The Well Worn Shoes

Wanderlust Welcome

  • Home
  • Start Here
    • About
    • Contact
    • Work With Me
    • Disclaimer
    • Affiliate Disclaimer
  • National Parks
    • Acadia
    • Yellowstone
    • Great Smoky Mountains
    • Grand Canyon
    • Utah National Parks
    • Badlands
  • Dog Friendly
  • Road Trips
    • One Day In Guides
    • Road Trip Itineraries
  • Destinations
    • United States
      • New England
      • Southwest
      • South
      • Mountain West
      • Midwest & Great Lakes
      • Mid-Atlantic
    • Canada
  • Gear
  • Shop

March 6, 2026

15 Best Dog Friendly Hikes at Acadia National Park

Three dogs hiking the Little Long Pond trail in Acadia National Park, Maine — a brown mixed breed and two huskies on leash on a sun-dappled wooded path along the turquoise shores of Little Long Pond, highlighting Little Long Pond as a peaceful and dog-friendly walk in Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island near Seal Harbor, Maine, perfect for hiking with dogs in Acadia

Acadia is one of the most dog friendly National Parks in the United States, and honestly, it’s the reason we keep coming back. The first National Park east of the Mississippi boasts nearly 100 miles of hiking trails and 45 miles of carriage roads that you can enjoy with your pups…

December 23, 2025

6 Best Dog-Friendly National Parks to Visit This Winter

Okay, let’s talk about something that drives me absolutely crazy as a dog mom who loves National Parks…

May 19, 2025

Paws on the Trail: The Best Dog-Friendly Hikes in the Great Smoky Mountains

Planning a trip to Great Smoky Mountains National Park with your furry friend? While many trails restrict dogs, the Smokies still offer several dog-friendly hikes and scenic drives perfect for adventurous pups and their humans. From easy riverside walks on the Oconaluftee River Trail to scenic drives like Cades Cove Loop Road and Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, this guide covers the best pet-friendly trails and outdoor experiences to help you explore the Smokies together. Discover insider tips, local spots, and must-visit places to make your Smoky Mountains dog adventure unforgettable!

May 29, 2024

The 15 Best Hikes In Utah

Between the canyons swirled in orange, buttes, and otherworldly hoodoos, it’s a nature lovers’ paradise. Utah is home to 5 National Parks, including Bryce Canyon, Arches, Canyonland, Zion, and Capitol Reef…

October 17, 2023

15 Epic Things To Do In Vermont In The Fall

There is no better fall destination than Vermont. Between picturesque fall foliage, charming villages, everything apple, and maple syrup, Vermont will whisk you away to the fall landscape of your dreams…

February 15, 2022

Visiting Sedona In Winter

do you like fewer crowds and perfect weather? How about snowcapped red rocks? Winter in Sedona means cozy evenings by a fire after days spent exploring this mystical place. A trip to Sedona in winter is an EPIC idea…

February 8, 2022

14 Fun Things To Do In Sedona

If you’re looking for outdoor adventures, stunning scenery, great shopping, and amazing sunsets then Sedona is a dream destination…

July 27, 2021

11 Must See Waterfalls In The Smokies

Looking for a waterfall hike in the Smokies? Check out these 11 Must See Waterfalls In Great Smoky Mountains…

May 11, 2021

Roaring Forks: 11 Reasons To Visit

There are so many reasons to visit Roaring Forks Motor Nature Trail on your next trip to the Smokies…

April 24, 2021

12 Reasons You Need To Visit Fundy National Park

Fundy National Park is completely underrated in my opinion! Here are the top 12 reasons that you really don’t want to miss Fundy…

April 1, 2021

Camping At Acadia: The Complete Guide

Camping at Acadia National Park with dogs - complete guide featured image showing a Siberian Husky at a misty Seawall Campground campsite with picnic table and fire ring under tall pine trees, covering Blackwoods, Seawall, and Schoodic Woods NPS campgrounds plus dog-friendly RV parks on Mount Desert Island, Maine

Everything you ever wanted to know about camping at Acadia National Park with dogs…

November 3, 2020

One Fall Day In Shenandoah National Park

Shenandoah National Park is the perfect fall day trip if you live in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Washington D.C. or central Virginia. But how do you spend just one day in Shenandoah National Park…

  • 1
  • 2
  • Next →
Hi! I'm Vanessa, a 30 something, sunset chasing traveler. I'm here to inspire you to travel wherever, whenever, and with whoever you can. My Huskies, Loki and Freya are usually along for the ride. I have a soul that likes to wander, a desire to experience the unknown, and a curiousity to discover things off the beaten path. I hope you'll stick around for awhile!

Join the List

Let's be friends! I know e-mails can suck but mine won't and I promise cute pup photos too!

Connect

Recent Posts

  • Where to Eat in Salem, MA: A Foodie Guide to the Witch City (Plus October Treats)
  • Fall Road Trip Packing List: What To Actually Bring
  • The Ultimate Dog Hiking Gear List For National Parks
  • The Ultimate New England Fall Road Trip: A Six-State Foliage Loop (2026)
  • The Girls Trip Guide to Bar Harbor & Acadia National Park

Categories

  • Destinations
  • History
  • National Park Love

Reader Favorites

Upper Peninsula Waterfalls: One Day of Chasing Waterfalls on Michigan’s UP

One Day In Sedona, Arizona

Plan Your First Visit To Yellowstone

On the Blog

  • Destinations
  • History
  • National Park Love

Join the List

The Well Worn Shoes is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Connect

Salem questions, round two. I love being your unof Salem questions, round two. I love being your unofficial tour guide for your October witch era. 🧙‍♀️

Which train should you take? Is 9 a.m. too early? (For Salem in October? Absolutely not.) Where did the witch trials actually happen? Can you go inside the Hocus Pocus house? (Nope. People live there. Please don’t be weird.)

