On January 10th, 2021, Missy Rentz packed her car and hit the road. She was somewhere between burnout and a lifelong dream she’d been ignoring. 355 days later, she had hiked mountains she wasn’t ready for, gotten lost in Death Valley, watched a wolf chase a fox away from a bison carcass in Yellowstone, and learned to smoke an acorn pipe at age five. This is Episode 1 of The Parks Podcast — the origin story, the ten things the trip taught her, and an invitation to come along.
A note from Missy: I was scared to death to launch this podcast. It took me a year to get brave enough to actually do it. This first episode was my way of introducing myself, sharing my passion for the parks, and setting the tone for everything that would follow. If you’re new here — start here.
About The Parks Podcast
The Parks Podcast is a weekly show hosted by Missy Rentz exploring local, regional, state, and national parks across the United States. Each episode features park stats, stories, planning guides, and a speed round of questions with guests from across the park world.
The goal: help people discover, fall in love with, and protect America’s public lands — and find the joy that’s been waiting for them outside.
The Parks Podcast is part of the Catch Yourself Smiling platform — a well-being brand rooted in the outdoors, a platform for anyone who is ready to remember what it feels like to exhale.
Episode Transcript
Welcome to The Parks Podcast — Why I Started This and What I Learned
The Parks Podcast, Episode 1 | Missy Rentz with Sam Timmons
How It Started
My name is Missy Rentz, and I’ll be guiding us on a journey to explore local, regional, state, and national parks around the United States.
The parks became a passion for me after spending a year camping and hiking around the country — though I honestly think the seed was planted much earlier. I grew up in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. Some of my favorite childhood memories are the hikes, bike rides, canoe trips, and camping we’d take as a family. Those memories were enhanced by the regular postcards my grandparents would send from their camping trips all around the country. I thought it was a great way to spend retirement.
As an adult, I would occasionally dream of taking a year off and just exploring. I didn’t have the words for it at the time, but now I know I was experiencing burnout. During COVID, my friend Gina suggested that maybe it wasn’t a dream — it was the universe talking to me, and I just wasn’t listening.
This time, I was going to listen.
On January 10th, 2021, I packed my car and hit the road.
The Trip
I started as just above a novice. Completely unsure how to navigate an REI. I learned a lot along the way — and I hope what I’ve learned will help you as you build your own adventures.
When the trip ended 355 days later, I had ten key takeaways I carry with me still:
1. You have to pee a lot more on the nights you’re camping in bear country.
2. Some music lyrics I had on my playlist on day one coached me the entire way. Live a life less ordinary. It’s a brand new day. Better days are coming. Keep breathing. Follow your arrow.
3. Perspective improves with a deep breath and a smile on your face.
4. 14 degrees can feel downright balmy after it’s been negative 20.
5. When you’re driving down the road and see something of interest, pull over and check it out.
6. Mother Nature does not care about your plans. If you allow yourself to be open, what you do instead is usually way better.
7. Sit still. Breathe. Listen.
8. We all want the same basic things. Remove the labels and have the conversation.
9. Catch yourself smiling. That’s where pure joy lives.
10. I’m not finished. The dream has evolved and will become a lifestyle of exploring.
What This Podcast Is
On our journey together, you’ll hear stories from that trip and from new parks we’ll explore along the way. The goal is to share the purpose and stories of each park — and then guide you on planning your own visit.
Park-specific episodes will be mixed with other areas of interest: what gear do you actually need? How do you prepare your dog for a park trip? What can you cook over a campfire? You’ll get park stats, planning guides, and every episode wraps with a speed round of questions with guests from across the park world.
I’m really excited to have you on this journey. We’ll see where it goes and where it takes us together.
Missy’s Speed Round
Questions asked by Sam Timmons, longtime friend and trip cheerleader
Earliest park memory? We were hiking Elizabeth’s Furnace in Virginia — my mom, sister, and grandma hiking ahead, and my dad, brother, grandpa, and me behind. My grandpa was carving me a pipe out of an acorn and a stick as we walked. He used to do that on trips. As a kid, getting to “smoke” an acorn pipe was the best thing in the world.
What made you love the parks? Honestly, not until I was on this trip. Before, I appreciated them. But it wasn’t until I was hiking the Lava Lake Trail in the Gallatin Mountains in Montana that something shifted. It was the hardest hike I’d ever done and I was not physically ready for it. Burning lungs. A stream frozen under a sheet of ice. Getting to the top. That’s when I started realizing what the parks were giving me. That picture lives in several places in my house.
