This blog post is overdue and happened what seems like months ago! We are currently back on the road for Leave No Trace/Subaru for the Zero Landfill Tour, so this recap is focused on April-June. Ready, rewind. (***Warning, picture heavy & long!***) Much of the last 8 years as nomads, it’s been for work—starting with…
Indiana Sand Dunes is the newest national park, designated as so in February. It used to be a national lakeshore. As a reminder, there are 419 “units” in the National Park Service and these units have about a dozen different names (monuments, historic sites, seashores, etc), with only 61 having the “national park” designation. We…
It’s been a hot minute since we checked off any state highpoints, mainly because the 7 left are pretty difficult to climb (Alaska, Wyoming, Montana, Oregon for Justin & Washington for me) or difficult to get to (Nevada, Hawaii and Illinois). Charles Mound, Illinois, is arguably the “most difficult to get to” because it is…
Currently living/working in: We’ve been on the road (for ourselves) while making several pit stops up the East Coast to see family and explore, and now back on the road headed back west. I will actually be writing a whole blog post about these comings and goings, but basically, it’s been a fun and busy.…
First things first. There are now 61 designated National Parks. Last time we visited a National Park, there were 59. The March signing of the public lands bill added 2 national park sites—one of which we’ve been to and the other we’ll need to add to our list. Just needed to update my numbers and…
Currently living/working in: Most of April has been on the road in our van. Our Leave No Trace contract ended April 8, meaning we returned our work-provided Subaru Ascent and moved into our van until the next Leave No Trace contract. We are still juggling lots of content projects, but it’s been fun to be…
Earlier this week, we returned the keys for the 2019 Subaru Ascent we lived and worked out of since January to our employer, Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics. However, we will pick up keys to a 2019 Subaru Ascent again from Leave No Trace the first week of June … That’s right, we…
Currently living/working in: This last 2 months has been a whirlwind, as we’ve “lived” in 6 different states! Not only are we living and working on the road as Leave No Trace Traveling Trainers (contract ends April 8!), we are simultaneously juggling 6 Backpacker projects. Plus, I have 3 other writing project on top of…
Much of our time as Leave No Trace Traveling Trainers this winter has been spent setting up a booth at Subaru Winterfest weekend festival events, which take place at popular ski areas around the country. Our schedule took us to the ones at Copper Mountain (CO), Eldora (CO) and Snowbird (UT). Justin and I are…
Justin & I wrapped up a week’s worth of Leave No Trace work in northern Arizona/southern Utah (and are now in the mountains for back-to-back Winterfest events). The Arizona trip had multiple purposes. We were shadowing another Traveling Trainer team to learn some of the ropes, like video-making, but also for outreach in a heavily…
Happy New Year everyone! We are definitely ready for 2019. 2018 was such a mixed bag for us, although, in the end, we wouldn’t trade the year and experiences for anything!! Here’s our “best of” list for 2018. Biggest Risk Leaving our role as property caretakers and environmental educators at Fenton Ranch in New Mexico…
We finished our Leave No Trace/Subaru contract on Oct. 15 and returned the car to the Leave No Trace office in Boulder. The decorations for our last day were provided by Mother Nature! We absolutely loved working for Leave No Trace & Subaru. Leave No Trace is small, but mighty. There are 12 (maybe 13?)…
We’ve been back to Colorado and are just about wrapping up everything with our Subaru/Leave No Trace Zero Landfill Initiative Summer Tour (giving back our Outback Monday!!), but before I summarize the entire summer, let me focus on our 4 weeks in California. To go from Alaska to California was like night and day (literally??).…
There are a 9 national parks in California (not to mention many more monuments, historic parks, etc) and the last 2 on our list to visit were Sequoia and Kings Canyon. A few weeks, we took a short road trip south to them from our home base in Yosemite National Park. While the eastern side of…
Finally getting caught up on blog posts to our current location and happenings in California, so here’s a recap of our drive through Canada in late August … When we drove up to Alaska in July, it took us 8 days and we drove the Icefields Parkway & Alaska Highway (Al-Can). For our southbound trip…
We’ve been in California (specifically, Yosemite area) for a week now (and will be here all month) after wrapping up our 6 weeks of work in Alaska at the end of August and driving via Canada, again, back down into the lower 48. We were bittersweet about leaving the Land of the Midnight Sun. It has always…
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 hidden gems, the place to go would be Denali State Park. The State Park has 300,000+ acres and borders the east side of the National…
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 map. Cue collective “WHOA” There are only so many ways you can drive to Alaska and most journeys take days (even the ferry). And while…
We wrapped up our 3 weeks in the Teton Valley of Wyoming (Jackson Hole and Grand Teton National Park) and are in route to Alaska (via a long 8 days through Canada). I know I keep saying this, but it felt like way more than 3 weeks. We really had no idea how much we…
Currently living/working in: Wait, has all of June really passed? Holy cannoli, we truly have been running at warp speed while trying to juggle fiery balls mixed in with sharp knives. Okay, quite the exaggeration, but I’m known for that. Anyway, a million things have been going on in June. I will spare you all the…