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Ever dreamed of exploring the open road, with the fall foliage as your backdrop? Picture yourself winding through the valleys of Zion National Park, catching the sunrise over the iconic Great Smoky Mountains, or marveling at the underrated beauty of Arches National Park. As seasoned travelers, we've compiled a complete guide for those of you planning road trips to America's most breathtaking National Parks this October.
We've journeyed through the lesser-known gems such as Voyagers National Park in Minnesota and Isle Royal National Park in Michigan. We've admired the deep blue of Crater Lake National Park in Oregon and gazed upon the majesty of Mount Rainier National Park in the Pacific Northwest. We'll share tips on how to navigate the parks, deal with crowds, and prepare for the cooler weather. Ever wondered how the North Cascades National Park earned its nickname as the 'Alps of America'? We're revealing all that and more, including the best cycling routes and why Vancouver is a city worth your time.
Finally, we're taking you to Glacier National Park in Montana. Known for its unique fall colors, incredible wildlife, and stunning landscapes, this park holds a special place in our hearts. We'll also chime in on Yosemite National Park, a place so mesmerizing that battling the crowds is a fair trade-off for the experience. Whether you're a seasoned traveler or just starting your outdoor adventures, we're here to help you plan a road trip that will create memories to last a lifetime. So, buckle up and let's hit the road together!
Checkout our complete travel guide to the 14 best national parks to visit in October: https://www.chrisandsara.com/post/best-national-parks-to-visit-in-october
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/chrisandsara
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrisandsara_ | @chrisandsara_
Website: https://www.chrisandsara.com
Call or text us a question or comment: +1 (423) 825-9572
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Get inspired by world travelers Chris and Sara with "What No One Tells You," their conversational podcast. Each episode is a fun chat with friends sharing personal experiences, insider tips, and riveting stories. The show is elevated by amazing guests from Youtubers, ultra marathoners, bloggers, and adventurers who bring their unique energy and perspectives to the table. With Chris and Sara, you're sure to feel a part of the group, ready to embark on a new adventure. Explore the world one story at a time and join the conversation today.
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Hey y'all! We're Chris + Sara (or as you know us, Let’s Be Us), a husband and wife digital nomad travel duo currently working and traveling full time with our pup, Kramer. We've always dreamed of traveling full time, and in May of 2018 we took the leap and made it happen! Today we're balancing work and fun everywhere between the Pacific and Atlantic. From hiking and cycling to tacos and coffee, we're trying to see and experience as much of this world as we can! While our home is currently on wheels in our DIY Sprinter van, our travels take us all around the world.Be sure to hit subscribe here on Youtube and follow along on Instagram for more daily fun! Oh, and be sure to say hi while you're here. :)
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0:00:06 - Chris
Welcome to a new episode of What No One Tells You. I'm Chris.
0:00:11 - Sara
I'm Sara. I think you all probably know that.
0:00:14 - Chris
Hopefully, and if you're watching the video podcast, I apologize. It is like 90 something degrees. I haven't shaved, I've got a hat on.
0:00:23 - Sara
Me either. I haven't, but we have to do a podcast. We haven't showered today. We showered yesterday, but you never know, just because it's not, it's hot, hot, hot hot, which is the inspiration behind today's topic, which is preparing for fall and fall activities. We are still in Oregon. This is our last week in Oregon for a while.
0:00:42 - Chris
Yeah.
0:00:43 - Sara
Heading. I'm not going to say we're heading next, but we're heading, don't be a surprise. Yeah, we're heading somewhere else this week, but it's hot here. I think we've said that in the last episodes we filmed here. It's like 90 something degrees. There's a heat advisory out.
0:00:56 - Chris
Yeah, and just to catch everybody up, we were here in Oregon and then we had to fly home. We did a quick trip to Guatemala, which we just released a video.
0:01:04 - Sara
We didn't. You did you have to go watch that Guatemala video?
0:01:07 - Chris
Yeah, yeah, you do, and then we did that we were in Tennessee for another week, and then now we flew back out to be in our truck, and so we are currently still in Oregon which is great. It's great to be here. It's just really hot and I was just hoping that it was going to be a little cooler.
0:01:23 - Sara
Yeah, we keep saying it's hot because we do look like it's hot. I mean it's weird, because you know it's so dry here that when you sweat you don't actually sweat, it just evaporates off. Oops, Just evaporates off. So I'm just salty and grimy, but I'm not. I just look rough but I'm not sweaty. Anyway, enough about our sweating habits.
0:01:41 - Chris
You're giving a lot of good details to the listeners. Right now we look rough.
0:01:46 - Sara
This is life in a truck again.
0:01:48 - Chris
So, before we jump fully into this episode, I do want to do a couple of like house cleaning items, because previously, if you have been listening to this podcast on Spotify, itunes, thank you so much for your reviews and ratings. We really appreciate those.
0:02:03 - Sara
Thank you. You have no idea how much those help.
0:02:04 - Chris
Yeah and so. But if you've been watching this on YouTube, you know that it's been on our YouTube channel, youtubecom slash Christian Sara. We were doing this as an experiment and now we've decided we're going to split the channel up and so we're moving all of our podcast episodes over to what no one tells you on YouTube. And if you go to Christian Sara, you can still it's one of the featured channels you can click it. Yeah.
0:02:32 - Sara
So you can still find it through our channel, but our podcast episodes are going to be uploaded to an entirely different channel now. Reasoning behind that is that it's sort of this was always going to be an experiment, like with YouTube. We knew we wanted to do the podcast, but from the get go it was an experiment of where should it live. We even pulled you guys like same channel, different channel. We've seen a lot of different creators do one or the other, but we decided to go ahead and give it a go on our own channel Only because there's a smaller audience for podcasting versus videos.
It is killing our analytics from a business side of things. So it's kind of hurting us with getting like brand deals and stuff, which I know it sounds kind of superficial, but it's true, it does hurt you on a business side. So we have made the hard decision to go ahead and pull it off into a separate channel. We're not quitting, we're not slowing down, but we enjoy doing this. We love doing this, but we it is going to live on a separate channel now. So you will not be seeing the YouTube podcast episodes on Chris and Sara. They will be on what no one tells you.
0:03:26 - Chris
Yeah, but if you've been listening on iTunes, spotify, stitcher, whatever you're listening to, nothing changes. What is Stitcher, it's, it's like it's an audio platform. I mean people people listen to podcast on it.
0:03:39 - Sara
People ask us are you on so-and-so platform? And I have to go. I don't, I don't know. I think so, I don't know. There's too many podcast platforms.
0:03:46 - Chris
Anyway, we're going to go ahead and get right into today's topic, which is fall or better, yet it's the best national parks to visit in the fall.
0:03:56 - Sara
Well, it can just be all-encompassing of where we love going when the cooler weather hits. I so this week I actually wrote a blog post for our website and our blog. If you guys don't know, we have a travel blog too, so we have travel guides, that kind of thing, and one of the ones I wrote this week was about 14 national parks to visit in October. I think the inspiration for that came from the fact that it's really hot and, don't get me wrong, I love the hot weather. I really, truly do. I love the weather turns cold. But sitting in a camper right now, it's kind of you're sort of dreaming about you know, it'd be nice not to be baking in the truck, which is why we decided to talk about this.
