I’m standing at the base of Mount Marathon in Seward, Alaska, watching people sprint up a mountain that most sane humans would prefer to climb slowly. It’s the Fourth of July, and this grueling 3.5-mile race — straight up 3,022 feet of scree, shale, and suffering, then straight back down — has been a Kenai … Read more
I almost didn’t write about North Cascades. There’s a selfish part of me that wanted to keep quiet about the one national park where you can show up on a Friday in July and still find an empty trailhead. But that’s exactly why more people need to know — because this park is too extraordinary … Read more
I stood at the Visitor Center in Zion last July, sandwiched between a family of five and a busload of tourists all photographing the same shuttle bus. The thermometer read 104 degrees. The line for the restroom wrapped around the building. And I thought: there has to be a better way. That’s when I started … Read more
I’ve been to a lot of national parks. I’ve driven the Going-to-the-Sun Road, hiked into the Grand Canyon, and watched Old Faithful from a bench surrounded by three hundred strangers. But nothing prepared me for a park where you can’t actually go anywhere without a boat. That’s Voyageurs National Park — 218,000 acres of northern … Read more
I saw it all over my feed for months before I finally caved. The Maelstrom travel backpack — the one with the shoe compartment, the USB port, the hidden anti-theft pocket — had become the “it” bag for anyone under thirty who travels with more than a change of clothes and less than a full … Read more
I’ve stood at the edge of a lot of overlooks in this country, but nothing prepared me for that first glimpse of Crater Lake. You pull into the Rim Village parking lot, walk about thirty seconds toward the edge, and suddenly the ground just drops away beneath you — and there it is. This impossibly … Read more
I’d been driving east on US-50 through Nevada for two hours without passing a single gas station, restaurant, or town worth more than a paragraph in a guidebook. My Celestron SkyMaster binoculars rode shotgun, ready for the dark skies ahead. The highway stretched ahead like a gray ribbon unspooling across alkali flats, and my phone … Read more
I’ve been to a lot of mountain lakes. Living out of a van for the better part of two years means I’ve dipped my toes in alpine water from Glacier to Banff, and most of them blur together after a while. But Lake Tahoe is different. The first time I crested the ridge on Highway … Read more
I showed up to New River Gorge with zero expectations. A friend had mentioned it offhand — something about a bridge and whitewater — and I figured I’d spend a long weekend poking around before heading somewhere more “destination-worthy.” That was three summers ago, and I’ve been back every year since. West Virginia’s newest national … Read more
There’s something magical about Yosemite in May. As the snow melts from the Sierra Nevada peaks, the valley transforms into a spectacular display of cascading waterfalls, vibrant wildflowers, and perfect hiking weather. I’ve been visiting Yosemite for years, and May remains my absolute favorite time to experience the park’s raw natural beauty before the summer … Read more