Writing and Photography
RV Travel Blog
CLIENT: Personal Side Project
MY ROLE: Blogger & Photographer
“The Road Warblers” is a personal travel blog I developed to chronicle my cross-country travel to American national parks.
While on sabbatical, my husband and I hiked dozens of national parks around the country in our 22-foot long travel trailer. We made several upgrades to our rig including a solar panel installation, mechanical improvements, bespoke furniture, and more.
Fascinated by marvels ranging from Yellowstone’s bubbling geothermals to Mount Rainier’s icy glaciers, I wrote blog posts about our journey to share with family and friends. Each “Road Warblers” blog post was prefaced with a summary of interesting regional history or geological features I learned about through podcasts and online research. I also served as the primary photographer, documenting our travels. We traveled to many remote areas with spotty WiFi access, but I periodically updated the blog using the SquareSpace platform whenever we had a good connection.
I came up with the “Road Warblers” brand name and sketched a rudimentary version of the logo concept (two songbirds perched on a sideview mirror with a mountain landscape). Then I commissioned a graphic designer to illustrate a more sophisticated logo based on my art concept.
Despite setbacks posed by a global pandemic, a highway accident, and aggressive PNW wildfires, we still successfully managed to explore 27 national parks in less than one year. We complied with local travel regulations and took appropriate health precautions while socially-distancing within our self-contained travel trailer.
We ultimately explored 42% of all parks in the expansive National Parks system. It is a personal bucket list goal of mine to eventually see all 63 parks over the course of my life. The travel blog project began in 2020 and is still a work in progress.
Laser-Engraved Tokens
My husband and I learned how to use a laser engraving machine at a local makerspace. We etched our travel blog logo on birch plywood, glued neodymium magnets to the discs, and added a sticker to the back with a link to our blog/social media accounts. We shared these tokens with family and new friends we met during our journey. These simple but memorable souvenirs were a fun way to connect and stay in touch. They were lightweight and easy to transport in our backpacks on trail days.
Road Warblers Blog Excerpts
“Hyperion is the world’s tallest tree. Discovered along California’s coast in 2006, this soaring 379-foot-tall redwood is taller than the Statue of Liberty! Don’t bother trying to find this record-breaking tree though… this elusive redwood is in the National Park Service’s version of the Witness Protection program. . .”
— Under Cover: Secret Redwoods
Redwoods State and National Park, California
“If a raindrop falls on the park’s 8,020 ft tall Triple Divide Peak, that tiny droplet will eventually flow into one of three saltwater oceans… the Atlantic, Pacific, or Arctic Ocean. This rare hydrological feature makes Glacier NP the queen mother of North America’s watersheds. . .”
— Crown of the Continent: Glacier
Glacier National Park, Montana
“The broken expanse of the Badlands almost appears to be extraterrestrial. Walking through the pale, eroded canyons feels like walking on the surface of a strange moon. The unforgiving sun scorches the clay soils, forming flaking fissures and pockmarked patterns. . .”
— Otherworldly Grasslands
Badlands National Park, South Dakota
“Usually, people fear the scorching 1,170 degree magma and the scalding gases/ash produced by an eruption. However, slurry mudslides known as “lahar” actually pose the biggest threat to the more than 3.8 million people who live in the stratovolcano’s vicinity. . .”
— Mt. Rainier: Fire Mountain
Mount Rainier National Park, Washington