0:04:33 - Chris
It's already August, you know. We are in the eighth month of this year, and we're like mid-August already.
0:04:39 - Sara
How would that happen?
0:04:41 - Chris
You're mid-August and so, if you're like us, you probably should plan for your October, you know, or you should try to have something on the books, you know, two months out. So this is a good. Hey, get your ducks in a row. Where are you going to go? Well, we've got you covered.
0:04:55 - Sara
So these are just the national parks that we think would be best to visit in the fall, partially for colors, partially just because they're going to be lighter crowds. It could be a really cool chance to experience it. But we'll also talk about maybe like other destinations or other places to experience fall.
0:05:12 - Chris
All right.
0:05:13 - Sara
So first park on the list. It's a list of 14 parks. Number one you're going to be excited about this one. I'm not going to show you the list.
0:05:20 - Chris
Number one is it Acadia.
0:05:24 - Sara
Acadia National Park, that's one of Chris's favorites.
0:05:26 - Chris
I love that national park. Acadia is just so beautiful. It's against the coast, it's I don't know, in the fall time up in New England. That's perfect. I mean, that's Gilmore Girls' Weather right.
0:05:38 - Sara
It is Gilmore Girls' Weather. You're out.
0:05:43 - Chris
No, no, people are tuning off now.
0:05:44 - Sara
Yeah.
0:05:45 - Chris
So, acadia, I love that national park because it's kind of low key.
0:05:49 - Sara
It is so low key and it's pretty dog friendly too, but it's it is perfect fall weather. We've only ever been there in the fall, I think, once in September, once in October. It's so moody in the fall, but you're right, the rocky, jagged coast, the little light houses, there's good lobster and crab to eat, I mean it is just, it's a. It's a fall destination for sure. And especially if you're heading into, like many people will either fly or drive through Portland Maine on the way up to Acadia. Portland's an awesome little town. So if you're starting in Portland Maine, you can take Highway 1 up the coast up to Acadia. You can go through places like Rockport, camden, the most picture perfect little small towns on earth. Such a beautiful drive. So I think Maine is our number one recommendation for all time.
0:06:35 - Chris
Maine, it's just perfect. The leaves changing up there, sierra's right, it is moody, but you know at the time, a lot of times we'll be traveling through Massachusetts and the people you know going through Boston can be a little hectic and a little frustrating and you know a little gruff and then you get to Maine and these people are just like angels, they're just like really nice people, very kind.
0:07:00 - Sara
Yeah, it's a much more low key state for being New England. Yeah, but I think that's how most states are. You know, once you get out of the urban areas, everybody's very laid back. It's like Southern hospitality, but not in the South kind of thing. You know people are just more chill about things. Maine, especially Maine, is beautiful. You can go see a moose Go see a moose Go eat some lobster. Did you know they produced 95% of the world's blueberries, or the country's blueberries? The country's, yeah, maybe not the world's.
I guess it's the US is blueberries.
0:07:26 - Chris
Yeah, you can't go wrong in Maine and if you really want, you can go to where Forest Gump ran to the lighthouse.
0:07:32 - Sara
Yeah, oh, that was there, wasn't it? Yeah, yeah, One of his lighthouses is there. So Acadia if you guys haven't been to Acadia, I highly recommend that. It is a little bit of a jaunt to get to. I mean, many natural national parks are, but if you're in New York it's only four or five hour drive.
0:07:45 - Chris
Yeah, well worth.
0:07:47 - Sara
Totally worth the experience because it is hard to be Maine in the fall. All right. Number two Do you have any guesses? I'm not going to make you guess. There's like 50 something national parks. We could be here forever if you guess oh yeah, Okay, Number two Grand Teton National Park. Oh for the fall. I think that would be a really good one in the fall. Why?
0:08:05 - Chris
I really do Okay.
0:08:08 - Sara
so crowds are really heavy in Teton. You've got ski season up in Jackson Hole and then you've got peak summer season, but fall and spring are going to be your shoulder seasons.
They always are, especially in national parks well, for most national parks. But that's going to be the quietest time to experience Jackson Hole and you also get the beautiful fall colors, you get the crisp blue sky. Mornings Wildlife is very active, it's getting ready to get, some is going to hibernation. So you've got the colors, you've got the bright blue sky and you've got, I mean, the jagged mountains. The air is crisp, but just, I don't know. I think that would be the perfect time to experience Grand Teton. The elk rut in the fall too.
0:08:47 - Chris
So it's a different thing.
0:08:48 - Sara
If you can catch the elk doing that, wildlife is a different kind of active, that kind of time of year I guess bears are getting ready to go into hibernation Just a different overall feel yeah, I think you said this, but it's on the shoulder seasons so the crowds are probably not as much, a lot lighter.
0:09:07 - Chris
Now there are some parks where they're going to be a lot more people, right?
0:09:11 - Sara
Yeah, some of these parks will probably be busy, maybe not their busiest. I think every park is going to have their peak season in the summer. I'd say probably even death valley, it's just when everybody's out of school. But some of these in October are going to be busier than others. I'd say Acadia is probably going to be far busier in the fall than it would be in the spring, whereas Teton is going to be about the same. These are just my guesses, just for what typically?
0:09:35 - Chris
attracts. Well, that's what we've experienced too.
0:09:37 - Sara
Yeah, yeah, we have, so I think Teton would be a really great one, teton would be a good one. Bonus if you can hunt down some hot springs in the area as the weather starts to get cold. There's so many thermals in that area, very active. Maybe combine it with Yellowstone. I don't think I put Yellowstone on this list, but it's like what? 30 minutes from Grand Teton.
0:09:57 - Chris
I mean, you can dip down there if you really want to.
0:10:00 - Sara
Number three Zion National Park.
0:10:03 - Chris
We've only been to Zion once and I absolutely loved our time there and I was gonna say we were there in October, but we weren't.
0:10:09 - Sara
We were actually there like November 4th or something we really barely there in November and the fall colors were kind of ending like they were already peaked, I feel like.
0:10:19 - Chris
But it's still beautiful.
0:10:20 - Sara
It's gorgeous, like the red rocks of Zion. If you don't know what Zion is, it's a national park in Utah and Utah house is famously Orangey rocks and it's just absolutely gorgeous. But then you have these bright yellow trees next to the rocks and it was stunning me. We'll put a couple of pictures on the screen for watching the video. One but beautiful, beautiful, beautiful place, and I did not expect a desert to have fall colors, but then we showed up and it was stunning.
0:10:47 - Chris
Yeah, it was. And the weather, the climate during that time I mean it was cold in the morning- yeah, but then it warmed up pretty pretty nicely pretty nicely, like you layer he took your audio at lunch. Yeah, it was great. Yeah, I want to do Zion again. I think that's a really great national park.
