Well here we are, 2023. This year has brought amazing (and sometimes terrifying) changes, tons of travel, new laughing places, new job, new plans, lots of snow, and my favorite pair of fishing pants yet.
So last I wrote, we'd bought a van. We love the van. God the van is awesome. More to come on that. But what has happened since? A LOT.
The biggest news: I resigned from my faculty job at UCSB in August 2022. It was just time for a change. After more than a decade spent teaching at the Bren School, I was becoming too curmudgeonly, too often. It just stopped feeling good. I think it was probably the combination of Covid + developing and kicking off the new Master's program that did me in, but I can't say for sure.
I recently ran into a past student while hiking near North Lake. When I told him I'd quit, he said "That makes sense. You really gave it 150% all the time." I left knowing that I really had given that job everything I had. Maybe that's what cost me a few more years of gas in the teaching tank, but it was time to go. I just didn't have anything left. I left on happy terms with a great resignation party with a bunch of friends, coworkers, and faculty from Bren. I even continue to teach the first two intensive summer courses in the Master of Environmental Data Science program (which is why I'm in Santa Barbara for three weeks at the moment), which feels like the right amount of formal teaching for me.
What am I doing these days? I got a job as a Data Scientist Advocate at Observable! I started in September 2022, and after a few months I found my footing on the Product Education Team. I make educational content, lead workshops, support design and marketing efforts, and generally try to spread the word about the Observable platform. Our team is awesome. My manager is awesome. I am learning a TON (hello, data science in JavaScript?). I still get to teach, but without all the parts I had started to hate (me and grades are never, ever, ever getting back together). It was a terrifying change, but it was the right one.I can confidently say that it was an awesome move for me, Greg, and Teddy.
One (of many) benefits of the new job is that it's fully remote. Van + fully remote + Starlink = desert wander sessions all winter! We stayed in Aspendell through January, but the snow was just A LOT. We packed up and headed out on the road for February - June, mostly in southeastern Nevada, eastern Utah, western Colorado, and northern New Mexico. Holy crap, it is the BEST.
Here's a little rundown of a few places we visited. Some pictures follow.
Trip 1: 7 weeks (February + March 2023), included:
- Ash Springs, NV
- Crystal Wash, NV
- Valley of Fire, NV
- Red Rocks, NV
- Petrified Forest NP, AZ
- Homolovi State Park, AZ
- Montezuma Castle / Montezuma Well (AZ)
- Weepah Springs, NV (+ White River Narrows)
- Parowan Gap, UT
- Chaco Culture National Park, NM
- San Juan River, NM (ooooh ho boy the fishing here)
- Bandelier National Monument, NM (+ Tsankawi)
- Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, NM
- Petroglyphs National Monument, NM
Trip 2: 6 weeks (May + June 2023)
- Flaming Gorge & Green River, UT
- Dinosaur National Monument, UT
- Sego Canyon, UT
- Bears Ears National Monument, UT
- Valley of the Gods (+ Moki Dugway! We love Moki Dugway!), UT
- Hovenweep, UT
- Canyons of the Ancients, UT
- Back to the San Juan (river blown out...no fishing :( ), NM
- Bears Ears again because we can't get enough of it, UT
- Mesa Verde National Park, CO
- Denver, CO (for Rick's 40th birthday!)
Then we wrapped up June / July with a 10 day trip to Maui with the Shumsky family. And a visit from Yeti & Dad. And some camping with Scott, Laura and the kids. I mean...life is really, really good these days.
Here are some pics, not in order. But they do capture some of my favorite things from the past year.
New brown trout fishing pants! Best purchase ever from the Fish & Float shop near Navajo Dam at the San Juan River. This is from a recent walk with Greg & Teddy at North Lake.
Procession Panel at Bears Ears. Absolutely mind blowing hike and petroglyph panel. Over 170 human figures converging on a central location.
Monarch Cliff Dwellings, Bears Ears.
Best ruin at Bears Ears. Check out those hand prints in the top left.
There are hand prints *everywhere* in Bears Ears.
An unbelievable place.
Cool grooves & grinding slicks & petroglyphs & paintings everywhere in Bears Ears along Comb Ridge.
Pictographs, dwellings, corn cobs, spokeshaves, manos, metates.
Can you tell we love Bears Ears?
