The Great Smoky Mountains National Park was a bit of a homecoming for me. I walked the length of this park on the Appalachian Trail in 2016 from Fontana Dam to Davenport Gap, a distance of 71 miles. Gentle G and I spotted our first black bear here, climbed the highest point on the trail, …
Ryan and I had the honor and privilege of visiting the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. This place, where Martin Luther King Jr. was fatally shot on April 4, 1968, now traces the history of the Civil Rights Movement starting with slavery in America and ending with modern day …
We awoke to the beautiful blooming dogwoods of Oklahoma and hit the road for our next national park: Hot Springs, Arkansas. We would find this park most unusual, and overwhelming to my female constitution. The visitor center was definitely the most beautiful of all the ones we have visited thus far. Housed in the old …
We’ve got some catching up to do. We kicked off our time in Colorado with our fifteenth national park: Mesa Verde. It was different from most of the places we’d been recently as the focus was less on the natural world and more on the archeological, human world. Nature asserted itself though; as we spoke …
We packed up our tent on the Colorado River and headed for a day in Canyonlands and a night at Horse Thief campground. I would not miss this bathroom (pit toilet around the corner). With blue skies all around, we took in the views at the Shafer Canyon Overlook... ...and mentally prepared ourselves for the …
The adventuring life isn’t always as glamorous as it may seem. Sometime your phone stops charging and you have to get a new one unexpectedly (sorry for the blogging delay.) Sometimes things can get pretty gritty, literally. I spent our first night beside the Colorado River with my head beneath the blanket to keep the …
A new National Park, a new geology lesson. Buckle up, we’re visiting Arches. I’ll try to make it quick, we’ve gone over a lot of it already. Ancient desert dunes frozen in time and space as sandstone, lifted thousands of feet into the air when North America crashed into the Pacific plate. Water does it’s …
We awoke with a mouth full of dust, ready to take on another day of fun at Capitol Reef. Although the sand is so fine that it sweeps through the tent covering everything in a fine pink layer, you can’t beat the view of this free BLM campsite. Because of Capitol Reef’s orchard history, they …
Kate found a great, free spot on BLM land and we got our tent set up on the doorstep of Capital Reef, our twelfth National park of the trip. Now, you might be thinking: “Another Ryan post, I bet he’s going to geek out about sedimentary rocks again.” Well, yes, yes I am. I understand …
On our last full day with Stefan, we headed to Kolob Canyons, the northwestern corner of Zion National Park. This part of Zion is much less trafficked than the famous hikes of Angel’s Landing or the Narrows, but has just as much to offer in terms of natural beauty. The upside to its lack of …
Beyond the Fold 