We are planning a trip to Montana. I keep calling it the “National Park Adjacent Trip” – an exploration of all the amazing wilderness that surrounds Yellowstone and Glacier. We’ll likely hit each park as well.
In fact, we plan to walk into the north entrance of Yellowstone, because you currently can’t drive in after the floods. Something about that really excites me. A small corner of Yellowstone reachable only by foot and only for a short moment in time.
The “National Park Adjacent Trip” represents a travel ethos for us, which is to dig deep to avoid crowds. I like my natural landscapes quiet.
While I will never give away my off the beaten path destinations, I will gladly share how we find them…maps, glorious maps. We have stacks of National Geographic – Trails Illustrated maps covering the whole state of Colorado, most of Utah, and whatever destinations we have traveled too.
Before I even touch the internet, I start with a map.
Good old analog maps. Before I even touch the internet. I start with a map. The day West learned to point to a lake on a map was a proud day for me.
Maps have taken us on glorious adventures. Sometimes I just want a good lake hike with tall mountains so then I put my eye to a map and find those high peaks with lakes nestled below.
Oftentimes, we will be on a hike and look across the valley to another valley we think looks pretty so we pull out the map and look for a trail. I cross check these adventures on the internet. Maps are poor indicators of how rowdy terrain might be so a little extra info is always helpful.
Maps also help give us a larger sense of a place.
On the Yellowstone map you begin to get a sense of how the park connects to surrounding wilderness, forming one of the largest intact temperate-zone ecosystems on earth. Pursuing the Yellowstone map I found the Cinnabar Basin, which turns out to be the original gateway to Yellowstone. I know that because after I saw Cinnabar, I googled it and found Geyer Bob’s awesome history website on the area.
Deepening my knowledge of a place changes how I experience it. It enhances travel for me.
