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  • Tag: road trip

    • white sands

      Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on February 22, 2018

      Last summer, right before my fellowship started, D and I decided to take a road trip that I’d been wanting to do since we moved to Arizona.

      Actually, a visit to White Sands National Monument was on my list of requirements when deciding to move to AZ (instead of L.A.), along with a trip to Page, to see Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend, and to Arches National Park.

      We didn’t really have a plan, other than White Sands and we had 3 or 4 days before we had to be back, so we just loaded up our tent and headed out, which is, in my opinion, the only way to road trip.

      D had never been to Texas, so we made a slight detour to have lunch (Tex-Mex, obviously) in El Paso before heading up into New Mexico. I really wanted to make another detour to Truth or Consequences because I can’t think of a cooler town name, but I had already gotten sidetracked by some lunch margaritas, and we wanted to make it to White Sands before dark.

      Alamogordo is the nearest town to White Sands, and our plan was to stay in the area for two nights, camping on the dunes the first night, and then staying in town the second night.

      I’d seen pictures of White Sands before we went, but pictures can be misleading. As we started getting closer to the monument, I started to see sand on the side of the road, and I wasn’t sure if it was THE sand; it was white, but not as white as I thought it would be. But then we came around a bend in the road, and I saw the actual dunes, and there is no mistaking it, it is blindingly white. It looks like fresh snow.

      We got to the visitor center around 3:00 pm, and learned about the camping options, there were open spots but it was about a mile hike each way from the parking lot, which wouldn’t have been a problem normally, but by the time we got there it was so. freaking. cold out. And super windy. I’m pretty sure our tent would have blown away in the night with us inside of it. So we decided to camp in town that night, and come back and stay at the monument the next day instead.

      In case you aren’t familiar, parts of White Sands are used for missile testing, the first test of an atomic bomb was actually done there. They still do tests, including the night after we arrived, so we weren’t able to camp on the dunes that night either. You can call ahead to check the schedule, if you’re so inclined, or you can be like me and just show up and see.

      We stayed out on the dunes for sunset, the wind did end up dying down a little bit, but it was too late to camp by then. The dunes are so gorgeous, it’s really stunning to see, especially at sunset. You can also rent little saucers to go sledding down the dunes, but I’m not the most coordinated and decided the emergency room in Alamogordo was a site I could probably skip.

      We stayed overnight at the KOA in Alamogordo, and had a couple of drinks around the campfire with a guy we met from Seattle who was road tripping around the entire outside perimeter of the U.S. The next morning, we packed up, and basically flipped a coin to decide if we were going to keep going northeast to Santa Rosa (dyinggg to go here), northwest to Four Corners, or head back south.

      I would definitely recommend a visit to White Sands if you’re going to be near the area, it’s really stunning and has an interesting history. And luckily, I didn’t find out that the area around White Sands was the inspiration for the movie The Hills Have Eyes until I was safely back in Arizona, or I probably wouldn’t have slept at all.

      Posted in exploring, life, new mexico, travel | 0 Comments | Tagged national parks, new mexico, road trip, white sands, white sands national monument
    • grad school: two down

      Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on May 8, 2017

      Oh hey, remember me? It’s just been a casual few months since I posted anything! I just finished my second semester of grad school, so I finally have time to write for fun, and to feed myself anything besides canned peas and Lara bars.

      This semester was even busier than the last one, since I was also writing for the ASU State Press, and working as a TA for one of the undergraduate classes, in addition to taking some pretty intense classes, and a foreign reporting trip to Mexico, but I made it through. You can check out some of the stuff I’ve been working on here, if you’re interested.

      I have one semester left, which I’ll be finishing in the fall, and over the summer I was accepted to do a fellowship, so I’ll be spending most of my summer in Phoenix (it was 104 degrees yesterday, and it’s only May. Help.) but also traveling to a few places around the country reporting on stories.

      I have a few weeks off before it starts, so I’m jamming in as many things as I can, including a Vegas trip, a few days in the Great White North, and a road trip to New Mexico to visit White Sands, which has been on my list of things to do since we moved here two years ago.

      I’m excited to do some reading for pleasure (!) and post as much as I can here, since I still have some trips from last fall that I haven’t hit publish on yet.

