Quote from: Eyesabide on April 17, 2013, 08:13:32 PM
JTA, There are many "Non rough" ways to take your fiancée out of doors and slowly introduce the fun stuff while a warm shower and bugless bed await. There are some resort camps that might have hotels in semi wild settings, The Grand Canyon comes to mind, and I have rented weekend cabins on lakes and at the ocean front. You can sneak in skill building for survival stuff as just cool things to do, just don't put to much pressure on it. A fire building lesson or bow and drill skills can be only a few minutes long as you rest between more touristy things.

Oh yeah no doubt. I've taken her on camping trips before to campgrounds... but she had to have a site close to a bathroom with running water and electricity :).  It's still fun, but I much prefer heading up to the mountains, finding a trail, and backpacking it in for the night. I only got to take one trip this last summer.

I'll actually be heading out to the AZ in about three weeks, the Grand Canyon is on my list of places to visit. I'd really like to road trip it and just camp out at national parks and what not, that'd be great. The survival skills thing sounds cool. That's also something I'd like to do at some point in time as well.  Luckily my fiancee is also into visiting National Parks, so that's pretty much all we do when we go on vacation. We went to Vegas last year for a four or five days and spent probably only a 4 hours tops actually checking out the city/casinos. The rest of the time we were out checking out all the nearby places like Death Valley.

The Grand Canyon will be great! Look up a few animals and plants before you go so you can practice identifying them in the wild. You might go over how you might find water there, or think of what you might need in a field kit in case you need one. You have some very good opportunities to learn, practice and teach!

Quote from: JTA on April 22, 2013, 05:54:03 PM
Oh yeah no doubt. I've taken her on camping trips before to campgrounds... but she had to have a site close to a bathroom with running water and electricity :).  It's still fun, but I much prefer heading up to the mountains, finding a trail, and backpacking it in for the night. I only got to take one trip this last summer.

I'll actually be heading out to the AZ in about three weeks, the Grand Canyon is on my list of places to visit. I'd really like to road trip it and just camp out at national parks and what not, that'd be great. The survival skills thing sounds cool. That's also something I'd like to do at some point in time as well.  Luckily my fiancee is also into visiting National Parks, so that's pretty much all we do when we go on vacation. We went to Vegas last year for a four or five days and spent probably only a 4 hours tops actually checking out the city/casinos. The rest of the time we were out checking out all the nearby places like Death Valley.

Trust me    You can not see all of the Grand Canyon in a week.  Check and see if you can take a car in, as they were talking about not allowing passenger cars in some areas of the Grand Canyon last time we were there.  A good camera is a must for photography.  Get your fiancé interested in taking photos and she may forget what she does not like about camping.   

Quote from: walkstall on April 22, 2013, 08:01:26 PM
Trust me    You can not see all of the Grand Canyon in a week.  Check and see if you can take a car in, as they were talking about not allowing passenger cars in some areas of the Grand Canyon last time we were there.  A good camera is a must for photography.  Get your fiancé interested in taking photos and she may forget what she does not like about camping.   

Is the Petrified National Park worth a visit? It's only two hours from where we are staying.

Sorry to be hijacking this thread, admins. Please let me know if I need to move this elsewhere or start a new thread.

Quote from: JTA on April 29, 2013, 05:44:50 AM
Is the Petrified National Park worth a visit? It's only two hours from where we are staying.

Sorry to be hijacking this thread, admins. Please let me know if I need to move this elsewhere or start a new thread.

Walks can create it's own thread.

But, as a kid, I loved the petrified forest, found it extremely fascinating, but if your wife looks out across the desert and just sees desert, she won't understand it's beauty and how it came to be.
It really does strain the imagination to understand their origin, makes one realize just how damned insignificant we are on this planet.

There is a tree that spans a gorge I have a pic of myself taken in 1959 on top of it, now you can't go anywhere near it, only take pics of it.

Quote from: JTA on April 29, 2013, 05:44:50 AM
Is the Petrified National Park worth a visit? It's only two hours from where we are staying.

Sorry to be hijacking this thread, admins. Please let me know if I need to move this elsewhere or start a new thread.

I would say yes, as it is only two hours away.  But then we were a week at the Grand Canyon and we were out for 2 months.

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There also....

Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve

City of Rocks National Reserve and state park

Quote from: walkstall on April 29, 2013, 02:41:46 PM
I would say yes, as it is only two hours away.  But then we were a week at the Grand Canyon and we were out for 2 months.

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There also....

Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve

City of Rocks National Reserve and state park

We'll be around the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Are there any particular areas around there that are worth checking out?

Quote from: Solar on April 29, 2013, 06:25:16 AM
Walks can create it's own thread.

But, as a kid, I loved the petrified forest, found it extremely fascinating, but if your wife looks out across the desert and just sees desert, she won't understand it's beauty and how it came to be.
It really does strain the imagination to understand their origin, makes one realize just how damned insignificant we are on this planet.

There is a tree that spans a gorge I have a pic of myself taken in 1959 on top of it, now you can't go anywhere near it, only take pics of it.

We're planning on spending a day up there. I'm definitely looking forward to it.

Quote from: JTA on May 07, 2013, 04:11:29 PM
We'll be around the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Are there any particular areas around there that are worth checking out?

Sorry JTA it has been 20 to 25 years, so I would not know what's around there now.  We now have a 30' 5th wheel at our age.  We go and set up camp for a week or so and do day trips.  Hitting all directions travel the back roads, keeping away of the big cities.  We always take a overnight bag, that way if we find something we like, we can stay the night.   That what nice about a GPS system.    You do not have to know how to get back to camp at night. 

Just got back! I was more impressed with the Petrified Forest National Park than I was the Grand Canyon. There were way too many people. Sedona was cool - plenty of hiking trails. I didn't care too much for the people though, but if you stay away from the town and stick with the trails its really nice. Definitely gotta say I really like AZ.

http://imgur.com/a/1eb3f

Same here, I loved the idea that a giant flood brought an entire forest to rest and petrify.
Those are some great pics.

Quote from: JTA on May 20, 2013, 04:30:28 PM
Just got back! I was more impressed with the Petrified Forest National Park than I was the Grand Canyon. There were way too many people. Sedona was cool - plenty of hiking trails. I didn't care too much for the people though, but if you stay away from the town and stick with the trails its really nice. Definitely gotta say I really like AZ.

http://imgur.com/a/1eb3f

Soooo what did the girlfriend think of the trip??

Quote from: walkstall on May 20, 2013, 08:02:02 PM
Soooo what did the girlfriend think of the trip??

She loved it. We hiked a few difficult trails and she did pretty good.

I told her we should sell our possessions and go live as vagabonds in the desert but she wasn't down with that.

Baby steps.

Quote from: JTA on May 21, 2013, 04:07:28 PM
She loved it. We hiked a few difficult trails and she did pretty good.

I told her we should sell our possessions and go live as vagabonds in the desert but she wasn't down with that.

Baby steps.