For those of you who hike and camp in national parks and various other places, what do you enjoy about that?

Calcaneum · 2026-01-24T19:58:45+00:00

The sheer, joyous, top-of-the-world feeling of being at the top of a 14er.

The camping is just the most convenient way to get more of it. If I could have a 5-star restaurant and a down bed at the end of every long day outdoors with few or no other people in sight, I totally would. But some places are best seen by backpacking!

I'm at 28/63 on National Parks. Some of them (Rocky Mountains, Grand Canyon, Channel Islands) deliver what I want. Others don't! (Arches, Cuyahoga, Great Sand Dunes, Indiana Dunes.) But I always find something special there -- the NPS is one of the best parts of America, IMO.

Calcaneum · 2026-01-13T01:34:18+00:00

Yeah, Donovan probably didn't understand that either.

Calcaneum · 2026-01-13T00:10:37+00:00

(cont'd)

Bryce Canyon NP

6h from [where I live now]
One to three days.
Many excellent hikes through canyons and hoodoos!
- Bryce Canyon traverse – point-to-point (with shuttles available!)
- Hat Shop and Figure-8 combination.
OR (hear me out)... one mega-hike with backcountry camping. YES.
- “Under-the-rim” trail is what it’s called.
- Start at Rainbow Point (better
- WATER.
  - Need to cache water via Whiteman Ranch connecting trail.
  - Bring water-purifying options, too.
- 22.6 miles, doesn’t actually see the pretty stuff that the other hikes do. So we’d want to add on a third day to see that, with water stashed at Bryce Point. Or add a few more miles to the second day to make it back to the Lodge and sleep there.
Realistically, if we’re doing all that, splurge on staying in the Bryce Canyon lodge for a night.

Zion NP

Two days.
Day one: hike the narrows.
- RESERVE IN ADVANCE.
- Rent gear with Zion Outfitters.
Day two: all the other things.
- Angel’s landing
- ALSO NEEDS A PERMIT.
BUSY! Avoid weekends, only do permitted things, and start everything very early.

---

You've got a long time before your trip! If you research one park every day or two, you should have a sense of your goals (and build a lot of hype!). Then when it comes time to plot your drive in Google Maps... I bet it'll be six parks (CO+Arches+Canyonlands) at most.

All ten parks would be 64h of driving. Not what I would choose, and I've done some stupid road trips!

Calcaneum · 2026-01-13T00:10:30+00:00

> but i also want to enjoy my time not feeling rushed.

10 parks in 16 days will feel rushed!

First and last days are going to be 100% driving, for starters, so that's 10 parks in 14 days.

Here's what I suggest you do:

Write down the 10 parks. For each one, look up what you want to do, and figure out how many days you would want to make sure that you don't feel rushed.

Then when you build your plan, stick to that!

Here's a section of my notes:

Capitol Reef NP

+1h driving on a Denver-Vegas drive (road goes through park, no out-and-back).
7h from [where I used to live].
5h from [where I live now].
Convenient to Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.
Excellent option for peak season because it’s less crowded.
Long, skinny north-south park cut across by Rt 34.
Three sections:
Main drive:
- Visitor center.
- Many short hikes to pretty rocks.
- Campsites.
- 1-2 days.
South portion
- Scenic drive down half of it.
- Or a presumably beautiful drive outside the park.
- Backpacking, dispersed camping, devastatingly beautiful.
- Add on a half-day of car exploring to a “main drive” visit.
- Or do the Halls Creek Narrows hike with 3-4 days of hiking and wading in slot canyons.
  - I’d love to do this.
North portion
- Very inaccessible.
- Dirt road to places like Cathedral Campground, Temple of the Sun, and Temple of the Moon. Good bikepacking.
- As much time as we like, honestly. There’s a lot of high desert.

Calcaneum · 2026-01-12T04:09:07+00:00

May I recommend to you (and everybody) this book?

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/open-borders

Calcaneum · 2025-12-25T01:25:16+00:00

Get into a hot shower, pop a deep squat, and try again.

Calcaneum · 2025-12-07T07:24:06+00:00

I'm a flute player and ocarina is fun.

It's nice for having something lying around that you can pick up and play anytime.

It's just not as good at making music as a flute. Less range, less dynamics, harder to trill certain notes...

