Biggest Sur

Diners, drive-ins, and drinks in San Luis Opisbo

Keep looking up.

The Northwest coast is something truly spectacular. This place is so alive with lush plants, fungi, and the ocean tides.

Flew back to Colorado for the weekend for a wedding I couldn’t miss. What an odd feeling to get on a plane at DIA to go “home” to Flidais in Washington.

After a couple days of driving it feels so good to just park in this lush forest and read. My plant survived a couple of freezing nights and customs, woohoo! 

📍Larrabee State Park, Washington

Same day, same sloth, different country. 

Drove across Western Canada, ended up in Kamloops and went to a rec center to swim, hot tub, sauna, steam, and most importantly, shower. Slept at a rest stop on the side of the highway- not a bad view, ey.

also, fantastic name for a jam business :)

9.18.18

📍Banff National Park 

Words and photos can’t do justice to this magical place. I hiked up to a tea house on top of a mountain, where it began to snow as I drank hot cocoa, ate biscuits and jam, and had a pot of black tea. If that’s not the coziest, most pleasant feeling, I don’t know what is. 

*The last photo is from the next day, 9.19 - almost clear skies made the blue water even more bright! 

After exploring Kootenay NP I headed out to Banff. My campsite was a solid 1.5 to 2 hour drive one way from the park, but with wide open roads and stunning views, it’s all just part of the experience! I was camped next to Radium Hot Springs and that was a nice little perk after a day of hiking and driving. Definitely colder up here…

This epic meal was made possible by the Kalispell, MT farmer’s market, all locally grown fresh produce! Got tomatoes, squash, fairytale eggplants, and bell peppers for this ratatouille/chili hybrid. Mixed in a can of beans, topped with cheese, and devoured with fresh local honey wheat bread. Gourmet on the go!

Around 90% of land plants are in mutually-beneficial relationships with fungi (BBC). Fungi share nutrients and information across this mycelium network, boost the plants immune system, even send out toxic chemicals to kill unwanted plants. Paul Stamets has called this the “Earth’s natural internet” (watch his TedTalk now and thank me later). He has also published about how mycelium can save the bees (read article here)!!!

📍Kootenay River

I’ve never seen water so blue. I made an offering and gathered some in a mason jar to use for spells/rituals, the water called to me with its magical properties. It is CRYSTAL clear, but I do wish it was this color in the jar.

9.17.18

📍 Dog Lake, Kootenay National Park, B.C.

Meditated at this lake, it was so quiet, no one around except the salmon jumping around in the lake, the ducks that occasionally flap and fly across the water, the dragonflies coming up to investigate me, and probably some other animals that I couldn’t see.

Pro-tip for solo hiking (and I do mean SOLO, I saw one man at the river at the start of this hike and did not see another human for the rest of the hike, not even at the lake):

To ensure you don’t surprise any bears or any other creatures, sing your favorite Disney tunes to the trees. I have had ample practice thanks to Snarf’s (shout out to my lit fam) so I know many of the words to many songs. Some favorites: Part of Your World, Colors of the Wind, Let It Go, You’ll Be in My Heart, every song from Hercules, I’ll Make a Man Out of You, A Whole New World, Hakuna Matata.

REASONS, pt. 1

There are so many reasons.

9.16.18

Took this snowy day to drive up to Calgary, it was a bit of culture shock to be in a big city after being in the woods for two weeks. I went to a tiny secondhand bookstore and found a book about learning Tarot, they had shelves organized by color and it was so adorable. Went to a metaphysical store and it made me feel like I was right at home in Boulder, all my familiar objects of crystals, incense, oils, books, and more. I got this stunning tourmalinated quartz generator for Flidais!

On the drive back I stopped at a hot springs just outside of my campsite and soaked in the hot mineral waters surrounded by the rocky cliffs as it poured rain. Chatted with some locals and some people traveling, got a quick lukewarm shower, made veggies with eggs and cheese in my cast iron again for dinner.

📍 Kootenay National Park, British Columbia

Winter’s fingers have already begun to trace the outlines of the mountains here…

9.15.18

This week went too fast and it is already time for me to drive Hana to the airport in Montana. We had a bit of time in the morning so we went to the farmers market in Kalispell, where we thought Hana’s flight departed. Big jars of honey, huckleberry everything, and autumn smiles back at me once more in the form of harvest produce: pumpkins, squash, corn, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, and more. I got a ton of vegetables, the cherry tomatoes tasted like sugar they were so sweet, and honey whole wheat bread.