Favorite thing to do in a park? Hike — but I have to be clear: I am the tortoise of hikers. Slow and intentional. I stop constantly. I look at things. I feel the water. It’s hiking, but hiking light.
Park on your bucket list? Two. Denali in Alaska. And Big Bend in Texas — which I was supposed to visit before recording this episode. I got 1,000 miles into what would have been a 2,800-mile trip when severe weather warnings started coming in. I made the call not to visit a bucket list park while stuck in my car avoiding thunderstorms. It’ll be one of the first episodes — and I will get there.
Three must-haves for a park visit? First, water — whether you’re going to the park down the street or on a week-long trip. Always bring water. Second, a plan. You don’t have to stick to it, but know what you want out of the visit. Third, curiosity. Every park exists for a specific reason, and there is always more to discover than what’s on the surface.
A note on hiking and camping for those who “don’t do it”: I used to think if I wasn’t sleeping on rocks and hiking fast and far, I wasn’t doing it right. I put those pressures on myself. They were wrong. A hike is a walk. If you like walks, you can hike. And camping doesn’t have to mean roughing it — for 355 days, I had a six-foot tent with twinkle lights and a memory foam mattress. I did it the way that served me. Many state and national parks also have cabins — beautiful, inexpensive, dotted around lakes. Consider those before writing camping off entirely.
Favorite campfire activity? S’mores, always. There’s something about that whole process — the ritual, the deliciousness, the ridiculous mess. My second answer is the conversations that happen around a campfire when there are no devices. Things come up that never would otherwise. I love that.
Tent, camper, or cabin? For a short trip, tent. But after 355 days of putting a tent up and taking it down every few days, I want to try the whole experience in a camper — to see how it changes what I’m able to do.
Trekking poles or no poles? Big trekking pole advocate. They give your arms a workout, help you test unstable ground, steady you on slippery stream crossings, and take pressure off your knees on the downhill. I got them because I knew I wasn’t physically prepared for what I was doing. I’ll never hike without them now.
Favorite trail snacks? Three. Homemade trail mix — I make it myself so it’s only the ingredients I actually want and I’m not picking around anything. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich — it never tastes better than on a trail, I don’t know why. And Once Upon a Farm pouches — technically a kids’ product, a smoothie/fruit/vegetable mix. I saw Jennifer Garner post about them, tried them on a hike, and now I always have one in my pack. Just enough sweetness and energy at the right moment.
Best animal sighting? Two. In Yellowstone, a bison had passed away near the west entrance. The rangers set up a perimeter and a crowd of us pulled out chairs and just watched. Vultures circling, coming down when it felt safe. A fox that stayed until a wolf showed up. The wolf chased the fox down a stream, came back, and ate for a while. We were told a bear would likely come next. It got dark before we saw it. But to watch that circle of life happen in real time — that’s one of my favorite moments from the entire trip.
The other was in Theodore Roosevelt National Park. There was a rattlesnake in the campground and a nature photographer offered a lesson to anyone who wanted one. We spent an hour with that snake — learning how to read it, how to photograph it, how to have a respectful relationship with it. By the end, the snake had stopped rattling because it was comfortable with us. The rest of the trip, I wasn’t afraid of snakes anymore. I had the coolest photographs. And I understood something I didn’t before.
(One tip for encountering a rattlesnake: they can strike approximately two-thirds of their body length. Approximate the snake’s full size when coiled, keep that distance, stay calm, and move slowly. Respect goes both ways.)
Favorite sound in the parks? Silence. I was in Joshua Tree once and heard nothing — not wind, not birds, not a single thing. Just a hole from one ear to the other. And when you get quiet enough, you start hearing things you couldn’t hear before. The scampering of an animal far away. Things you’d miss if you were filling the space. Silence makes room for everything else.
Missy: Sam, thank you so much for asking the questions. These are better when someone asks them to you. And this is how we will end every single episode — with a speed round from people all around the country. I look forward to seeing you on future episodes. Until next time — see you in the parks.
Music for The Parks Podcast is written, performed, and produced by Porter Hardy. Follow us @TheParksPodcast or visit TheParksPodcast.com.