Category United States of America

Old Faithful

Everyone comes to Yellowstone National Park to see Old Faithful. Maybe it is the 106 to 185 foot tall plumes of boiling water shot into the air. It could be the 3,700 to 8,400 gallons of scalding liquid dispelled in each eruption. Perhaps it is the grand predictability of the eruptions—averaging every 90 minutes. Or maybe everyone has just said "this is where you go" and so thousands of people from around the world crowd a boardwalk around a hole in the ground every 90 minutes and then file away for the next frothing earthly phenomena.

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Day 2

Waking up in Grand Teton National Park feels like an accomplishment. After desperately charging through Yellowstone so that we could get a campsite before they were all taken (there were only 6 out of 320 remaining) we were ready to take it easy. Friends would be joining us in the afternoon and, with limited cell service, we didn't want to get too wrapped up in the wild nooks and crannies of the park and miss a call. So we scoped out the park.

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Night Shoot

I photographed the Milky Way! For a slight pedantic digression: we are in the Milky Way. So, in a way, every photograph that we take that is not done by astronomers, is pretty much guaranteed to be of the Milky Way. All the same, this is a view of the rest of the Milky Way as captured within the constraints of a single camera on Earth. It does not compare to some of the amazing photographs I've seen online. The moon was still out and overwhelms the more distant stars. But it is amazing, and I can go to sleep, happy.

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Day 1

I feel like some Judie Bloom high schooler when I write that today was the best day ever. But it was really awesome. After a couple days of travel, we rolled through Yellowstone to our campsite in the Grand Tetons. In the course of the day, we saw a bald eagle, buffalo, elk, and moose. The only thing left on our Yellowstone bingo card is "bear." My preference would be a black bear, but I wouldn't want to be considered "picky." There certainly is an unhinged part of me that wants to see a grizzly bear in the wild.

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The Oasis Bordello Museum

Oasis Bordello Museum in Wallace, Idaho is the opposite of what I anticipated. Positioned on yet another brick lined block of shops, one might expect something playing up old west iconography. Yet, while it traces its origins to early mining clientele, it continued operation into the late 1980s. Instead of corsets and feather boas, the closets are filled with polyester bathing suites and sequin dresses.

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Wallace, Idaho

On occasion, we stop in a town for what should have been a quick stop that wasn't so quick. What was initially just a lunch stop became a stroll about town, which became a tour of a bordello, culminating in getting our growler filled.

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Mosses Trail

Olympic National Park is remarkable for its high longitude rainforests. What is possibly even more remarkable is how much you can see in less than a mile loop that is Mosses Trail.

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Obstruction Point

We had heard tails of terror about visiting Obstruction Point. It was a perilous route, in story. In reality, this six mile road is the best groomed single lane dirt trail we have ever driven. Even small cars like a Honda Civic seems to travel the road with little issue. The perilous part is the immediate cliff that we travel along resulting in accelerated heartbreak and some of the best views in all of Olympic National Park.

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Heart O’the Hills Campground

There are more popular campsites in Olympic National Park, but we couldn't be more pleased with the magical atmosphere of Heart O'the Hills Campground. It is the perfect balance of beauty, seclusion, and accessibility. Not only could we roll in on a Saturday afternoon and get a spot but we still had cell access where we could set up a hotspot and work.

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