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Visiting Mount Rushmore in 2026: An Honest Guide

June 1, 2021

Visiting Mount Rushmore in 2026: An Honest Guide

11 Dog Friendly Adventures At Shenandoah

May 29, 2021

11 Dog Friendly Adventures At Shenandoah

Roaring Forks: 11 Reasons To Visit

May 11, 2021

Roaring Forks: 11 Reasons To Visit

The 12 Best Lobster Rolls In Maine

May 8, 2021

The 12 Best Lobster Rolls In Maine

Best Maine lobster rolls guide - McLoon's Lobster Shack in Spruce Head, Maine, with its iconic red waterfront building, hand-painted lobster sign, Adirondack chairs, and working lobster boats moored in the harbor. McLoon's Lobster Shack is one of the most scenic and beloved lobster pounds on the mid-coast Maine shore, offering fresh steamed lobster and lobster rolls with unbeatable waterfront views. A top destination for anyone exploring the Maine coast between Rockland and Bar Harbor.
Dog Friendly Yellowstone National Park – Bringing Your Dog To Yellowstone

May 5, 2021

Dog Friendly Yellowstone National Park – Bringing Your Dog To Yellowstone

Rocky Mountain National Park Bucket List

May 1, 2021

Rocky Mountain National Park Bucket List

12 Reasons You Need To Visit Fundy National Park

April 24, 2021

12 Reasons You Need To Visit Fundy National Park

Plan Your First Visit To Yellowstone

April 21, 2021

Plan Your First Visit To Yellowstone

13 Fun Things To Do In Livingston​, Montana

April 17, 2021

13 Fun Things To Do In Livingston​, Montana

One Day In Portland, Maine: The Perfect 2026 Itinerary

April 14, 2021

One Day In Portland, Maine: The Perfect 2026 Itinerary

Lamar Valley, Yellowstone: The Wild Heart of the Park

April 10, 2021

Lamar Valley, Yellowstone: The Wild Heart of the Park

Is Great Smoky Mountains National Park Dog Friendly?

April 6, 2021

Is Great Smoky Mountains National Park Dog Friendly?

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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. 🍁🧡🍁
They’re called red dogs, and you can actually watc They’re called red dogs, and you can actually watch them stop being one.

Bison calves are born bright cinnamon-orange, nothing like the dark brown adults. They’ve been called “red dogs” for generations because, well…look at them. 😂

Every one of these was photographed the same evening in Lamar Valley. The bright ones are younger. The darker calves are already changing, brown faces and legs, that shoulder hump starting to come in.

Same herd. Same evening. Calves born weeks apart.

By fall, you won’t be able to pick them out.

And because Lamar during calving season turns everyone into an amateur wildlife photographer: 25 yards. A cow with a calf is not the time to test how fast you can run.

Zoom lens. Not zoom feet.

📍 Lamar Valley, Yellowstone National Park 🦬
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