Posts in Travel
St. Paul's European Christmas Market: A Festive Break from the Winter Blues
St. Paul's European Christmas Market: A Festive Break from the Winter Blues

The European Christmas Market is held on the roof of the Union Depot in St. Paul, and its festivities are based on open-air Christkindlmarkts that spring up in Germany, Austria, and other countries during the Advent season. According to the Market’s stated goals, they wish “to bring light to the dark of winter and add to the goodwill of the Christmas spirit.” When your winter lasts six months, it is a unique and heartwarming experience to be outside in the chilly air, enjoying food and handcrafted mittens and ornaments, rather than counting down the seconds until you can be inside again.

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TravelHannah Schultzst paul, minnesota, twin cities, european, christmas, market, union depot, german food, crepes, french, germany, german, schnitzel, pommes frites, currywurstComment
Five Observations from a Southerner About Driving Through a Blizzard
Five Observations from a Southerner About Driving Through a Blizzard

This Thanksgiving, my mom told me to be safe driving back to Minnesota from Kentucky. There was apparently a winter storm system moving through the Midwest. Living in the North for the past year and a half, I’ve been lucky with road conditions. The one time I had to drive in heavy snow on the highway, I was able to park myself behind a plow and stay golden for most of the drive. However, this year, I managed to get stuck driving on the interstate in the middle of a blizzard during the most busy driving day of the year.

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Thoughts on: [Things], TravelHannah Schultzminnesota, iowa, illinois, blizzard, drive, thanksgiving, break, snow, plow, freezing rain, ice, tips, observations, southerner, north, northernerComment
Minnehaha Falls & Lake Bde Maka Ska: Nature Retreats in Minneapolis
Minnehaha Falls & Lake Bde Maka Ska: Nature Retreats in Minneapolis

Though you might not picture Minneapolis, MN, with its metro population topping 3.6 million, to be a haven for nature-lovers, that’s one of the best aspects of Minnesota: the state embraces and celebrates its natural beauty.

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Travel, HikingHannah Schultzminneapolis, minnesota, twin cities, minnehaha falls, minnehaha park, nature, retreat, uptown, lake bde maka ska, lake calhoun, Magers & Quinn, bookstore, bookshop, waterfall, song of hiawatha, longfellow, Mississippi riverComment
Paradise in St. Paul: Como Park Zoo and Conservatory
Paradise in St. Paul: Como Park Zoo and Conservatory

If you know me, you know there are two places I love going an inordinate amount: zoos and botanical gardens. My love for plants and animals is unsurpassed (I might be trying to turn my apartment into a greenhouse—sorry Kayla). So when I discovered that there was an escape into flora and fauna in St. Paul (Minneapolis' lesser-know twin city) that was both a zoo and a botanical garden—and not only that, it was also free—I just had to go.

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Nature, TravelHannah Schultzst. paul, minnesota, twin cities, como park zoo and conservatory, arctic fox, lion, gorilla, ostrich, sea lion, zebra, giraffe, snow leopard, tiger, polar bear, puffin, orangutan, tamarin, spider monkey, flamingo, marjorie mcneely conservatory, tropic, tropical, fern, sunken garden, botanic garden, Botanical Garden, lilies, lily padsComment
Canyon Falls & Gorge(ous) Views at the Grand Canyon of Michigan (ft. Kindi, the adventure pup)
Canyon Falls & Gorge(ous) Views at the Grand Canyon of Michigan (ft. Kindi, the adventure pup)

Located off of US 41 just outside L'Anse, MI (about an hour away from Marquette), there's an unassuming turnoff to a parking lot filled with cars. Today, our adventure crew consists of Kari, Kayla (her sister and my friend/now roommate!), and Kari's newest addition to the family, Kindi, a precocious 4-and-a-half-month-old lab/border collie mix whose name means "squirrel" in Swahili (even though she was actually named after a gorilla at the Louisville Zoo). A battered map shows that "Canyon Falls" is located on a single, straight-shot trail about a mile away.

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Hiking, TravelHannah Schultzmarquette, michigan, hike, l'anse, mi, canyon falls, grand canyon, puppy, dog, adventure, waterfall, river, forest, woodsComment
Mountain Views & Hidden Falls in Grand Teton National Park
Mountain Views & Hidden Falls in Grand Teton National Park

Grand Teton National Park is named for Grand Teton, the highest peak in the Teton range. The origins of the name are peculiar, dating back to 19th-century French-speaking trappers, who are said to have called the range les trois tétons, or the three teats, due to their shape. Americans anglicized the spelling and shortened it to Tetons. 

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Nature, Hiking, TravelHannah Schultzgrand teton national park, jackson, wyoming, schwabacher's landing, jenny lake, hidden falls, oxbow bend, ferry, moose, cascade creek, cascade canyon, yellowstone national park, persephone, bakery, french, black bear, glacier, global climate change, global warmingComment
Travel With Me: Yellowstone National Park (Day Four)
Travel With Me: Yellowstone National Park (Day Four)

This first stop isn't really in Yellowstone, but it's a strange sight for those who make the drive from Wapiti or Cody to the East Gate. For some reason it reminded me of Howl's Moving Castle, while Ryan told me it reminded him of the Weasley's house (the Burrow) from Harry Potter. One thing we could all agree on: it was a weird-looking building. 

