For all the fascinating marine life and incredible creatures who inhabit the Sea of Cortez, perhaps none is more impressive than the whale shark (tiburón ballena, en español), a plankton-feeding carpet shark whose calm grace and striking beauty belie its almost incomprehensible size. Rea[...]
Starting off with a visit to the only place I’d ever been in Baja before (and a big part of why I pushed so hard to bring the van down here in the first place— charming little La Ventana), this was an incredibly full week of kayaking and snorkelling in Cabo Pulmo National Park on the East Cape.[...]
Travelling deeper into the heart of Baja California Sur, we discovered several of the peninsula’s best beaches and experienced some true magic in between. From kayaking right out of our van door into the crystal-clear Bahía Concepción to swimming alongside enormous whale sharks in the Bay o[...]
Our first full week in Baja was every bit as magical as we might have hoped, and perhaps even more so— it was an incredible blend of secluded beaches whose quiet bays teemed with marine life, vibrant cactus gardens extending all the way to the water’s edge, ancient cobbled towns, and palm-fring[...]
Bordering the southern USA for a whopping 2,000 miles, Mexico presents one of the best (and easiest) opportunities for North Americans to experience international vanlife— and yet so many travellers are intimidated by the permit process, the border crossing, and the perceived difficulty of drivi[...]
As a condition of driving your vehicle into Mexico (the Baja Peninsula OR mainland), you are required to obtain a Mexican auto insurance policy that, at minimum, covers third-party liability. When that vehicle is a valuable van or camper (and especially your home), it's even more vital to have a co[...]
After weeks of intensive preparation, we crossed the border into Mexico this week and spent a magical few days exploring the northern section of Baja California, slowly heading south from Mexicali to San Felipe. It’s safe to say we’ve been suitably impressed by the wild beauty of the penins[...]
As we near the end of the month and our border crossing into Baja California, Mexico, we’ve been busier than ever trying to finalise packing in the van, attend to some small but important maintenance, and organise paperwork for our travels through Mexico. As excited as I am to finally transi[...]
By mid-November, we wrapped up an amazing few weeks in New Mexico with an adventure through wild badlands and then travelled across several states en route to our ultimate goal of Nevada (and southern California shortly thereafter). It was really our last week of proper travelling in the U[...]
New Mexico is all about blended diversity. Situated at the confluence of the southern Rocky Mountains and the southwest desert, it is one of the most geographically spectacular places in the country, but also one of the most culturally unique— Native American traditions and hispanic influence con[...]
Although we’d already been enjoying our time in New Mexico up until this point, it was unquestionably this week that impressed us most and cemented innumerable sites and experiences among our trip highlights. From one of the country’s youngest national parks to riverside hot springs and beachfr[...]
Travelling deeper into New Mexico, we definitely enjoyed the warmer days and above-freezing nights that had brought us down here in the first place, but also the unexpected autumn beauty of the desert and all the incredible Nuevo Mexicana cuisine we could eat. For a last-ditch effort to escape the[...]
Nestled in the centre of the American Rockies and with the highest average elevation of any US state, Colorado is a mecca for epic outdoor adventures, from its dense concentration of windy 14ers and world-class ski resorts to its scalding natural hot springs and sprawling alpine deserts. W[...]
Our final week in Colorado was spent at two amazing national parks, neither of which were part of our original plan. Although missing a lot of hiking in the Rockies has been disappointing, the reimagined route was incredibly beautiful and totally new for both of us— perhaps it all worked out bett[...]
Now that the snow has really started to fall in Colorado, we spent the week trying to occupy ourselves indoors. Of course that entailed visiting a few breweries from Silverthorne to Glenwood Springs, but more importantly, it also included long afternoons spent in hot springs and even a relaxing eve[...]
We spent much of this week making our way from Denver to Boulder to Fort Collins, visiting more breweries than are possible to count (although of course I did count and we are up to #95), eating heaps of wonderful food, and chatting to everyone we met along the way. By Friday, we joined the cro[...]
Moving at a much slower pace due to my broken toe, I spent most of this week working to finish a large consulting project related to my research while Dan hiked in the Wind Rivers. By the weekend, though, we were in Colorado's colourful capital hopping between some of the best breweries in the coun[...]
We spent this week exploring the country’s oldest national park, and despite both having been to Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana previously (as well as Dan having been to Yellowstone), we were suitably blown away by autumn in Big Sky Country. The colours were amazing, the camping was unbeatable,[...]
Out of Washington and into new territory, we spent the week hiking and exploring through Oregon’s Eagle Cap Wilderness, stopping to restock in Boise, Idaho and then finally arrived in West Yellowstone. With autumn right on our heels, the scenery was unbelievable and the crowds were greatly thinne[...]
This week, we finally rolled out of Seattle and onwards to new adventures! It’s been amazing exploring the PNW for the last 2 months, and we’ve ticked some major things off our outdoor bucketlist lately, but all the long mountain trips have also left us missing our little home on wheels and we[...]