The Great Sand Dunes National Park is located at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, in southern Colorado. This national park covers 30 square miles of dunes, alpine forests, and wetlands. It is home to the tallest dunes in North America, with the highest peak being around 750 feet above the valley. It’s […]
Solvang, California, is a small Danish-style town tucked into the Santa Ynez Valley. It’s a popular Christmas town, but it is really cute and charming any time of the year. Located about 2.5 hours north of Los Angeles, Solvang was settled by immigrants from Denmark, and it leans hard into its European roots. You’ll find […]
If you’re thinking about visiting California but want to get away from the craziness of Los Angeles, consider this 5-Day Itinerary (not counting travel days), which I did in December of 2025. This was a spectacular trip to see the California coast and countryside. We saw cute small towns like Solvang, famous attractions like Hearst […]
Hearst Castle sits high on a hill above California’s Central Coast, overlooking the Pacific Ocean and miles of rolling ranch land. It’s part palace, part museum, part fever dream of the Gilded Age. You’ll ride a shuttle up through a private ranch, tour the grand rooms of “Casa Grande,” wander the terraces and pools, and […]
Channel Islands National Park looks simple on a map, just a few little islands off the Southern California coast, but figuring out how to actually spend a day there isn’t all that obvious. You can’t just drive in, snap a photo, and move on. You have to book a boat, commit to a full-day excursion, […]
The Million Dollar Highway is the 25-mile stretch of US 550 from Silverton to Ouray. This is a section of the greater San Juan Skyway, a 233-mile loop through southwestern Colorado. This drive is known for being one of the most dangerous drives in the U.S, but it’s also known as being one of the […]
Telluride, Colorado, is a historic mountain town nestled in a box canyon of the San Juan Mountains. Telluride sits at 8,750 feet of elevation, making it a year-round destination for outdoor recreational opportunities. It is not hard to fill a full day in Telluride. You can hike to the tallest waterfall in Colorado, take the […]
Observation Point is one of those hikes that has gotten really popular online—especially as a backup plan for Angels Landing. So I went and did it (via the East Mesa Trail, which is the main way people access it right now), and I’ve got thoughts. This is a review of Observation Point via East Mesa Trail in Zion. It’s a quiet, […]
Zion Canyon is one of the most beautiful places in the American West, and in recent years, biking has become one of the most popular ways to experience it. Instead of waiting in shuttle lines or driving yourself, many visitors are renting bikes or e-bikes and riding directly into the canyon. Biking Zion Canyon is […]
The Going-to-the-Sun Road is the #1 reason most people visit Glacier National Park. This awe-inspiring road cut into the side of the mountains carries you into forests, up through cliffs, past waterfalls, over a mountain pass on the Continental Divide, and down toward shimmering lakes and rivers with impressive scenery around every turn. Glacier’s Red […]