0:11:05 - Sara
We want to do the narrows there, which it was. We only had time for either angels landing or the narrows. This is before angels landing required a permit, which is a whole other thing. If you want to do that angels landing hike, highly recommend look into the lot, look into the permitting system, for it definitely worth the time, but you can, you can do both. You can do the narrows and angels landing, but the narrows we haven't gotten to do. You can like put on these waiters and wait through really ice cold water and I.
Want to go back and do that one but, Zion's beautiful relative be smart. Small part.
0:11:36 - Chris
Yeah, really small, but it's breathtaking, it really is really beautiful driving through the valley floor.
0:11:41 - Sara
I cannot recommend that enough, and it's not. It's not too terrible to get to either. I am it's like what 30 minutes outside of st George, utah, which is only two or three hours from Vegas. So, zion, I think do Zion, I didn't put any of the other. No, I did put one other part from Utah on this list, I think. Yes, I did.
0:12:00 - Chris
Can I guess? Yeah, is it Arches, arches. Yeah, we actually haven't been to the other ones.
0:12:04 - Sara
This is the only two we've ever been to in Utah and so I didn't feel like I could speak to the other ones on this list, or I didn't feel like I could speak to the other ones in Utah since we hadn't actually been there. But they're all the all the national parks in Utah are pretty easy to get to. You can go from one to the next, the next, the next, pretty easily. So if you want to make an entire road trip, totally do all of the Utah parks at one time.
Yeah that's a. That's what I would recommend. I I don't know how we haven't. We just kind of like always like dipped in from the south and from the north.
0:12:31 - Chris
Yeah, always miss the three in the middle. Yeah, and I feel like the weather there in that part of the the country during that time it's just gonna be dry, there's not gonna be a lot of rain or anything like that. You know, when you go up to the northeast you do have to battle with rain, like you have to battle with bad weather.
0:12:46 - Sara
Yeah, for sure, but it can. If you wait too long to go in, the air, zion and the other parks in Utah can get snow ice. In fact, some of these hikes you have to wear like crampons, little spikes in your feet because they get so icy, so you don't want to go too late, unless that's your thing.
Yeah not our thing. All right, moving on. So we've gotten, we've done Acadia grant. Eat on Zion. I didn't put in the first me, so I missed it, but all right, another one Um Shenandoah National Park. That's sort of close to our home base. Yeah, shenandoah. Well, we say it's close, like geographically, like as the bird flies. It doesn't look that far, but it takes forever to get there does take.
0:13:23 - Chris
It is in the middle of almost nowhere. Yeah yeah, and it's. It's a park that it doesn't get a lot of hype. A lot of people on the east coast kind of passed through it and then you glance at the sign but for fall. I that's a good one for the fall good fall colors in Virginia.
0:13:41 - Sara
Virginia is beautiful, especially in October. Yeah, drive the the route through Shenandoah. I'd say even, continue down to the Blue Ridge Parkway, up down to Asheville. You can connect the two beautiful route. I would say that that would be one of we're. I'm not. This is not like. These are not in order of like what we think would be best. Besides, maybe, acadia. Um, these are just like random order that I just brainstormed when I was writing this blog post, but I think that would be one of the best Fall road trips you could possibly take.
Yeah, just through Virginia, North Carolina.
0:14:17 - Chris
Yeah, and if you're doing the Blue Ridge Parkway, I mean that's a really patient drive like you're not it's very slow, you're not getting anywhere fast and you can enjoy the scenery, and then by that Time you're actually connecting to another pretty big national park go ahead and lead into that one, because that one is on the list too, which is Great Smoky Mountain National Park great Smoky Mountain National Park, so this is the one that's in our backyard. Oh yeah, pretty close to us, very close, and it's, is it?
0:14:46 - Sara
the most visited, the most visited National Park in America, but that's because I don't remember the exact number, but there's so many millions of people that live within like a four or five hour drive of Smoky Mountains. It's right next to Gatlinburg, which a lot of tourists visit Gatlinburg. You know pitch and forge that whole thing. So the park like lines up next to us. You get a lot of pastors. It is busy Like it is really busy.
0:15:08 - Chris
The world's largest Bucky's just open there it did open there.
0:15:11 - Sara
I mean they like met their demographic, people went nuts for it. Oh my gosh, we haven't been to it yet.
0:15:17 - Chris
We saw it, we saw it.
0:15:20 - Sara
Smoky Mountains is beautiful. I that's another one of those like iconic road trips much shorter, but Great Smoky Mountains is home to Cates Cove.
0:15:31 - Chris
It what I feel, like I keep saying it was beautiful when we visited, but the fall time here I understand why I? I would say it's probably the busiest time.
0:15:40 - Sara
Oh, hands down Cates Cove, they. They call it co-rage like instead of road rage, because it's a what is a 13 mile loop around. Cates Cove, which is a part of Smoky Great Smoky Mountains National Park and I think it's Probably the most famous, besides maybe Klingman's Dome, which is the tallest point.
0:15:56 - Chris
Yeah.
0:15:58 - Sara
It's this beautiful valley where there used to be a lot of people used to live there. Nobody lives there anymore, but you can still see like cabins. Yeah, there's old cemeteries but there's just Beautiful little. The smokies are so different than places like Teton because they're just the mountains are soft, they're really gentle and the colors there are just stunning. But it is busy.
0:16:21 - Chris
What I would suggest either get there very early and do that loop, or get a bicycle yes, get a bicycle and ride that loop, because while everybody's stuck in traffic and they can't get out, you can pass them.
0:16:33 - Sara
Yeah, and there are certain days that they actually closed down Cades Cove or part of days. I need a fact check this again. I have a whole blog post on it, but it's been so long to the road I can't remember when bike days are. But you could actually go in there and bike without cars on the road for certain days, but that would be the best way. But if you're not in a cyclist or anything like that, you can rent bikes there.
You don't have one but if you used to another drive, you can walk it, you can bike it or you can drive it Driving. We got there before the gates even opened to go to Cades Cove. We went during the week trying to keep Crowds down. We went in October. It was like a Wednesday morning, I Say gates opened at 8. I don't remember what time they opened, but we were in line at least an hour before that. We couldn't even see the gate. We were so far back in line to get in, crazy busy and you're going around this loop. It's 13 miles and it takes. It took us hours to get around this loop, hours and you're literally in standstill. Bumper-to-bumper traffic. It's gorgeous. Yeah, it is slow.
0:17:33 - Chris
It's very slow and I would suggest if you're coming in from the Gatlinburg side, like if you go into the park, you stay in the park, like once you leave the park and go back to Gatlinburg or pigeon forage, yeah I would say, call your day, because you're gonna be stuck in line all now. There is a back way.
0:17:52 - Sara
Oh my gosh, I just remembered when we were there. Do you remember what happened that day?
0:17:55 - Chris
It was when we were signing for our house.
