Paradise Valley, Montana: A Cabin at the Foot of Emigrant Peak
This story is continued from Western Kitsch: The Black Hills of South Dakota. After our gripping adventure rerouting several hours out of our way from the Black Hills, we pushed on to Billings and then Livingston. Just 30 miles from our final destination, the snow began to fall. In my tiny Prius, we slowed to...
1% of 1% of Yellowstone National Park
June 15, 2022 - Yellowstone National Park Update: I published this story just two weeks before record-breaking floods occurred at Yellowstone National Park, causing widespread destruction, with mudslides and rock slides washing out major roadways. At a time when the country's first national park was to celebrate their 150-year anniversary, this astonishing flooding created extremely...
Western Kitsch: The Black Hills, South Dakota
We daydreamed about visiting Badlands area for years. We were drawn by the mystique of its wide open spaces, curious about its strange, striated western landscape. We were eager to discover its legendary herds of bison. In April, we finally set forth on our great Northern road trip with the dog in tow. 50mph winds...
Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge
I have been setting my sights on day trip destinations near Kansas City. I'm seeking places to branch out and shoot landscape and wildlife photography. I visited Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge in northwest Missouri, about 90 minutes drive north of the city. Loess Bluffs is a birdwatchers' favorite thanks to its terrain of wetlands...
Four Seasons of Loose Park Photography in Kansas City, MO
One landscape photographer pro-tip I received was to choose a place near your home that you can return to again and again, at all times of the year, at all times of day, for photography practice. It teaches you how to look at a place from so many angles and in so many circumstances with...
Working for Democracy and Peace in Tegucigalpa, Honduras
This Thanksgiving I served as an international election observer in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. I entered the Central American country hoping to support democracy and see Honduras first-hand. I left the country humbled to my core because the experience changed my worldview. I struggled to write about my brief experience in a way that would do justice...
50 Miles on the Flint Hills Nature Trail
My two fitness goals this year were to summit another 14,000-foot peak and do a 50-mile hike in four days. I completed Huron Peak in Colorado in August. My first attempt at the 50-mile hike was in May on the Knobstone Trail in Indiana but got rained out among other challenges. When it came time...
Photography from Snoqualmie Falls, Washington
The Pacific Northwest continues to be one of my favorite parts of the country. On a recent work trip to Seattle, Washington, one of our colleagues local to the area who is an avid hiker in the area (hi Eric!) generously planned a hike for those of us (hi David!) who could stay another day....
Hiking Huron Peak 14er in Colorado
Fear has been a consistent companion in my life. At age 10, I negotiated my way out of the deep end of the pool during swim lessons at day camp. I was later than all my friends to take the training wheels off my bicycle. My lifelong friend Molly remembered me as an anxious kid...
Sunrise at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland
I recently had the opportunity to return to Annapolis, Maryland to visit family, and we awoke early to visit the United States Naval Academy yard before sunrise. The Plebe Summer training program is in full swing on the Naval Academy base, and incoming freshmen Midshipmen gathered en masse on Farragut Field for morning PT. Meanwhile,...
The 50-Miler That Wasn’t: Indiana’s Knobstone Trail
I set two simple outdoor fitness goals this year - hike and summit at least one 14,000-foot peak, and segment hike a 50-miler. I tend to go west for mountains, so I decided to try east for my 50-miler. I researched extensively, and narrowed a list of 16 trails in the continental U.S. with at...
The Sonoran Desert & Saguaro National Park, Arizona
The types of cactus and landscape change as we approach Arizona from New Mexico. The saguaros sparse at first, appearing only occasionally among other cactus varieties in a giant pasture. Then suddenly, seemingly just as we cross the Arizona state line, they are overwhelmingly abundant everywhere we look. From the highway into the area, I...
White Sands National Park, New Mexico
The last time I saw White Sands was more than two decades ago, when it was still a national monument. My younger brother and I spent several of our summers living in New Mexico with our mom. One of the highlights was some of the road trips we took to all different parts of the...
Bryce Canyon National Park
Bryce Canyon in southern Utah is the last of the four national parks I visited on this road trip. (Prior parks: Capitol Reef National Park in Utah, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in Colorado, and Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado.) At this stage, I am equal parts exhausted, in awe of what...
Capitol Reef National Park
Capitol Reef National Park was the major destination on my 3-week long national parks road trip. I dedicated the whole day to slow, quiet hiking and looking for beautiful scenes to photograph. As with all national parks, I saw only a small portion of it in the full eight-hour day I was there, but every...
Small Town America: Antimony, Utah
I said I wanted peace, quiet, and serenity. Did I ever find it in Antimony, Utah. The population of this tiny town is just over 100 residents, and the cows and sheep far outnumber the people. The area is mainly vast ranch land nestled at the foot of Table Mountain. It's also a popular destination...
Finding Perspective at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
I booked this cottage in Montrose, Colorado because I needed a place to stay close to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. But also because goats. Quaint farm lodging with goats beats lodging without goats 100 percent of the time. There were at least three different varieties of goats that the homeowners keep as...
Shiras Moose Sighting in Golden Gate Canyon State Park
On the way into Blackhawk, Colorado, where I was staying at a beautiful little cabin in the woods as a home base for my exploration of Rocky Mountain National Park, I passed numerous signs for Golden Gate Canyon State Park. I made a mental note to return during my stay. My friend and colleague, Belinda,...
Autumn in Rocky Mountain National Park
I have long hoped to string together a series of national parks to form a road trip. With the Covid pandemic still raging around the world, travel difficult and risky, and lots of time to daydream, I pieced together a three-week road trip that would take me to no less than nine national parks. My...
Stillness in Stratton, Colorado
It’s hard to stop moving. It’s nearly impossible to sit still, like a stone. Silence is hard to come by. To be truly alone is exceedingly rare. Except in rural America. Midwestern grasslands and agriculture still hold space for this experience. I’m alone at a tiny country cabin in Stratton, Colorado, just on the other...
“Humble Peak”
I'm terrified of heights. My partner asked me, "Then why do you do it?" (Hike to the top of tall mountains, he meant.) "Because I'm terrified of heights," I replied. All my life, I have lived in a mild state of fear. The fear of plummeting to my death from the edge of a cliff....
Outdoor Attractions at Colorado Springs
I'm sitting in front of a fire in my sweats, under a red, chunky knit blanket. I'm in a drafty and strangely decorated stranger's house in Colorado Springs. Wet clumps of snow keep falling off the trees outside. On our first full day in Colorado Springs, the weather was sunny, dry and hot, topping 91F...
Camping & Hiking Quandary Peak in Colorado
We have isolated for months in response to COVID-19. All our trips have are canceled. Work jaunts to cities around the country for speaking engagements tabled. Celebratory vacations for my husband’s 40th birthday and my little brother’s 30th birthday overseas – canceled. It was relatively easy for the first three months to stay isolated, consistently...
Vacation in Santorini, Greece
After a few short days in Athens, Greece, we took the five-hour express ferry to Santorini to join our friends who generously invited us to join them on their annual vacation to this location. When you are invited to travel to a bucket place that looks like this, you say yes. Is this real life?...
How to Spend 2 Days in Athens, Greece
When some friends of ours asked, “Do you want to go to Santorini with us in September?” the obvious answer was an immediate, obvious yes. We got to Santorini by way of Athens, so we had just over two days to spend in the city. That’s hardly enough to fully immerse oneself in one of...
- « Previous
- 1
- 2
- 3
- Next »