      Posted in life, travel, USA | 0 Comments | Tagged grad school, Las Vegas, new mexico, road trip, travel
    • sunny and seventy five

      Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on March 27, 2015

      image

      Spending this weekend in LA, rolling around in a big pile of girls. Excited for twisted tea by the pool, dancing all night, and no boys allowed.

      Not excited for the 5 hour solo drive to get there, but slightly cheered by the prospect of the epic 80’s and 90’s playlist I made to keep me company on the road.

      Posted in California, travel, USA | 0 Comments | Tagged California, Los Angeles, road trip
    • antelope canyon

      Posted at 8:05 am by jasminedesirees, on February 16, 2015
      antelope canyon

      This last weekend we took the first of many planned roadtrips to check out our new part of the world. We drove up to Page on Friday night, and spent the next two days creeping around and exploring.

      It’s about a four hour drive, but I downloaded season one of the Serial podcast to listen to on the drive up, and the whole thing pretty much flew by.

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      We were up early on Saturday, and our first stop was the Lower Antelope Canyon. I have a charming (probably) tendency to see something, or read about something, and then want to go off and do it right away, without doing a ton of (or any) research, which is usually fine, but sometimes it means we end up stranded in the Sydney airport, or spending 3 days in Mataram for no reason.

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      In this case, it means we drove up to Page, and then I started reading about the Antelope Canyon, and how maybe if you are claustrophobic, you shouldn’t go in there. Errrrr. Also, it said the best time to go is March to October because that’s when the famous “light beams” are most prevalent.

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      I read from a bunch of places that Lower Antelope is better, and less crowded, and also read that Ken’s Tours was the best company to go with for Lower Antelope (you have to go with a guide), so that’s what we did.

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      The tour was $28/ person, and lasted about an hour and a half. It’s only about a half mile total, so not super strenuous, but definitely wear running shoes because the stairs to get down are kind of steep, and it’s a bit narrow in places.

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      It was seriously worth the drive and the price, it was so amazingly beautiful in there. I took about 1000 pictures, I couldn’t get enough of it. Our guide was really nice, and she showed us different places to take pictures right up against the rocks to get a certain image with names like “Rocky Mountain Sunset” and “Sand Wave”.

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      Also it turned out that the best time to visit Upper Antelope is in the summer, but the best time to visit Lower Antelope is actually in the winter, so we did get to see some light beams. I told you it usually works out fine.

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      If you are going to visit, make sure to check the weather forecast (I never do) but if it rains the canyons are closed because they fill up with water quickly and it can be very dangerous.

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      Also, bring a light jacket, because it gets chilly down there. By the end of the tour I couldn’t unclench my hands. And maybe don’t wear shorts. I will never learn, apparently.

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      At the end of the tour, you climb out of a little slot in the rock (watch your head) and when you turn around and look behind you, you almost can’t even tell there is anything there, it just looks like rocks and desert.

      DSC_6075

      antelope canyon

      Posted in Arizona, exploring, USA | 7 Comments | Tagged antelope canyon, Arizona, exploring, Lower Antelope, page, road trip, serial, slot canyons, southwest, travel
    • natural bridge

      Posted at 9:18 pm by jasminedesirees, on October 15, 2014

      On the day we left Byron we were planning to spend most of the day driving, but I’d heard about the Natural Bridge and was hoping to get there, and it had been awhile since we did any hiking, so we decided to take a little detour to see it.

      natural bridge

      natural bridge

      natural bridge

      The road through Springbook National Park to get to the Natural Bridge is a bit treacherous, it has a lot of animal crossings and some very steep inclines, but it’s a very pretty drive with lots to look at.

      natural bridge

      natural bridge

      natural bridge

      The actual hike to get to the Natural Bridge is pretty tame, it’s really more of a walk, it’s all paved with railings, but it’s nice to be strolling around in the trees anyway.

      It was actually kind of cold in the rainforest, a group of people were walking out dressed in long pants and jackets and they looked at me like I was crazy as I was strolling in in my tank top and shorts, but it wasn’t too bad.

      natural bridge

      natural bridge

      natural bridge

      The Natural Bridge was formed by a small river flowing through the rock over millions of years. It eventually carved out a cave. The waterfall is pretty cool, but we didn’t even get to see the very best thing about the cave, which is the glowworms.