0:17:57 - Sara
Oh, I forgot. That's why you're saying that, yeah, this is completely up top, but we were. This is one of those things that happens behind the scene. We didn't actually make a video of our time in Cades Cove just because we were there enjoying it like we just I don't remember it was just a crazy season and it was during COVID and we just it was 2020, so like we just weren't filming. But we went in to do Cades Cove in the morning and then our real estate agent called us and we had to leave the park to go get better cell signal and we had to go to Cracker Barrel. It was the first thing we could get to outside of the park. We stopped at Cracker Barrel and, like, the appraisal came back from the inspector or the appraiser came back and it was like, oh, your house appraised for less than what you put an offer in on. The number was wrong. They were anyway. It was this crazy, like, oh, I forgot, that's why we were so stressed about getting in and out of the park.
0:18:40 - Chris
Yeah, and so once we left the park, we're like, well, we're done, because the it was. I think it was probably an hour, hour and a half wait just to get inside the park.
0:18:49 - Sara
Yeah right, really bad, because you're right, we came in from like Chattanooga the first time we went in, that's why you're saying that, because that is a better way to go In to Cades Cove.
0:18:56 - Chris
Yeah, I think yeah, it is because you don't have to deal with all the congestion of Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. So, if you're coming in from the Chattanooga side of Tennessee, you may be able to get inside the park a little faster.
0:19:09 - Sara
Yeah, yeah for sure. Another tip that you could do is you can camp there. There's a campground in Cades Cove. I can't say what the reservation system is like. I don't know, we've never camped there, but my guess is that they probably accept reservations for peak season Especially. So maybe look into that if you can snag one, because that would be the best way to experience. Yeah maybe see more of the bears, and because Smoky Mountains does have a lot of bears a lot of bears.
0:19:33 - Chris
I mean that's, that's their mascot and the bear there's so many bears there.
0:19:38 - Sara
Anyway, we've talked a lot about Smoky Mountains. We'll move on to the next one, but that's a really iconic one. Yeah, all right, grand Canyon.
0:19:47 - Chris
Oh for the fall.
0:19:48 - Sara
I thought that would be great. We've been there, but it was June or July. We haven't been there in the fall.
0:19:52 - Chris
Probably great weather wise, you know, the Sun's not beating down on you as much. And the crowds for the Grand Canyon, I guarantee you the crowds are less than what they would be in the summer.
0:20:03 - Sara
Yeah, and if you don't know, grand Canyon, another one of those places in the desert that before I started going out West more often I didn't realize. The desert got snow.
It closed my mind, but it does especially the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. And if you don't know the Grand Canyon, there's a North Rim and South Rim and most people visit the South Rim. But you can visit either or, but it takes hours to get from one side to the other. I think it's like four or five hours and there is a shuttle that you can take, but it takes a long time to get from one to the other.
So the north side of the rim, north side of the Grand Canyon, gets a lot more snow than the South side. Um, I think that'd be a great place to visit in October lighter crowds, days are shorter, which is the only downside if you're going to go hike down into the canyon. It gives you less hours of daylight, so you'll have to go prepared.
0:20:43 - Chris
Yeah and you'll want to watch the shuttle time, because if you decide to go to the other side of the the canyon, you're like okay, I saw, I'm ready to go back to the other side. You may miss your shuttle and you're stuck.
0:20:56 - Sara
You're stuck in the middle of nowhere.
0:20:57 - Chris
Yeah, you are Legit the middle of nowhere. There's nothing out there.
0:21:02 - Sara
Oh man, yeah, but yeah, if you want to do like rim to rim, that's something we would love to do is you know, you go from one end of the Grand Canyon to the other. Some people do rim to rim to rim, which is to go across the Grand Canyon and then back across all in one day. That might be a little ambitious for me, but rim to rim, we could do that one day. But you have to have good weather. You don't want to be so hot that you're down in the middle of the canyon and it's A thousand degrees and limited water.
0:21:24 - Chris
Well, and you don't want it to be so cold either, because if it gets cold at the bottom of the canyon, Especially if you're starting before sunrise or something.
0:21:31 - Sara
Yeah you get icy. So I think October is definitely one of those times that would be great for the Grand Canyon. I think crowds, light, yeah, good weather.
0:21:44 - Chris
I want to go back.
0:21:45 - Sara
Yeah, we need to do the green.
0:21:46 - Chris
Yeah, the last time I was at the Grand Canyon I wasn't prepared for it and I want to be prepared for it. We didn't have hiking gear or anything like that and we were definitely in, like our street run shoes, and well it was like right, when me personally, well, like I was getting into the outdoor, you know Lifestyle, and so I wasn't. I thought I could handle it with just a normal pair of shoes, or not even a normal pair of shoes.
0:22:11 - Sara
But yeah, in our defense, we were only there for like a day or two because it was just a small stop on a larger trip to phoenix and vegas, like it was a longer road trip. So, yeah, we need to go back and do green canyon. Yeah, I would like to do that. Yeah, october, maybe we go with this October.
0:22:28 - Chris
I don't know, maybe we should. We've got to go back east at some point. That's south, that's not east.
0:22:34 - Sara
All right, next one Rocky Mountain National Park that would be beautiful in the fall the Rocky Mountains are famous for, like the Aspens right Aspens yes, I was thinking about larches and aspens, but it's the aspens in Colorado.
0:22:48 - Chris
Yeah, aspen.
0:22:48 - Sara
Colorado. Yeah, they turn that really vibrant yellow and I my understanding is correct, it's a quick season, like they turn yellow and then you're done windows over like it's gone. They fall off the trees pretty fast. But yeah, Colorado, I think Rocky Mountain would be really nice for the beautiful vibrant colors Um a lot of wildlife. We saw so many moose when you're at Rocky Mountain.
0:23:07 - Chris
So many. We saw a lot of wildlife, a lot in Colorado, a lot more than a lot of other national parks we've been to.
0:23:14 - Sara
Yeah, oddly enough, I don't know- if we saw any bear, did we see. Oh, do we see bears?
0:23:19 - Chris
I don't think we saw marmots.
0:23:21 - Sara
Which were, you know, absolutely adorable. I wanted a marmot for kramer to have a little brother, but Chris said no.
0:23:26 - Chris
But they were good, like tons of moose, like waiting in the lake and the morning sunrise, so beautiful I the keys to get there early, right at sunrise.
0:23:34 - Sara
That's like the key for every national park.
0:23:36 - Chris
Yeah, that is the key, and a lot of people don't want to do that and they wait till 10 am, 11 am, to go inside the park and by then you, everybody, has gone to sleep or hiding, you know, and it's the Rocky Mountain National Park, that road that goes through the park. That would be a beautiful drive to see the just all the different colors of the leaves.
0:23:57 - Sara
Yeah, but you want to make sure you don't go too late for that one either, because it's so high up in elevation. What is it like? The highest elevation highway?
0:24:03 - Chris
in the lower 48 or something like that.
