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national parks, snark & occasional feelings

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U.S. National Parks

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ABOUT ME

Hi, I’m Terra, a 30-something runner, writer and wanderer on a life-long quest to visit all 400+ U.S. National Park sites. Based in Richmond, Virginia, with two fluffy wolves and one cheap cat.

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terragoes

Escaped yesterday. ... #mountains #blueridge #virg

Escaped yesterday.
...
#mountains #blueridge #virginia #travel #local

Acadia National Park || The fog & the mist & the m

Acadia National Park || The fog & the mist & the melancholy mood of Maine was suiting me just fine, thanks. I’d climbed up Cadillac Mountain, and back down, too, on a fog-filled & rainy day. Later, I’d get a beer & a pile of wings at a local’s bar & they’d shout to one another about the audacity of me climbing the mountain on a day like that. They looked at me, shook their heads, and then tried to tell me about the moods of the weather, the way the fog moved, interspersed with a few true or tall tales of lobster fishing. -
In recognition and celebration of #NationalParkWeek, I’m scampering through my camera roll. This week, I’ll be sharing a few photos from my favorite parks, along with 100ish words on the park, the moment and me. #100parkwords ....... #nationalpark #parks #acadia #maine #wanderlust #explore #trails #hiking #CadillacMountain #nps

Even when the trail is new, the mountains are fami

Even when the trail is new, the mountains are familiar. These are the mountains that raised me, the ones that roll their way down the eastern edge of North America. They make up the oldest mountain range on the continent, formed some 480 million years ago. They are not the jagged, towering peaks of the west. They are ancient wisdom and quiet comfort. They make me feel infinitesimal and feral, encased and released, and they are the place I run to when the weeks are hard, when the noise is too much, when I just need to slip into a mountain embrace. /————————/ In recognition and celebration of #NationalParkWeek, I’m scampering through my camera roll. This week, I’ll be sharing a few photos from my favorite parks, along with 100ish words on the park, the moment and me. #100parkwords #nps #nationalpark #at #trails #wanderlust #travel #exploreva #virginia #scamper

In recognition and celebration of #NationalParkWee

In recognition and celebration of #NationalParkWeek, I’m scampering through my camera roll. This week, I’ll be sharing a few photos from my favorite parks, along with 100ish words on the park, the moment and me. #100parkwords
...
I finally felt like I’d caught the joy I’d been chasing. I was halfway back to the car, the sun was thinking about setting and the temperature was cooling. I was dirty, had slept on the ground the last four nights, and blessedly alone, slowing slipping into the feral wildness that comes so easily on these trips. I stopped on the trail. I wanted to capture me in that moment. I wanted to capture me after gazing across the magnificence of Zion Canyon from Observation Point, me after scolding a chipmunk for attempted snack robbery, me flooded and flushed with happiness.
#nps #nationalpark #zion #thegreatoutdoors #explore #travel #scamper #wanderlust #utah #zion #obervationpoint #usparksandmonuments #nationalparkgeek #parks

Three things: I really miss scampering. I really m

Three things: I really miss scampering. I really miss the desert. I’m still madly in love with Death Valley.
#latergram #scamper #deathvalley #nationalpark #explore #wander #nature #thegreatoutdoors #wanderlust #nps #nationalparks #latergram

Wildlife viewing, 2020 style. #catsofinstagram #a

Wildlife viewing, 2020 style.

#catsofinstagram #awfulcreature #COVID19 #stayhome #cats #cat #plantmama #plants #home

Long-haired hippy witch escapes the house to go a

Long-haired hippy witch escapes the house to go a little bit west for nature therapy, mourns her cancelled trip to Utah & falls into the river only on her sixth and final precarious water crossing.

Today, I’m 36. This year was an adventure. I wen

Today, I’m 36. This year was an adventure. I went to Maine and Utah, scampered to parks in North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Maryland, Kentucky and Pennsylvania. I drank whiskey in Kentucky with @dirva2, celebrated nothing and everything with @rachaelgking & @maxiemaggio, scampered into the forest & lounged on the deck with @stanleymegan, won trivia with my trivia team friends, started and stopped dating (a few times), and celebrated the life’s milestones with @dirva2, @sheenajeffers& @srbrtsn. I made a little more peace with myself & my past, got a little more comfortable with who I am and the gray hairs that keep sprouting. I set a half marathon personal record, hikes and climbed further than I ever thought I could, climbed a mother-fucking during a physical fitness assessment and attended the Army’s Master Fitness Trainer Course where I learned all the things. It was a good, good year and now, I’m looking forward to whatever comes next, to leaning even further into the incredible friendships I’ve continued to grow this year, to pushing myself physically and mentally to do hard and challenging things, to kicking my own ass and scampering near and far. 🎂

