hiking

A Day in Cusco Itinerary, Coca Tea + Rides with Strangers

/ Kelsie Oreta / 6 Comments

Alright, y’all. We’re two months into 2017, and politics aside, things have been terrific. Regarding my 2017 resolutions, I’ve been kicking…cans and taking names.

Well, except for one. That whole “Hit ‘Publish’ more often/post old drafts I haven’t finished thing–yeah, it hasn’t been happening. Until now!

Over the summer, I went on a life-changing trip to Peru. I wasn’t blogging regularly at the time, and when I got back into the habit, there were many adventures but felt like it was ‘old news.’ PSH. I’m sure someone out in the interwebz will find this as useful when planning a trip online as my most popular travel posts: Arashiyama Bamboo Forest & Monkey Park Iwatayama, Road trip from Denver to Yellowstone National Park, and The Bio-luminescent Palawan River + Island Hopping. Even if it isn’t, why NOT post? It’s my website, I do what I want.

So, let’s do this! Here’s the first of a series of posts about my seven day trip to Peru, where I knocked off my bucket list item of visiting MACHU PICCHU!

24 Hours in Cusco

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Hiking and Ice Climbing the Catskills: Kaaterskill Falls, New York

/ Kelsie Oreta / 3 Comments

Before we went hiking in New York on Christmas, the three of us took a different scenic day trip to The Catskills.

It was my brother-in-law, Dennis’ idea to head that way when planning their trip up here. I didn’t know much about the area, other than the name sounded awfully familiar. If you’re not from this part of the U.S. either, and it sounds familiar to you, it’s because it’s where Woodstock happened. And where Dirty Dancing took place. The area is a pretty big deal as far as pop culture goes.

A day trip there wasn’t near enough time to do all of the things that The Catskills has to offer, but we did a gorgeous hike in, and Dennis got to do a little bit of ice climbing.

winter-ny-hiking-and-ice-climbing-in-the-catskills-kaaterskill-falls-1

As the marker mentions, the area is historic as well. The Hudson River School was the first homegrown art movement in the United States and Kaaterskill Falls is one of the oldest tourist destinations in America. Continue reading →

Day Trip: Kent Falls State Park & Downtown Kent, Connecticut

/ Kelsie Oreta / 6 Comments

 

In late October, one of my closest friends came to visit. Being my first fall living in New England, and she being the friend I discovered my love for hiking with, I thought we should go on a road trip, hike, and enjoy the fall foliage that New England has to offer. Plus, it seemed like it was the prime time of autumn to do so.

fallen-leaves-autumn-in-litchfield-county-connecticut-kent-falls

Through my research, I found this killer fall foliage tour through New England. I also learned there was a name for the likes of us: leaf peepers. No shame.

Unfortunately, she wouldn’t be up here for long enough to take the tour suggested. Then, Tobias took up baseball, and with only a family car we were faced with him either missing his last two games or us staying more local. I had read a ton prior about Kent, Litchfield County, and about how this is the area in which the Appalachian trail goes through Connecticut. Sold. Continue reading →

Hiking with Dogs in Fairfield County: Huntington State Park

/ Kelsie Oreta / 2 Comments

Yesterday we had huge wind gusts come in through our coastal town here in Connecticut, and it wiped away much of the beautiful fall leaves I’ve been admiring over the last seven weeks. Last week the foliage was certainly at its peak when I took Laser for a trail run that, at far too many times, became a hike as I tried to maintain my heart rate while climbing some steep elevations.

This was the second time I’d been to Collis P. Huntington State Park. Last time was while I was training for my trip to Machu Picchu (That I still haven’t written about!) and I got the most lost I’ve ever been on a trail. Laser and I were out for hours. No complaints from that guy. Continue reading →

Microadventures in Fairfield County, Connecticut: Mill Hill Open Space

/ Kelsie Oreta / 11 Comments

Last year, I read an article in The New York Times about NatGeo’s 2012 adventurer of the year, Alastair Humphreys and The Virtue of Microadventures. At the time, it struck me. It’s a lesson that took me too long to grasp: in pursuit of living a big, adventurous life, you don’t always have to go far from home.

Connecticut is perfect for microadventures. As I mentioned in my post about how settling in to CT, there is an abundance of open space areas to wander through & break away. On a run one day, I stumbled upon Mill Hill Open Space.

Town of Fairfield Mill Hill Open Space April 30 May Sign

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Hiking Jenny Lake

/ Kelsie Oreta / 2 Comments

Following three days in Yellowstone National Park, we made our way over to Grand Teton National Park.

Grand Teton was originally a side note to the trip. Flights out of the area that were the most reasonably priced were coming out of Jackson Hole, and I noticed to get there from Yellowstone, we’d go through the park. If you couldn’t tell by my wedding at Joshua Tree, I’ve kinda got a thing for National Parks. I was pretty stoked to cross another off of my list.

After a bit of lurking on TripAdvisor, we were dead set on doing some hang gliding. Yes, you read that right. It was the most thrilling thing on our itinerary.

Unfortunately, their runways were flooded during the time we’d be there, so we settled for a hike and a picnic around Jenny Lake. It didn’t disappoint.

Hiking Jenny Lake in Grand Teton NP-2 Continue reading →

The Highest Road in the United States

/ Kelsie Oreta / 4 Comments

This post is the second in a series about a girls’ trip I took for seven days driving from Denver, Colorado to Yellowstone National Park, to Grand Teton National Park.

If you’d like, head over and read the first post about Indian Peaks Wilderness Trail in Arapaho National Forest.

When I first got in touch with my friend who lives in Denver, we talked about how Tina and I hiked Grand Canyon, how much we loved it, and how we were just getting into hiking. After a bit of back and fourth, he decided.

“We should do a 14er! It’s been a long time since I’ve done one.” Continue reading →

Indian Peaks Wilderness Trail, Arapaho National Forest

/ Kelsie Oreta / 9 Comments

This post is the first in a series about a girls’ trip I took for seven days driving from Denver, Colorado to Yellowstone National Park, to Grand Teton National Park.

For the last three years in a row, a good friend of mine, Tina, and I have gone on a girls’ trip. On the first, I flew out to visit her where she was living at the time, in Arizona, and we hiked down the Grand Canyon to Havasupai Falls.

havasupai falls

And last year, another friend of ours joined us and we went to The Bahamas.

Nassau, The Bahamas

Maybe one of these days, I’ll post some throwback posts about those trips.

This trip has been one of my favorites, year after year, because I can ease off of my responsibilities as a mother and wife (well, before the elopement, as a girlfriend) and just have a blast with the downest, most laid-back chick that I’ve been lucky enough to know for the last 13+ years.

This year, the destination was Yellowstone National Park. I hadn’t explored that side of the country, and we found that flights to Denver were significantly cheaper (because it’s a hub) so we decided we’d turn this year’s trip into another flight/road trip hybrid.

While we were in the later planning stages, I called up a mutual friend of ours, Spencer, who lives in Denver. Neither of us had seen in a decade but I figured, “Why not?”

Spencer was thrilled to hear from us, and being quite the outdoorsman, he had tons of suggestions for gear and things to do. After some back and forth, he suggested, “How about you just give me a call when you arrive and I’ll take care of everything from there?” Sold.

We packed our bags…

EPIC U.S. Road Trip-1

…and took the earliest flight out of Houston. Continue reading →