A June update

One of the greatest perks of a home-based job is having time in the morning to sit down and blog for a bit before jumping into my busy workday. 

Usually this happens right as I pour my first mug of coffee out of the pot, crack open a window to let the fresh Shorewood air in, and let the creative side of my brain start waking up. The fact too that today these early thunder are making things even moodier helps. As this Friday begins, I wanted to reflect on my favorite morning routine whenever I go camping because looking through my apartment's bay windows at the stormy gray sky outside has me reminiscing of dreamy moments at the campsite on a Saturday morning, like the scene pictured above. That moment was captured at Nelson Dewey State Park, where my girlfriend and I spent a wonderful weekend of late summer camping last August along the western edge of Wisconsin, atop the Mississippi River valley.

What's your go-to agenda in the morning once you crawl outside of your tent? I like to take mine as slow as humanly possible. After stretching, I'll fire up my camping stove and cook a hearty breakfast of usually eggs or oatmeal. Sometimes bacon joins the menu, sometimes not. There's always delicious fruit on-hand, an occasional donut, and the mandatory hot coffee. Over the years I've mastered the art of collecting the single-serving coffee pouches you find in hotel rooms, which work perfectly for car camping and backpacking. I'm telling you, it's the easiest hack ever and perhaps life-changing. Give it a go.

With my fingers gripping a ceramic mug of steaming coffee, I'll unfold my camping chair, set it up with a view of a picturesque forest view, and spend an hour or two silently reading. I'll divvy my reading between the state or national park's visitor newsletter learning as much as I can about the park's history, activities, fauna and flora, study the trail map and plan out my day's itinerary, and jot down any notes I may have in my travel journal. Last year on a trip to Badlands National Park, I brought a pack of colored pencils with me and began intricately sketching memorable scenes of the unfathomable landscape I was temporarily living in. That's become a key part of my morning routine at the campsite, too.

Then there's the hardcover books. My go-to book I bring with me on camping trips is a vintage copy of C. Frank Brockman's Trees of North America, a gorgeous, hand-illustrated field guide written in 1968 to the major native and introduced species of trees in the United States and Canada. It's a real gem, published by Golden Press of New York, and packed with information about the hundreds of different tall arbor friends I hope to all someday meet. I picked this up in 2014 ago at a used book store and its since traveled around the country with me. While it's definitely weathered and tattered, it brings me upmost happiness to sit down in the morning at my campsite, with the aroma of fresh coffee billowing out of my french-press, and try to match the trees I see beyond my tent, with what's drawn out on the pages below me.

I feel like having a solid, golden morning ritual you can create, develop, and then practice on your own is important to really being present with yourself and the outdoors. What do you do in the new day's beaconing sunlight that brings you peace, joy and comfort?

Cheers,
Robby

My little travel blog has turned 100,000!

I originally launched my blog in December of 2010 as "www.robbyaroundtheworld.com", before leaving on a jet plane to live in Saigon, Vietnam during my junior year of college. The blog's original purpose was for two things. First was to keep in contact with everybody back home in the United States as Facebook, at times email, and Twitter among other websites were censored heavily by Vietnam's communist government. Second, and more importantly, I wanted to use my blog as a tool to show that this is a fascinating, amazing, and beautiful country, hoping to eliminate many of the outdated, unrealistic, and stale stereotypes people continue to hold on to since the war and barraged me with prior to landing in Vietnam. Every day while living, working, and going to school in Saigon, I'd seek refuge in a coffee shop, bar, restaurant, or just outside my room at our state-run hostel, to blog about my daily life in this new home. Back then my blog utilized a simple, free blogger format. The stories were rich with powerful, captivating images. After returning back to the United States and accumulating some 40,000 pageviews I took the blog completely offline and parked the domain, wanting to keep that chapter sealed away and preserved.

The blog sat in the dark until 2014 when late in the summer, I signed a contract to work a seasonal job at a YMCA in Granby, Colorado teaching outdoor education and recreation. Since I'd be starting a completely new chapter in life, which included a big move west, I started up my blog again, but this time with a new name, www.bywayofwagon.com. My blog was once again a similar travelogue blog, named after the my black Saab station wagon I'd be loading up all my belongings into and driving across the country with my father. While in Colorado I used the blog to document any travel I had throughout the state, including time spent in heavenly Rocky Mountain National Park. Once those six-months came to a close, I returned to Wisconsin. Then the blog sat mostly stale and dormant for a few years, seeing an occasional post. The blog wasn't really a priority back then, and again sat shelved while I was trying to find my direction in life.

In 2016, I was craving another stamp in my passport and booked a plane ticket to Iceland, where I spent two weeks exploring nearly every corner of the country alone. But I also wanted to write as much as possible and fill a few memory cards with images of this otherworldly, solitude-filled, country in the far North Atlantic. It turned out to be the most beautiful place I've ever traveled to and every night I would unfold my laptop either in my tent, stretched across the back of my Suzuki Jimny rental 4 x 4, or on the kitchen counter in a hostel in downtown Reykjavik to tell the stories of my time in the land of fire and ice. Once I began posting dozens of stories from my travels in Iceland, the pageviews soared, rekindling the love I had for travel blogging. I went on to change the name back to its original marque: www.robbyaroundtheworld.com, and began teaching myself how to do basic HTML coding for a modern, clean, and intuitive blog design. With a new face, familiar name, and tons of content ideas, I brought back the robbyaroundtheworld.com domain.

