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10 Best Things to Do at Badlands National Park

August 24, 2021

10 Best Things to Do at Badlands National Park

Is Badlands​ National Park Dog Friendly? (2026 Guide)

November 10, 2020

Is Badlands​ National Park Dog Friendly? (2026 Guide)

Vanessa and her two Siberian Huskies in front of the Badlands National Park rock formations in South Dakota
One Day in Badlands National Park: The Perfect Itinerary

October 26, 2020

One Day in Badlands National Park: The Perfect Itinerary

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Hi, I’m Vanessa. I turned 40 this year (Millennial Hi, I’m Vanessa. I turned 40 this year (Millennial 90’s kid here), I have 3 dogs, and I live in a 40-foot travel trailer named Betty with a man I met in the woods in 2022.

We’ve been full-time on the road since 2023, Idaho is technically home base at the moment, and I’ve been to 22 of the 63 national parks with 41 to go.

What you get here: honest park guides, dog-friendly trails that are actually dog friendly. No hidden gems that turn out to be closed on Tuesdays. No telling you to quit your job.

Mostly I just want you to have a better trip than the one you’d have without me.

Glad you’re here 💚

Tell me where you’re headed next, I probably have opinions 😉
Most people plan Acadia and Bar Harbor in the fall Most people plan Acadia and Bar Harbor in the fall off a blog post written by someone who visited once in July. I know I did on my first trip to the park in fall. 

BUT last year, I stayed on Mount Desert Island for 6 months and watched the whole season happen. The guide is what I’d hand a friend: when the leaves actually turn, (or are predicted to, what’s open and what’s closed after peak foliage, the trails and drives worth doing in October and the ones to skip, where to take the dogs once summer rules lift! 

Not on the blog. Not anywhere else. Acadia & Bar Harbor In Fall the 16 page guide written by someone who has both visited in fall and lived there in fall 🍁🧡🍁

Comment FALL and I’ll send you the link.
Nearly 5 million people visit Yellowstone every ye Nearly 5 million people visit Yellowstone every year. Most of the ones coming in from West drive straight through this forest without stopping 🤷🏻‍♀️

We pulled over on a dirt road in the Targhee (one of our favorite ways to explore new places) last night because something big was sitting in the grass, and it turned out to be a Great Gray Owl. We watched it for a while. 

There was no one else around. Not a single car. 

A few things about this bird: it’s the largest owl in North America by length, but it’s mostly feathers and weighs less than a Great Horned. It can hear a vole moving under a foot of snow and dive straight through the crust to get it. And it lives here year-round, 20 minutes from the west entrance, in the part everyone treats as the drive to the good stuff.

THIS is the good stuff.

Phone shot, truck window down, sunset skies turning to cotton candy 😍🤩 my favorite kind of night. 

Save this for your next Yellowstone drive, or keep going straight to Old Faithful with everyone else - totally up to you!
There are feral (wild) horses in a national park a There are feral (wild) horses in a national park and almost nobody knows about it…

Theodore Roosevelt National Park, western North Dakota, about 4 hours from anything. Most people treat it as a gas stop on the way to Montana.

These horses ran alongside us at sunset and I forgot to keep filming for about ten seconds because I was just watching.

Here’s the part that gets complicated: they’re descendants of ranch and Indigenous horses from before the park existed, and the Park Service has gone back and forth for years on whether they belong there at all. Management plans, public comment periods, a lot of people who care very much. As of now, they’re still here running and roaming free. Let’s keep it that way 😉

Go see them. It costs you a detour off I-94 in one of the most underrated park in the system. (And one of the best in my opinion 😉)

📍 @theodorerooseveltnps, North Dakota 🦬🐎
I stayed in Bar Harbor for six months and I still I stayed in Bar Harbor for six months and I still got my first Acadia October wrong. 😅

Here’s what nobody tells you: One facility at a time, across the back half of October closes down for the season. The shuttle goes first. Then campgrounds. Then Jordan Pond House. Then the visitor center. And suddenly all that gorgeous foliage has arrived…along with some closed doors.

If you don’t know the order, you can spend your day driving Park Loop Road desperately hunting for parking and never actually getting out of the car.

Trust me. I’ve done it. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Know the schedule, though, and you get the perfect fall version of Acadia: low golden light, fewer tour buses, fall color, and Cadillac Mountain reservations disappearing by the end of the month.

So I wrote it all down.

Sixteen pages. Every 2026 date verified. Foliage timing (and the best way to track it), the full closing calendar, where the light hits, what’s still open after October 25, 3 different itinerary suggestions, and how to do it all with a dog.

Going to Acadia this fall? This is the guide I wish I’d had the first time. 🍁

Comment FALL and I’ll send you the link to both the blog post and the guide. 🍁🧡🍁
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