0:24:05 - Sara
It's like over Eight or nine thousand feet high up. I mean, it gets really high up so it'll freeze and get snow early on. So, you don't want to go too late, but I think October would be really pretty, like I, I remember we watched sunrise over a lake with the moose wading through it and it was like beautiful crisp and a little bit of fog, and I think it'd be even more amazing with some fall color in there. Take a take your copy. Down by the lake they have little benches to watch very pretty.
0:24:29 - Chris
What was that plate with that town right before the park? Estes park Estes park They've got a great cinnamon roll there.
0:24:34 - Sara
Oh, they do have the cinnamon roll. That's reason enough to go and it's funny because we put that in our video and everybody's like I had that cinnamon roll too.
0:24:41 - Chris
It's so good.
0:24:43 - Sara
Who knew? All right, next one up Voyagers national park.
0:24:49 - Chris
I'm gonna be honest, I have no idea where this is at.
0:24:52 - Sara
I want to admit something. There are three parks on this list we have never been to, but we've been to these areas of the country and I put them on the list because I feel like I could say it with confidence. I don't you like to write about things unless I've been there, but I feel like I could say with confidence these would be really cool parks to go to because, like this next one, I've been to this area of the country before and the fall colors are amazing. Um, it's on the water. It should be a cool place to experience. The next one is called voyagers national park.
0:25:20 - Chris
I have no idea where this is at Sara.
0:25:21 - Sara
It's in minnesota, so northern minnesota.
0:25:24 - Chris
Okay.
0:25:24 - Sara
It's on the waterways.
0:25:26 - Chris
Good canoeing that kind of thing.
0:25:28 - Sara
Minnesota is actually a state. So chris and I say we met cycling across america. Before we actually started cycling across america, our we were team leaders on this cycling trip we had a meet in minnesota. So we actually technically met in minnesota, that's right.
0:25:40 - Chris
Who knew that we'd?
0:25:41 - Sara
be back in minnesota so often.
0:25:42 - Chris
I know a land of 10,000 lakes, land of thousands of lakes, I don't know what their slogan is they do have a ton of lakes.
0:25:48 - Sara
Water is a huge part of the colestering minnesota.
0:25:50 - Chris
Yeah, those people those people in minnesota are crazy and I will go on record and say that, because they are they have the beautiful water in the summer and in the fall time. They don't really get to utilize the water in the fall or spring time, but the winter time they're out walking on lakes because it's just ice and it's just. Mine boggling to me.
0:26:07 - Sara
So you said they don't utilize it in the fall. But actually, voyagers, one of the best things to do is to get on the water and canoe so, or any sort of boat you can do that. I think that'd be a great way to do it. But, like you said, it does get cold so you don't want to go too late. You have to keep an eye on the weather. That's the hard thing about these shoulder seasons is, in one week it could be 80 and beautiful. The next week it could be snowing in these places.
That's just the constant like risk you're taking and going to a national park in the shoulder season, especially somewhere this far in Norris, like northern Minnesota, like close to Canada, way up there. But Voyagers National Park, yep, all right. And the next one on the list is another one we haven't been to. It's right up there in the same area.
0:26:47 - Chris
Is it the one in Michigan?
0:26:48 - Sara
It is I over oil national park.
0:26:50 - Chris
Nobody goes to that national park.
0:26:51 - Sara
It's the least visited national park in all the USA. Like it blows my mind that this little island in Michigan is less visited than somebody being dropped off by a Cessna plane in the middle of the tundra of Alaska with grizzly bears, like more people do that pay thousands, thousands of dollars every year to Go get dropped off in the wilderness, versus going taking the ferry to this one little island in Michigan.
0:27:15 - Chris
Nobody goes up there. Yeah, we need to change that. I mean, I we've never been, but we I've been to the UP, which is where it's at.
0:27:22 - Sara
I have family up there, but you've never been a.
0:27:25 - Chris
I've never been up there.
0:27:26 - Sara
Yeah, I mean it is the other side of the world.
0:27:28 - Chris
It's. What is it farther than Alaska?
0:27:30 - Sara
like when you're like it, it's out there. I mean you say, like you know, if you've ever looked at a map, like you got the lower peninsula of Michigan, which is the mitten or do the hand?
0:27:40 - Chris
do the hand hold the hand up?
0:27:41 - Sara
It's like if you meet somebody from Michigan, you hold up your hand. You're like where are you from? They hold it up and they point to the glove and they're like here. Yeah, the people in the UP have to go like yeah the people in the UP.
0:27:50 - Chris
Don't use a hand. They have to use a second hand.
0:27:53 - Sara
So it's on like Lake Superior. The island is it's way up in Michigan, like you get to Detroit and you have to keep going, like you are 12 hours from getting to this national park, at least I think. In fact, I think the fastest way to go through is constant. You don't even go through Michigan but you have to take a ferry out to it. The island is. It's got really beautiful coastlines, is my understanding. Like I said, I haven't been there, but the Lake Superior coastlines in general are really rocky and Lake Superior is more like an ocean. I mean, there have been so many shipwrecks there. It's really Kind of frightening waters. They're cold, they're deep and they're turbulent.
But the island itself you can camp on it, you can just go for the day, you can stay overnight, you can fly in, you can take the ferry in. I think there's chartered flights. You can get out of Like Houghton or Hancock, which is up in the UP of Michigan, and then you get to the island and there's a lot of wildlife. So there's the two animals I've heard kind of I don't say battle it out. There's definitely like this, tension between the two and it's wolves and moose. There's a lot of wolves and moose on this island, so sometimes you get to see the interaction of the two.
0:28:54 - Chris
I don't know if I want to see that interaction.
0:28:56 - Sara
Yeah, moose are scary but wolves are scarier, I think I mean.
0:29:00 - Chris
Kramer can take a wolf Right. Not really so.
0:29:03 - Sara
Isle Royal National Park. I think that's one that a lot of people don't talk about. It's one that we've wanted to get to but, like I said, it's so far.
0:29:10 - Chris
I'm sure, I'm sure the fall colors are beautiful up in that area.
0:29:14 - Sara
Yeah, they are for sure. Yeah, all right. Next one Arches National Park.
0:29:20 - Chris
Arches National Park. I love arches because it's home to Indiana Jones in the last crusade and that's yeah, that's where they started off. They were in arches. They went to all the national parks and film there, but not all of them. I mean not all of them, but they back to Arches National Park. It is a beautiful park now. There's not a lot of trees there. You're not gonna see a lot of you know different leaves changing, but in the fall time that would be amazing.
0:29:46 - Sara
Yeah, that's one of the ones we haven't been to in the fall but I think would be really cool. We've been. We went in March, so that's like the shoulder season, like the opposite shoulder season. Yeah, really beautiful, crowds weren't too bad and there's so much free camping around it, like if you're in a camper or a van or some sort of Rig. I don't know what you're in, but there's a lot of great free BLM camping and I remember really he'd park On the BLM and pretty much like see arches, like right outside in the distance, like the rocks and the mountains. It's just, it's a beautiful area. So I would say that would be a awesome place to go and it's not far. Arches isn't far from Salt Lake City. Salt Lake has beautiful call fall colors too.
