Month: June 2020

Who doesn’t love an end-of-summer road trip? Few activities compare to the joy of packing a duffel bag full of stuff, filling the snack bag with Cheez-Its and animal crackers, and heading down the open road with all of your cares in the rearview mirror. It’s even better when you have a theme. In this episode, we talk about a buffalo-themed road trip we took across the northern plains states to some national and state parks where we visited as many public bison herds as we could fit into two weeks. You’ll also hear about some of the trails we hiked and places we visited along the way. 

Some topics and places we discuss include:

• Fun facts about bison (or “buffalo” if you prefer)
• National Bison Range, Montana
• Theodore Roosevelt National Park, N. Dakota
• Bear Butte State Park, S. Dakota
• Custer State Park and the Black Hills, S. Dakota
• Badlands NP, S. Dakota
• Devil’s Tower, Wyoming
• Yellowstone NP
• Grand Teton NP
• And more

Links to more information:

• National Bison Range homepage
• Learn about Custer State Park’s annual buffalo roundup festival
• To see our photos from this adventure, click here.
• Where to learn more about our books and travels
• Join the conversation on Facebook – we want to hear from you!
• Check out our Instagram account

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over 120 years ago, the Klondike Gold Rush attracted more than 100,000 people from around the world with the lure of wealth and adventure. All that stood in the way of the prospectors’ dream of finding gold was a year-long journey to a remote area in the Yukon Territory, which included a treacherous 33-mile trail over a steep mountain pass in Alaska. Today, that trail—the Chilkoot Trail—lies within a national park; half in the U.S. and half in Canada. In this episode, we talk about our 2018 attempt to trace the gold rushers’ footsteps and backpack the famous trail with our friends, John and Lolly. We share the story of an epic hike in the wilderness of Alaska that turned out to be one of our biggest adventures to date.

 

Some highlights from this episode include:

• How we got the idea in the first place to hike the Chilkoot Trail
• A brief history of the Klondike Gold Rush and what it was like for the prospectors who braved the journey
• Planning our trip and the logistics involved
• What it was like hiking the trail in August during one of the most torrential rainstorms in decades
• What went very wrong on the third day, as we attempted to summit Chilkoot Pass
• How we made it through our ordeal with the help of three excellent NPS rangers
• And hear from our special guests, John and Lolly, who join us on this episode 

 

Links to more information:

• NPS site for the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park Seattle Unit and Skagway Unit
• To see our photos from this adventure, click here.
• Where to learn more about our books and travels
• Join the conversation on Facebook – we want to hear from you!
• Check out our Instagram account

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices