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national parks, snark & occasional feelings

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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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I love a surprise & @organpipenps was a surprise.

I love a surprise & @organpipenps was a surprise. It was two hours from Tucson, quiet, beautiful. It’s the desert, but a forested one, a lush one, with mountains doused in greenery. The views were perfect, the trails just challenging enough and I even spotted a jack rabbit, the first I’ve ever seen.

#travel #wanderlust #scamper #terrgoes #exploreaz #nps #usnationalparks #usnationalparksandmonuments #nationalparkwildlife

37. 🎉 #terragoes #wanderlust #exploreaz

37. 🎉

#terragoes #wanderlust #exploreaz

Everyone likes to make a big deal out of the 63 Na

Everyone likes to make a big deal out of the 63 National Parks, generally forgetting there are a total of 423 parks in the @nationalparkservice. They’re called different things - national monuments, national battlefields, national historic sites - but they’re still parks, still parks of the NPS.

Really, I’m not mad. It means these places are often less crowded, less crazy, and I can soak up the magnificence of the place by myself. And that’s what I did at @organpipenps, an absolute hidden gem of a park along the Arizona/Mexico border. It’s beautiful, wild, lush. It’s worth a scamper & I’ll be back.

#nps #nationalpark #wild #desert #exploreaz #az #arizona #wanderlust #travel

In the few days I’ve been here, I’ve seen hund

In the few days I’ve been here, I’ve seen hundreds, maybe thousands, of saguaros and I still want more. They’re wild, huge, doing their own thing in this arid place.

#wanderlust #travel #saguaro #cactus #tucson #desert #wild #flora

#RVA, you pretty. #wanderlust #terragoes #travel

#RVA, you pretty.

#wanderlust #terragoes #travel #richmond #va #aerialphotography #jamesriver

A very small scamper with very good friends. #ne

A very small scamper with very good friends.

#newyork #ny #brooklyn #williamsburg bridge #wanderlust #scamper #travel

It’s gloomy and rainy today and so today I am mi

It’s gloomy and rainy today and so today I am missing the desert very, very much. I have a little getaway scamper coming soon which will prove exceptionally disruptive to my ongoing kitchen renovation, but I’m turning 37 & will celebrate that with a scamper, dammit.

#desert #deathvalley #nps #nationalpark #nationalparksandmonuments #saltcreek #travel #wanderlust

A good, good dog. #luke #wolf #dogsofinstaworld

A good, good dog.

#luke #wolf #dogsofinstaworld #husky #blueeye #blackdog #babywolf

Ran a race today! Thanks to @rvaroadrunners for pu

Ran a race today! Thanks to @rvaroadrunners for putting on a modified Frostbite 15k that worked kept runners safe while still allowing us to participate in a much-loved RVA running tradition. And thanks to @finalgravitybrewingco for sponsoring & opening early to supply us with some post run beers. I’ve missed this so, so much, and while things are far from normal, I’m so thankful I got to cross a finish line today.

#rva #runners #running #richmond #bryanpark #girlontherun #frostbite15k #race #runrva

Instagram post 17863831121295054

Instagram post 17863831121295054

Nearly fell over with fright when a mouse ran past

Nearly fell over with fright when a mouse ran past him this morning, recovered, snatched the mouse up with vicious decisiveness before spitting it out and watching it run away through furrowed brows. Now, is exhausted, and very cute.

#dog #luke #dogsofinstagram #husky #mutt #blackdog #wolfie #couchsurfing #petsofinstagram

Petrified Forest National Park has two birthdays:

Petrified Forest National Park has two birthdays: One on Dec. 8, to commemorate that time in 1906 when President Teddy Roosevelt created the national monument and one on Dec. 9 to commemorate when an act of congress established Petrified Forest National Park in 1962. HBD to a weird and magical place with mud the color of rainbows, petrified wood that 100% will curse you if you steal it from the park & the only national park to include part of old Route 66.

#nationalpark #exploreaz #arizona #petrifiedwood #petrifiedforestnationalpark #nature #nationalparkgeek #nps #usparksandmonuments #az #usa #travel #wanderlust #exploreusa #desert #mesa #blue

4 Years & I still miss you every single day. 💔

4 Years & I still miss you every single day. 💔

Happy Veterans Day to all my brothers and sisters

Happy Veterans Day to all my brothers and sisters in arms, to those who’ve served before me, those servicing alongside me today and those precious babies who are just starting their military careers. After more than 17 years of service, which has largely included shoving a camera in people’s faces, I’m still mostly having fun.

#veterans #veteransday #vet #army #pao #camera #soldier #nationalguard #inyourface #media #press #photography

Ubehebe Peak tops out at 5,678 feet. For reference

Ubehebe Peak tops out at 5,678 feet. For reference, that’s just 100 feet below the tallest mountain in Virginia. At the summit, there’s a logbook and a U.S. Geological Survey marker. I climbed Ubehebe on Oct. 12, 2020, and was the first person to sign the book since March. For the duration of my climb up, mine was the only car in the lot. I had the place to myself for full hours of the day.

That’s the thing about Death Valley that I love. It offers an abundance of remote adventure opportunities, of which the climb to the top of Ubehebe Peak is just one. It is not hard to escape a crowd in Death Valley, not difficult to find yourself alone inside of a canyon, on top of a mountain, standing alongside a creek bed. It is not impossible to be the only human inhabitant within a 10-mile radius.

More words about @deathvalleynps at terragoes.com.

#deathvalley #nps #parks #usnationalmonuments #california #ubehebe #mountain #hike #climb #travel #wanderlust #exploreca #Hiking #desert

So dramatic. #deathvalley #nationalparkgeek #usn

So dramatic.

#deathvalley #nationalparkgeek #usnationalpark #mesas #badlands #nps #park #wanderlust #explore #travel #california #scamper #views #nature

Desolation Canyon, Death Valley National Park - I

Desolation Canyon, Death Valley National Park - I don’t even know what led me to this trail, but I can tell you I found it and the view excellent until I managed to trip on my own feet & smash into the desert floor with my face and left hand. The result was a pretty serious nosebleed, one black eye, a couple sizable bruises on my legs, a hand that’s still sore a week later & a bruised & scratched up nose. As clumsy as I am, it’s frankly a little amazing I haven’t fallen and smashed myself before this. It rattled me, for sure, but I’m thankful it wasn’t worse, thankful it happened within cell range, thankful I was less than a mile from the car and thankful I got to see the incredible desert this year, that I was able to be in my most favorite place.

#desert #DeathValleyNPS #nationalparkgeek #nps #nationalparkusa #california #nationalparklove #californiacaptures #hiking #wanderlust #travel #exploreca #hikingtrail #desolationcanyon #views #adventure #nationalpark #deathvalley

“So, I love you because the entire universe cons

“So, I love you because the entire universe conspired to help me find you.” - Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
⠀
& also me, to the desert.

I still have lots of stories to tell about my time

I still have lots of stories to tell about my time here, but today I climbed the tallest peak in @deathvalleynps, Telescope Peak. It’s the tallest mountain I’ve ever climbed, by a lot, and it only sunk me deeper in love with Death Valley. From the summit, I could look down at Badwater Basin, the lowest place on the continent, and look across the mountains and truly, it was epic. I am so happy, so free, so good.

I climbed most of this peak two years ago and have

I climbed most of this peak two years ago and have thought about it ever since. The view, the solitude, the magnitude of both, it was a big part of what pushed me to come back, because I wanted to summit this little peak, wanted to visit this special place again. Round two and magic still held.

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