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September 25, 2020

The Best Shops In Salem, Masschusetts

Planning a visit to Salem this fall? You don’t want to miss this list of the best shops…

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!

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Unpopular opinion: Bryce is better than Zion, and

Unpopular opinion: Bryce is better than Zion, and I am fully prepared to defend this position 😂🏜️

Everyone books Zion. It’s the one on the list. The one your coworker did last spring. The one with the 7am shuttle line, the permit lottery, and the hike everyone has the same photo from.

It’s incredible. It’s also basically a logistics internship.

Bryce? You just drive there.

Pull over. Walk 20 feet. And suddenly you’re standing over thousands of hoodoos glowing orange and pink as the light moves across them.

If I had one day:

→ Sunrise Point for sunrise. Yes, the name is that literal.

→ Sunset Point later in the day. Same amphitheater, completely different light.

→ Wall Street + Queen’s Garden. The one to do. You drop into the hoodoos instead of just looking at them. Under three miles and wildly worth it.

→ Bryce Market & Grocery for lunch. Not fancy. Actually good. And you don’t have to drive 40 minutes for food.

I’ll give Zion the hiking variety. And nothing at Bryce touches the Narrows ir Angels Landing…

But if you want to stand somewhere that looks like the planet got bored and started making things up?

Bryce. Every time.

Tell me I’m wrong. 🧡

📍 Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

At @whitesandsnps, your dog can go everywhere you

At @whitesandsnps, your dog can go everywhere you can go (besides in buildings).

Not the parking lot. Not one sad paved trail. The entire dune field. Every ridge, bowl, and stretch of impossible white sand, just leash up (please) and go.

If you travel with dogs, you know how rare that is.

And sunset? Actually worth the hype. The dunes go pink, then gold, then blue. The heat breaks, the crowds disappear, and the sand holds onto the last light like it has somewhere to be.

Loki lost his mind. Freya ran the ridgelines. Caly, tiny but mighty, was absolutely convinced she owned the place.

A few things to know: the gypsum stays surprisingly cool underfoot, but there’s zero shade, so bring water. Check park hours, too, missile testing can affect access.

One of the best day these three have had in a national park. Not even close.

White Sands National Park, New Mexico 🤍

🍁 October in Acadia is beautiful. It’s also absolu $🍁 October in Acadia is beautiful. It’s also absolutely unhinged. 🍁 45 minutes to get through the gate on a Saturday. Parking lots full by 9. Infrastructure built for a fraction of the people who now want to see the same six viewpoints in the same six weeks. And yet…I get it. Red maple and birch against pink granite and the Atlantic. The whole island turns into the New England postcard living rent-free in everyone’s head. I stayed on Mount Desert Island for six months. Here’s what I’d actually do: 🍁 Aim for the first two weeks of October, but watch the foliage instead of trusting a calendar. 🍁 Go Tuesday–Thursday. A Wednesday and a Saturday are basically different parks. 🍁 Get in by 7 a.m. Cadillac requires a $6 reservation through October 25, and those drop two days ahead at 10 a.m. ET. Set the alarm. 🍁 Have a Plan B for parking. Jordan Pond, Sand Beach, Thunder Hole can all be full ridiculously early on a good day. 🍁 Bring the dog. 100+ miles of trails + 45 miles of carriage roads = one of the best national parks in the country for dogs. I will die on this hill. Plus Sand Beach and Echo Lake Beach are dog friendly by October. 🍁 And when Park Loop Road starts feeling like a parking lot with scenery, go to Schoodic. Same park. Mainland. A fraction of the people. Or the Quiet Side because Ship Harbor is gorgeous in the fall! Most importantly: you do not have to see everything. Pick three things. Do them slowly. Let the island be beautiful without turning your vacation into a scavenger hunt. That’s the October Acadia trip I’d actually recommend. Full October guide is on the blog, foliage tracking, what to pack, dog-friendly hikes + where to eat. 🍁 Comment Fall and I’ send you a direct link! 🍁 Full ridiculously informative guide coming this week! 🍁$

Everyone drives past this one 🦬⛰️ It’s out on I-9

Everyone drives past this one 🦬⛰️

It’s out on I-94 in western North Dakota, and most people treat it as a gas stop on the way to Montana. Which is how I ended up standing on an overlook with a bison in the valley below me and not one other person in sight.

That doesn’t happen in Yellowstone. It doesn’t really happen anywhere anymore.

Here’s what I love about it. The park is split into three separate units, South, North, and the Elkhorn Ranch site in between, and the whole point of it is preservation.

Not development, not viewpoints engineered for photos. The land is protected so it stays the way it was. Which means the cottonwoods along the river, the sage, the bison working through it, that’s the same country Roosevelt was looking at.

He came out here in 1883 and stayed after his wife and his mother died on the same day. Said later he’d never have been president without North Dakota. He’s my favorite president, and standing out you can just see it. The place did something to him.

It’s not pretty exactly. It’s big and hard and quiet and it doesn’t perform for you.

Go before everyone figures it out.
📍Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota 🦬
📸 of me: @that_nomad_brian

Every national park is free on August 25. Here’s h

Every national park is free on August 25. Here’s how to actually enjoy it instead of sitting in a line at one! 👇

It’s the Park Service’s 110th birthday (Happy Birthday 🎉), which is a genuinely great reason to waive entry. The catch is that this year the free day is dropping into peak season.

Which means everyone else had the same idea you did.

That’s fine. It just means planning like it.

Be at the gate before 7 or after 4. Skip the park everyone’s racing to, a monument, a lakeshore, or a national seashore is free that day too, and you’ll actually get a parking spot.

Then go slow on purpose. Crowded days are bad for covering ground and good for sitting still. One overlook you sit at for twenty minutes beats five you photograph through a windshield.

One heads up: fee-free days are for US residents only this year, so if you’ve got family visiting from abroad, they’ll still pay at the gate.

Pick one. Get there early. Stay longer than you planned.

The parks are there for you to enjoy 😉 Remember that!

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