On our first morning waking up in the Smokies we drove up to Newfound Gap and made the turn to Clingman’s Dome, the highest point of the Appalachian Trail and also the Park at 6,643 feet in altitude. We met a couple thru hikers on the lookout tower that always reminds me of the World’s …
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, …
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 …
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 …
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 …
It takes a little over an hour to get to Bryce Canyon National Park from Kanab. We were reassured that we had made the right choice in not staying closer as we traveled north, gained elevation, and everything was covered in snow. It was a really beautiful ride and we spotted our first Utah prairie …
Zion is the fourth most popular national park in the country. It’s a smaller park, but they do a good job of managing the crowds by having a shuttle bus. It is easy to see why it’s so popular. Zion is a truly beautiful place with huge, colorful rock walls towering thousands of feet above …
Horseshoe Bend was an interesting stop on our trip because it’s a relatively new destination. Well, the natural feature is millions of years in the making, but now this odd and beautiful place has gone viral. Once this place was just a small sign on the side of an empty road that one might stumble …
Going to the Grand Canyon was pretty surreal. Well, this whole trip has been pretty surreal, but the Grand Canyon was surreal in some new and different ways. It began at the entrance gate. Most parks have one booth on the road going in where you pay the fee (or flash your pass if you’re …
Beyond the Fold 