After that we realized that Hana’s flight departed from an airport 20 minutes away so we booked it back up the highway a bit and got her there just in the knick of time. So sad to say goodbye to my adventure buddy, the most helpful human in existence (I love you for it and I will forever hear “what can I do” echoing in my head).

Headed to a little town and got my oil changed, did my laundry at a laundromat, and got some local eggs and bacon and a few other groceries. From there I drove just a few more hours to Kootenay National Park in Canada, got to my campsite and cooked up some fairy eggplant, potato, tomato, and broccoli in my new mini cast iron skillet, with an egg and cheese on top. That’s gourmet vanlife eats right there.

if not, leave this gathering

(Half-heartedness doesn’t reach into majesty. You set out to find God, but then you keep stopping for long periods at meanspirited roadhouses.)

Rumi

if you’re a true human being,

Gamble everything for love,

9.13.18

No fear

Wise old crone energy - medicine woman with braids down my back

I call her into my bones, comfortable. I am beautiful and my body is beautiful. All integrated. All light.

Hiking up to No Name Lake I felt it, deeply and truly there is a piece of little Emma here, tucked away, that trust and love and magic. Breathe it in.

📍 No Name Lake, MT

During my New Moon ceremony I pulled the Bat card. Bat medicine is rebirth through shamanic death. On this hike I had the realization that I am prepping for this shamanic death and going to Canada will be the ritual. Entering the darkness, the cold. Hana is here to help me prepare, to integrate all forms of my past self and be supported and challenged all at once. To keep it light and remember the pieces that I want to be reborn as Emma and the pieces that will and must die.

Headed out to hike up to No Name Lake…

9.12.18

📍 Glacier National Park, MT

Got a spot in a campground in the park, made some coffee and breakfast. Look at that adorable orange marshmallow 😍

📍 Blackfeet Nation

Oh the trees! The leaves! The golden yellows, burnt oranges, and bright reds against every shade of green reminds me that autumn has and always will be my favorite season. There is magnificent metaphor in the stunning transition from life to death, from the light of summer to the dark of winter. I am feeling very comfortable with the darkness.

9.11.18

Headed up to Glacier National Park, stopped at Chico Hot Springs on the way for a brief soak. I was hoping to get a shower but the showers were only cold water and I was not brave enough to put my head under, though I did rinse my body. Hana said it takes a special kind of strength (or stupid?) to willingly stand in freezing cold water when its 50 degrees outside.

The campsite in Glacier that we got to was full so we went to a campsite just outside the park, on the Blackfeet Reservation. We turned down the dirt road and came up on two red foxes, wily and silly, bouncing around, smelling Flidais loaded with our food and Hana and I as we remained stopped in the road. They ran off, playing with each other. Fox medicine is about camouflage, adaptability. Observing quietly and making clever moves. A fitting lesson for #minivanlife.

9.10.18

📍 Montana

Romantic sunset picnic dinner of banana pancakes and applewood smoked bacon, with an avocado served in shell. Still didn’t get to the hot springs so we are back on the hunt tomorrow morning.

In search of hot springs, we headed up to Yellowstone and ended up in Montana…

Back to this incredible spot, the smile says it all.

9.9.18

We got married in a fever, hotter than a pepper sprout,
We've been talkin' 'bout Jackson, ever since the fire went out.
I'm goin' to Jackson, I'm gonna mess around,
Yeah, I'm goin' to Jackson, 
Look out Jackson town.

So happy to have Hana here with me, not just to capture moments of bliss like this as she is so good at doing, but to have a heart to share thoughts and emotions as they arise. To have a soul to laugh with. To have a sister to love with.

9.8.18

📍The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, WY

On the way here, drove alongside a buffalo for a little. Such incredible, massive, and beautiful creatures.

The secret of the mountain is that the mountains simply exist, as I do myself: the mountains exist simply, which I do not. The mountains have no 'meaning,' they are meaning; the mountains are.

Peter Matthiessen

Life is just one small piece of light between two eternal darknesses.

Nabokov

Textures

All living and vivid

Bacteria that have no idea how intricate and how beautiful they look

📍Norris Geyser Basin, WY

9.7.18

📍 Yellowstone National Park, WY

But it feels like another planet…

9.6.18

📍 Yellowstone National Park, WY

Drove up to Yellowstone today, the drive was gorgeous, set up camp and made my first fire by myself (!). Made some nettle and lavender tea to try to calm these allergies.

