HD.Adventuring

Cajas National Park- our last stop in Ecuador. We came here without many expectations and were blown away by the scenery. Miles of páramo stretch out in front of you, the landscape punctuated with hundreds of small lakes and streams. The ecosystem here is not only important for the local plant and animal life, but also provides fresh water to the surrounding communities- and the earth is like one giant sponge. The park sits at nearly 14,000 ft

Dana summited Cotopaxi (elevation 19,350’) at sunrise on May 7th. The climb was cold, windy, and strenuous- but he felt strong and never struggled with the altitude. Camping between 9k and 14k feet for over a month leading up to the ascent helped significantly with acclimatization.

While he started his climb around midnight, I was enjoying my first solo night of camping since we started living on the road nearly 3 years ago. At this point we are used to being together 24/7, but it felt good to do things independently (even if just for a night).

In the morning I got an inreach message from Dana that he had a successful summit and was on his way down. I drove to the trailhead and hiked up to meet him at the refugio for a hot chocolate before descending the rest of the mountain together.

Cotopaxi is special for many reasons, and we will always remember our time spent on and around her beautiful slopes.

One more post for Chimborazo because it’s just too dang beautiful. Sleeping at 14,000’ (our highest camp yet) for a week was easier than we expected- we were breathing easy and our diesel heater didn’t struggle with the altitude either. I think we’re ready for the high passes of the cordillera in Peru!

📍Mt. Chimborazo, 20,550’

📍Cayambe National Park, Ecuador 🇪🇨

Wide open spaces are what we’ve been missing ever since we left the US over a year ago. We had teases of them in Mexico and Colombia, but reaching Ecuador has finally put us back in our favorite landscapes consistently. Long, winding roads through public land with hardly anyone else around… that’s what got us into this lifestyle in the first place. To say we’re happy and relieved to be in places like these is an understatement, and we’re so stoked to know that we’ve got a lot more of this ahead of us as we continue south.

Thanks for following along, and don’t mind us as we blast The Chicks non-stop for a while 😜

📍Quilotoa, Ecuador

Camping on the edge of this massive crater lake required a pretty sporty ascent up a deteriorating, switchbacked “road,” but we were rewarded for our efforts with incredible scenery and a secluded camp spot. Aside from the occasional hikers passing by, we were alone on the volcano for a few days.

Hiking the loop trail around the entire rim of the crater is roughly 10km and took us about 6 hours- which could have been a lot faster had we not stopped every 10 feet to snap photos and exclaim “wow look at that view” about 8,000 times along the way.

Cotopaxi Camp #2

After driving an off-road route through the national park, we tucked ourselves into this little hidden camp spot with another great view of Cotopaxi.

We set up camp and enjoyed the quiet beauty of the afternoon, wandering around with the dogs and relaxing in the crisp high-altitude air. Then the sun started to go down and we were treated to one of the most spectacular sunsets- it felt like the best camp spot we’ve had in a long time.

The next morning we woke to extreme winds and found ourselves in the middle of a dust storm. Our beautiful mountain view had turned into an apocalyptic movie set. We couldn’t go outside without being pelted with sand from the nearby dried lake bed, and the canvas on our camper was loudly whipping with each gust. Fine dust was somehow getting in through all of the closed doors and windows, piling up in the corners of our little home. Suddenly the best camp spot had turned into the worst, and after a painful and messy breakdown of camp we set off for our next destination.

Kinda felt like a funny little reminder from the universe not to take the really good stuff for granted 🌅

Cotopaxi provided us one of the most beautiful campsites of our entire trip so far, and it was even better to enjoy it with friends! We’re going to remember this place forever 🤍