Death Valley National Park

Death Valley National Park is a land of extremes. It’s America’s hottest and driest national park, and sits on the California- Nevada border. Because Death Valley gets extremely hot, the peak season is from October- April when there are cooler temperatures. We visited in April, just as temperatures were starting to heat up. Now, I’m […]

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Believe it or not, Great Smoky National Park is the most visited national park in the country, with over 11 million visitors annually. This park lies on the Tennessee/ North Carolina state line, and is pretty much equally split between the two states. My friend and I explored a small portion of the Tennessee side […]

Grand Teton National Park

Grand Teton National Park borders Jackson Hole, Wyoming and lies just south of Yellowstone National Park. It’s an easy 4.5-hour drive from Salt Lake, and I was lucky enough to explore the Tetons with my brother and sister-in-law while they were visiting me in Utah. Side note: after writing a few blogs, I’ve started to […]

Washington National Parks

This was another one of our trips planned by a cheap flight deal from Salt Lake. There are three national parks in Washington: Olympic, Mount Rainier, and North Cascades National Parks. All three parks are a reasonable drive from Seattle. Olympic Our first stop on our fall road trip was Olympic National Park. This is […]

Yellowstone National Park

On March 1, 1872, Yellowstone became America’s first National Park. This park spans 2.2 million acres and holds half of the world’s geothermal features. The variety of terrain and wildlife is unmatched. Yellowstone can be accessed year-round, but summer (June-August) and winter (December-mid March) are the park’s busy seasons. My roommate and I made our […]

crater lake & N. California

When I first moved to Salt Lake City, I was nervous for multiple reasons: new city, new job, first time truly living on my own, and to top it off, I didn’t know anyone. This was a big risk, but I knew it was something I needed to do for myself and my career. Turns […]

Capitol Reef National Park

In my opinion, Captiol Reef National Park is Utah’s best kept secret. This is the least visited park of the “Mighty Five” in Utah, but it’s truly a hidden gem. My sister and I made the quick trip down to southern Utah while she was in town visiting me for the weekend. The whole time […]

Bryce Canyon National Park

This park is not only my favorite Utah national park, but has also continued to maintain a spot in my all-time Top Five. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, I think every single national park is beautiful in its own way. But man, Bryce Canyon just gives me all the heart eyes. […]

Arches & Canyonlands

I moved to Utah in September 2017, and my adventuring started almost immediately. I work 4 x 10 hour shifts at the hospital, which is nice because it allows me 3 full days for exploring on my weekends. One of my good friends from grad school lives in California now, and drove to visit me […]

Badlands & Wind Cave

This trip was a belated birthday present to my sister. She had been wanting to check out Badlands National Park for a while, so on a free weekend we decided to hit the road! Our original plan was to just go to The Badlands for a few days, and if it worked out, maybe make […]