It feels a little weird to be leaving the only place I’ve ever wanted to live, but here we go!

(Mom was very impressed with my camp kitchen setup)

Split rock

More cool rocks next to split rock

A hole I found

THE Joshua Tree. Just kidding, just a Joshua tree.

When we got back up to the rim, we caught a bus that took us to ten viewpoints along the rim heading west from the Bright Angel trailhead. At the first stop we were able to see the trail we had just done with all the switchbacks and could even see the rest house we stopped at.

As we went along the 8 mile road, we could see more and more of the Colorado River, and we could even hear it at one point.

The very last stop is Hermit’s Rest House, which is the trailhead for the Hermit’s trail that takes you all the way down to the Colorado River. This trail takes three days so we did not do this hike, but hopefully next time!

We made it back to the main area and had some well-deserved dinner and we were able to watch the sun set again!

After spending most of the day in the Grand Canyon, we headed down to Sedona!

We spent the rest of the day walking around downtown Sedona. We have been doing big hikes for the past few days so we took it easy today.

Cameron and I, along with his roommate, cooked dinner for my mom for Mother’s Day! Neither of my mom’s kids have jobs right now so we did a budget Mother’s Day this year.

Inside the volcano!

To get to the Ice Cave from the volcano, I walked the more “rugged” trail that was made up of lava. It was pretty flat but the lava rocks made it a little more difficult to keep my footing than I was expecting.

It was actually pretty cold in the ice cave! Every step down was a few degrees cooler!

After that, I went to the UFO museum which was actually pretty cool. I met a guy that was in the Air Force here when the incident happened.

Overall I was pretty underwhelmed with Roswell. I’m not sure what I was expecting but it is mostly just a random town in New Mexico.

All of these holes were rooms I think...

The National Monument was pretty cool, it had the remains of ancient cave dwellings. You could climb up the ladders and go into a few of the homes.

After the monument I was planning on heading to Chaco Canyon, which didn’t look too far away on the map. However, 30 miles of the road was some deep sand with some steep up and downhills. I thought I was going to get stuck a few times but luckily driving in the snow translates pretty well to driving in sand.

Because of the slow drive, I didn’t end up making it to Chaco Canyon today. I’m camping in an RV park and campground in some BLM land used mostly as an off-road park (I had to do a little more off-roading to get to my campsite, but nothing as bad as I did earlier today).

Just to give you an idea of how small the doorways are, my GoPro is mounted on my chest and I’m only 5’2.

It also started raining while I was here, I didn’t realize it rained so much in New Mexico.

It was super cold last night and also rained a little bit, but luckily I had camp all set up before it started so I was alright.

The park itself was cool to explore, it was more like a huge archeological site than anything else. I had to drive everywhere to see everything, although I did go on the Perroglyph Hike this morning. It was about a two hour hike with a huge wall filled with drawings in the middle of the loop.

Those aren’t eyes looking out from the cave, it’s just the way the light comes through!

The park has about 600 years worth of history in it, starting around 600AD until they migrated around 1200. As they progressed, they would move to a new site (close by) and take all the rocks and bricks used in the earlier sites to help build the newer and more sophisticated structures. The multi-story cave buildings are the most recent and advanced, which is why there are the most of those.

I got back to my campsite and made myself some dinner (pesto pasta) and listened to some bagpipes for some reason.

My plan was for this to just be a day stop and then to find somewhere to camp in Valley of the Gods (pretty close by) for the next two nights. But when I got to Natural Bridges I realized it was way bigger than I thought and also had a super cool campground. So I decided to stay the night here!

(Don’t mind my hand blocking 1/4 of that picture)

After setting up camp I got back in my car to do the 9 mile loop through the whole monument. There were three hikes along the loop, each about a two mile round trip.

The first hike was to Sipapu Bridge. This was definitely the longest and steepest.

It was a pretty fun hike, one of the more interesting hikes I’ve done. It was steep getting in and out with a bunch of ladders and railings and steps carved into the rock.

The second one was to Kachina Bridge. This one was also steep but only had one ladder and wasn’t quite as long as the first.

And the last one was to Owachomo Bridge. It was only a mile round trip but was mostly steps getting in and out.

Me feat. my cool sun hat. I’m trying to hard to not get sunburned at 7000’.

Apparently President Roosevelt rode horses across this bridge when it was first discovered.

I met some cool people today, including a mom traveling from Louisiana with her two kids (both in their 20s) who told me that Delicate Arch at Arches National Park fell a few weeks ago?! I was just there on April 18th and it was definitely there then but I don’t have internet right now to look it up.