      At night, the entire place is completely lit up by thousands of glowworms, and it’s supposed to be amazing.

      natural bridge

       

      I reallllly wanted to stay to see it, but since it was only 9 a.m., and we were hoping to make it a few hours north of the Sunshine Coast, we decided it didn’t really make sense to sit there all night waiting for nightfall.

      natural bridge

      natural bridge

      If you are going to be in the area, try to plan it so you can go later in the afternoon, and stay to see the cave all lit up at night.

      natural bridge

      Posted in Australia, travel | 0 Comments | Tagged Australia, natural bridge, road trip, Springbook National Park, springbrook, The Natural Bridge, travel
    • free as we’ll ever be

      Posted at 7:00 am by jasminedesirees, on October 8, 2014

      This is the story and a few photos of our road trip up the Eastern Coast of Australia. We started in Sydney, and drove all the way up to Cairns, stopping in at the Whitsundays, Byron Bay, and lots of neat little towns along the way. Whenever we saw something interesting, we’d pull off and check it out.

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      We didn’t really have a time limit for when we wanted to get to Cairns, but we knew that’s where we were headed, we hoped to get jobs on a dive boat and we were told that was the place to go.

      The drive from Sydney to Cairns is about 30 hours, but it really didn’t seem that long, because we did it over about two weeks, with longer stops in Byron and Airlie Beach.

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      australia road trip

      We were sleeping in the car most of the time, we bought a Subaru that was quite roomy once the seats were laid down, and we bought a cooler and a few utensils and things so we could stop in at a grocery store every few days, and not have to spend money on eating in restaurants. It worked out really well, although there came a point where I was sure I would never eat rotisserie chicken ever again.

      We had our towels, the sarong I had to buy in Cambodia so I could go into Angkor Wat, and a few sweatshirts that we hung around the windows to block out the light, and we bought two yoga matts, two pillows, and a quilt to sleep with.

      australia road trip

      australia road trip

      australia road trip

      We actually bought four pillows, because at first we were just trying to save money everywhere we could so we bought the $5 pillows, but they were really terrible, so we had to go back and get better ones a few days later.

      Let me tell you, if there is one thing you shouldn’t skimp on when you are sleeping in the back of a car, it is pillows. Splurge on the $10 ones, you will be glad you did.

      australia road trip

      australia road trip

      As for bathrooms and showers, if you are going to be living the gypsy life, there really isn’t any better place than Australia. Every town has a beach with a nice bathroom and showers, and a lot of them even have free electric beach BBQ’s that anyone can use.

      banana trees

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      That was one of the things I liked most about Australia, is that they have all of these awesome free amenities for people in their towns to use. At least 4 of the towns we stayed at had huge, free pool/waterparks along the beach for anyone to use, as well as BBQ’s, fitness equipment, and free wi-fi. And people seemed to take care of these things, so they were always nice for the next person to use it.

      I was astonished that I didn’t see a single trace of graffiti penis, and nobody had thrown any of the playground equipment in the pool. I guess some people can have nice things.

      australia road trip

      australia road trip

      All in all, we made it up to Cairns without major incident (if you don’t count how horrible it was to see so many kangaroos dead on the side of the highway), we didn’t have any car troubles at all. We got pulled over by the cops twice for speeding, but we only got a ticket once (it was ridiculously expensive though, $225 for going 113 km/h), and we never had any issues with sleeping in the car, except for one night when we tried to sleep in Byron Bay.

      Because Byron is such a big tourist area for backpackers, and there are so many hostels competing for business, they don’t want people camping illegally, or sleeping in their cars, so they hire a private security officer to prowl the town at night looking for offenders, and the tickets are about $1,000 per person.

      australia road trip

      australia road trip

      australia road trip

      Luckily a friendly local knocked on our window and told us about the by-laws before we got into any trouble, and we moved one town over for that night.

      australia road trip

      australia road trip

      Our months in Australia were completely amazing, and being able to see so much of such a massive country in such a short time was definitely part of the reason.

      It was so nice to not be tied down to a schedule, and to just see everything at our own pace, and follow our whims, discovering new destinations along the way.

      kangaroos

      australia road trip

      Posted in Australia, travel | 5 Comments | Tagged Australia, freedom, road trip, travel
    • lately

      Posted at 2:10 am by jasminedesirees, on August 20, 2014

      For the last few weeks we’ve been road tripping up the Eastern coast of Australia, sleeping in our car, and eating most of our meals as picnics on the beach.

      image

      Subaru’s are actually pretty comfy, as long as you are kind of short, and not very claustrophobic.