Valley of the Gods is a ridiculous place. Impossible to tell the scale of these rock formations, but they are GIGANTIC. We camped with a great view of Buddha in the Bathtub.
Representing Observable at Hovenweep.
Mule Canyon towers at Bears Ears. We got some great thunder & hailstorms, too.
Possibly my favorite hike ever. This is heading back to the mesa rim from the Citadel, where an Ancestral Puebloan fortress sits on a rock outcropping at the end of that narrow spine walkway.
Possibly our #1 activity from both trips. Unreal.
And we made it back before the hailstorm...
Structure at the Citadel.
Yeah this is the hike OUT to the Citadel -- you kind of scramble down some slickrock to get to that cliff-edged walkway. It is amazing. A must-do...but a little scary at a couple parts.
Greg checking out a dino femur in the rocks at Dinosaur National Monument.
We love that place.
And found the BEST little secret campsite just outside the park on BLM land at the base of a petroglyph panel. What a dreamy couple of days here.
This was a great spot somewhere in Eastern Colorado. That's me working under the awning. Remote work suits us.
Green River beaut.
Dino tracks! Look at all of them! Red Fleet Dinosaur Trackway.
Dino bones in situ at the quarry, Dinosaur National Monument.
Gila Cliff Dwellings are incredible. Gigantic. Gorgeous. Just what a spot.
We even saw javelina! Likely because I was holding my head out the car window yelling "Javi javi javi..."
Tsankawi at Bandelier National Monument. Check out how deep those walkways and steps are - hundreds of years of foot traffic there. I loved it when I worked at Los Alamos in 2005, and it is even cooler than I remember it being.
Bandelier is absolutely outrageous. Love love love this place.
This brought back memories of summer evening runs at Bandelier when I was living in the area.
Beasties at the San Juan River! That's a happy husband.
Chaco Culture NP cannot be over hyped.
We were there in February and most days didn't see a single other person.
Magic in the New Mexico desert.
Greg at Chaco.
I thought Petrified Forest would suck but it DOES NOT. It is so amazing! Being there in cold weather probably helped. Seems like this place probably gets pretty brutal in the summer.
But holy how it is incredible.
Petrified Forest was probably the thing that exceeded expectations most, of all the places we visited.
Tulle Fossil Beds National Monument was easily the most disappointing, because the internet and brochures make you think it exists, but it really doesn't...yet. But I bet it's going to be really cool when you can actually see some forking fossils there.
We were pretty go-go-go all the time. This pictures captures one of the rare late afternoons when we got all set up before dark, so sat out in the middle of nowhere in Coconino National Forest drinking beers and listening to music until it got dark. Those are special days too.
Montezuma Castle. This place, and Montezuma Well, were last minute stops on our route and I'm so glad we went. Both very cool. The well is especially interesting.
White River Narrows Petroglyphs. This was early on in our trip (early February). It was so dang cold. One of my favorite things on this panel is the sequence of mountain lion prints in the exact middle of this picture, heading upward in the dark patina. We saw these in a number of places. I don't think I'd seen cat prints in petroglyphs before.
Evidence of the smallest lil' bighorn sheet petroglyph I've ever seen.
And I have small hands.
That thing is like 1.5" across!!!
Mesa Verde, always spectacular. We did the Balcony and Cliff House tours.
These guys. Fun camping, river hangouts & singing on the Truckee.
We had a wonderful visit from my dear friend and coauthor Nick Tierney. He's doing the PCT, and stayed with us for a couple of days. And became good friends with Teddy.
A truly unforgettable evening of fishing at the Owens Gorge a couple weeks ago.
Yelling at Yeti every time we saw a fish hit.
A hatch of moths and dragonflies.
A warm night with a full moon rising.
Hard to hope for anything better.
Day hike to Lower Lamarck with Yeti & Dad.
Absolutely ridiculous wildflowers this year.
The front yard is going nuts.
Greg does tons of gardening every day. I just love it.
We met and started dating 10 years ago last month.
Better every day with this guy.
The way things are going, I'm gonna try to keep riding this wave as long as I can. I also recently bought a guitar.
Who knows what awesomeness comes next. With my 40th birthday coming up, I feel like I'm just getting started.
With love,
Allison, Greg & Teddy
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