the 101 caused us to arrive at night during a downpour, putting a slight cramp in our plans. Would be great to fulfill our camping plans in this area sometime down the road. Anyhow, the redwood grove here was amazing, and considerably more remote feeling than the touristy spots like Humboldt and Sequoia. The drive alone to the trailhead introduced us to the majesty of the trees in this park. It was on the incredible Boy Scout Tree Trail we would take some pictures to announce our pregnancy on social media, but no hints with the name of the trail, we still don’t know the gender ;). On our summer 2016 road trip, we had big plans of stopping in Zion National Park after Bryce Canyon to hike Angel's Landing and possibly The Narrows. After being on the road for 3 weeks, and entering the park to 100+ degree temps and tons of people waiting for shuttles to take them to the trailheads, we just weren't feeling it. We drove through the park, dealt with some car overheating issues and literally said, let's go home lol. And we drove to Phoenix.
Thankfully in November, we had a long weekend and the chance to revisit the park, a week before Thanksgiving. Our plan was the same, to hike Angel's and the Narrows. This time we had the opposite in obstacles, a cold weather front moving across the whole US. Our overnight stay at South Campground was windy and honestly pretty uncomfortable. This detoured us from renting wet suits and treading through the Narrows, plus the days were very short and required an extremely early (and freezing) start. It will remain on the list! Angel's Landing on the other hand would be the ideal time to hike, but could we conquer our fears and blast our calves making it to the top? We decided to go for it. The first part of the hike was grueling, but I remember thinking, this really isn't that bad. Then...we looked up to see the final summit and might have peed our pants a little. There was considerable dialogue on whether we would continue, but our stubborn streak to finish pushed us forward somewhat against our own logic. I was pretty paralized by fear and didn't take many photos on the way up, but once we made it to the top and hung out for a bit, the anxiety had subsided and we actually had fun on the way back down. Such an awesome experience, and visiting the park during fall was in my opinion the best time. Hope to return to Zion soon and finally do the Narrows! October was a double birthday month for Preston and Josh, and the intent was to celebrate in style. So the gang was heading to End of the World, about a 45 minute drive down a dirt road south west of Flagstaff. Our usual hangout is on Schebly Hill Road, where you get a great vantage point of the canyons and city of Sedona. The new spot was well worth twice the driving time, because it turned out to be the Schnebly Hill view on crack. After pulling our jaws off the dirt floor, we settled in and had Nick's homemade enchiladas for dinner, and April made cupcakes for dessert (there would be Rainbow donuts for breakfast too, whoops). It was a grand old time celebrating the birth of some truly awesome friends!
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AuthorAmber Hansen |