The Dual Nature of the Classic Road Trip
Road trips have always been a bit of a double-edged sword for me.
I spent the last 12 hours sitting in a tiny metal box, snacking on awful gas station food and listening to random local radio stations fade in and out.
I parked my car at a Wal-Mart (directly adjacent to an oil refinery) and walked every single aisle of the store just to have an excuse to move my legs.
I fought off the noise of industrial machinery and passed out in the back of my car, only to wake at sunrise and start the whole cycle over.
If one were to devise a torture specifically for outdoorsy adventurers such as myself, this would be a fantastic starting point.
But as I continued north, I couldn’t help but admire the incredible simplicity and versatility provided by living out of a car.
I didn’t have a flight to catch or a hotel to book.
There was no need to google nearby restaurants and attractions.
I was making my own attractions – going where I wanted, when I wanted, with absolutely no schedule whatsoever.
If I saw an amazing looking ridge that just begged to be climbed, I could pull over and do just that.
If the daylight hours dwindled, there was no need to plan a retreat to the nearest town because my hotel had 4 wheels and was waiting for me at the trailhead.
Hell, some mornings I didn’t even get out of the car, I simply climbed into the front seat, put my shoes on and drove to the next trailhead to catch sunrise.
I was literally living wherever my unquenchable wanderlust dragged me, without a single worry about whether or not tomorrow would have an adventure waiting.
It would.
Not the worst trailhead I’ve ever woken up at.
My trip drew me north to an area I’d long been seduced by but hadn’t visited since the ripe old age of 2 – Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada.
Truly one of the world’s last unspoiled lands, the National Parks of Alberta are unrivaled expanses of wilderness whose immensity is nearly impossible to fully grasp.
Every hike deserves to be on some sort of ‘best of’ list, transporting you from a sunny flower-filled meadow to the base of a jagged glacier in under a mile.
For literally hundreds of miles in every direction, this unparalleled wilderness extends, uninterrupted.
For this reason, I chose to forgo the classic ‘home base’ of a hotel or campground and instead explore in a more nomadic fashion.
A parking spot or tent site would never be repeated, allowing me to explore every possible inch of the glorious Canadian Rockies in my limited time frame.
This was a very unusual approach for me – I’ve always done multi-day backpacking trips, spending days and weeks at a time on the trail without seeing another person.
I’m comfortable eating freeze-dried food, sweating for 12 hours straight, and sleeping on the ground, so the opportunity to have a comfortable ‘home’ to return to every night, in the location of my choice, is just fantastic.
And I seriously owe a huge shoutout.
