How to Avoid the Crowds in National Parks

March 6, 2017 Deanna Jensen

Last spring, I went to Joshua Tree National Park and it did not go as planned. The weather and other factors conspired to cut our trip short, and my husband and I ended up only seeing a tiny little corner of the park, far removed from the well-trafficked areas with all the iconic rock formations and clusters of other-worldly Joshua trees. Now we have an adventurous baby girl (I was pregnant with her during our last trip), and couldn’t wait any longer to take on her first visit to a National Park. My brother was coming to visit us, and we decided it would be the perfect time to take a day trip out to Joshua Tree. What we didn’t realize, was that the day we picked also happened to be a national holiday, which naturally meant the park would be pretty crowded. Even better, it was one of this year’s Fee-Free days, making it one of the busiest days of the year.

I love the idea of fee-free days because it encourages more people to get out and experience the beauty of America’s National Parks, but I’m also rather selfish with my nature; I want it to myself. When I’m hiking, I want to encounter as few people on the trail as possible, and if a trail is too crowded, especially with hikers who don't follow good trail etiquette, it can really threaten to ruin the experience.

So we drove out eastward, over the mountains and into the desert toward Joshua Tree National Park. We knew as we approached the park that it would be a really crowded day, but we were excited to get to see the park’s iconic landscape, nonetheless.

And then the car started to overheat...

Confessions of an Amateur Adventurer

January 30, 2017 Deanna Jensen

I’ve recently come face to face with something about myself that I didn’t want to be true: I am not the experienced outdoorswoman I thought I was. Sure, I’ve got a decent number of stamps in my National Parks passport, I’ve tackled - and conquered - some iconic trails (such as Angels Landing, in Zion National Park), I love camping, and I’m drawn to the difficult and primitive trails when I come across them. If I could do anything for a living, it would be to explore wild places full-time; spending my days hiking, camping, writing, and making art far away from civilization sounds like perfection to me.

But I’m not an expert. I’m nowhere near as experienced as I thought I was. And I have a lot to learn.

It wasn’t some big camping fiasco or hiking disaster that brought this to my attention...

What Is Adventure, Anyway?

October 9, 2015 Deanna Jensen

Snow-capped mountains, evergreen forests, faraway cities, hiking all day on a trail miles away from the nearest sign of civilization – those are the sorts of things that comes to my mind when I think of the word “adventure.” It’s a term that pops up just about everywhere you turn lately, and it seems to carry with it this grand, if unspoken, promise of mystery and profound self-discovery and ultimate fulfilment. The word “adventure” almost seems too big to grasp, like a thick fog in a mountain valley – it’s clearly there, you can see it all around you, maybe even feel it, but you can’t quite reach out and touch it. You definitely can’t throw a lasso around it and or tame it in any way.

But maybe we should try to define adventure. Maybe it needs to be reined in a little bit. Because the current, indefinite nature of the term “adventure” might be leading some folks to take their quest for adventure a bit too far. For example, in my last post, I discussed the relationship between adventure and risk in the context of some modern stories and movements. I hope that I thoroughly established what adventure is not, namely, adventure is not the pursuit of unnecessary risks. That’s just foolishness.

So then, what IS “adventure?” How do we define this buzzword that’s tossed around social media these days almost as much as the term “selfie?” And how do we define...