Written by Brian Callender | Photography by Julie Boyd Without question, we live in a pretty incredible time period in human history. Thanks to technological advances, the world is at its most interconnected, making travel accessible to the masses. Much like it has been since […]
Written by Julie Boyd | Photography by Julie Boyd My first camera was an old Canon SLR that shot 35 mm film. Well, it was actually my dad’s old Canon that he let me use when I took a black and white photography class in […]
Written by Julie Boyd | Photography by Julie Boyd The trail from the top of Snoqualmie Falls to the viewing platform below was a short, steep, climb through moss covered trees. Maples were still turning gold, even though November was ending, and the cool mist […]
Written by Brian Callender | Photography by Julie Boyd In what has quickly become an annual tradition, Julie and I hit the road at the end of December in search of adventures in the Southwest. With winter weather making most of our favorite destinations either […]
Written by Brian Callender | Photography by Julie Boyd The hike to Devil’s Bridge in Sedona is a popular, short excursion that leads to a heavily photographed natural bridge. An arch formed below the bridge, is the largest naturally occurring one of it’s kind in […]
We often get asked about the gear we bring along on our hikes, so we decided to put together a comprehensive list of our favorites for summer hiking. We hope you will find this guide helpful in planning your adventures on the trail! (more…)
Written by Brian Callender | Photography by Julie Boyd Little Lakes Valley sits just 45 minutes south of Mammoth and 50 minutes north of Bishop in the Eastern Sierra. This day hike quickly became one of our absolute favorites thanks to a collection of pristine […]
Written by Brian Callender | Photography by Julie Boyd In February, Julie and I set out to hike Castle Dome in Castle Crags State Park, and it quickly became one of our favorite hikes to date. At the tail end of that day, we made […]
Lassen Volcanic National Park, and a hike to its namesake peak, has been at the top of our list of places to visit in California for quite some time. Julie and I toyed with the idea of going in 2017, but with the move, our wedding, and holiday travel, we knew it would be best saved for 2018.
Eager to visit, we kept an eye on the weather forecasts as the months past and summer fast approached. The park’s high elevation (up to 8,500′) means that it receives a heavy dose of snow during the winter months, and renders much of the park closed to vehicle traffic. When we drove by it in February, we were unable to go beyond Manzanita Lake near the park’s Northwest Entrance. With the conditions in our favor, we set our visit date for early July, ready to tackle Lassen Peak.
Written by Brian Callender | Photography by Julie Boyd Since moving to Northern California in early 2017, the opportunity for new adventures has remained a constant in our lives. We push ourselves to take advantage of every weekend opportunity to explore our ever-growing list of […]
Written by Brian Callender | Photography by Julie Boyd Gaylor Lakes, a short hike accessible from the Tioga Road in Yosemite, had been on our to-do list for some time. We had planned to do an overnight backpacking trip to Vogelsang, and found Gaylor Lakes […]
After the life-changing year we had in 2017, with getting married and moving away from our childhood homes, 2018 was significantly more laid back. We once again stayed exclusively in North America, marking our second straight year of not traveling abroad, but something we hope to remedy in 2019. Our visits to National Parks, while less in total, were still just as frequent in 2018, a year that we leaned heavily on the road trip. Although we were impacted by two separate government shutdowns as we attempted to explore some new National Parks, it was another busy year and we are excited for what is in store for 2019! Here is a look back at the past year.
Written by Brian Callender | Photography by Julie Boyd When best laid plans fall through, improvisation is the spice of life. For a couple months leading up to our first wedding anniversary, Julie and I had been working through ideas of where we would be […]
Written by Julie Boyd The holiday season is officially upon us, filled with family, friends, and lots of food! Inevitably, we find ourselves in search of the perfect gift, and if you’re like us, that can often be a challenge. This year, we decided to […]
It’s our second to last full day in Canada, and Julie and I are trying to decide what we want to spend it doing.
Much of the trip has been a bit different than we had hoped due to the rain, and in some cases, snow, that have accompanied our week in the mountains of Western Canada. Instead of being early summer, the June weather has felt a lot more like late winter, and it’s set to be another cloudy day.
Hoping to see something new, I suggest driving through Kootenay National Park, just south of where we have been spending the past several days in Yoho. Unfortunately, the clouds are covering up any chance of seeing the mountains, aside from the occasional glance we catch of snow capped peaks. We know that with so much left that we want to see and do, we’ll need to plan another trip back to Canada, but a bit later in the season next time. We are determined not to let the weather get us down, so we decide to do one of our favorite things when in the mountains, visit a waterfall.
Written by Brian Callender | Photography by Julie Boyd The first time Julie and I laid eyes on Peyto Lake in person, we were blown away. Like so many of the lakes in Western Canada, the striking blue water is captivating. Is the water really […]
Written by Brian Callender | Photography by Julie Boyd When we originally made plans to return to Canada for a second time in two years, we had a lengthy list of hikes that we intended to accomplish. While we had perfect weather in August of […]
Have you ever visited a place so magical that it captures your heart and makes you want return over and over again?