We have passed through there in the fall. Really pretty Colorado. We just talked about green or not. Grantee Tom, which one is there?
0:30:31 - Chris
Rocky Mountain.
0:30:33 - Sara
Oh geez. So, arches, you're not going for the fall colors, but you're going for Cooler days.
0:30:40 - Chris
Yeah, we're gonna hike is like you said there's no trees, there's no protection from the sun when you're there really and this is one of our favorite like travel tips that we tell people is that we love to travel in the shoulder seasons, no matter where, whether it is to national parks or, you know, tourist destinations around the world. Shoulder seasons you just get less crowds and the weather is more moderate, you know, if you time it perfectly.
0:31:01 - Sara
Yeah, all right, so next up. Ooh, this was close to us.
0:31:05 - Chris
What other national park is close to us?
0:31:07 - Sara
crater Lake.
0:31:10 - Chris
We're at right now in Oregon crater Lake National Park.
0:31:12 - Sara
I mean that's another one that's like a jaunt to get out there.
0:31:15 - Chris
It is, but I love crater Lake.
0:31:18 - Sara
That was a cool one.
0:31:18 - Chris
It's very cool and it's just. Yeah, it's a big lake, but it's something special.
0:31:24 - Sara
I mean it's special because it's a crater in a volcano.
0:31:27 - Chris
I mean it's so cool, it really is no, is it the deepest lake though I?
0:31:32 - Sara
Think it's the deepest lake in America.
0:31:35 - Chris
Let me check this hold on, hang on, we've got a fact check, because I'm pretty sure I don't really have an internet here right now.
0:31:40 - Sara
Yeah, crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States. Okay, seventh deepest lake in the world. Oh, wow, that's number seven. Seventh deepest in the world. Wow, is it 1,943 feet deep, or 592 meters? For?
0:31:57 - Chris
that's amazing. Yeah, crater Lake. Everybody should go to crater Lake.
0:32:02 - Sara
It's different. I mean, yeah, all these parks are incredible, but crater Lake is. It's not far from Bend, which you know. We love Oregon, so the coast is incredible in Oregon, the desert is incredible, but crater Lake is like high in the mountains, sort of central southern Oregon, and it's, yeah, you just kind of like drive up there. It gets really snowy in the winter, like you don't want to go in the winter.
Yeah, so going up in the fall would be really pretty with the trees. It's very high up in the desert like I Think that'd be really cool because it does get hot.
0:32:31 - Chris
It gets really hot and really cool because it does it. That would be a beautiful setting. So if you can make it to crater Lake, do it in the fall.
0:32:39 - Sara
That's why I put on there like we haven't been there in the fall, but I that's when I would really love to visit.
0:32:43 - Chris
Yeah you've got a good list going on, Sara.
0:32:45 - Sara
Don't I put some time into this?
0:32:47 - Chris
all right, mount Rainier National Park yes 100% and we have been there in the fall love it in the fall and. It Mount Rainier. Our last visit to Mount Rainier was our best visit ever to that park it was just, it was fantastic.
0:33:02 - Sara
We love Mount Rainier. I mean we did live in Seattle for a couple years and seeing Mount Rainier whenever it come out of the Clouds like it never got old, seeing it just dominate the sky it's absolutely gorgeous. It's the most glaciated peak in the lower 48. I mean, it's stunning, it's beautiful, it's Magnificent. Looking at me, it's so snow capped all the time.
0:33:21 - Chris
It's and even if it's cloudy, the way that the clouds interact with the mountain. So you can be in Seattle and you're you don't see this mountain at all. And then you get closer and closer to the park and you get on the mountain and then, all of a sudden, you see how the clouds Interact and it's just, it's breathtaking, it's.
0:33:39 - Sara
So, yeah, we like it and it's experiencing the park from like the sunrise entrance a paradise. There's two entrances you can kind of go up to Mount Rainier Sunrise, which is like on the most like northeast side of the park, the other ones like on the southwest or something, but totally different feels like the southern side. We were there in the fall, like sunrise was sunny and then we went to paradise that day and it was.
0:34:04 - Chris
It was foggy, it was paradise, though it was really quiet.
0:34:07 - Sara
The woods were really dense heading in from that side, so totally different feels going from different sides of the park. But Mount Rainier in the fall with the like, um, I Don't even remember like leaves changing on trees, I guess they were. But I remember like the, the covering on the ground, you know like the little bushes and stuff, like they were vibrant red they were really, the bushes were vibrant red.
0:34:29 - Chris
Do you remember that chipmunk?
0:34:31 - Sara
Scared the pee out of me yeah, this chipmunk. Okay, we also saw this chipmunk right after we saw a bear in our path. Like yes, so we're not edged a little bit yeah we had just.
0:34:41 - Chris
We saw a bear and people were taking photos of the bear and we're like, no, we're not gonna take photos, we're just gonna walk away from the bear because we don't want to become food. And we're walking down this pathway and this chipmunk jumps out and it Just like put its arms in the sky like, like boo, and then it ran away and both Sara and I scream. We screamed a bloody murder, like it was just why we don't know why we were so scared.
0:35:06 - Sara
I don't know why it wasn't. It was so funny because it was like he came out the bushes and he was yeah, it was so funny, a little chipmunk funny. We still think about him.
0:35:15 - Chris
I do a couple years ago. I think about that chipmunk.
0:35:17 - Sara
Mount Rainier is really cool and it's really beautiful in the fall and that actually is really close to the next one on the list, mm-hmm, north Cascades National Park. Oh, love North.
0:35:28 - Chris
North of. So there's three really big national parks within the state of Washington. You have Mount Rainier, you have the Olympic Peninsula, the Olympic National Park, and then you have Cascades and. I North Cascades and I feel like Everyone sleeps on North Cascades.
0:35:49 - Sara
I yeah, it's beautiful.
0:35:51 - Chris
It's. It's so underrated. It's yeah no you didn't know, I'm just it. Everybody that we talked to they're like oh, I went to Mount Rainier. Oh, I went to the peninsula. Oh, that's great, both are great beautiful but North Cascades. That I mean you're right against Canada, I'm your close to Canada? Yeah, very close to Canada and it's not that far from Seattle. It's a.
0:36:12 - Sara
It's a couple hours as farther than the Rainier. Rainier gets bigger because it is closest to Seattle and it's really close to Portland too. Yeah you get a lot of city people coming in there. Yeah which is fine. I'd say avoid it on the weekend if you can. But North Cascades it's close to Vancouver. Actually, vancouver is a cool city. We're not gonna talk about that in this podcast, but Vancouver is awesome so you could even go to North Cascades if you're a or Seattle but it's.
They call it the Alps of America because the mountains are real jagged. You've got these really Gatorade blue lakes. It's so pleasant, the crowds are pretty light.