I also met a retired couple (we ran into each other on a few of the trails and he helped me fill up my solar shower at the end of the day) who thinks Subaru should sponsor me. I told them I agree but I’m not sure how to make that happen. #subaru 108k

I also learned how to make edits using the GoPro app on my phone today!

Utah is beautiful. Even though I drove through the pouring rain and a dust storm that gave me close to zero visibility, it was still a fun day of seeing Utah.

I finally made it to Lake Powell for the night. I decided to stay here tonight because I have an actual hotel room in Page tomorrow night so I figured I’d stay close so I can run some errands tomorrow. I haven’t been to the grocery store in a while and my box that’s holding all my clothes is disintegrating on the outside and getting old box residue all over the rest of my stuff, so I need to deal with both of those things.

Lake Powell is nice, my campsite has a view of the lake and cool rock formations. It’s super windy though, so I probably won’t set up my tent tonight and will just sleep in the back of my car. It’s actually pretty nice and cozy back there and it makes my little tent seem like a mansion when I do sleep in it again.

Here is the view from my campsite. I’m spending my time tonight reading (I’m about to finish Dune finally) and watching people try to back huge boat trailers and RVs into small camp spots.

I obviously climbed to the top of the rock...

...and then hiked around a little bit.

After that, I went to Walmart to get some groceries and toothpaste and all that good stuff. I checked into my hotel and am looking forward to taking a real shower!

Not a super exciting day but definitely productive!

After that quick stop, I continued to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I set up camp before hiking out from the campground to the rim.

A lot more forest-y than the south rim but still very striking.

Please ignore the man talking on his phone about the weather in the background. I’m not sure why he hiked all the way out to the Bright Angel Point to make that phone call but there we were.

The #subaru is at 109k now.

I am going to Capitol Reef tomorrow so I’m camping near Escalante.

I had some visitors last night.

If you know someone who has lost their cows, I might know where they are.

After a strange morning, I headed to Capitol Reef National Park.

This was mostly a driving national park, but I did do some hiking. I had to do some off-roading again, but nothing too difficult.

I thought my day ended in tragedy, but it turned out to be just dirt and it wiped right off for the most part.

After Capitol Reef, I drove partway to Moab. I’m going to Canyonlands tomorrow, so I’m camping on some BLM land about a half hour north.

I’m camping on some BLM land between Canyonlands and Moab tonight, and I’m planning on spending the morning in Moab and then the afternoon in Arches tomorrow.

I ended up seeing a lot more arches than I would have otherwise though!

Double Arch

Me at the Windows and Turret Arch

Since it was a free day here, there were a lot of people. But I did manage to get some pictures without anyone in them.

After I finished my two pretty long hikes (I hiked to the Windows, Double Arch and Turret Arch after my morning adventure) I headed into Moab. Unfortunately it was a zoo since it’s Memorial Day Weekend, so I just dropped some letters at the post office and headed towards Colorado.

I’m camping tonight in Dominguez Canyon pretty close to highway 50.

Estes Park

South Park (Fairplay)

Gunnison River feat. Huge storm

Hilary and I made a video that we think is hilarious.

We confirmed that it’s “moosen”.

I went to the Stanley while I was there!

After buying some groceries and a new QuickDraw I kept on going north to Rocky Mountain National Park. You have to have a permit to get in between 9am and 3pm so I drove in at 3:01.

After spending a few hours driving through Rocky Mountain, I kept going north. I made it to just above the Wyoming border and camped for the night.

Here is a bonus video of me reorganizing my car after not using it for a week. I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes which is why I put on extra clothes and don’t do a great job.

Here is a video of me cooking dinner (spinach and mushroom scramble) featuring the slowest cooking eggs I’ve ever made.

The mountain bike park was open and I was pretty bummed that I didn’t have my bike or any of my armor or my full face helmet. I thought about renting stuff, but it would have been close to $200 so I decided not to (I might still tomorrow, stay tuned).

Then I went to the town of Jackson. It was pretty crowded but I found a cool vegan spot for lunch and got avocado toast and a green smoothie for $22, which made me glad I didn’t also spend $200 on a rental bike. It was really good though and made with local, organic ingredients.

I walked around downtown Jackson for a while and went into a bunch of shops.

It was only about 3pm at this point so I decided to check out Teton National Park for a few hours before finding somewhere to camp. I drove around Jenny Lake and stopped at some scenic points and also jumped in the water briefly (it was really cold).

