I ended up at Assateague State Park because the National Seashore campgrounds were full. That is the whole reason. And it turned out to be a useful accident, because the two campgrounds on this island are genuinely different propositions and I would not have known that if I had got my first choice. It is enormous, and it [...]
I had never been birding in my life. Next week I am doing a panel conversation with Wayne Klockner, the executive director of the American Birding Association, at the Maryland Outdoor Recreation Summit in Ocean City. And it struck me that we would have a far more interesting conversation on that stage if I had actually done the [...]
My experience I got to Theodore Roosevelt near the end of my 2021 road trip, and by then I had enough confidence to have no plan at all. Just show up. It worked — a campsite wasn't hard to come by. I hadn't expected the drive in to look like that. I knew badlands as a South Dakota [...]
My experience I was strategic about Yosemite. I wanted shoulder season — late enough that the park was open, early enough to miss the crowds. What I was less strategic about was where I would sleep. My spontaneous side doesn’t mesh well with the big parks, and this one is a beast. Everything inside was long gone, so [...]
Black Sandy State Park, located in Helena, MT, is a boaters paradise. With campsites right on the dock, you are always steps away from your boat and great recreation
Black Sandy State Park, located in Helena, MT, is a boaters paradise. With campsites right on the dock, you are always steps away from your boat and great recreation
I did not choose Death Valley. Death Valley was where I ended up. I had been in Zion and a rogue cold front was coming through. The advice I got was simple: go west. So I went west, and I arrived, and I was surrounded by gray rocks. There were no sites left in the regular campground, so [...]
Shenandoah National Park along the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia — seasonal guide, best hikes for every level, what to pack, and why you should get off Skyline Drive and onto the trails.
My experience I stopped at Organ Pipe Cactus after a weather detour sent me from Zion down toward southern California. This was early in my trip. I was so new to the routine and still trying to work out what worked for me. Gosh, I still had the tiny tent that required me to squirm around on my [...]
I walked out to the South Rim, saw the Grand Canyon for the first time in my life, and thought: yeah, that's what it looks like in the pictures. My own reaction surprised me. I had expected to be levelled by it. I have thought about it a lot since, and I do not think the problem was [...]
Yellowstone is my home park when I am out west. I have family close enough that I can pop in for a few hours whenever I want, and that is exactly what I do. In 2021 I used Big Sky, Montana as a base — about an hour from the West Entrance — and I went in over [...]
Bryce Canyon was never going to be the visit. It was a stop. I was on my way to a much bigger trip — the Grand Canyon and Zion — and Bryce got a few hours in the middle of it, in early March. I knew going in that not much would be open. It was still the [...]
