Sunday bonus: My grandmother liked camping?!
Not only that, for her 40th birthday in 1955, she took my mother on a road trip to three national parks: Zion, Bryce and the Grand Canyon.
I always knew my grandmother liked to travel. But I had no idea she liked to camp, until I found all these pictures of her camping with friends when my mother was a kid. Since they lived in Los Angeles, one of their favorite places to camp seems to have been the beaches of Baja California.
But for my grandmother’s 40th birthday in September of 1955, she did something much more ambitious — borrowed her brother’s truck and drove with my 11-year-old mother and some friends to three national parks: The Grand Canyon, Zion and Bryce Canyon.
And I know this because she saved the entry tickets for each park, which at the time charged only $1 per vehicle. And at least for Zion National Park, that $1 pass was good for 15 days!
I loved finding out that my mother went camping as a kid, just like me. I was often very unhappy during my family’s camping and road trips, but they also created some of my favorite memories of childhood. And I like them even more now knowing where my mother’s love of camping came from: Her mother.
