#FindYourPark Coming Down / December 3, 2015 by a zugunruhe

For my last blog about the trip, here are the last nine national parks I visited.

I can't stress enough how incredible our American national parks are. I don't have the words to describe how it felt to take the short hike to Hidden Lake at Glacier and try to make sense of the unreal Bearhat Mountain or to stand a foot away from elk cows against the setting of a hot spring at dusk on an overcast day while the male was rounding up the rest of his harem in Yellowstone.

Utah's Mighty Five surprised me in every way possible. Traveling that state from east to west and witnessing the landscape changed is something I will always recommend to any one in the area.

Glacier

yellowstone

Rocky mountain

arches

CAnyonlands

Capital Reef

Bryce Canyon

Zion

Grand Canyon - North Rim

Phase Four (8/29 - 9/11) / November 12, 2015 by a zugunruhe

After reaching the furthest north I would drive on the Dalton, now it was time to wrap up my time in Alaska and make my way back through Canada. I drug my feet and extended my Alaskan trip a few days by driving back to Anchorage before barreling down the AlCan toward America.

After leaving The Dalton and Fairbanks area, I was once again reunited with the warmth of the sun as soon as I started making my way toward Valdez. Since a good portion of The Dalton was in the Arctic Circle and "fall" had come early to the mid-interior of the state, I rarely saw temperatures above 35 degrees for over a week. Valdez offered clear skies and a scorching 68 degrees.

Fairbanks

North Pole

Chena Hot Springs

Chicken

Mt. Drum

HIGHWAY 4

Valdez

Highway 1

Anchorage

Alaska State Fair, Palmer

Beaver Creek

Destruction Bay

Whitehorse

Alberta

Phase Three (8/10-8/27) / November 2, 2015 by a zugunruhe

Phase three began by picking up Miranda in Seattle and driving to Alaska. It ended in Fairbanks, just before heading up the Dalton highway.

This time was filled with the incredible sights and people of Alaska. Miranda and I discovered quickly the "big state, small city" mentality that drives the attitudes here. Many parts in Alaska, as well as the state itself, are fairly isolated. This causes the necessity of strong social connections as well as a DIY ethic. As one would need to be able to survive on their own the best they could while understanding that you never know who you're going to need to help you out next. It's a strong individualistic and social culture that keeps itself in check.

British Columbia

Yukon

MCCArthy

Glacier View

Anchorage

Seward

kenai peninsula

Kachemak Bay

Augustine Island

Nikiski

Knik

Denali

Fairbanks

#FindYourPark: Going up / October 29, 2015 by a zugunruhe

In honor of the National Parks service turning 99 years old in 2015, I decided to pull out all of my national parks shots to separate blogs in order to give them the company they deserve.

America is great. The physical beauty of this nation has been so wonderfully preserved that the existence of this service is as inspiring as the landscapes it protects. It was a dream to be able to see these parks first hand.

Big bend

Theodore Roosevelt

Yellowstone

Grand Tetons

Wrangell-ST. Elias

Kenai Fjords

Denali

Phase Two (7/29 - 8/10) / October 26, 2015 by a zugunruhe

Phase two was making my way towards Seattle on backroads through the western U.S.

In contrast to the large cities of phase one, I focused on the weird of the American small town and country. I tracked down roadside attractions, crashed a rodeo, and generally wandered aimlessly.