When I brought the blog back online in October 2014, I had to start completely from zero again in terms of pageviews, content, subscribers, everything. It was a thorough clean slate. With growing momentum and inspiration, I began to take my blog seriously. It became a part of who I am and a key element of my daily routine, posting a couple times each week not only recaps of some of the amazing adventures I'd take to stunning national parks, state parks, national grasslands, etc., but write how-to pieces, advice articles, and as of late, product reviews.

It was and continues to be tricky at times to dedicate time to the blog, performing some balancing act of managing a full-time job, a never-ending list of freelance work for other outlets, different hobbies, a guide book I'm writing, and a having social life. But I've never gave up on it and continue to make it a top priority, something I take serious pride in. Why? Because this blog allows me to let my inner creative gears turn, and I can constantly strive to encourage people to get outdoors and see the true great wonders the world in front of us has to offer.

So I thank you, really, for making my blog a special place in your internet's browser. There's a list of excellent stuff coming to soon, and I can't wait to share it all with you.

Cheers,
Robby

A complete guide for camping in the Buffalo Gap National Grassland

The greatest, best, and most beautiful place I've ever car camped was on top of a cliff in the Buffalo Gap National Grassland. Here's what you need to know.

 
Over the past few years, I've been ever so grateful to cross-off several national parks, state parks, national monuments, national historic parks and sites, county parks, wildlife refuges- just about any slice of public lands I can break ground in with my hiking boots. But I've never been to a national grassland, and gosh I'm so glad I took the time to do so on a recent trip out to otherworldly Badlands National Park and humbling Wind Cave National Park on the western edge of South Dakota, deep in the Black Hills National Forest. Again, more public lands open to exploration. After camping in the developed campground inside Badlands National Park for two nights, Brenna and I were craving more solitude for our third night of our by way of wagon travels. So a few nights before loading up my black Saab 9-2x with outdoor gear, I hopped on FreeCampsites.com, plugged in our location, and found a jaw-dropping dispersed camping area called the Badlands Overlook, inside the Buffalo Gap National Grassland. It soon turned out to be the most incredible spot I've ever pitched a tent while not backpacking.

The backstory. Buffalo Gap National Grassland sits on 600,000 acres sprawled across southwestern South Dakota and is managed by the U.S. Forest Service. Its the second largest protected national grassland and dotted with endless miles of stunning prairie and chalk-colored geological formations identical to those found in nearby Badlands National Park. All of this, every single acre of the Buffalo Gap National Grassland, is open for you to explore by foot, bike, or horse. It's a wonderful blotch of public lands for a day trip or a multiple-night backpacking expedition into the backcountry, where you don't need a permit. You'll witness vibrant colors everywhere, abundant wildlife, old homesteads, and windmills, and a cast of puzzling rock formations. National grasslands are incredibly important for the economy too, generating some $10.3 billion dollars as a direct result of outdoor recreation.

Our country's grasslands are free. Absolutely free. Like most National Forest land, unless posted, dispersed camping in the Buffalo Gap National Grassland (and the 17 other designated national grasslands encompassing four million acres) is completely free. But, you should buy an annual national park pass anyway because those are your dollars going directly towards supporting your public lands. Make Teddy Roosevelt proud.

Use these GPS coordinates to arrive. The enormous national grassland shares a southern border with Badlands National Park. If you're coming from inside Badlands National Park, continue west on the main Badlands Loop Road. Right before the pavement ends, veer right towards the park's Pinnacles Entrance station and continue driving north on SD 240. At this point, you will be in the Buffalo Gap National Grassland (look for the sign). The entrance to the dispersed camping area we're talking about here, Badlands Overlook, is located on the right/east side of the road. When you start to see tall cell towers, keep a close eye out for dirt road #7170. When you arrive at #7170 seen below (or #7175), you'll immediately notice a barbed wire fence blocking the road. This is to control free-range cattle, so you'll need to get out and move the fence out of the way, drive through, and then replace the fence, securing it tightly. It is imperative and mandatory you follow this step, replacing the fence right after you drive through. The U.S. Forest Service occasionally will close this dispersed camping area if the barbed wire fence is neglected and not replaced. Don't be that one guy or gal. Once you're piloting your vehicle, 4x4 recommended, down the bumpy dirt road, it's open game for setting up camp. Most will park along the tops of the cliffs that overlook into the Badlands. GPS coordinates are 43.890031, -102.226789.

Here's why camping in Buffalo Gap National Grassland is a dream. A pure, remote car camping experience like none other. Spending a night here, above a steep cliff in the Buffalo Gap National Grassland was one of the most memorable, surreal, and fascinating times I've had in the outdoors, blowing away all other car camping I've done at state and national parks in the past. We drove about ten minutes along a dirt road the skirts its way along the top of the cliffs to find the perfect spot, a peninsula-like patch of land with drop-offs in all directions just feet from our tent. Chances are you'll see very few other people that are "in the know" about this hidden treasure, and if you do, there's plenty of room to spread out. When we were there the last week of August, there were a few other camper vans, tents, and one or two bigger campers being pulled behind some behemoth of a heavy-duty pickup truck. There's no noise, no sounds of generators, no artificial light, no commotion- just silence.