There’s a lot of incredible photos from @sheenaj

There’s a lot of incredible photos from @sheenajeffers & @srbrtsn’s wedding. There’s photos of them scampering around the morning of the wedding, us building a wedding bouquet, the business of getting ready, the ceremony where I said a bunch of words about honey badgers that made them married and then, after all that, there’s this picture, which I think pretty much sums up the wedding, this couple & how I feel about them. This is what joy looks like, kids, this is it. We’re all so incredibly, visibly, buoyantly happy here, and that’s what it’s like to be around these two, that’s just what their love is like. It’s infectious, even for a dark-hearted wench like me, and I’m forever grateful they included me in the magic of their marriage.
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#wedding #scamper #wild #nicaragua #explore #travel #wanderlust #love

Life advice from a long-haired hippy witch: scampe

Life advice from a long-haired hippy witch: scamper often, scamper far, scamper well.

#scamper #nicaragua #explore #wanderlust #honeybadger #scene #viewpoint #scenic #adventure #mountains

“Crying: acceptable at funerals and the Grand Ca

“Crying: acceptable at funerals and the Grand Canyon.” — Ron Swanson ——————————
Happy 101st birthday to @grandcanyonnps, where I spent my 34th birthday almost two years ago.)
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#grandcanyon #nps #nationalparks #nationalpark #exploreus #exploreamerica #arizona

Things I said during a long weekend in Nicaragua:

Things I said during a long weekend in Nicaragua: “I’m so happy,” “This is amazing,” “No, really, I’m just so happy.” #travel #explore #nicaragua🇳🇮 #nicaragua #wanderlust #happiness

I officiated a wedding with this view behind me on

I officiated a wedding with this view behind me on Saturday. It was windy, sunny. I said love is a honey badger, that it does whatever it wants. I said love takes work and that this is our one wild and precious life and that we should spend it well.

#nicaragua #view #wanderlust #honeybadger #travel #explore #centralamerica #scamper #wedding #elope

Sorting coffee cherries in Nicaragua. #nicaragua

Sorting coffee cherries in Nicaragua.

#nicaragua #centralamerica #coffee #explore #travel #wildandprecious #eatlocal #drinklocal #wanderlust #experience

Long-haired hippy witch officiates a wedding, decl

Long-haired hippy witch officiates a wedding, declares that love is a honey badger & delights in the love & happiness her friends have found in one another. —
I cried when the bride put her dress on, I cried when they did their first look, I cried after I read the words that married them. They were all happy tears, of course, because these two incredible humans have so much love, kindness and understanding for one another, and I’m so honored that they picked me to officiate their union. I’m so happy to have a new (incredible, beautiful, strong) friend in @sheenajeffers to continue my long-standing friendship with @srbrtsn, and to celebrate their marriage. My heart is happy. —
#wedding # #nicaragua #matalgapa #travel #elope #wanderlust #scamper #centralamerica #hippywitch

Scamper, scamper, scamper. Visited my first new p

Scamper, scamper, scamper.
Visited my first new park of 2020, King’s Mountain National Military Park, a Revolutionary War site that commemorates a battle that was a turning point for the Patriots. I don’t know where my scampers will take me this year, but I’m real happy to back in the scamper game.
#nationalparks #nps #military #exploreamerica #smallparks #nationalpark #sc #nc #battle

Cannot believe it took me weeks to get in my first

Cannot believe it took me weeks to get in my first scamper of 2020. I’m not sure what took me so long, other than, you know, life stuff, but I’m glad I finally found the time to scamper, even if it was just a small scamper.
#nationalparks #scamper #explore #waterfallwednesday #outside #optoutside #exploreva #nps #nationalparksgeek #shenandoahnationalpark

Ran my 7th Frostbite 15k this morning, scored an e

Ran my 7th Frostbite 15k this morning, scored an eight second PR, wanted to die for the last mile and left a chunk of my heart on the course. This race continues to me one of my absolute favorites because it’s hilly & hard, the weather is a gamble, I always see friends & it’s a classic Richmond run. Cheers to a new year of running!

#run #runrva #runtostaywarm #richmond #runnergirl #frostbite #womenwhorun #runnersofinstagram

Color coordinating, green goddesses. 💚

Color coordinating, green goddesses. 💚

...In the tent that night, I’d imagined night cr

...In the tent that night, I’d imagined night creatures creeping past my tent, thought I heard the crunch of paws on sand, the breeze of heavy wings passing overhead. And that’s when I stopped being scared, when I realized I was just anther desert creature, just another feral animal trying to make myself at home in a pricker-filled paradise.
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New post at terragoes.com on my love for @mojnnps.
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#nps #nationalpark #parks #mojave #nature #feral #wildwoman #ca #california #exploreca #visitca #wild #mojavenationalpreserve #rocks #woman #hiker #nationalparkgeeks

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