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Colorado Hikes: Mayflower Gulch
Usually, my first time hiking a trail is in the summer. Not so with Mayflower Gulch. I’ve actually hiked (or, rather, snowshoed) this trail twice in the winter. Only recently did my husband and I finally experience the beauty of Mayflower Gulch in the summer. We were headed up to the mountains for the weekend… Continue reading
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Driving the Beartooth Highway
In my opinion, no trip to Yellowstone National Park is complete without a drive over the Beartooth Highway. This scenic byway – US Highway 212 – connects the northeast (Cooke City) entrance of Yellowstone to the town of Red Lodge, Montana. Between these two destinations lies the Beartooth Mountains, a rugged range that sits atop… Continue reading
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An afternoon in Jackson Hole, Wyoming
After spending the first few years of our relationship completely and utterly broke (it’s super fun to have both people in school at the same time, living on a meager stipend and student loans), my husband and I still frequently have to remind ourselves that we have real adult jobs now with real salaries. And… Continue reading
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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
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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
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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
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A guide to visiting Waterton Lakes National Park
The beauty of the Canadian Rockies is something that can’t be fully captured with a camera. You have to be there to truly understand the immensity of the mountains and the power of a glacier. You have to be there to look into a lake and see straight to the bottom because the water is… Continue reading
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Chasing sunbeams in Upper Antelope Canyon
Do you ever find yourself visiting a place and having that moment of, wow, I never thought I’d be here? That was me with Upper Antelope Canyon. I’d seen photos – many photos – over the years. And I’ve always wanted to visit. But when I first looked into it years ago, my main takeaways… Continue reading
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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A photo a day: desert southwest edition
Two years ago, shortly after we returned from Glacier National Park, I put together a post sharing one photo from each day of the trip. I ended up writing many additional posts detailing our time in the park, but in the meantime, that post gave me the chance to share some of my favorite images… Continue reading
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Touring the Colorado Capitol and the Denver Mint
A couple weeks back, I put together a list of things to do in Denver, and touring the Colorado Capitol and Denver Mint were items #1 and #2 on the list. What was intended to be a one paragraph blurb about each quickly morphed into a total of nearly 700 words… and I still had… Continue reading
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A day in Idaho Springs, Colorado
I tend to forget how close Idaho Springs is to the Front Range… likely because we almost always get caught in traffic on our way there, turning it into a much longer drive than it should be. But even with traffic, it’s still not that long a drive. Which makes it even more ridiculous that… Continue reading
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25 things to do in and around Denver, Colorado
The 2024 airport statistics were released recently, and Denver has jumped up the list quite substantially; it’s now the 6th busiest airport in the world and #3 in the United States, with over eighty million passengers last year! Every time I’m there it’s a mess, so I know it’s a busy place. I wouldn’t have… Continue reading
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A long weekend in Glenwood Springs, Colorado
Glenwood Springs is a town we’ve driven through many times, and we always comment on the lovely scenery and the historic buildings and the allure of the steaming hot springs. But getting to Glenwood Springs in the winter means navigating the horrors of snowy roads and weekend ski traffic, and that’s enough to deter us… Continue reading
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Winter hikes in Rocky Mountain National Park
I didn’t intend to take a break from blogging but, to be honest, it’s been a slow start to the year. It was snowy and windy in the mountains almost every single weekend and, as a result, January and February came and went and we didn’t make it out to snowshoe or cross country ski… Continue reading
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Campsite roundup: best spots we’ve ever pitched a tent
Back in May, we were relaxing at our campsite in Hovenweep National Monument and enjoying the view, and I remarked that it had been a while since we’d had a scenic campsite like this. My husband agreed, and then joked that I should write a blog post listing our best campsites. He should know better… Continue reading
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