Melissa Stephens Art

“One’s destination is never a place but a new way of seeing things.”

(John Steinbeck or Henry Miller – I’ve seen this quote attributed to both)

Our children are fond of telling me I married well, and I wholeheartedly agree! Art is a wonderful man and, lucky for me, one of his passions is travel. He LOVES to plan vacations, and, for him, vacation is a VERB! We joke that he doesn’t sit well as his idea of a day at the beach is sitting for about an hour, then doing something – swimming, snorkeling, kayaking, golfing, walking, anything, as long as it’s moving! I’m not sure I fully understood this almost 35 years ago when we married. I should have suspected it because I remember, soon after we met, sitting together on the lawn of Old Main, at Penn State. I was a senior and Art was a junior in college, and he was dreaming of someday seeing all 50 states. He had been on several long motorhome trips through many parts of the country with his extended family as a teenager, and I could sense he wanted to do more, explore more, experience more, rather than simply sit in the passenger seat. At that time in my life, I had been practically nowhere, and it was easy to catch the bug of his contagious, 50 state dream. Before we got married, we crafted a simple prenuptial agreement: I would plan the wedding and Art would plan the honeymoon, deal! We flew to Arizona on that trip and experienced our 1^st National Park together, on top of mules which we rode to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. We slept overnight at Phantom Ranch and, with exceptionally sore backsides, rode those same mules out of the canyon the next day. That’s when I knew our married life would be one amazing travel adventure after another! Fortunately, I only had to plan one wedding, Art’s been planning amazing trips ever since then.

Our biggest adventure to date was in 2007 when, after experiencing the fragility of life post both 9/11 and Art’s cancer diagnosis in 2006, we decided to ignore all the “shoulds” of our lives and load the boys (ages 12, 11, and 9) into our Honda Odyssey (aptly named!) minivan. We drove for 7 ½ weeks across the northern US, up into Alberta and British Columbia, and down the coast of Washington and Oregon, before finally turning east to head back to Pennsylvania through the heartland of our country. 13,847 miles driven, 23 states & 2 Canadian provinces visited, 13 National Parks experienced, 2 oil changes required, 160 waterfalls documented (by Matt, of course), and too numerous to count chicken strips consumed! We made a lifetime of memories in those 7 ½ weeks! We ate, slept, hiked, drove, read, laughed, saw and experienced all of it – together.  To this day we retell story after story from that epic trip, so much so I’m certain our sons’ partners are already tired of hearing them! With that journey in our rearview mirror, the possibility of seeing all 50 states became more than a dream, it became a quest! Art got to work, intentionally planning trips that would have us “see them all” before TJ graduated from high school.

Soon enough, our merry band of travel companions left home to begin their own life adventures. Art and I sat (not long!) with the question, “What’s next?” It was time for us to dream new dreams and make new lists. Together, soon after moving our youngest son, Scott, to college, over lunch at a local restaurant, we met to draft the itinerary for our future. By that time, we’d seen more than half of the 63 National Parks in the United States and it seemed only fitting that our next quest would be to visit them all. Travel agent Art planned trip after trip and now, more miles than I care to count (by air, car, boat and boots on one trail or another) and 8 years after that lunch date, I’m thrilled to report, we finished our quest! Last month, we put an exuberant check mark in the 63^rd box on the list of U.S. National Parks when we hiked and snorkeled in the remote south Pacific islands of American Samoa (where, true to form, I must report, we did not sit on the beach for more than an hour!)

I found this quote, “Travel – the only thing you can buy that makes you richer,” early in our married life and yes, we’ve bought into it! In our travels we’ve marveled as the sun dipped over the horizon on a gorgeous sea stack-strewn beach in Oregon; we’ve witnessed a herd of bison walking toward us during a snowstorm in Yellowstone, their dark brown fur covered in glistening white flakes; we’ve raised our hands to the sky, exultantly breathless after a grueling hike, on the top of Half Dome in Yosemite; and we’ve rested in reverent awe at the base of mighty Waimoku Falls in Hawaii, it’s soft mist kissing our faces. Surely our lives have been enriched by those and so many more moments spent reveling in pure travel magic. Surely our sense of perspective has been right sized by those and so many more moments spent comprehending how small we are in comparison to the immense scale and powerful forces of nature. Though our country is deeply divided ideologically at this moment in time, it is undeniably filled with incredibly diverse landscapes, stunning geological formations, unique plants and animals, and fascinating cultural history. There is no easy answer to the question we’re always asked, “Which was your favorite park?” Below I’ve shared my lists of my favorite (Alaska and non-Alaska) parks, hikes, wildlife, trees, etc, within the National Park system of this country. But know, these are only my lists. As the quote above says, travel is a new way of seeing, and we all see differently.

