US National Parks
-
Rocky Mountain National Park Hikes: Chasm Lake (the winter version)
I’ve wanted to see Chasm Lake in the winter pretty much since the moment I first laid eyes on it. That was in the summer, nearly eight years ago. Since then, I’ve made two summertime return trips. But I’d never made it there in the winter, mostly due to the fact that one section of… Continue reading
-
A snowy visit to Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas
If ever there was a time to visit a national park where you’re allowed to actually soak in its natural hot spring water, it was the end of January 2026. We arrived in the aftermath of a massive winter storm, snow and sleet and ice still coating the sidewalks and even some of the roads.… Continue reading
-
A long weekend in central Arkansas
I have a tendency to plan trips when I’m bored. Most of the time, these planning sessions don’t lead to an actual trip, but rather an itinerary for some hypothetical time in the future… which is always nice when said hypothetical time presents itself and most of the planning is already done. At some point… Continue reading
-
Yellowstone National Park, part V: Canyon to Mammoth
We’re finally here. After six months of thinking about writing these posts, being overwhelmed by the thought of writing them, procrastinating writing them, sorting through thousands of photos, and finally actually sitting down and writing them, I’ve made it to the end. And I’ve saved the best for last, because this post will begin at… Continue reading
-
Yellowstone National Park, part IV: Old Faithful to Canyon Village
Hopefully you guys aren’t sick of reading about Yellowstone yet, because we still have this post and one more to complete our tour of the park. Last week, I left off at Upper Geyser Basin, home to the famous Old Faithful as well as dozens of other geysers and hot springs. The majority of Yellowstone’s… Continue reading
-
Yellowstone National Park, part III: Old Faithful and Upper Geyser Basin
In last week’s edition of this Yellowstone saga, we traveled a decent distance and stopped at multiple geyser basins. In today’s edition, we’ll pretty much be staying in one location: Upper Geyser Basin, home to the famous Old Faithful Geyser. Of course, this is the main reason people visit Upper Basin. But I think what… Continue reading
-
Yellowstone National Park, part II: Madison to Old Faithful
Welcome back to my Yellowstone saga! Today, we’re going to pick up where I left off last week and continue south on the Lower Loop of Grand Loop Road from Madison Junction to the famous Old Faithful. This can be found on the west-central portion of the map below. This 16 mile (26 km) stretch… Continue reading
-
Yellowstone National Park, part I: Mammoth to Madison
Last week, I published a comprehensive guide to visiting Yellowstone National Park, which was largely focused on planning a trip to the park: logistics, navigation, accommodations etc. If you’ve stumbled across this post because you’re planning a visit to Yellowstone, I’d recommend starting there, as it’s much more focused on the big picture. However, I… Continue reading
-
A comprehensive guide to visiting Yellowstone National Park
I grew up visiting Yellowstone National Park at least once per year, so when I say I’ve been to the park dozens of times, I’m not exaggerating. In another life, I probably would have been a good park ranger or tour guide; I can identify many of the hot springs and geysers by name, recite… Continue reading
-
Rocky Mountain National Park Hikes: Fern Lake
For the first time in six years, Thanksgiving roadtrip was not to be. I was obviously disappointed; the trip had been planned since August and I’d been looking forward to escaping to the desert southwest for a few days. But with back-to-back winter storms predicted for the weekend after the holiday, we were worried about… Continue reading
-
Rocky Mountain National Park Hikes: Andrews Glacier
On long weekends, we typically plan to disappear into the backcountry, as far away as possible from the holiday crowds. It definitely didn’t work out that way this year. In the week before Labor Day weekend, plans A-C fell through for various reasons. This is not an unfamiliar situation for us; over the years, I’ve… Continue reading
-
Rocky Mountain National Park Hikes: Spectacle Lakes
Four summers back, my husband and I stood atop Ypsilon Mountain gazing down at two lakes nestled in an isolated nook 2000 feet (610 m) below the summit, teal water rippling in the sunlight. “I wanna hike to those lakes,” I said. It turns out you can! In fact, our friends who were with us… Continue reading
-
Grand Teton National Park: hiking to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point
Our recent trip to Grand Teton National Park was, unfortunately, not nearly long enough. We really only spent a day and a half in the park. As you saw in my last post, one full day was spent driving a giant loop through the park and stopping at all the viewpoints and historic sites. For… Continue reading
-
A scenic driving tour of Grand Teton National Park
You’ve probably seen the Teton Mountains before without even realizing it; photos of the iconic range pop up all over the place. The rugged profile of the Grand Teton, Mount Owen, and Teewinot Mountain is unmistakable. I’d recognize them from anywhere. I generally write about our travels in chronological order, but sorting through all the… Continue reading
-
A photo a day: Yellowstone edition
This past July, we loaded up the car, drove up to Montana, and spent a week exploring Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks with my in-laws. While I’d been to both parks before and my husband had been to Yellowstone twice, this was the first ever visit for my in-laws. It was very much a… Continue reading
-
48 hours in Page, Arizona
Technically, the title of this post isn’t 100% accurate. We did spend roughly 48 hours in and around Page, Arizona. But I’m going to extend the time and distance covered in this post by about 6 hours and 70 miles (115 km), respectively, so I can also share some photos of our drive from Utah… Continue reading
-
Hiking Angels Landing – Zion National Park, Utah
With so many popular NPS sites transitioning to lottery systems due to extremely high demand for permits, I’ve decided to adopt a new strategy: enter every lottery every year until I eventually get them all. Given my past success with NPS lotteries – or, rather, my complete and total lack of success – I entered… Continue reading
-
Hiking The Subway – Zion National Park, Utah
For reasons I’m not entirely clear on, when I first planned our Zion trip I didn’t think to enter the permit lottery for this hike. Then a couple months later, I was messaging with a friend and mentioned this trip, and she asked if we’d gotten Subway permits. Unfortunately, by this time the main lottery… Continue reading
-
Hiking to Kolob Arch – Zion National Park, Utah
“I’m pretty sure I already know the answer to this, but how do you feel about hiking 14 miles in one day?” I asked my husband as I was assembling our Zion itinerary. Predictably, he wasn’t enthused. To be honest, I don’t love hiking 14 miles (22.5 km) in one day either. It’s something I’ve… Continue reading
-
A comprehensive guide to visiting Zion National Park
When I started planning our late-May trip to Zion National Park this past January, I was already far too late. This was entirely my own fault. I’d put in for an Angels Landing permit and decided to hold off on booking anything until we found out because, quite frankly, if we couldn’t hike Angels Landing,… Continue reading