Trees and Travels

     In the past couple years, I've camped at quite a few random locations that I've found on  freecampsites.net . The most beautiful one I've come across so far is along Granite Creek Road in Bridger-Teton National Forest between Jackson and Pinedale, Wyoming. This nine mile long road boasts multiple attractions that make it a lovely and cheap destination. About an hour from Grand Teton National Park and Jackson Hole, it's an ideal spot to camp if visiting the park. Camping Out      I camped here the week after Labor Day, so my experience may differ a bit from what visitors might experience during the middle of summer. Online, many people mentioned that the dirt road was a perpetual cloud of dust due to a relatively high amount of traffic back and forth. This wasn't my experience at all though. Also mentioned online, the road had apparently been washed out at some point and wasn't easily passable for many vehicles. Again, this wasn't my experienc...

     During a visit to Rhode Island, I had the pleasure of stopping for the afternoon at the  Cliff Walk  in Newport. This was a lovely, peaceful stroll down a path with the ocean on one side and rich architecture on the other side. The path is 3.5 miles long, but we did not get to the whole thing.      There are a couple different spots from which you can start the Cliff Walk. We parked and started at Narragansett Ave. It is metered parking, but was only a few bucks for three hours. This is also the spot called Forty Steps. A guy got his credit card stuck in the parking meter... He was trying to put it in the slot where the receipt comes out, if I remember correctly...      Anyway, we checked out the Forty Steps area. It was very nice, but a little bit crowded. There were a couple bathrooms there that had long lines. The Forty Steps themselves are stairs leading down to an area good for ocean viewing. There are rocky edges vis...

     Over the past couple years, I've done a fair amount of traveling. Now I wouldn't say I'm a cheap person, but I certainly enjoy saving money. Being that I don't mind traveling using minimal resources, I've developed some tips that can help others while planning and traveling. Be advised-- these tips may not work for everyone. If you're willing to live without some certain accommodations, you can plan a trip on relatively small budget.      1. Set a Budget      Speaking of budgets, they are my first tip! Set a budget before traveling as opposed to planning and setting a budget after the fact. Stick to your budget too! Don't let yourself come home broke. In a future blog post/video, I will talk about how you can maximize your trip based on your budget.       2. Go Camping!      Sleeping accommodations can easily become your biggest expense while traveling, but they don't have to be. Camping is gen...

     As a first time visitor to New York City, you could certainly say I mostly went to the most touristy spots in the city. With that said, I had a very action packed day in New York City.     Navigating      We made parking reservations ahead of time at a garage northeast from Times Square and other attractions in that area. Once we parked, we headed down to the subway to go to toward Battery Park. The subway experience was new to me, but pretty simple. We did get a little bit of help from a worker when she saw us staring at the map for a while. She gave us good directions though, and we were able to get on the right train. First Thing's First       The first area we visited was the World Trade Center and 9/11 Memorial. The new World Trade Center is is beautiful work of architecture. Its appearance does a wonderful job of serving as a symbol of rebuilding post-tragedy.      There is a 9/11 museum here, b...

     Yet another stop my boyfriend and I made this summer was Boston, Massachusetts. Knowing we only had one day in Boston, we went to visit the Freedom Trail . We were able to park pretty near our starting point near the visitor center by the U.S.S. Constitution. After seeing the big ol' ship, we started heading toward the Bunker Hill Monument. On the Freedom Trail      Although some of the 16 main sites on the Freedom Trail are spread out, it is easy to navigate to each by following the red bricks in the sidewalk which mark the trail. Periodically there are signs as well. I also followed along on Google Maps on my phone.      We navigated to the bunker Hill Monument. It's cool on the outside, but even neater from the inside. You can climb stairs all the way to the top. Yes, there are nearly 300 stairs you must go up to get to the top. Yes, it is a little bit tiring. I thought it was worth it though. You can see a lot of Boston from the ...

Starting the Day      We went to Washington, D.C. as a day trip leaving out of Richmond, Virginia. It took a couple hours to get out there. Beforehand, we made parking reservations online to find the cheapest and most convenient location to park. This really took out a lot of hassle and probably saved money as well.     MLK National Mall      The first stop was the White House. It was interesting to see the amount of security protecting the place. You'd think the president lives there or something! (Hah.) We didn't really do anything other than look at it, but it is possible to take a  tour .      Next, we went to several memorial sites within the National Mall area. We saw Lincoln, Jefferson, Vietnam War, Korean War, WWII, Martin Luther King Jr., and FDR memorials. There is also the Washington monument which can be seen from most of these areas. There are just so many memorials around here that it's hard to make ...

