Traveling Huntleys

Inspiring travel stories, tips, and guides from a couple exploring the world one destination at a time.

Spring Travel

Eminence, Missouri: Blue Spring, Alley Mill and the Country’s First Scenic Riverways

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Last Updated: September 3, 2026

Eminence is in the center of the Ozark National Scenic Riverways. It’s one of the nation’s first protected waterways — in fact it was the first of them, established in 1964, four years before the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act existed at all. The park encompasses the Current and Jacks Fork rivers. These rivers are known for their clear, calm and cool water which is ideal for swimming, fishing, paddling and tubing. Eminence is a small town, less than 600 people live here. The post office was established in 1844. We knew this because we needed it to mail our taxes on time.

A rainbow over the Jacks Fork River seen from our RV site in Eminence, Missouri
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Cumberland Falls, Bowling Green & Hardin, Kentucky: A Corvette in a Sinkhole, Elk on the Prairie and the Mayfield Scar

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Last Updated: September 3, 2026

Hardin was our last westward stop in Kentucky on our way to spring in the Rocky Mountains. From the Red River Gorge to Corbin, it was a couple hour drive in the rain. It was also our last chance to see elk again until the Rockies. Three stops across the width of the state — Cumberland Falls in the east, Bowling Green in the middle, Hardin out on Kentucky Lake — and between them a sinkhole that ate eight Corvettes, a fenced prairie with elk in it, and the scar of one of the worst tornadoes in American history.

Two bull elk grazing on the Elk and Bison Prairie at Land Between the Lakes near Hardin, Kentucky
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Red River Gorge, Kentucky: 100 Sandstone Arches, the Nada Tunnel and the Dam That Was Never Built

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Last Updated: September 3, 2026

Red River Gorge is in eastern Kentucky, in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains about an hour east of Lexington. The gorge is a canyon system cut by the Red River through Daniel Boone National Forest, and it has more natural sandstone arches than anywhere else east of the Rocky Mountains. Hikers, rock climbers, kayakers and mountain bikers are attracted to the area throughout the year. We came in early spring, before the trees leafed out, which is the season when you can actually see the rock.

Looking up at the underside of Natural Bridge, a 78-foot sandstone arch at Natural Bridge State Resort Park near Slade, Kentucky
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Carlsbad Flower Fields: California’s Spectacular Spring Bloom

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Every spring, the hills above Carlsbad in North San Diego County erupt into one of the most breathtaking seasonal displays anywhere in California. Sandy and I had been wanting to visit the Carlsbad Flower Fields for years — finally, this spring we made it happen during our California coast travels, and it was worth every mile of the drive north from San Diego.

Sandy Huntley, Carlsbad Flower Fields, CA
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Sonoran Desert Life in Three Quarter Time: Tucson, Tubac & the Desert Museum

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Last Updated: July 31, 2026

So much of travel moves at a pace set by logistics — the next destination, the checkout time, the reservation that can’t be changed. The Sonoran Desert has a way of overruling all of that. You slow to three-quarter time whether you intend to or not, because the things worth seeing here don’t reveal themselves to anyone moving too fast. The cactus wren sitting three feet away on a saguaro arm. The bobcat stretched out in a patch of morning sun. The Costa’s hummingbird hovering in front of a blooming aloe, iridescent purple gorget catching the light. You have to be moving at the desert’s pace to see any of it. Continuing our spring stay at Western Way RV Resort near Tucson Mountain Park, we had two more weeks to let the desert set the tempo — with a day trip south to the artist colony at Tubac and daily visits to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum thrown in. Jake set the pace each morning, and it was always exactly right.

Saguaro cactus and spring desert landscape in the Sonoran Desert near Tucson, Arizona
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Spring in the Sonoran Desert: Gila Bend to Tucson, Arizona

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Last Updated: July 31, 2026

Spring is the Sonoran Desert at its absolute best — wildflowers carpeting the desert floor, saguaros preparing to bloom, hummingbirds working every flowering shrub, and evenings that turn the western sky a deep molten orange behind the Tucson Mountains. We drove in from the west in April 2021, stopping overnight in Gila Bend before continuing to our favorite base camp on the west side of Tucson near Saguaro National Park West and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. We needed some minor repairs done on the RV — this was our third stay at Western Way RV Resort — and once the work was sorted, we spent two weeks photographing wildflowers, raptors, woodpeckers, numerous species of hummingbirds, and the kind of sunsets that make you understand why people choose to live in Tucson. Jake was entirely in his element.

Brilliant spring sunset over saguaro cactus and the Sonoran Desert near Tucson, Arizona
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