I’ll never forget the feeling of my sweaty hands gripping heavy metal cables while I followed a line of people 8,000 feet in the air – hiking Half Dome should be on everyone’s bucket list. I have somehow been lucky enough to climb it three times and each was a different experience. With the cables … Read more
Yosemite National Park is one of the most beautiful places in the world, which makes narrowing down the best hikes in Yosemite pretty difficult. There are 2,000 foot waterfalls, towering granite cliffs and cables that you cling onto for dear life. But, since I bought a property near Yosemite a few years ago, I … Read more
Zion National Park has some of the best hikes in the world, from narrow slot canyons to towering red summits only reachable by chain. There isn’t a bad view in the park, but if you’re looking for the best hikes in Zion to hit during your trip, you’ve come to the right place. If … Read more
When most people visit this city, they usually aren’t looking for the best hikes in San Diego. And I can’t blame them. With 70 miles of coastline and red bull slushies, hiking is sometimes the last thing on their list. But don’t let the coast fool you, San Diego has some incredible hikes up its … Read more
The first time I hiked to Havasupai I didn’t even realize it was possible to hike to the Confluence, and to be honest I’m not even sure I knew what the Confluence was. But as I hiked to Beaver Falls on the second day of our trip and saw a few exhausted hikers coming … Read more
After pouring over photos of snow capped mountains and moss covered forests, I made the decision to create a Washington itinerary and spent 2 weeks road tripping around the state. But once I started doing research, the amount of things I wanted to do in 2 weeks started to pile up. Washington has three … Read more
Death Valley is one of those National Parks that’s perfect for a road trip. You can car camp for free and landscapes are so diverse that you can be in sand dunes one minute and at the top of a snowy mountain the next. So if you’re looking for the perfect Death Valley itinerary, you’ve … Read more
I consider myself a pretty avid hiker, so when my friends asked if I was interested in hiking Mount Whitney, I didn’t even hesitate. Standing at 14,505 ft., Whitney is the highest mountain in the contiguous US (not counting Alaska). Although Mount Whitney towers over all other mountains in the Sierras, the hike to … Read more
For someone writing an Alaska itinerary, it’s funny that Alaska was never really on my radar. I thought of it as a place that I would visit after I retired. Maybe I would take a cruise along the glacier filled waterways when my legs were too tired to hike anymore. That would have been a mistake, … Read more
The Brown Bear Tour at Lake Clark National Park in Alaska was my favorite day of our whole trip, which is funny because it’s the one thing I thought of knocking off our itinerary. We were already seeing polar bears in Barter Island, and the brown bear tour was more expensive than all the other activities … Read more
A trip to Alaska isn’t complete without getting a few amazing views of Mount Denali, North America’s tallest peak (at 20,320 feet). Maybe one day I’ll summit that peak, but for this trip I was okay viewing it from afar. The problem is, Denali is so big it’s completely covered by clouds 1/3 of the … Read more
You really can’t lose when choosing which hikes to do in Alaska, but if there’s one trail I could recommend, it would be Harding Icefield trail. The state is so full of beauty that you will be starry eyed while taking out your trash in the morning but I probably took more photos in the … Read more
It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Airbnb. And it’s not only about the prices, I really enjoy staying somewhere that makes me feel like I’m part of the city that I’m visiting (whether that be a small town in Southern France or a mini goat ranch in Southern California). So, here were … Read more
When I realized my next trip would be to Alaska, one thought immediately came to mind…polar bears in Alaska..or more specifically polar bears in Barter Island. Polar bears have been on the list of threatened species since 2008, and with global warming not slowing down anytime soon, I figured my time may be limited to … Read more
Havasu Falls have exploded on social media this year. Just about everyone has seen photos of these cascading blue waterfalls inside the Grand Canyon. But before they were on your Facebook and Instagram feed, Havasu falls were on every hiker’s bucketlist. However, due to the falls being smack in the middle of an Indian Reservation and … Read more
Hiking to Big Pine Lakes had been on my bucket list since I moved to California. In fact, the first time I saw a picture of the lakes in Big Pine, I couldn’t believe they were located in the Sierras. Here I was, day dreaming about visiting the glacial lakes and craggy peaks of Patagonia, when Big Pine … Read more
It’s no secret that I love Airbnb. It’s practically plastered all over my blog. I’d just rather spend a night in an interesting place submerged in the middle of a neighborhood, farm or mountainside instead of in a plain jane hotel room. Here are my favorite Airbnb’s that I stayed in during 2018: Glamping … Read more
Since hiking the Channel Islands was my first true backpacking experience, I certainly learned a lot during my trip. That being said, I have a lot of helpful information to pass on to make your experience a little easier than mine. I also want to tell you to absolutely go for it because the Channel Islands are amazing. … Read more
I was inspired recently, and not in the usual way. A friend of someone I was dating referred to me (jokingly) as a prostitute. This was because he couldn’t think of any possible way that I could be traveling so often without being a prostitute. Because all girls with travel Instagrams have to be prostitutes … Read more
On one particularly random morning, my roommate and I decided to wake up and head to South Lake Tahoe, without knowing anything about the area or what we were going to do. Luckily, we had around an 8 hour drive ahead of us to do some research. So, if you’re looking for things to do in South … Read more