      Posted in Australia, travel | 0 Comments | Tagged Australia, road trip, travel
    • we could run away

      Posted at 9:20 pm by jasminedesirees, on April 30, 2014

      Last Wednesday, my parents called me from L.A., they were in Phoenix and decided to take a spur of the moment trip out to SoCal to watch the Sharks play the Kings.

      We immediately decided we were going, but we were supposed to go to Phoenix for a wedding the next day, so it took a bit of finagling. We managed to switch our flights to leave from Long Beach, hopped in a rental car, and drove down.

      We were only in L.A. for 24 hours, but we had a great time creeping around Venice and watching the game from a suite at the Staples Center.

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      Venice is one of my favourite beaches in southern California, I love the vibe, the people, and the graffiti. People there are so unique and unapologetic, and I love seeing all of the colourful art for sale on the boardwalk. We were there last year and I found an artist doing these really simple, almost comic book-like drawings, but they were so beautiful.

      We stood and looked at all his paintings for almost an hour, because I wanted all of them and I literally could not pick a favourite, but eventually I got dragged away. I asked if he had a website where I could order some of his paintings, but he didn’t, and told me to come back because he was always there. He wasn’t there when we went back this time, so I shall spend the rest of my life fruitlessly searching.

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      I hadn’t noticed it the last few times we were there, but they have a really cool half pipe for skateboarding set up right on the beach. We stood and watched them for awhile, some of them were really good. I was pretty jealous of their skills, I tried to get the boy to teach me how to long board last year, but he pointed out that I would almost certainly be irreparably damaged due to my lack of coordination. He was not wrong.

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      Posted in art, beach, California, family, Los Angeles, travel, USA | 3 Comments | Tagged art, beach, California, graffiti, Phoenix, road trip, sharks, skateboarding, spur of the moment, travel, Venice
    • venice

      Posted at 4:13 pm by jasminedesirees, on April 24, 2014

      image

      We decided last night to drive down to SoCal this morning. It was very last minute, and there were lots of reasons why we probably shouldn’t have come, but I usually find that those are the most memorable adventures.

      We’re off to Phoenix in the morning, but we’ve got all night to play in LA.

      Posted in beach, California, exploring, Los Angeles, travel, USA | 0 Comments | Tagged adventure, California, exploring, road trip, travel, Venice beach
    • bent

      Posted at 1:31 am by jasminedesirees, on December 4, 2013

      The last few days have been kind of a blur, Thanksgiving was lovely but I was too sick to be hungry so I consoled myself with tequila and cheesecake. The next morning I got up at 3 am to drive 7 1/2 hours to Oregon to see my best girl.

      The good thing about being an adult is that for the most part you are completely in control of everything you do, there is nobody that can tell you not to do something, but that’s not always a good thing.

      When I was in high school and was too sick to move but would still try to get up to go out to a party, it was annoying, but nice in a way to have my dad there to say “You are sick, you aren’t going anywhere,” whereas now there is nobody but me to tell me not to do things when I’m sick, and I clearly won’t be listening to anything I have to say.

      Aside from waking up in a panic on Saturday morning because I felt like I couldn’t breathe, it was a great weekend. It was really nice to be back in the “winter”, well it was plus 12 most of the time I was there, but it’s as close to actual winter as I’m going to get for awhile.

      We went skating, sat by the fire, drank Caesar’s with pickle juice and ate at some of Bend’s adorable and delicious local restaurants. Why more restaurants don’t have a chicken fettucine alfredo burrito on the menu is a mystery that will never be solved.

      Oregon is sooooo lovely
      gracefullll
      brunch at CHOW in Bend. Go. For real.
      guava mimosas by the fire. I usually have some kind of make up on my hand, but that’s what life is like sometimes
      old books in an antique shop
      there should always be cupcake cafes
      way too many craft beer to choose from
      new boyfriend Koa
      cute store in Bend called Gypsy Soul. I want everything.
      Posted in food, life, Oregon, travel, USA | 1 Comment | Tagged Bend, food, life, oregon, road trip, skating, travel
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