Yeah it's just. It's a wonderful park. You can take highway Highway 20 I think it's highway 20 that goes through North Cascades Great cycling route too. I've always, always, always wanted to bike that. But every time we've been through there with our bikes it's either been like a thousand degrees, we're in a hurry, or it's still closed for the winter, because they close that route in the wintertime. But if you can go Fall, the colors up in that area of Washington are gorgeous. I think the colors against that Gatorade blue lake was a Lake Diablo.
0:37:18 - Chris
Yeah, like Diablo oh man, that'd be beautiful. Yeah, no, that's a. Actually we've been there in the fall, so it is really nice yeah.
0:37:25 - Sara
I know it's really nice. I've been there.
0:37:27 - Chris
It's really nice. It is such a such a nice park. All right, next one.
0:37:33 - Sara
My personal favorite.
0:37:34 - Chris
Oh, I already know this what glacier, glacier national park?
0:37:38 - Sara
I love glacier. I do. I think it's. Hmm. Yes, there are mountains that are equally as beautiful as glacier, and other parts of the world like Swatts are one or even more beautiful. But part of what makes glacier and many of us is national parks so incredible there's fly that's flying around me. I'm driving me crazy. So part of what makes glacier so incredible to me is that it is so remote. I mean, it's definitely been built up over the years, but it Montana is so special to me because it is this vast wilderness that just feels so Not as untamed as Alaska, but it is just, I feel, like you can truly get lost out there still.
I love Montana, like I love Washington, idaho, oregon, like each of those places is so special to me. But there's something about Montana that I remember going there 10 years ago for the first time and I think I about cried. I may have cried because I loved it so much. I was like, I love this place, I'm gonna move here one day. And then I finally went to Glacier a few years later. That was the that we went there for our one year anniversary when we lived in Seattle and I fell in love with it. So Glacier in the fall is awesome. We were there a couple of years ago in late September, so not quite October but the leaves were turning.
0:38:53 - Chris
It was perfect. It was perfect. I would say, if you're going to Glacier in October, go early.
0:38:59 - Sara
That's a good point. You're gonna go to Glacier in October. Go early October.
0:39:02 - Chris
Go early October, Because when we went in late September we timed it perfect. Because I think it was about three weeks later they had their first snowfall.
0:39:11 - Sara
They can get snow in September, like it happens early, and then peak season in Glacier is really short. Those mountains get some crazy weather, so crazy a lot there. But Glacier I could go on about Glacier forever Totally worth the trip up there.
0:39:28 - Chris
Yeah, we named our second van sunny after going after the going to the sun road, and we love it. It's a park that you need to go to no matter what time of year Probably maybe not in the dead of winter, but you know, I don't know, if you're across country's gears and snowshoes, you can go do those things in.
0:39:43 - Sara
Glacier, there's very like no amenities open. I think maybe the visitor center's open.
0:39:48 - Chris
That's it. Yeah, but it's close to Kalispell or Whitefish, Whitefish Montana I mean Not that far from Calgary and Banff either. No, so you could actually go up to Glacier and then go up to Banff, Calgary and you can make a whole big trip out of it.
0:40:03 - Sara
That'd be beautiful. Banff is awesome. So is Jasper.
0:40:06 - Chris
That whole.
0:40:06 - Sara
Rocky Mountain section is just awesome, it is.
0:40:09 - Chris
But Banff isn't a part of the United States, so it can't be on this list for this episode.
0:40:13 - Sara
We have one more on this list and I have to say this is one we've never been to. I cannot believe we have not been to this park. We've been near it, We've been so near it.
0:40:25 - Chris
Is it in Montana?
0:40:26 - Sara
No, montana only has one. No, it has two. No, he's Yellowstone's, technically two yeah.
0:40:31 - Chris
No, what park? Yosemite?
0:40:33 - Sara
National Park, yosemite yes, and I'm saying Yosemite because I feel like that is such an incredible park that, even though we haven't been there personally, I've seen enough pictures and I've heard from enough people that it is just so incredible that it deserves to be on this list, because I know they get good fall colors.
0:40:50 - Chris
They do.
0:40:51 - Sara
I think it would be so beautiful to visit in the fall Yosemite. The biggest reason we haven't gone way out of the way to go there is just because of the crowds. That's one of the resounding things we hear over and over is like the crowds are so bad in Yosemite and while all national parks do get busy, they are well worth battling the crowds. For me to see some of these places Because they are special in their national parks for a reason, you can camp for free a lot of times in national forests outside the national park and have it quieter.
But you've got to go, experience those national parks because they are just. You're not going to get to going to the sun road in the national forest next door, flathead national forest. Those are places that that is the park for a reason, and I think Yosemite is the same way. Seeing like El Cap and Half Dome and all those mountains, I would love to go there. So Yosemite's crowds I'm saying all that to say Yosemite's crowds are supposed to be really crazy, especially being so close to like major cities in California.
0:41:44 - Chris
So, look, we don't know where you're at and you're planning of your trips for October, but if you are planning to go to a national park, we do have you covered.
0:41:53 - Sara
Yeah, and there's so many more. They're awesome in October. Like I mean, yeah, these are just the ones. I was sitting there looking at the map. I was like where would I want to go in October? Like where do I think would be best? That's what I came up with.
0:42:04 - Chris
This was 14.
0:42:05 - Sara
I stopped myself at 14. I could have kept going, but I was like this is only 50 something. I can't put like 30 something on a 50 something list of like go here.
0:42:12 - Chris
The best 50 national parks to visit in October, and then you leave off the two Like the two Like Everglades. Yeah, biscayne Bay, both in Florida they don't have. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love going to Biscayne Bay but, yeah, I don't want to spend the fall on the Everglades.
0:42:31 - Sara
I guess it beats the summer I guess it does beat the summer. We were there. What January? Yeah, we were there in January. That's the time to go.
0:42:37 - Chris
You want to talk about a national park. Like you think you go there and you're like, oh, I saw an alligator. And then 30 minutes after, like after you're in the park, you're counting like the 500th alligator it gets, you're over it, you're like that, you become a nuisance on the road.
0:42:52 - Sara
After that, yeah, you're like another gator. Here it is. Yeah, yeah, if you ever so, when we went there we actually drove. This is off the road. We drove from, like Miami, which is on the eastern side of the park, over to Naples. You have to drive through Alligator Alley that's what they call it. I don't remember the highway number, but it's Alligator Alley, and if you ever want to go see Alligators, that's the place to do it. I don't remember how many we counted that day. I want to say it was well over a hundred, though.
0:43:15 - Chris
I mean we just after a while we're like you've got to be kidding me yeah, we stopped counting, it was just, it wasn't even worth it, it just wasn't. Yeah, florida is a special place. Florida is a special place.
0:43:24 - Sara
I would actually say don't go there in the fall because hurricane season.
0:43:27 - Chris
Oh yeah, don't go to those, don't go to Florida, skip out on Disney World, all that stuff. Yeah, wait, just wait. So.
