Hiking & Backpacking

Full pack-out for a multi-day wilderness loop - my first solo trip in Shenandoah National Park, VA. Pro tip: Airpods are essential if bugs might be buzzing in your ears.

Duluth, MN: Hiking with Kat while celebrating her birthday in Duluth.

Eroded slot-like passage in the Valley of Fire.

I love this picture. It is a different flavor of desert than the Badlands and distinctly American Southwest. I try to appreciate the change in flora as I travel and it was very easy to do that here.

The iconic sandstone waves of Nevada. This path was called the "Fire Wave".

Entering Sage Creek Wilderness Loop for some backpacking with some of my closest friends in Badlands National Park, SD.

I tend to give thumbs up for pictures... missed aura farming opportunity.

Late afternoon light on the prairie grass. Among my favorite photos I have taken, ever. This is an unofficial trail in the Sage Creek Wilderness Loop.

Navigating the narrow bentonite ridges. One of the best parts about the Badlands is that you can just walk off into the hills and explore.

The full crew in the heart of the park after we packed out from our backpacking route. From closest to farthest is Blake, Chris, Caiden, Joe, and Gabe. Chris had his camera on this trip, which is why we have so many great candid shots.

We spend a night in Custer State Park, one of the least light-polluted locations in the US. We expected to see the Milky Way, but we didn't expect to be hit with one of the heaviest meteor showers of the year. What an incredible night spent watching what must have been hundreds of meteors.

Local resident of the Badlands. Unfortunately, you can't pet these guys because they carry the bubonic plague.

Backcountry camping in the Sage Creek area. I call it Broken Stake Camp because the ground was so hard I broke my extra aluminum tent stakes setting up my tent.

Putting my face up alongside Rushmore.

The first National Monument; a massive igneous laccolith. This was formed by magma pushing up through the earth below and cooling into this shape before the sediment above and around it was slowly washed away. These are mostly six-sided columns due to the 120 degree angle of the cracks forming from cooling. 120 degrees is the path of least resistance where there is maximum contraction at a minimum crack length (see columnar jointing).

The highest point in South Dakota (7,242 ft).

Iconic slanted rock formations outside Boulder, CO.

Enjoying the scenery of the Boulder, CO area given this was my first time west of Chicago.

Historical mining site in Idaho Springs, CO. It was called the "Thunder in the Valley" because it was so loud the locals were hearing damaged or deaf. The site once mined into a massive water reserve which then released so much pressure it shot a minecart out at an estimated 800mph. This flooded the entire area, which caused the mine to shut down permanently.

The rolling Smoky Mountains, eroded by time.

Enjoying a nice waterfall break with Kat.

Navigating the technical terrain of Old Rag in Shenandoah National Park.

At the height of a 17-mile day section-hiking the AT and taking a difficult route up Mount LeConte - one of the hardest routes in Tennessee - we were rewarded with an eagle riding currents right next to us on the mountaintop as we soaked it all in.

I found a tree (?) I liked in Red River Gorge, KY.

The signature "blue" haze of the Virginia ridges.

From the peak of Old Rag Mountain in Shenandoah National Park.

The swampy surface of the Florida Everglades. Yes, we saw gators.

Resting Bison at Minneopa State Park in Mankato, MN.

We stopped on the drive from Indiana to Colorado to check out the largest rock formation in Kansas. Yep, this is it.