After the price for Balcones Canyonlands and Wild Basin Preserve (free), the price for McKinney Falls was a bit steep, but also justifiable since we didn't pay for any other parks. It's also different that the other parks because its much more recreational and developed as a park. Trails are paved, and the falls are …
Continue reading Wildflowers and Waterfalls: McKinney Falls State Park
May 6th may have been the slowest hike of my life. On May 5th, Matt had his rugby game. When it ended it took about 15 minutes for him to limp across the field to us, then slowly limp back to the car, where he held a cold beer on his knee for the ride …
Continue reading More Texan Fun: Balcones Canyonlands Preserve
For Cinco de Mayo weekend my friends and I took a trip to Austin, mostly because Matt had his rugby championship there. We decided to stay two nights so we could also do some hiking. We were VERY ambitious. So ambitious that we though we would go to Enchanted Rock (and by we I mean …
Continue reading Mission: Texas Hiking, Destination: Austin (Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve)
The last stop of our summer Pacific Northwest trip was the Emerald City itself, Seattle. It was a relaxing way to end a long trip, staying with family and seeing a few sights, but mostly hanging out. Our big outing was to Rainier National Park where we hiked part of the 7 Lakes hike to …
Shadow Lake Lodge was our big splurge on a trip full of camping and crashing at relatives' houses. It was completely worth it. We were nervous in the lead up because the lodge was so close to the fire closure areas and a nearby lodge had been evacuated, but Shadow Lake stayed on that outside …
In Jasper we did part of the Mina-Riley Lakes loop, and also discovered some really lovely breweries and bakeries in the town of Jasper. While Banff may have had some more epic hiking, Jasper definitely had more epic baked goods. The first set of pictures are from Mina-Riley Athabasca Falls was probably the most amazing …
This trail is an ass kicker. I loved it but I would not recommend it to everyone by a long shot. If you are used to hiking out west on beautiful clear trails with a maximum 10% grade, switchbacks and constant views and that's what you love, this is not the trail for you. If …
Rocky Mountain National Park turned out to be moosapalooza. I ended up seeing six in one day. The moose below was by far the closest and as an added bonus a family pulled up next to me while I was taking pictures (from a safe distance) and I was able to point a moose out …
The drive from Yellowstone to Grand Teton isn’t really a drive at all, it very much feels like you’re staying in the park. That’s helped by the fact that there’s no fee collection at the entrance to Grand Teton, since you can’t (I believe) enter the park from the north without having first driven through …
First Road Trip Stop: The Badlands Technically speaking my first stop was Wilson State Park in Kansas. Although it was pretty it was completely uninteresting and all I did there was eat, sleep and leave. So for all intents and purposes the Badlands was my first stop. I got a campsite in the same campground …
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