With our Coleman Flatwoods II tent pitched and Yakima's new SlimShady awning they generously mailed me to review, deployed from the roof of my station wagon, we set up two chairs, a 'table' and cracked open a few cold Potosi beers. But before jumping into dinner, the most amazing sunset I've ever seen filled the sky. It instantly felt like a dream, as the sky exploded with reds and oranges, casting a soft golden hour glow onto Buffalo Gap's rolling prairies. We slowly ventured into the grassland towards the slow falling sun that brought out the shadows of the dark Black Hills, visible on the way distant horizon. It was a sight so good, it gave me the chills. The seclusion and solitaire experienced here at the Badlands Overlook was gripping, almost hypnotizing.

A few final things to consider. Oh yes, there are a few important considerations you need to take into effect when planning a trip here:

• First, there's no water anywhere, so make sure you have your 5-gallon jug filled up to the max.
• This is about as primitive as it gets when camping. There's zero development, no bathrooms, electrical hook-ups, floating park rangers, trails, dumpsters for trash, nothing- just open wilderness for you to love and enjoy.
• There are no fires allowed, so bring a gas stove.
• It can be INSANELY windy. Yes, I felt childish spelling that out with my caps lock key engaged, but 'tis true. The closer you pitch a tent or camp near the cliffs, the windier it will be. When we were there, our tent was fighting a fierce battle with unthinkably strong gusts of probably 40-50 mph winds. No joke.
• Buy a topographic map of the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands online or at the visitor center in Badlands National Park. It's green, reliable, and will be your trusty friend.
• Have an all-wheel-drive or 4x4 vehicle with decent ground clearance. You don't want to get stuck on some of the rough roads when navigating through the grassland.
• Since this dispersed camping area is so under-the-radar, please consciously practice Leave No Trace. Respect this special national grassland and what it has to offer you.
• Places nearby you should also visit
• Buffalo Gap National Grassland is located close to many other fantastic public lands you can easily reach, including Badlands National Park (~2 miles, 5 minutes), Minuteman Missile National Historic Site (~29 miles, 30 minutes), Wind Cave National Park (~111 miles, 2 hours), and Jewel Cave National Monument (~113 miles, 2 hours).

I truly hope this post and its accompanying photos encourage you to get out and visit a national grassland near you. They're spectacular, should never be dismissed or ignored, and deserve the utmost appreciation and admiration that all of our national parks get.

Cheers,
Robby

An October update

Greetings and happy Thursday, fall is here and it's time for a little life update.

During my lunch hour today, I felt like doing a bit of travel blogging because in just six hours I'm hopping on a Southwest Airlines flight to Denver. I'm taking a break from my jam-packed schedule of visiting all the Wisconsin state parks, to do my annual fall backpacking trip, before beginning a long winter's hibernation. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to cold, weekend mornings with hot coffee, a vinyl playing. The next three days I'll be backpacking with two of my best friends at Colorado's Great Sand Dunes National Park, located outside of Mosca, in the shadows of the jagged Sangre de Cristo range. It's been almost impossible to concentrate at work this week, knowing I'll be exploring yet another new national park. My 7:40pm departure cannot come soon enough. 

There's something about Great Sand Dunes that seriously intrigues me. Years ago in spring 2015, when I made the trek back home to Wisconsin after living in Colorado for a six-month seasonal job at a YMCA teaching outdoor education, I stopped very briefly here to see for myself, the mesmerizing sand dunes and snowcapped peaks beyond it. I was floored in fascination and had I not needed to hustle to Durango, Colorado to replace a blown tire, I would have stayed longer. The energy I felt for a few hours at Great Sand Dunes was gravitating, pulling me in with curiosity. There's no place like this elsewhere in, Colorado, the United States, if not, the world. It's a dramatic, almost make-believe landscape and I'm ecstatic to be able to return and dedicate more much-needed time to taking it all in. I look forward to being able to show gratitude to this quiet, diverse display of wilderness. My heart feels calm when I think about revisiting this national park.

Our current plan is to spend one night out in the northern part of the expansive sand dune field, then hike a bit towards the foot of the Sangres that circle the park and spend our second night in the backcountry there. On the third day, we'll hike back towards the trailhead, reached via a 4X4 road, load up a Volvo SUV with all of our gear and head back to Colorado Springs to thaw out (temperatures are indicating low-20s at night), relax in a hot tub with Pikes Peak lingering in the distance, and throw back a few craft beers prior to boarding a super late flight back to Wisconsin out of Denver.

Earlier this year, I made my list of goals and resolutions for 2018, and on that list, one of my keynote items was to visit three national park properties. I smiled when I opened my medicine cabinet this morning and read that goal jotted on a piece of faded notebook paper, hanging on the other side of the mirror.

Cheers,
Robby