Wander The Map

11/05/2024

Did you know the northern lights were out last night? 😆 Ha, we figured we had to add some photos to the gazillion that are already online.

It truly was an epic show though. We were watching from the lake in Minnesota. I couldn’t pull myself away and stayed up watching until 4:30 a.m. It was fascinating to see the aurora borealis in all directions, most of the purples we saw were all over the sky right around sunset and throughout the night in the south. It was crazy to hear how active all the wildlife was, too. I heard birds, animals splashing in the water, coyotes howling, and geese honking like crazy.

Hopefully we will all get another fantastic show tonight!

25/04/2024

One of the fun projects we are working on this year—stay tuned for Fall 2024!

16/04/2024

We spent a long weekend in Dallas for the eclipse, and we managed to fit a few other fun adventures in, as well. Besides stuffing ourselves with BBQ and other delicious eats:

☀️ Relaxed poolside at our hotel—it sure was nice to escape the cold for a few days

🎤 Danced at the final show of the tour, after bumping into him on the street before the concert

📚 We (or we should say Jenna 🤓) nerded out on history at a presidential library and Dealy Plaza, aka the site of the JFK assassination

🪬 And got lost in the crazy maze of The Real Unreal at Meow Wolf in Grapevine!

09/04/2024

We traveled to the Dallas area for the eclipse, and we thought that all we were going to see was clouds. As luck would have it, the clouds parted and we were able to experience 3 minutes of totality under a clear sky! Check out our Instagram Reel for some videos of the experience. Absolutely incredible!

26/12/2022

Merry Christmas everyone! Here is the final episode of Rural By Choice Season 2 with Cory Hepola and Otter Tail Lakes Country!

19/12/2022

Up next on Season 2 of Rural By Choice is Episode 4: Cory Goes Fishing!

Otter Tail Lakes Country

05/12/2022

Episode 2 of Rural By Choice with Otter Tail Lakes Country and Cory Hepola is out! Check it out here:

28/11/2022

Season 2, Episode 1 of Rural By Choice is out! We created another season of the series with Cory Hepola and Otter Tail Lakes Country, and this time we set out to explroe all things winter. Check it out below!

14/11/2022

2 weeks from tonight, season 2 of our video series Rural By Choice begins. In one of the episodes, Cory Hepola goes ice fishing with Adan Abarca and talks about why Adan chooses to live here.

08/08/2022

Another hike that we went on during our time in Death Valley National was the Golden Canyon Trail with the Red Cathedral extension! We really enjoyed the landscape throughout this hike—it was another one of our favorite trails in Death Valley. The trail is 1.5 miles each way (3 miles round trip), and the last 0.5 miles of the trail, aka the Red Cathedral Trail, requires some scrambling, ledges, and low overhangs.

The Golden Canyon/Red Cathedral trail was so fun and we loved weaving through, under, and over tight rock formations. Plus, the views at the end of the trail were beautiful. Apparently, some scenes from Star Wars were filmed in this area, and I can see why—it looked like we were walking through an entirely different world!

30/06/2022

[From the Archives] Even though we encountered a bit of rain on our road trip around Marquette, Michigan, we still managed to fit in a lot of fun adventures. We spent time visiting breweries, hiking, checking out art, exploring waterfalls, kayaking, and more. Check out more in our blog post below!

Blog post at Wander The Map : This year has certainly been a doozy, but we still tried to squeeze in some fun and socially distanced adventures closer to home. When Trave[..]

28/06/2022

At first, Badwater Basin at Death Valley National Park doesn’t look like much, but when you learn more about this piece of land, it’s quite interesting. Badwater Basin is the lowest elevation point in North America, at 282 ft below sea level. The land here is made up of a salt flat that stretches nearly 200 square miles. If you look hard for the tiny white sign in the mountains in the 8th photo (straight up above the Cruise America RV) you can see where sea level is. Standing on the salt flat and looking up at the sea level sign really puts the low elevation into perspective! We couldn’t help but imagine standing at the bottom of the lake that once covered this area.

We walked about a mile out onto the flats and loved seeing all the salt polygons and unique formations all around us. The farther we walked the less people we saw, and it was quite peaceful during our sunset stroll. We ended up visiting Badwater Basin twice during our trip, and I already want to head back again. There’s just so much to see if you take the time to look!

23/06/2022

[From the Archives] We loved exploring all the different types of activities that Singapore has to offer, both in the city and out in nature. One of our favorite adventures was hiking the TreeTop Walk at the MacRitchie Nature Trail & Reservoir Park. This hike was a great escape from the busy city and we even got to see some monkeys!

Blog post at Wander The Map : One of my favorite adventures from our trip to Singapore was the TreeTop Walk at MacRitchie Nature Trail & Reservoir Park. Any time we c[..]

16/06/2022

[From the Archives] Beluga whales are so amazing! We loved having so many encounters with them when we were in Churchill, Manitoba. We saw them on a couple different boats, while paddling on both kayaks and SUPs, and even from a helicopter!

Blog post at Wander The Map : Polar bears are typically the biggest draw for visitors coming to Churchill, Manitoba, but there is a different white mammal that also gets [..]

