Embracing the Arrival of Spring: Planning Budget-Friendly Outdoor Adventures

 

Spring has arrived, what now?

I live in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) and we have all four seasons. Oddly the seasons arrive and behave exactly as you would expect. Right now flowers are blooming, it’s warm enough to sleep with the window open, and the sun is setting later.

You may wonder why I think the change of seasons is worth remarking upon. I used to live in the San Francisco Bay area and we didn’t experience seasons in the same manner. For most of my adult life, I lived on the coast, we had cold summers and amazing sunny fall weather. I can recall using my heater on the fourth of July because the fog was thick and it was cold, and most Thanksgivings were spent outdoors enjoying the late fall sunshine in our shorts. When I moved from the coast inland I lived in Silicon Valley where it’s about 72 degrees most days with a few winter days colder.

The seasonal change is a real eye-opener. I now must schedule activities based on what I think will happen with the weather. I’m getting better at this but I admit I’ve been in the PNW for seven years and I still miss entire months of outdoor opportunity because I’m too slow to act. This year will be different.

This year we will begin traveling again. Are you planning vacation time this year? I spent a lot of time in my life traveling, mostly international travel has been my interest, but this year I have a few weddings to attend so we will couple wedding travel and family visits with vacationing in the United States.

When I traveled internationally I always had in the back of my mind that I would explore the US when I was older and less mobile, but this year the cards were dealt perfectly to allow an exploration of the American Southwest. I aim to plan a nice getaway without breaking the bank. Overall I believe we will spend four or five weeks traveling in Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and maybe Colorado in the spring and again in the fall.

How do I plan to travel? In the past we’ve split the costs, for example, one buys the flights and accommodations, and the other person pays for meals, ground transportation, and attractions. After visiting over twenty countries we learned that the cost of flights and accommodations is nearly equal to the cost of, meals, ground transportation, and attractions. So that established our budget. This time we will enjoy car camping with only one round-trip flight so that formula won’t work.

We love to hike and camp and that will be a big focus this year, this is how we will plan the cost for a two-week camping vacation-

·       Make a big list of all the destinations we want to see during two different trips

·       Divide the destinations into geographically close areas, America is massive, and drive times are long, we want to hike more than drive.

·       Figure out drive times between destinations so we can plan our hikes

·       Find campgrounds and reserve a space if required

·       Find affordable hotels for the days when we don’t camp, there’s nothing so delightful as a warm private shower after camping for a week

·       Estimate the cost of gasoline

·       Estimate the cost of campsites

·       Estimate the cost of hotels

·       Add the cost of gas, campsites, and hotels to learn how much to budget for meals and attractions. We figure it will cost about $600 for gas, and $650 for camping and hotels, therefore we know we will spend about $1,250 for meals and attractions. That’s about $178 a day for two people, or $89 per person, per day.

I can use this same formula for our fall time trip since we will be in the same region. I find that focusing on activities with little or no cost on a vacation is as fun as or even more fun than spending time in an amusement park or museum. America has a lot to see, and part of the fun for me is to look out the car window at the scenery and get caught up in daydreaming, one of my favorite pastimes.

Our hiking/camping days often flow in this manner-

·       Wake up and have coffee and oatmeal

·       Prep a good snack for our hike

·       Hike 6-8 miles or less if the trail is shorter or more if the trail is longer

·       Eat a lunch in a restaurant

·       Find a shower if there are no showers at the campground

·       Head back to the campsite

·       Read

·       Watercolor paint (this year I may add in whittling)

·       Eat a snack

·       Chat with my spouse

·      Rinse and repeat for the next day

Our experience camping in the US has been fantastic. We try to hit the campgrounds early so we can get a site, but we’ve also had luck around the ten to eleven o’clock hour in the morning as people are leaving their campsites at that time as well.

Where will you vacation this year? I encourage you to consider how to have fun without breaking the bank. I love it when I find a secret getaway that is free for all and enjoyed by a few. I love that I don’t have to compete with crowds of people at $200 a day to have fun.

If I weren’t planning on camping vacations this year I would focus on local hikes, free days at the many museums in the area, and spending a good amount of time watercolor painting or embroidering while I soak up the afternoon sun on the back patio. Playing Trivial Pursuit with my spouse and chatting is another great pass time.

I’ve been focusing this month on setting my phone down during shared time, like when we are watching television. I’ve become way too distracted lately and found that simply not picking up my phone and ‘multitasking’ while watching television has improved my enjoyment of the program we are watching.

During a camping trip, there is so little phone time I feel like we have a lovely opportunity to open our eyes and hearts to what is in front of us. We experience life versus watching someone else’s life on social media.

It’s healing and I can hardly wait!