For Julie and I, one such place is Moraine Lake in Banff National Park. We first had the opportunity to explore Moraine Lake in 2016 and were instantly captivated by its striking beauty.
Written by Brian Callender | Photography by Julie Boyd One of the central appeals to staying in Vancouver, when planning our trip, was its close proximity to outdoor activities. As much as we enjoy visiting a new city, we find ourselves eager to get outside […]
Written by Brian Callender | Photography by Julie Boyd In 2016, Julie and I took our first trip to Canada, spending a week exploring Banff and Jasper National Parks. After seeing a seemingly endless stream of photos of Alberta on social media, we were inspired […]
One of the things I miss the most about living in Southern California is the proximity to high altitude hikes in the San Gabriel Mountains. Sure, living in the Bay Area means that Brian and I are a 3.5 hour car ride away from the Sierra Nevada Mountains, but making that journey requires much more planning, and time. While searching for challenging Bay Area hikes that were also scenic, I came across the Mission Peak trail. In fact, several sources noted that many of the Bay Area REI locations recommend the trail as a training hike for Half Dome. Eager to get in shape for some of our summer backpacking trips, Brian and I set our alarms to wake up extra early one Sunday morning, and hit the trail.
Written by Brian Callender | Photography by Julie Boyd One of our favorite things about living in a different part of the state is the abundance of new opportunities for adventure. For the past year, Julie and I have done our very best to take […]
Written by Julie Boyd | Photography by Julie Boyd Earlier this month Brian and I had a free weekend, so we decided to take a day trip to Big Sur since it is so close to our home in San Jose. Even though we have […]
When we arrived in Lake Tahoe, I gazed at the snowy peaks and knew immediately that our plan to hike Mt. Tallac would have to be saved for another trip. The snow level seemed pretty low, and since it was spring there were bound to be unstable conditions along the trail and avalanche danger.
Written by Brian Callender | Photography by Julie Boyd & Brian Callender Working full-time jobs means we live for the weekend, and more importantly, our weekend adventures. In the little over one year that we have lived in Northern California, we have made every effort […]
Written by Brian Callender | Photography by Julie Boyd Yosemite is a magical place to visit anytime of year, but there’s something extra special about seeing the famous granite covered in a fresh layer of snow. Perhaps that lends some explanation to the fact that […]
I have mentioned more times that I can count, we love waterfalls. So much so that we often go out of our way to visit them on vacations. On our visit to Shasta County, Julie and I made no exception, as we decided to take over an hour-long detour to incorporate visiting Burney Falls into our itinerary.
Julie had come across Burney Falls while searching for ideas for a future excursion to Lassen Volcanic National Park. So, on this particular trip, we had debated whether or not it would be worth making the extra drive to the falls, as our primary adventure was hiking to Castle Dome in Castle Crags State Park. However, after some deliberation, we decided that it would be a better idea to visit the falls in winter when the chances of high crowds was less, than it would be in the summer when there was bound to be a plethora of people.
After a long day of hiking on Saturday, we woke up Sunday morning and headed for the famous falls.
Written by Brian Callender | Photography by Julie Boyd One of the very best aspects about living somewhere new is the opportunity to explore your surroundings and uncover new adventures. Northern California has reinvigorated the love we have for our home state as we get […]
Written by Brian Callender | Photography by Julie Boyd I’ll be the first to admit that I wasn’t excited about visiting Pinnacles National Park. Before meeting Julie, I hadn’t heard much about the park, which had previously been a National Monument before receiving National Park […]
Closing out a busy 2017, Julie and I were excited to visit our tenth and final National Park of the year. Having spent the previous three days in Zion, crossing off a couple of bucket list hikes along the way, we were looking forward to exploring a new National Park together. Bryce Canyon National Park is just a short, hour-and-a-half drive northeast of Zion, making it easy to visit on the same trip. Because the Bryce is on the smaller side for National Parks, we felt comfortable spending a shorter amount of time on our visit.
Written by Brian Callender | Photography by Julie Boyd What are you afraid of? For me, that answer has always been heights. Sure, there are probably some other things that can be thrown in there, but heights is my go-to answer. I remember one visit […]
Written by Brian Callender | Photography by Julie Boyd In the summer of 2013, Julie and I went to Las Vegas for a wedding that Julie was shooting for a friend’s sister. With an extra day to spare, we decided to take advantage of the […]
Traveling while working full-time jobs means you take advantage of every opportunity to get out and explore. We love the long, multi-week vacations as much as anyone, but without question our sweet spots are weekend getaways. These help keep us fresh and make the travel bug subside a bit while we await the next big adventure. Perhaps even more so, road trips seem to have become our speciality over the past five years that Julie and I have been together.
In mid-November, we booked a flight to Seattle in order to take advantage of a buy-one-get-one-free voucher giveaway that we were awarded at a Giants game in September. One of the great things about Julie’s teaching career is that she gets all of the bank holidays off, so we decided that a four-day weekend adventure was in order over Veteran’s Day.
Hello! We are Brian and Julie, a Bay Area couple making travel work with full-time jobs. Follow along as we share our adventures at home & abroad.