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Hiking, Nature, TravelHannah Schultzyellowstone national park, day four, house on the hill, Cody, wyoming, east gate, old faithful, upper geyser basin, black sand basin, rainbow pool, emerald pool, sunset lake, lodgepole pines, white, silica, sinter, mystic falls, sapphire pool, black opal, black diamond, shell geyser, jewel geyser, avoca spring, silver globe geyser, little firehole river, midway geyser basin, grand prismatic spring, excelsior geyser, fairy falls, goose lake, firehole lake drive, fountain paint pots, white dome geyser, silex spring, mud puffs, red spouter, yellowstone lake, pelican creekComment
Travel With Me: Yellowstone National Park (Day Three)
Travel With Me: Yellowstone National Park (Day Three)

We passed this turnout every day, as the route from Wapiti and the East Gate into the park took us through Sylvan Pass, which is in the Absaroka Range. This part of the park has one of the higher elevations that you drive through, at 8,524 feet above sea level, so it's naturally chillier, hence why these photos of the Sylvan Lake look like a winter wonderland even though it was in the sixties and seventies in the rest of the park. We saw a lot of cars from California stopped around here to get out and have snowball fights, but after six months of harsh Minnesota winter, I only stopped for the photo op. 

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Hiking, Nature, TravelHannah Schultzsylvan pass, sylvan lake, yellowstone national park, day three, turnout, tower fall, yellowstone river, lost lake loop, hike, hiking, petrified tree, Roosevelt lodge, employee, manager, ranger, trout lake, otter, bison, baby bison, calves, lamar valley, slough creek, wolf den, pups, bear, black bear, cub, mayComment
Travel With Me: Yellowstone National Park (Day Two)
Travel With Me: Yellowstone National Park (Day Two)

Our first stop of the day was to see (besides Old Faithful) one of the most iconic features of Yellowstone: its Grand Canyon and staggering waterfall. Yellowstone River, the longest undammed river in the continental United States, carved this canyon through erosion about 10,000 to 14,000 years ago (making it relatively new in geological terms). The canyon walls are painted in yellows, oranges, and reds from the iron compounds in the rock--as the iron is oxidized, the rocks rust. 

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Hiking, Travel, NatureHannah Schultztravel, with me, yellowstone national park, day two, grand canyon, south rim, artist point, lower falls, point sublime, yellowstone river, north rim, brink of upper falls, lookout point, grand view, west thumb, geyser basin, fishing cone, abyss poolComment
Travel With Me: Yellowstone National Park (Day One)
Travel With Me: Yellowstone National Park (Day One)

Last week, I was given the amazing opportunity to travel to Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park as research for a novella. This trip was funded by a grant I was awarded by the English department at Minnesota State University, Mankato, where I'm currently obtaining my MFA in Creative Writing. It was nine days in total, including four 12-13 hour driving days, and I brought along my forever traveling partner, Mary, and my brother. Using research from other bloggers' itineraries and improvisations due to time constraints and weather, we conquered almost all of Yellowstone's coolest spots in four jam-packed days. Let's get started with day one!

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Nature, TravelHannah Schultzyellowstone national park, itinerary, day one, wyoming, wapiti, cody, lake, mud volcano, hayden valley, norris geyser basin, porcelain basin, back basin, steamboat geyser, mammoth hot springs, wildlife, prairie dogs, ground squirrel, elk, black bear, grizzly bear, cubComment
Wind Cave National Park: Touring the world's densest cave and seeing 95 percent of the earth's boxwork
Wind Cave National Park: Touring the world's densest cave and seeing 95 percent of the earth's boxwork

According to Lakota tradition, Wind Cave is where their people's souls emerged from the earth before their creation event. They held the site as sacred, aware of its existence long before brothers Tom and Jesse Bingham stumbled upon the natural entrance, an inexplicably windy hole in the ground, in 1881. By 1903, it had become America's first cave designated as a national park.

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Travel, NatureHannah Schultzsouth dakota, lakota, wind cave, national park, boxwork, 95, percent, cave, badlands, black hills, custer state park, garden of eden, popcorn, formation, bison, prairie dogs, flowstone, calcite, limestone, explorerComment
Mount Rushmore & Winter Hiking in Custer State Park
Mount Rushmore & Winter Hiking in Custer State Park

"On this towering wall of Rushmore, in the heart of the Black Hills, is to be inscribed a memorial which will represent some of the outstanding features of four of our Presidents, laid on by the hand of a great artist in sculpture," said President Calvin Coolidge in his Mount Rushmore Dedication Speech in 1927. At the age of 57, sculptor Gutzon Borglum began the project of carving into the Black Hills. The monumental project would be finished after his death in 1941, the finishing touches overseen by his son, Lincoln. In the end, the delicate sculpture became an icon of American history, four presidents—Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt—forever wrought in stone.

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Hiking, TravelHannah Schultzsouth dakota, mount rushmore, national park, national memorial, national monument, custer state park, black hills national forest, calvin coolidge, george washington, abraham lincoln, thomas jefferson, theodore roosevelt, gutzon borglum, sculpture, black elk peak, harney peak, little devil's tower, hiking, hike, snow, ice, rock climbing, nature loop drive, scenic drive, turkeys, pronghorn antelope, bisonComment