     Finally, my video is finished and uploaded. Can you believe I left my computer on all night while it uploaded to YouTube and it still wasn't finished when I woke up? Anyway, I'll start on a new topic in the next couple days and I plan on having another video up this weekend.  Subscribe  to my YouTube channel please!.

     Now that I've basically chronicled everything I did during my two day Acadia trip, I thought I would mention some attractions and activities that I did not get to do.      One thing that you could do would be to visit the towns surrounding Acadia.  Bar Harbor  in particular would have things for you to do, such as visit many shops and eat at a tasty sea food restaurant. There are numerous other small towns in the area.      Visit some lighthouses. Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse  is the easiest one to get to,  as it is the only one actually on Mt. Desert Island. There are a couple more lighthouses located on the Cranberry Isles.      With that said, you can visit the Cranberry Isles via  ferry . You can also visit other islands that are not part of Acadia but are not far away, but some can only be accessed through charter tours. There are puffins on some of those islands, particularly Machias Seal I...

      NPS Acadia hiking info   Getting Around Acadia      Continuing on in Acadia, we visited The Jordan Pond House . The park's main gift shop and restaurant are located here. I bought a couple souvenirs here, as the shop was significantly larger than the one at the visitor center.      We went there from the Beehive and Sand Beach, so we were looking for a bit easier hike to relax for a while. We hiked the Jordan Pond Path, which is a 3.2 mile loop around Jordan Pond. The Acadia hiking info site rates the Jordan Pond Path as a moderate hike, but it was definitely on the easier side.     In this picture, the Bubbles are the two mounds in the right-center.       Midway through the hike, we came across the Bubbles Divide Trail. We decided to take it and hike up to South Bubble. North Bubble could have been an option too, since we could have just continued a little farther on the Bubbles Divide and then ...

     Before taking our trip to Acadia, we looked quite a bit at trails and what else we should go visit in the park. Again, see NPS Acadia hiking info  from the Acadia website and Getting Around Acadia  for reference.      Two trails that really caught our eye were the Precipice Trail and the Beehive/Bowl Trails. Unfortunately, the  Precipice Trail  is closed during much of the summer due to the presence of endangered peregrine falcons.      The Beehive Trail did not disappoint though. It has steep climbs, exposed cliffs, a narrow bridge, and iron rungs.      Headed back toward the bottom, you can see people heading up the cliffs of the Beehive. Here's that bridge previously pictured. You can fall right off of that thing!      The hike was pretty short, as the Beehive Trail is only .8 miles. Add some time to get to the trail via the Bowl Trail and return on the Bow...

     Now to move on to the spots we visited in Acadia . . . Here's  NPS Acadia hiking info  from the Acadia website and you can refer to my last post  to use for some reference.      We ended up at Echo Lake as our first stop after visiting the Hulls Cover Visitor Center. The beach is pretty small but it appears to be the only lake swimming area in the park. We saw a few loons swimming around close, which was fun to watch. I'm mad because this is where my junk sports action camera randomly stopped working. I could have got some sweet underwater shots of the loons! Anyway, the beach has a lifeguard too. The water was chilly but definitely a better option than ocean swimming in the area as far as water temperature goes.      The first hike we did in the park was up to Beech Cliff. This was an impromptu hike after visiting Echo Lake Beach and thinking, "Hey, let's go up there!"      Beech Cliff is on the lef...

     After visiting Provincetown (and Boston . . . I'll post about that another time), we headed toward Maine to one of the destinations that excited us most while planning our trip.      If you check out the map, you can see that Acadia is located on Mt. Desert Island, yet is still pretty easy to get to. These are the locations we visited during our two days in the park:      View the full map  here .       While you're driving in and throughout Acadia, you often drive in and out of National Park Service lands. Make sure you go get the park pass at the visitor center or Park Loop Road entrance to avoid getting in trouble!       Anyway, most of the main attractions in Acadia are located on the eastern part of the island. Most of these spots are located on a one-way Park Loop Road . This is slightly inconvenient, but there are some other ways to navigate using non-park roads or riding ...

     On July 13th, we visited Provincetown, Massachusetts. I will preface this by saying that we did not actually spend any time in the town! Instead, we were enchanted by the  Breakwater Walk , which is a path made of boulders and stones leading through the water across to the outermost parts inside the Cape Cod Bay.      We managed to find free parking, though I couldn't tell you which street it was on. It was only roughly ten minutes from the start of the path.      The walk was a fun one. It took us about an hour to get across. The boulders are laid unevenly in many areas, so it does take a little bit of effort to make your way to the other side.          Once we got to the end of the walk, we reached the sandy outer parts of the cape. Upon walking a little father, we came to a small lighthouse. It is the  Wood End Lighthouse . It's a small lighthouse, but still worth wandering to.   ...