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Kauai, Hawai’i
Lush, verdant, tropical Kauai: the "Garden Isle"
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Mount Rainier National Park, Washington
" . . . . the most luxuriant and the most extravagantly beautiful of all the alpine gardens I ever beheld in all my mountain-top wanderings." - John Muir
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Olympic National Park, Washington
Olympic National Park is the only U.S. park system I’ve explored that has so many distinct ecosystems in one central location. Situated in northwestern Washington State, hugging the rugged Pacific coastline, the park has rainforests, beaches, and alpine mountains. We visited in August 2020 on a road trip through Washington State. Eight Olympic Peninsula tribes, including the Quileute, Klallam, and Quinault tribes, used to call this area home before ceding their territory to the United States government in the 1850s. Today, their descendants live on reservations on the shore of the Washington peninsula. As you can see in the photo above, the park’s official welcome sign includes a “come inside”…
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North Cascades National Park, Washington
On a summer road trip across Washington State, we decided it was time to explore one of America's least-visited national parks: the North Cascades.
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The Highline Trail, Glacier National Park
On our second day at Glacier National Park, Matt and I woke at 4am, pulled on our warmest hiking gear, grabbed breakfast, and drove into the park right at dawn. Our plan was to hike half of the Highline Trail that morning. Due to its popularity, we knew we had to get an early start to get a parking spot. We arrived at the Logan Pass parking lot and visitor center around 6am, and the lot was already filling up. The Highline Trail is 15.2 miles round trip, and guide books rate it as “strenuous.” Because the trail has reached almost folkloric levels of fame in the hiking zeitgeist for…
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Glacier National Park, Montana
Wander here a whole summer, if you can. Thousands of God’s wild blessings will search you and soak you as if your were a sponge, and the big days will go uncounted . . . in a few minutes you will find yourself in the midst of what you are sure to say is the best care-killing scenery on the continent – beautiful lakes derived straight from glaciers, lofty mountains steeped in lovely nemophila-blue skies and clad with forests and glaciers, mossy ferny waterfalls in their hollows, nameless and numberless, and meadowy gardens abounding in the best of everything . . . The time will not be taken from the…
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Grey Glacier, Patagonia
The Grey Glacier (Glaciar Grey, en español), fed by the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, flows southward into a lake by the same name: Lago Grey. The glacier occupies 100 square miles and runs 17 miles long. We visited the Grey Glacier as the first of our three excursions from EcoCamp, our retreat in Torres del Paine National Park.
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EcoCamp, Patagonia
For the first time since we'd been traveling together, we'd had a trip that wasn't fully about the beautiful places we'd seen, although Patagonia has more to offer than the whole world combined. But it really was about the community we had formed there during those five days--the friendships, the language barriers, the communal meals, the hard treks up difficult mountains, the late-night stories shared as secrets, the bonds. It was the most special place and an even more special moment for us. Our hearts are sealed there, forever.
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Hiking Torres del Paine, Patagonia
In Patagonia a storm clears and the alpine monoliths stand like teeth set in a dragon’s jaw . . . The message broadcast from the peaks is as jarring as the scream of a train whistle. ‘Show yourself,’ they say.
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Why You Must Add Loen to Your Norway Itinerary
It's clear that the view from the top of the Skylift is unspeakably beautiful. From the top, you can see Lake Lovatnet, Mount Skåla, Jostedalsbreen Glacier, Olden, and the Nordfjord.
