national parks
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Exploring the Needles – Canyonlands National Park, Utah (part I)
Years ago, I set foot in Canyonlands for the first time, a stop on a summer national parks road trip. We spent a full day in the park, seeing as much as we could. But we knew we’d barely scratched the surface. This time around, I was determined to see more of this beautiful red… Continue reading
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Rocky Mountain National Park Hikes: Thunder Lake
Obtaining a backcountry permit for Rocky requires similar levels of intensity as many Colorado hiking feats, including summiting a 14er or finding parking at a trailhead or snagging a front country campsite anywhere during the summer. Permits become available each year on March 1st at 8:00am MST. So on March 1st at 7:59am, I was… Continue reading
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Holy Schist! – Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Colorado
After a stunningly beautiful 24 hours at the Maroon Bells, we packed up camp and headed south to Black Canyon of the Gunnison. I’m not sure what I was expecting Black Canyon to be, but it was wildly different from my expectations… in a good way. In my mind, I guess it was a mini… Continue reading
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Life on the Edge of a Cliff – Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado (part II)
(Read part I of this post here) Most people don’t know this, but I took a bunch of anthropology classes in college because for a while I thought I wanted to be an archaeologist. I eventually changed my mind – long story – but I still find archaeology to be incredibly cool. So for me,… Continue reading
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Into the Past – Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado (part I)
A couple years ago, I wrote all about Mesa Verde based on my previous visit to this fascinating park. But my fiance had never been there and it’s a place I was happy to return to, so last summer we headed out for a week long exploration of southwestern Colorado, including 2.5 days at Mesa… Continue reading
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Rocky Mountain National Park Hikes: Bear Lake to Fern Lake
Welcome to hike #2 in my Rocky Mountain National Park Hikes series! Rocky Mountain operates a free shuttle system from May to October that allows you to leave your car in Estes Park or at the Park-n-Ride inside the park boundary and take the bus to the trailheads, eliminating the stress of arriving at 6:00am… Continue reading
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Rocky Mountain National Park Hikes: Gem Lake
As a perpetual vacation planner, it’s probably not terribly surprising that I started planning Colorado adventures months before our arrival. Nothing too in depth, because reality forced me to balance adventure planning with job applications and house hunting and the like. Nevertheless, I decided early on that we were going to spend as much time… Continue reading
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Westward Bound, part I – New England to Kentucky
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I hadn’t planned to spend so many years in New England. And I certainly never expected that I’d be sad to leave. Admittedly, I wasn’t sad to leave behind the humidity and the brutal winters and the traffic and the rude drivers (because yes, New England drivers really… Continue reading
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World Capitals: Washington, DC
Welcome to post #2 in my world capitals series, and happy (early) 4th of July to all my American readers! It seems appropriate to celebrate the holiday with stories of my time spent in our nation’s capital. You’d think the capital of my home country would’ve been post #1 in this series. It was, after… Continue reading
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Eastward Bound (part I) – West to Indiana
Moving Day. I don’t think it had hit me yet that I would be spending the next few years of my life on the east coast. I’d never been there before. I’d never even been anywhere near there. All I had was warnings from various people that easterners are rude and everyone has a funny… Continue reading
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One Step Forward, Two Steps Back – Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve, Colorado
When I say sand dunes, you probably think of a beach somewhere with mounds of sand in one direction and the vastness of the ocean in the other. But what if I said the sand dunes were in Colorado? Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve is located northeast of Alamosa, CO in the shadow of… Continue reading
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A world underground – Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico
Carlsbad Caverns is a depiction of two very different worlds: the one above the ground, and the one below. Up above the sun is hot, the air is dry, and every plant and animal has to be very resilient and adaptable to survive in this niche where the Guadalupe Mountains meet the Chihuahuan Desert. And… Continue reading