The #subaru is doing well (besides not being able to fit my bike) and is at 112k miles.

After the Tetons, I went to find somewhere to camp. I accidentally made it into Idaho and found a nice camp spot here.

I have no idea what I’m going to do tomorrow. I might spend some time in Teton National park, but I also might head back to Jackson Hole and rent a bike…or I might go further into Idaho and check it out. I’ve been thinking about it for a while now and I think I’m going to buy a pair of crocs (having slip on, waterproof shoes would be 💯 for hiking and camping. At least three times a day, every day I have wished I had a pair because it would make my life so much easier). So maybe I’ll try to find a pair tomorrow.

This place is incredibly beautiful and I couldn’t stop taking pictures!

I’m camping in the Bridget-Teton National Forest just East of the park, in an area only accessible from inside the park (Pacific Creek dispersed camping). Since it’s Father’s Day weekend, all the camp sites in the Jackson area filled up super fast so since I have a super big spot I invited another solo traveler to share it with me. He was very impressed that I guessed he drove an early 2000’s 3-series BMW right away (thanks Cameron). Apparently it did not handle well on the dirt road to get here. It’s his first time spending quality time in the wilderness so I’m going to teach him how to live in the woods. I’m also glad to have another person nearby since I’m in grizzly country. He turned out to be pretty cool. About Cameron’s age, just graduated from University of Michigan in Mechanical Engineering and is about to start a job building suspensions and chassis ar Honda Power Sports. He was going the opposite direction of me, so he as just about to head into Utah after leaving South Dakota.

My plan for tomorrow is to get up and find a nice picnic area by a smaller lake in the park to make coffee and breakfast, explore the rest of the park (I didn’t make it all the way to the north edge), and then keep going north into Yellowstone.

After I was sufficiently caffeinated, I drove north towards Yellowstone. I stopped at a visitor center between the two parks and got a breakfast burrito (my first non-camp food since I left Castle Rock) and got into the park around 9:30. I didn’t realize how massive Yellowstone was until it was suddenly 2:30pm and I had only seen maybe 1/5 of it.

I went to Black Sand Basin first.

On a whim, I decided to go to Old Faithful next. I ended up getting there just in time for the next eruption!

It was really crowded, but I got a seat on the front edge with the other child sized people. It was supposed to go off at 11:03 +/- 10 minutes, but it didn’t end up erupting until closer to 11:30 so people were cracking jokes about the gyser being a lot smaller than they remembered and wondering if maybe this was the time it was finished erupting.

After that I went to what I thought was the trailhead to get to the Grand Prismatic Spring. It turned out to pass by an overlook and then ended at some waterfalls, which was cool but not how I meant to spend an hour and a half.

After my surprise three mile hike I went to the real Grand Prismatic Spring. This was super cool and it was weird how much warmer and more humid it got as you got closer to the springs. There were hoof prints on part of the shallows, which was pretty crazy. I wonder how far that animal got.

This is when it was all of a sudden 2:30pm. I just continued to drive clockwise in the southern loop of the park and decided I would do the northern loop tomorrow.

I’m driving out of the park towards Cody, WY to try and find somewhere to sleep in the Shoshone National Forest tonight so I can get back in the park early tomorrow morning.

After that excitement, I made it back into the park and took in some views.

Then there were more Buffalo!

I went to the Mud Volcano area and it was cool but OMG it smelled so bad.

I kept going north (I still hadn’t made it to the north loop yet) and saw more animals! Two elk!

I took so many pictures and videos. I kept going to the Falls of Yellowstone Canyon.

It started pouring rain at this point so I drove as much of the north loop as I could (there were some road closures) and then left out the North Entrance. I’m camping between Livingston and Yellowstone. It’s pretty cold but also just pretty.

I drove the hour and half to Big Sky. It was a really pretty resort and they have a bike park in the summer so I was bummed (once again) that I didn’t have my bike. I’ll just have to come back.

After Big Sky, I drove another hour or so to a State Park to camp for the night. It is a park because it’s where the Missouri River starts.

It’s pretty but also very hot and there isn’t really any shade, so I’m just laying low in the shade made by my car.

I even got to shower for the first time in 8 days! Good thing I have my climbing gear to rig my solar shower to my car. That equipment is usually to make sure you don’t fall off the side of a cliff but it works for this too (I did not harness myself in for the shower).

And also Glacier National Park.

It’s vulture nesting season so it was closed to climbing as well.

I’m camping up in the hills tonight.

We both got really sunburned.