Tag: hiking
-
What’s So Bad About Badlands National Park?

The Badlands National Park is what I affectionately like to call a “flyover park”. It’s actually one of my favorite Midwestern parks but it gets constantly overlooked due to its location in relation to the more popular Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks! While it’s technically possible to do all three of these parks as…
-
Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Jackson Hole is a fairly touristy city, popular mostly for its proximity to Yellowstone and Grand Tetons National Parks as well as several ski resorts in the area. I used this city as a launching point for my visit to Grand Teton National Park, but there are plenty of points of interest within the city…
-
Valley of Fire State Park

Valley of Fire State Park is one of my favorite excursions out of Las Vegas. Just about an hour outside the city strip, Valley of Fire features some incredible red rock formations- and I say this as someone who’s spent a significant amount of time around red rocks! We made a quick cell service-related pit…
-
What the heck is Boondocking?

Boondocking, or dispersed camping, refers to free off-grid camping without any hookups to water or electricity. “Electricity?”, I hear you ask- that’s right, these terms are specific to RVs and vans rather than tents and hammocks. Backpackers, avert your eyes! With the recent COVID surges- and the surges in “Van Life” influencers, boondocking in primitive…
-
Skidaway Island State Park

Regular readers of my blog can probably take a guess that I’m not much of a city person. As much as I enjoyed my visit to Savannah, Georgia, I did make sure to take the opportunity to get out of the city to explore the surrounding areas. Skidaway Island State Park is just about a…
-
North South Lake State Park

As one of the biggest and most popular campgrounds in the Catskills of New York, North South Lake State Park hosts over two-hundred campsites clustered around the Northern-most of it’s namesake lakes. This campground is the perfect launching point for many nearby hikes and viewpoints. A popular and relatively easy hike to the Catskill Mountain…
-
Moreau Lake State Park- A Fall Foliage Favorite

In the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains and oft overlooked in favor of the ever popular Lake George, Moreau Lake State Park has quickly become one of my favorite New York parks for hiking through the fall foliage. I can’t keep using the phrase “hidden gem”, but really; people ought to be talking more about…
-
Cuyahoga Valley- Ohio’s Backyard National Park

Smack in between New York and Chicago, Cuyahoga Valley National Park is one of the most bizarrely designed National Parks I’ve ever been to. Perhaps it is because the park was originally a National Recreation area, but the fact that it features natural, man-made, and private attractions is fairly unique to the park. Residential areas…
-
A Shortcut Through Petrified Forest National Park

While perfectly able to host a multi-day adventure, the Petrified Forest National Park’s relatively small size and prime location smack in the middle between Interstate 40 and Highway 180 in Arizona makes it the perfect drive through park. A straight drive through the park takes about an hour, end to end, but obviously stopping points…
-
Las Vegas’ Surprising Neighbor; Red Rocks Canyon National Conservation Area

Just a half hour drive west of Las Vegas, Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area hosts a 13-mile scenic drive with plenty of hiking, rock climbing and biking options to offer. While currently the park is only allowing admissions at pre-booked times, exploring the park can take as much time as desired once inside. The…