0:43:33 - Sara
I want to. Let's okay, before we close this up, let's talk about other places besides national parks that are good in the fall in the US. Okay, I think we miss sometimes that there are a lot of. There's a lot of amazing, like outdoor, specific places that are not national parks. Like we did an incredible hike with our friends Justin and Heidi a couple years ago in Washington and it was really close to North Cascades National Parks but it was not the national park, but it was famous for.
0:44:01 - Chris
The Larches.
0:44:02 - Sara
Larches, which are turned these bright yellow, kind of like aspen's, where they have this really small window of time and there's a certain kind of was, a deciduous, there's a certain term for them. Anyway, they're beautiful, they turn really bright yellow and they're almost like a fir tree there and like a leaf.
0:44:19 - Chris
Like they're, like an evergreen, like a needle. Think of it like a green or a yellow Christmas tree.
0:44:23 - Sara
Kind of yeah, but it's really bright yellow. In fact, we have a picture of me standing and it's really not that. It's not. I mean, I colored my photos a little bit, but not like overly photoshop, like it was really that bright and yellow. Well, yeah, it's absolutely gorgeous to go to these. Some of these national forests have awesome places, so don't miss out. If the crowds intimidate you or maybe you're booked up, you can't get a reservation to where you wanna go. You're on a budget. Consider going to a national forest.
I do some research especially in places like Colorado and Washington that have amazing national forests next to national parks.
0:44:53 - Chris
Those would be really great options. You know another place, then it. I don't know if it's. I think it's a state park, but it's in Kentucky, red River Gorge in the fall.
0:45:01 - Sara
You know, I've never been there.
0:45:03 - Chris
Yeah, it's pretty.
0:45:04 - Sara
Yeah.
0:45:04 - Chris
Yeah, it's really pretty. If you're in the Midwest, you know, or near Kentucky, you know you could go to Red River Gorge. It's pretty cool.
0:45:10 - Sara
So, besides outdoor places in October, there's one town that comes to mind I think everybody's gonna agree Boston in the fall.
0:45:18 - Chris
Oh, I thought you were gonna say Leavenworth, oh.
0:45:20 - Sara
Leavenworth. We'll talk about that in a second. No, boston, boston is. We've been to Boston in the fall. I've been in the summer and in the fall and in the winter. I actually love Boston. It's a really cool city. People maybe not be the friendliest. I will say that there's a stereotype for a reason that people there Some are very nice, some are very nice. It's not even that they're not nice people. They're very like move out of my way.
0:45:44 - Chris
I have to be somewhere I'm walking here type of people.
0:45:46 - Sara
You can't walk here too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
0:45:48 - Chris
Yeah, so Boston's really nice. I feel like all the Northeast in the fall is just perfect.
0:45:54 - Sara
We went to Burlington in the fall. That was really pretty.
0:45:57 - Chris
Burlington was very beautiful.
0:45:58 - Sara
Stop by and go to Ben Jerry's.
0:46:00 - Chris
Ben Jerry's, and for those of you who haven't been to Ben Jerry's, my favorite part to tell is that they have a graveyard of All the flavors that did not make it and so you can go pay your respects to the dead flavors they had. It's like a whole cemetery. So funny, it's really funny so, and they give out free samples at the end of the tour.
0:46:16 - Sara
I think it's here's like five dollars. Yeah, yeah really just you. It's like a five dollar ice cream, yeah, yeah but, anyway. So yeah, new England in general, mount Washington was really pretty. Washington, yeah, that's a good one.
0:46:26 - Chris
You've got a time the weather there, yeah, man.
0:46:29 - Sara
They get the I think it's they get the craziest winds on earth, like a hurricane force winds on top of Mount Washington, which is in New Hampshire. Mount Washington is really cool. I mean, like you said, new England in general. We could go on forever. We spent two of our. Technically, we only ever had two falls in our van Vans we really haven't been and both of them we spent in New England for the most part. We really loved it up there in the fall. It's just hard to beat it.
Yeah so Do a whole road trip up there. But you mentioned Leavenworth, when I hop back to that. Yeah, Leavenworth.
0:47:00 - Chris
here in Washington, it's a Bavarian Village it's a real cheesy.
0:47:04 - Sara
It's real like the.
0:47:05 - Chris
McDonald's looks like a gingerbread house.
0:47:07 - Sara
This is like what did you guys do? They do October festival? Never been to they do October fest there.
0:47:13 - Chris
So people that, and I'm sure they probably do it in Helen Georgia as well.
0:47:16 - Sara
This is better than Helen Georgia by a long shot. I will say that I will like it is.
I mean, I don't think it's quite Munich in Germany, but it is better. The mountains are really beautiful around it, like that's. That is reason to go to Leavenworth alone is that the mountains there are just so gorgeous. In fact, that hike we were just talking about that we do with our friends with the yellow larches, that was like Not gonna give you the trailhead name, but it was like 20 minutes from Leavenworth, super close to Leavenworth so close yeah so great places in Leavenworth to go hiking, get a good beer afterwards.
That's like the best part of going hiking in areas you can you're guaranteed a pretzel and a beer afterwards.
0:47:49 - Chris
Yep, yep. So October is coming up fast, so we have another month. You know, we're a month and a half before October's here and yeah, we're, we're excited what this fall brings to us and our adventures, and we're excited to where you're going to go, wherever in your adventures, and I'm sure we have missed a million places.
0:48:10 - Sara
We always do there's too many places. There's too many places, oh can we mention we mentioned New England. If you're gonna go to New York I meant to say a second ago, Cut this into the right conversation but Apple cider donuts oh.
0:48:22 - Chris
Apple yeah, cider donuts Thing in New York, aaron introduces to those.
0:48:26 - Sara
Chris has given me the let's wrap it up kind of finger under the table. He's ever here, just yeah, we got to wrap it up because our memory cards on our camera getting full, so we're.
0:48:34 - Chris
But, yeah, we're super excited for this October and whatever the fall has in store for us and for you. Yeah, and we appreciate you listening to this episode and, if you don't mind, please, please, leave us a review in iTunes. It helps us out so much.
0:48:48 - Sara
I know it does, I know we say that and I don't like being those people Begging for reviews or thumbs up, but like one review Genuinely helps us surface on Spotify or iTunes, like we have had.
We've gotten the first comments of like hey, I've never heard of you guys before on Instagram or YouTube, but I just discovered your podcast, which is really weird to us. But I mean seriously, like when you review, if we get one or two reviews in a week, it put this in the charts again Like it's really important. So yeah, if you haven't already rated or reviewed on Spotify or iTunes or do both, yeah and go subscribe to the new YouTube channel.
0:49:18 - Chris
Yeah, please go subscribe to the new YouTube channel. We'll put all the links down below, including the blog post that Sara wrote. It's really well done and it has a lot more details that we couldn't cover here on the podcast, but hopefully it'll help you plan your October trips to any national park.
0:49:34 - Sara
Yeah, all right, y'all have a good rest of your week. Thanks for listening to what no one tells you with Chris and Sara. You have a comment or question that you want answered on the air? Be sure to send us a message to hello at christen Saracom, or you can call or text our phone number at 423 825-9572. Thanks for listening.
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