Feel that itch, its time to move

Integrating parts of myself that are confident, fearless, and wild

Out into the world with almost arrogance

9.6.18

Watching sunrise this morning nearly brought me to tears. The pinks and purples, magical wands of light filling up the voluptuous clouds and bringing to light the jagged Tetons, the jaws of life.

Prayer

Abundance

It cycles like this

Buffalo...

You bring us,

The gifts of life.

Hear our prayers,

Smoke rising,

Like Phoenix,

We are reborn,

Within the sacred words. 

9.5.18

📍 Grand Teton National Park, WY

Today we hiked up to Inspiration Point, it was inspirational to say the least. The view is breathtaking and the hike on the way up revealed that autumn is well underway. The colors of the leaves and the smells of fall make me feel so cozy and calm. We saw a mom and dad osprey in their nest and heard the babies cheering for the fish they are about to receive. The sun was still very hot and on the way back we jumped in this lake (String Lake). The water was instantly refreshing, not nearly as cold as I expected it to be, and crystal clear with a turquoise tint. We went into Jackson to get some supplies and headed back to make dinner as the sun set.

Psst, you’re doing it right.

Laugh

for it is temporary

and you are forever

9.4.18

📍 Grand Teton National Park, WY

Found a perfect campsite outside the park in the Bridger-Teton National Forest with quite the spectacular view. These are the moments when vanlife feels so freeing and exciting, I can wake up and open my door to views like this for free (well with the cost of gas). Had a work call in the morning, drank coffee and looked at the Tetons while thinking about some of the bigger questions in life and how we feel about ourselves and relate to others.

After that heady morning, I was completely thrown out of my routine. I have hiked countless times in my life, and as my friend and I headed up into the Tetons to hike up to Surprise Lake (5 miles each way, 3000 ft elevation gain) I had brought no snacks (a literal disgrace to my Snack Queen title), not enough water, and no jacket. Like seriously, how long have I been doing this for? It was all good, a quick reminder to stay present but also plan ahead and even if I think its going to be a “short hike” to bring all the core supplies. It felt like a good metaphor for the start to the trip, starting all over again from the basics and taking with me, bringing along all the pieces to myself that I want to continue forward with. On the hike we saw a grouse right in front of us on the trail, we hiked behind her for a while, and same thing with a dad and baby deer. We also saw a huge elk on the way back. No bears yet…

9.4.18

📍 Thermopolis, WY

On the way to Grand Teton, we stopped in Thermopolis, WY. They have a state park hot spring with a free pool! It felt incredible to have a soak in the warm waters, start off with a bit of detox.

9.2.18

📍 Big Horns National Forest, WY

First day out on the road! Drove up to Ten Sleep in the Big Horns National Forest in Wyoming. Spent the night with a crew of climbers that had been out here for the summer but were all about to head on in different directions. Interesting how we all move in cycles, how we all come to a point where it is time to keep moving. Got in late and it was dark so I just made dinner and went to sleep, I felt so clean and overly-prepared next to these “true” vanlifers. Curious that I don’t consider myself a “real” vanlifer yet. The dry ice in combination with my Yeti cooler froze literally everything, which is a great way to preserve food but not super ideal for actually using it. Still learning my routine and how to make coffee in the most efficient way in the morning.

8.25.18

📍 Rocky Mountain National Park

Camped near RMNP for a little pre-birthday celebration. The views of these mountains never fail to inspire.

8.13.18

📍 Ward, CO

Watched the Perseid meteor shower and celebrated the New Moon. Shout out to my mom for making these incredible window covers!

It’s all happening.

For the next 2 months I will be headed up North to Canada and down the West coast, stopping at National Parks/Forests and visiting friends and family along the way. Going where the wind blows me, where the earth heals me. Diving into the ocean and walking through the fires. Transformation is inevitable. View the full map by clicking here.

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)

                                                      i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

ee cummings

7.26.18

📍 Brainard Lake, CO

First night in Flidais!

Introducing: Flidais (“flee-ish”)

HUGE thank you to PataVans for this custom conversion, Pata helped me turn this 2004 Honda Odyssey into a badass campervan. Watch a video about the transformation and see before and after pictures here.