You may be asking, “What does any of this have to do with art?” Nothing. And everything. When I think back on all the visual memories I’ve amassed while traveling, these things I know to be true: seeing beautiful places stirs my desire to create beautiful art and opening myself to new experiences in travel helps me to open myself to new experiences and new possibilities in life, including my art. It’s a new way of seeing! My art antennae are always out, constantly collecting and curating visual imagery. The featured image in this post is a Zentangle drawing from my most recent sketchbook/travel journal. I combined a photograph of one of the giant green sea turtles we snorkeled with in Hawaii and a t-shirt design I saw in a shop in Honolulu to create the doodle drawing (see photos below). Any art I’m able to create while traveling helps me to remember and record more of what I’m seeing and feeling than I am able with my words alone.

The wonderful writer, Pico Iyer says, “We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more …”  Though it feels incredibly satisfying to complete goals like visiting all 50 states or all 63 National Parks, Art and I travel not just to reach a destination or put a check mark in a box, we travel to experience a new way of seeing – ourselves, each other, and our place in this amazing world. “What’s next?” you may ask. It’s time for us to dream new dreams and make new lists and schedule another lunch meeting. There’s a whole world out there, who knows what we’ll see next!

Best National Parks in Alaska:
-Kenai Fjords (humpback whales bubble net feeding, sea otters, the Harding Ice Fields, Exit Glacier and its braided river)
-Gates of the Arctic (landing in a tiny plane on a dry riverbed to camp for 2 nights above the Arctic Circle. There are no roads into this park! I have never been anywhere so remote!)
-Wrangell St. Elias (ice climbing & jumping into a blue pool on the Root Glacier)
-Katmai (grizzly bears feeding on wild salmon in the river at Brooks Falls)
-Lake Clark

Best (non-Alaska) National Parks:
-Yellowstone (oldest NP with incredible wildlife & thermal features)
-Yosemite
-Grand Teton
-Glacier
-Arches (red rock!)
-Olympic (ocean, rainforest, and stunning mountains)
-Mesa Verde (ancient cliff dwellings we climbed into)
-Zion

Best Hikes in a National Park:
Yosemite:
-Half Dome – > 16 miles/4800’ elevation gain, past Vernal & Nevada Falls, up the sub dome and, finally, cable-climbing to the top!
Glacier:
-Grinnell Glacier (boat ride across Swiftcurrent Lake then amazing hike)
-Iceberg Lake (chunks of ice still floating and wildflowers still blooming in July!)
-Avalanche Creek
Grand Teton:
-Cascade Canyon to Lake Solitude (17 mile day under the towering Teton range)
-Delta Lake (gorgeous lake nestled at the base of Grand Teton)
Zion:
-The Narrows (hiking in the Virgin River beneath towering canyon walls)
-Angel’s Landing (precarious chains; 1 heck of a view from the top!)
Arches:
-Delicate Arch (at Sunset!)
Haleakala:
-Pipiwai Trail (from Seven Sacred Pools, past the giant Banyan tree, through the bamboo forest, to Waimoku Falls with pools and waterfalls to swim in all along the way)
Yellowstone:
-Avalanche Peak Trail
Volcanoes:
-Mauna Kea summit
Kenai Fjords:
-Harding Ice Fields
Shenandoah:
-Old Rag (rock scrambling with Matt and with friends, I’m so thankful the NP system includes and preserves a portion of the unique mid-Atlantic deciduous forests found in the northeast, the area of this country I call home!)

Best National Park Beach/Snorkeling:
Ofu Island, American Samoa (amazing coral and blue sea stars!)

Best National Park Tidepools & Sea stacks:
Olympic

Best Sea Kayaking:
Channel Islands

Best National Park Sand Dunes:
-Great Sand Dunes (sliding down the snow-covered dunes in November!)
-Death Valley (massive scale!)

Best National Park Wildlife Sightings:
-Biscayne Bay: tiny bright yellow seahorse seen while snorkeling
-Yellowstone: Bison (walking in the road in a snowstorm!), elk, and wolves chasing elk
-Grand Teton: Moose
-Katmai: Grizzly bears
-Theodore Roosevelt: Wild horses, prairie dogs
-St. John, US Virgin Islands: Snorkeling with sea turtles
-American Samoa: Blue sea stars, crown-of-thorns starfish, fruit bats (flying foxes!)
-Carlsbad Canyons: bats exiting the cave at dusk
-Everglades: manatees, alligators
-Isle Royale: Sandhill cranes, moose
-Channel Islands: Pygmy fox
-Kenai Fjords: Humpback whales, sea otters, puffins
-Denali: Caribou

Best National Park Trees:
-Great Basin: ancient Bristlecone pines
-Congaree
-Joshua Tree
-Haleakala: Banyans
-Redwoods
-Sequoia

Best National Park Lodging:
-Yellowstone: Old Faithful Inn
-Yellowstone: Lake Yellowstone Inn
-Crater Lake: Crater Lake Lodge
-Mt. Rainier: Paradise Lodge
-Grand Teton: Jackson Lake Lodge
-Glacier: Many Glacier Inn