I already boasted about day hiking in Denali National Park in my last blog post and we are definitely NP lovers, but if you are looking for some less crowded more »

Justin & I tried to balance our time while working Denali National Park in Alaska a little better than we did in Wyoming. The long daylight hours really made for no more »

Warning: Picture-heavy post ahead! When you think of the whole United States, most people don’t realize just how far north Alaska is. Go take a look at a geographically correct more »

We are *almost* to Alaska! Middle of nowhere Canada actually!! But, in an effort not to get too backlogged on posts, let’s just pretend we are still in Wyoming. Because more »

Road life. I’ve forgotten how chaotic it is! Actually, the truth is we’ve been going 150 mph even before we hit the road. As my brother-in-law said to us, “it’s more »

Currently living/working in: Nearly done with our 5-week spring teaching session at Fenton Ranch. The teaching schedule is so busy, but it goes so fast! Current mood: Pumped for our more »

Justin and I have thoroughly loved working at Fenton Ranch teaching kids K-5 about nature. We try our darnedest to impart everlasting knowledge, particularly Leave No Trace lessons on the more »

In addition to our bylines in Backpacker‘s Spring 2018 Gear Guide, there are also some full-page pictures of us tucked in the pages and I wanted to share our photo more »

New Mexico is a darn big state. Even though we’ve been living here on and off for 2 years (holy cow!), we’ve hardly explored half of it. Little by little, more »

Justin & I wear many different hats, and one large one is Gear Testers for Backpacker Magazine (and a prototype tester for a few brands).   We get a lot of more »

I have so much to say, yet nothing to say. But if I don’t get a post up soon, we’ll be in March and I’ll be kicking myself. Then I more »

Native Americans have inhabited New Mexico for more than 2,500 years and thankfully, the state has preserved so much of their living culture with a number of national monuments. But, more »

We successfully hosted our first Thanksgiving at Fenton Ranch! J’s mom, sister, husband and 2 kids drove from Denver for the celebration. We haven’t hosted a Thanksgiving–much less any holiday–since more »

We finished another environmental education session at Fenton Ranch Oct. 12 and now our main job is to watch the property for the school. Fall is a perfect time to more »

We have always used travel to weddings as an excuse to explore a new area. And while we had a heap of weddings every year through 2008ish, there’s been a more »

Thanks for all the new website love and sorry to neglect the blog this month a little! I think I’ll be back on a regular schedule now. To start, lemme more »

This post is way overdue and out of chronological order, but I never blogged about the state high points we knocked off this summer! Besides my successful summit of Oregon’s Mt. more »

Over the years, we’ve spent A LOT of time in Colorado, but only I had been to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. And in our quest to visit more »

Dates: May 1- July 25 Distance Traveled: 14,240 miles    *12,328 miles on the Superfeet Van    *1,912 miles on our own car ***Our friend Alexis put together this REALLY more »

After our backpacking trip in Michigan, we continued to hug the Canadian line to drive into Minnesota. Another national park lies in this far-reaching section of America: Voyageurs National Park. more »