It all began as a Bucket List thing.

For decades I'd heard about Dead Horse Point and hoped one day to see this place which inspires rapturous testimonials about the views, the beauty and the grandeur which many travelers will swear on a stack of red rock shale rivals The Grand Canyon.

If canyons had a beauty contest, I'd be a terrible judge. They're all winners to me. But if you're looking to avoid crowds, Dead Horse Point is a good bet.

The post Campground Review: Dead Horse Point State Park – Moab, Utah appeared first on Living In Beauty.

Under watchful Aspen-eyes we packed up and drove away from the cool columbine beauty of Steamboat Springs. The temperature rose 30 degrees as we headed south, about 125 miles. We stopped in Gypsum on the Eagle River and spent the night at Stoneyard, a unique distillery.

For the next three days, we would have neighbors! Our Airstreaming friends, Ronnie and Joe Harris were joining us at Crawford State Park.

Interfacing with friends – even friends we adore – had me tethered between feelings of excitement and dread.

Six months without extensive contact with anyone other than Jim and Pico made me feel a bit skittish about my conversation and entertainment skills.

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High Country in Colorado panned out all of the golden nuggets we desired for this historic Summer Of COVID: cool air, shining lakes, mountain trails, and quaint and cozy villages with outdoor seating at charming restaurants and top-notch breweries.

Kayaking and hiking are important to us right now.

Staying fit during the pandemic is crucial, but I haven't had a good pool workout since January. So kayaking has become a substantial part of our summertime fitness plan, and Colorful Colorado's abundance of cool, serene high-country mountain lakes is the solution.

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Today is the 4th anniversary of the day we left San Diego.

Tomorrow we begin the 5th year of our LIB sojourn.

In these 1,461 days, we have traveled more than 40,000 miles and stayed at 276 overnight locations in 46 States and 4 Canadian Provinces.

Our first blog post in January 2016, seven months before we hit the road, was to inform our friends and family of our new lifestyle and to clarify – to ourselves and to others – why we were leaving a perfectly good situation to travel indefinitely in our 200-square-foot Airstream trailer, Beauty.

Back then, we could not have imagined that in the Summer of 2020, we would have 131 posts, more than 4,600 followers, and a blog registering more than 140,000 visitors and 312,000 views.

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The air is cleaner and the water is clearer. The open road has never looked better - a silver lining of The Great Anthropause.

As we entered Colorado the halcyon skies buoyed our expectations for quiet wilderness camping and maybe even some outback kayaking.

Now, twenty days in, we are fully acclimated to the elevations. However, learning to heed erratic weather will take us much longer. On the Western Slope, the thrill of being caught in a rogue thunderstorm, far from shelter, is always on the table.

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When the desert fired up to a blistering 102 degrees, we broke camp and pulled out of Fisher's Landing heading up toward cooler ground.

We took U.S. Route 95 north to 60 east to 71 into North Central Arizona, and ascended the Bradshaw Mountains on the 89 into the Prescott National Forest.

For three soul-searching weeks in late Spring, we would acclimate at 5,367 ft. in the centuries old domain of The People of The Sun.

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We had to leave, but where to go?

In California, all city, county, state and national parks and even BLM land were closed or announcing planned closures. Private parks were open but most were not accepting new arrivals and, besides that, most private park spaces are way too tight for serious social distancing.

Then, Jim got an idea. Fisher's Landing! His old stomping grounds on the Arizona side of the Colorado River.

The post Campground Review: Fisher’s Landing – Martinez Lake, Arizona appeared first on Living In Beauty.

Beauty and The Beast – our Airstream trailer and Ram truck – have been road-tripping together for almost 1,400 days straight.

Occasionally, we've been asked to explain how we store our gear, if we have anything in storage, and how do we fit so much in the truck.

When Carmen and I started out, we agreed to only take things we can keep inside our rig when we're in motion. Carmen struggled a while with what she called the "No-Flamingos" philosophy.

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We're in a good place for a time such as this. And, at least for today, Arizona seems willing to put up with us. Out here in the open wilderness, we're exercising the usual precautions and keeping a low COVID-19 profile.

And, on the rare occasion when we do go to town for provisions, we keep our hands clean, our hearts open and our words kind. It's so important to be thankful for The Providers right now. They are the heroes. Spread love, not Coronavirus.

We're in Jim's boyhood recreational area on the Colorado river where the family set up camp to spend summer days fishing, waterskiing and off-roading together. I'd never seen this spot, so Jim brought me to take a look ... and I fell in love.

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Wow. Slab City seems like months ago. So much has happened in the last few weeks.

I almost titled this one, "When The Shit Hits The Fan In Beauty" but decided against because I don't want to pile on any more media stress.

Strange and uncertain times call for agility, clear-headedness, beer and corn chips ... and we have all those things, including toilet paper.

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