Your friendly guide to national parks, road trips, and all things outdoors
Shelling on Sanibel is a bucket list topper for anyone that loves collecting sea shells. It's one of, if not the, best places in the world to go shelling and I finally got to visit this winter! When my parents came to visit Florida in March we had a big shelling focused trip planned and…
Continue reading ➞ The Great Sanibel Shelling Showdown: Lighthouse Beach Vs Blind Pass Beach
I can't believe it's taken me five years to write this post! I guess it's just given me extra time to think of everything you need to know before planning a Lake Powell vacation. And it's a lot. And after working at Lake Powell for six seasons (four in Bullfrog, two in Wahweap), not just…
Continue reading ➞ 29 Things To Know Before Planning A Lake Powell Vacation
Chances are, when you think Florida, you think Orlando. Or at least Disney. But there's so much more to Orlando than Disney. There's Universal, too. I'm kidding, today isn't about either of those. It's all about Orlando day trips. While there are so many amazing things to do in Orlando, there are just as many…
Continue reading ➞ 8 Perfect Day Trips From Orlando To Get You Out Of The Theme Parks
I love Everglades City. I don't know where I want to live forever, but Everglades City is one of the contenders so far (along with Moab and the Asheville area, if you were curious.) Every January we make a trip down there and do the same things but also manage to find new things to…
Continue reading ➞ 24 Things To Do In Everglades City: Hiking Trails, Biking, Paddling, And More
Ahh, the Blue Ridge Parkway. Only the best road trip in the USA. Ok, maybe not the best, but one of the best and certainly the best scenic drive for fall. This last fall I managed to drive almost all of the Blue Ridge Parkway (we skipped the section between Roanoke and Fancy Gap and…
Continue reading ➞ Top Tips For Driving The Blue Ridge Parkway In The Fall
Guadalupe Mountains National Park is a west Texas hidden gem that very few people visit which makes it perfect for escaping those national park crowds, especially this year. It's a park that isn't very well-known but still deserves a spot on your national park bucket list because of all of it's amazing hiking opportunities. Today…
Continue reading ➞ 7 Reasons Guadalupe Mountains National Park Is Worth It
I love visiting wildlife refuges and one we knew we wanted to visit when my parents were here was the J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel. It's a tiny little refuge on the bay side of Sanibel. The first time they came to visit, we went to the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge and…
Continue reading ➞ Get Your Bird On At The Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge On Sanibel
One of the things I knew I would be doing when my parents came to visit Florida this year was seeing the Alfred B. Maclay Garden State Park which just happened to be during the blooming season! This was the first thing we did on a sort of cloudy day. We didn't really know what…
I can't believe it took me three trips to Everglades City before I hiked the Marsh Trail. Even more shocking, it was three visits before I even knew this trail existed, how wild is that? And we usually stay for 7-10 days which makes it even more surprising! Well, in 2021 I managed to hike…
Continue reading ➞ Birding Paradise In Florida: Hike The Marsh Trail In Ten Thousand Islands
On our January 2020 trip to Big Cypress we hiked the swampy part of the Fire Prairie Trail. Then this year, 2021, we hiked a little further out into the prairie part of it, still on the trail though. I still haven't hiked the entire Fire Prairie Trail, but I really enjoyed the part we…
Continue reading ➞ Experience The Fire Prairie Trail In Big Cypress National Preserve
On this year's Big Cypress trip we ended up extending it by like four or five days because we were loving it so much. It was also a year of new hikes here, which was exciting! I was also able to cross off biking Shark Valley off my national park bucket list! One day I…
Continue reading ➞ Biking Shark Valley: One Of The Best Things To Do In Everglades National Park
Ahh, Saguaro National Park. One of the newest parks I visited and one of my new favorites! This is such an underrated national park, I'm surprised at how little I hear about it. The big question when visiting though, is which side of Saguaro National Park is better and I'm here to help you pick…
Continue reading ➞ Saguaro East Vs. West Showdown: Which Side Of Saguaro Is Better?
This is going to be a whopper of a post and the first in my little series of shorter Utah itineraries broken down into specific areas. The three days will be packed full of hikes but I made the areas small so you'll be able to do as much as possible in that time. First…
One of my favorite waterfall hikes in North Carolina was the Log Hollow Falls hike. But, in what seemed to be classic North Carolina trail marking, we ended up following the wrong trail for like, a mile before turning around and trying the other option. I didn't really know what to expect from this hike…