14/06/2022

When standing at the Zabriski Point Lookout in Death Valley National Park, you overlook stunning hills and canyons of the Badlands. And if you look close, you might see people hiking far out on the landscape. One of the trails that runs through this area is the Badlands Loop, and it is a fantastic option for a hike! Wandering through the narrow canyons and up along the hills of the Badlands provides a beautiful vantage point of this colorful area.

The Badlands Loop is a 2.7 mile trail that runs through the gulch and up along the top of the ridges. There isn’t much shade on this trial, especially if you hike it during the heat of the day, so try to avoid a midday hike here when the temperatures are high. There are several trails that intersect in this area; you can connect to both the Gower Gulch Trail and the Golden Canyon Trail to make it one longer 7.8 mile loop hike. We hiked Golden Canyon earlier on our trip, so this time around we just hiked the Badlands Loop. Photos 1-8 are from the Badlands Loop trail, and 9-10 are from the Zabriski Point overlook the day prior when the skies were much more cloudy!

09/06/2022

We spent 2.5 days exploring Death Vally National Park this past winter, and we sure packed a lot into our visit. Hiking the wide variety of trails was our favorite way to explore the park. All of the trails were fantastic, but the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes was one of our favorite stops. We visited the dunes several times during our three days in the park, and each visit was at a different time of day. We were there for sunset, at night to see the stars, and at sunrise. When we went for sunrise, we hiked our way out to the summit of the tallest dune. The summit is roughly 1 mile from the parking lot, although there is no formal trail to get there and back.

Along the hike, we spotted someone painting the sunrise from the top of one of the dunes. We couldn’t help but stop and chat with her and Micah snapped a few photos—we absolutely loved her artwork! We also enjoyed finding lots of animal prints in the sand. Even though the distance was short, the hike was tough as the sand is very hard to walk on. It felt like every step forward equaled two steps back! But the feeling you get from conquering the tallest dune is well worth it. It’s a beautiful portion of the park to explore!

07/06/2022

[New Post] We finally have a new post up, and it's about our road trip through Maine last summer. Maine is such a beautiful state--we had so much fun exploring both Portland and Bar Harbor. We ate at fantastic restaurants, had a lot of delicious lobster rolls, explored and hiked around Acadia National Park, stayed in glamping tents, and more!

Blog post at Wander The Map : Maine has so much to offer—we love exploring the state’s abundance of nature, spotting a variety of wildlife, enjoying the vibrant citie[..]

01/06/2022

Well, it’s certainly been a bit since we last posted! We took a pause from sharing on social media and on our blog the last several months. A lot has happened around here, good, bad, and a lot in between, and we really needed some time to reflect and refocus our energy. If you’d like to hear more about what we’ve been up to, feel free to check out our most recent newsletter at the link below.

Anyways, we are back it it, and slowly but surely starting to share our travels again. Over the past year, we’ve been to several national parks, and we have plans to visit several more this summer—we can’t wait! Most of these past park visits coincided with work projects, and outside of that, we haven’t had much time to travel for fun. Luckily, we did manage to take one trip this past February. We made our way to Las Vegas, and from there, we took a road trip to Joshua Tree National Park and Death Valley National Park.

We are going to start off by sharing the adventures we had on that trip next. But first, here is a photo from our super quick stop at Saguaro National Park in Tucson, AZ. We had a few hours to kill before heading to the airport, so we only had time to drive the Cactus Forest Drive in the east section of the park. Even though it was a quick stop, we were glad we got to check it out!

Most Recent Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/8df57039887a/9wkapu1r7r-6723874

08/03/2022

[From the Archives] Is it summer yet? We are definitely itching for warmer weather right about now. Thinking about this hike on our one of our favorite islands in the Caribbean certainly helps, though!

Blog post at Wander The Map : We were setting off to hike to the highest point on the island, but we weren't sure if we were going to make it in time. Christoffel Nationa[..]

07/03/2022

We are definitely getting antsy for another international trip, and these photos sure aren't helping! 😍

Cue the "Beauty and the Beast" soundtrack...

05/03/2022

We were on podcast earlier this week and had a blast chatting with Chas Foster! We talked about travel, work, life, and so much more. Check it out below!

From the cold winters of Minnesota to the busy streets of Tokyo, Micah and Jenna have been all over the map! High School sweetheart's with a mutual passion f...

04/03/2022

This article is making me crave another visit to Singapore! Yum!

Want to experience Singapore hawker culture? Then head to one of these 8 hawker centers and search for classic Singaporean foods like nasi lemak and biryani.

01/03/2022

[From the Archives] One of our favorite adventures in Iceland was ice climbing and hiking on a glacier. Here's a post all about the experience!

Blog post at Wander The Map : Glacier hiking and ice climbing was by far our favorite activity in Iceland. Don't get me wrong, the other adventures were a blast as well, [..]

28/02/2022

Nevada has so much to offer every type of traveler! Here are some great road trip ideas:

Nevada’s sights extend far past The Strip

25/02/2022

Interesting! Would you be up for testing out an electric plane?!

The prototype e-plane, named Alice, can accommodate nine passengers and two crew members.