2023 Adventuring Year-in-Review
In the past I’m not sure how I’ve felt about year-in-review posts, but I think of all years, it is needed for 2023 for personal reasons. It is so easy to get bogged down in the minutia and mundane of every day life that one forgets exactly how awesome things were! January For many years my…
40th Birthday Adventure Day 4: Annular Solar Eclipse
The big event of the trip (aside from my actual birthday) was upon us – the annular solar eclipse that would be happening over a big swath of the western United States! So what is an annular solar eclipse? Unlike what some sources and popular beliefs state, it is not an eclipse that happens annually,…
40th Birthday Adventure Day 3: Hiking Wheeler Peak at Great Basin National Park
October 13, 2023 Let’s go climb a mountain!! I cannot resist a good mountain summit, especially of a super pretty mountain… anddddd it would be the last mountain of my 30s! Wheeler Peak rises to 13,063 feet in the Snake Range of the Great Basin. The peak boasts all sorts of accolades: …along with being…
40th Birthday Adventure Day 2: Great Basin National Park – Bristlecone Pines, Glacier, and Lehman Caves… Oh My!
October 12, 2023 We awoke on a beautiful vista outside of the Snake Creek entrance of Great Basin National Park, eager to the see the views after arriving at the campsite after dark (and an adventurous drive). Our neighbors at a campsite further down had left, so we decided to move down to that site…
40th Birthday Adventure Day 1: Cathedral Gorge State Park and Great Basin National Park
My 40th birthday trip has had quite a few iterations over the past year of planning, but in the end it still involved the thing it always had in the plan: the annular solar eclipse in Great Basin National Park on October 14th. “Last minute” plans came to fruition about a month out, and a…
2022 Adventuring – A Year in Review
I’ve always seem to be here or there over the last decade, but damn, 2022 was a doozy! What a year, what a year!! Nine states (including the District of Columbia – new for me!). Thirty new National Park Service units. 52 Hike Challenge blown out of the water and completed months ahead of schedule.…
A BeaUTAHful Bucket List: Day 7 – Wrapping up the Colorado River via kayak
Day 7 – April 1, 2022 The take aways… I need Crocs The Instagramers have taken over Emerald Cave Nothing feels better than a warm Venture Wipe Nothing tastes better than In N Out Burger Chloride, AZ is where I am going to retire Bags of dirt are frightful The second day of kayaking the…
A BeaUTAHful Bucket List: Day 6 – Black Canyon of the Colorado River
Day 6 – March 31, 2022 The take aways… Fear and floating in Las Vegas Expect awkward encounters at Arizona Hot Springs Ringtail cat! I didn’t die 5:30am alarm. Get dressed. Arrange the final items in the bags. Starbucks. Chug latte. Nervously chatter away, trying not to remember what I was doing today. Whack my…
A BeaUTAHful Bucket List: Day 5 – Bryce Canyon National Park
Day 5 – March 30, 2022 The take aways… Don’t crash the drone into a tree All the orange, all the spiky Bless our park rangers VORS are not easily googled using the term “Mexican hat in the Nevada desert” Another day of waking up in strange places, and we found ourselves this morning by…
The Adventuring Heidi 