We’re also talking coming in from Danvers, the ferry, what your 10-year-old will love, and whether November is too late for a Salem trip.

I lived in Massachusetts for 7 years and made the October pilgrimage more times than I can count. These are the answers I’d give a friend before sending them off to get aggressively distracted by every witchy gift shop in town. 

And if you want the whole game plan, I’ve got you:

🧹 The Ultimate Salem Guide ($): Week-by-week crowd calendar, parking lots by address, a kids’ itinerary, and what’s changed for 2026.

🎃 The Salem Cheat Sheet ($): The need-to-know details without the 47 open browser tabs.

Comment WITCH and I’ll send you the links. Consider it your official invitation to your 90s-kid, Hocus Pocus-loving witch era. 🖤
POV: You’re standing in the front yard of the man POV: You’re standing in the front yard of the man who gave Acadia to the world, and almost nobody knows it 😍

No circling the Park Loop Road looking for parking. Just old stone steps, the Atlantic, and a piece of Acadia history hiding in plain sight.

At the end you’ll find old stone foundations and steps going down to the rocks. That’s Old Farm, George Dorr’s house. Dorr spent his life and most of his money piecing together the land that became Acadia, then handed it to the country. He died in 1944, and the park took the house down a few years later. The story goes he swam off these rocks every morning well into old age.

So you’re standing in the front yard of the person who’s the reason any of this is public land. There’s no sign making a big deal of it. I think that’s the point.

Dogs on leash are fine. Park in the small lot on Route 3 just outside of Bar Harbor.

Then head back into town for dinner. Table Salt on Main Street if you want to sit down somewhere nice, or the Black Friar if you want a pub, a fire, and a bowl of stew. Both are a few minutes from the trailhead, which is the whole argument for doing Compass Harbor late in the day.

✨🍁✨ Save this one for the day you want Acadia without the Park Loop Road.

Heading to Acadia in the next few weeks? Comment Fall and I’ll send you links to my guide and blog post 🍁✨
If Horseman’s Hollow is on your Sleepy Hollow itin If Horseman’s Hollow is on your Sleepy Hollow itinerary, sit down, we need to talk 🎃👻✨

Sleepy Hollow rebuilt its entire Halloween lineup this year, and most of what’s on the internet about it hasn’t caught up. 

Horseman’s Hollow is gone. Kykuit’s paused. Irving’s ‘Legend’ moved outdoors to Sunnyside. Halloween is a Saturday and so is the parade a week earlier.

I lived in New England for 7 years and drove down almost every October. This is the version I’d hand a friend, checked for 2026: the honest week-by-week crowd calendar, every ticket and the order it sells out, the train and the parking lots, parade night and Halloween night hour by hour, one perfect weekday, and the seven real Legend addresses.

The Sleepy Hollow in October Cheat Sheet ($) is six pages you keep on your phone. The Ultimate Sleepy Hollow Guide ($) is the whole year including itineraries, where to actually sleep (RV included), the dog version, the estates, the real history.

Comment HORSEMAN and I’ll send you both links, plus my blog post One Day In Sleepy Hollow!
📰🗞️ It’s called Newspaper Rock, but there’s no hea 📰🗞️ It’s called Newspaper Rock, but there’s no headline. Just 2,000 years of people adding to the story.

Newspaper Rock, on the road into Canyonlands’ Needles district. Hundreds of figures carved into the desert varnish over roughly 2,000 years. Ancestral Puebloan, Fremont, Navajo, Ute, and people whose names we don’t have. Bighorn, riders on horseback (so some of these are after 1600), six-toed footprints. The Navajo name is Tse’ Hone, “rock that tells a story.”

It’s free. No hike. Most people take the photo and keep driving to the park. Stand there long enough and it stops being a photo op and starts being what it is: 2,000 years of people saying “I was here,” on land that was theirs before it was anyone’s park.

It’s worth remembering that the parks are on their land.

No touching, no chalk, no climbing the fence. 

✨✨Save this for your Utah trip✨✨
We took a random dirt road in Idaho with no plan, We took a random dirt road in Idaho with no plan, no destination, and 3 dogs who have opinions. Obviously, we had a great time. 😂

Mud Lake, Idaho. A two-track through the sagebrush, antelope in the distance, a sky that looked like that, and the Harvest Moon rising pink on the other side while we were still watching the sunset.

Not another person in sight. Nothing on the itinerary. Absolutely nowhere we needed to be.

And honestly? This is the whole point of living the lifestyle we do! But we we’ve been doing this since our 3rd date 💚🌲

The national parks are incredible. But some of our favorite memories happen on roads with no signs, no crowds, and no idea where we’re going.

Just us, the dogs, and a whole lot of dirt roads left to explore.

Want more of these little nowhere adventures? Because we’ve got a lot of dirt roads. 🤙
Follow on Instagram

Copyright © 2026 The Well Worn Shoes · Theme by 17th Avenue