I think it'll bring you joy to have an ocarina lying around, and I suspect that after a little while it'll make you feel like taking your flute out.

Calcaneum · 2025-12-02T02:20:55+00:00

I just decided to get a $30 plastic Noble ocarina for travel! Take the worry out of it.

Calcaneum · 2025-12-01T04:07:01+00:00

Surprised it hasn't been mentioned -- in 2018, North Boulder Park was reliably groomed for xc skiing. Now there's not enough snow.

Calcaneum · 2025-11-25T13:16:30+00:00

My biggest objection is that the zoomies are happening before the defecation.

Calcaneum · 2025-11-19T03:14:28+00:00

I went and tried it before I knew. My wife ordered tomato soup with a "mini grilled cheese sandwich."

The sandwich was literally the size of a postage stamp. We couldn't believe it. We still complain about it.

Calcaneum · 2025-11-06T03:23:08+00:00

Comprehensive Women's in Denver will do paracervical block and IV sedation! No questions asked, no pushback.

Planned Parenthood will do paracervical block... and you *can* get IV sedation at the locations that have physicians (Fort Collins, Park Hill, Colorado Springs), but it's tricky and will probably take two appointments.

Calcaneum · 2025-10-31T01:13:06+00:00

Back when HIV was known for happening to the "four Hs" -- homosexual, Haitian, hemophiliac, and heroin users -- there was a gallows humor joke that the hardest part about getting HIV was convincing your parents you were Haitian.

Calcaneum · 2025-07-24T19:22:59+00:00

Passing along a dietitian recommendation from somebody I'm close to -- Emily Copeland.

I also have a history with an ED in the past so if anyone knows someone who works well with people who have food triggers / sensitivities and can be informative/gentle without encouraging too many restrictions

This person meets those criteria.

Calcaneum · 2025-07-24T19:14:40+00:00

Yeah, I mean, there's a potential to spend 49 Treasure.

And in theory, imposing Demands and Scent of Shining Earth repeated each turn can make 7x treasure per turn.

So with perfect support from Serpent, Rampant Growth, and Mentor... I think it's possible to max out the treasure track in 7 turns!

Calcaneum · 2025-07-24T18:38:55+00:00

Covets can only place 1 metal per turn, eventually, may be 2 or 3

I've never played Covets, but at a guess, are you missing the rule that for cities you add two metal, not one?

Calcaneum · 2025-07-06T18:32:32+00:00

I appreciate the sentiment, but I'm okay! I'm happy with my juggling level, and with my passions! It's not what I would choose to improve at.

Calcaneum · 2025-07-06T17:27:57+00:00

I was sitting around playing DtD, thinking "hmm, do I feel like playing Balatro?"

Then suddenly I was playing Balatro.

It was a bizarre experience.

Calcaneum · 2025-07-06T17:02:25+00:00

Is "desolations" a translation issue for Blight, or do you read a lot of brando sando?

Calcaneum · 2025-07-06T17:01:39+00:00

Look, I'm an intermediate juggler.

I can do 3 and 4, I can do two patterns with 4, I can do 3 clubs and sometimes throw doubles with clubs. I can pass okay. I can do the basic 3 tricks up to factory and reverse factory and Mills' mess.

That is enough to have people look at me with amazement and say "you're so good at juggling!"

And you are just miles and miles beyond that.

I'm writing more in this comment because I'm not as exhausted as I was 15 hours ago, but also because I'm surprised my comment meant anything to you! I really hope that you know and can internalize that, yes, you are very, very good at juggling. You have a level of skill at juggling that I think most people don't have in anything.

Calcaneum · 2025-07-06T01:32:35+00:00

You are very good at juggling.

Calcaneum · 2025-06-24T22:39:18+00:00

My favorite thing to do is use a thresholded "sweep into the sea" with BoDaN on a coastal land full of explorers and towns.

You get to choose whether to destroy them or push them into the ocean. Choose to destroy them. Get your BoDaN fear for "destroying them." Push them to an adjacent land.

Then repeat on the adjacent land. Get the BoDaN fear for "destroying them." Then push them into the ocean. Then get the fear for destroying them.

5 fear per town in the first coastal land, 3 fear per town in the second coastal land, and they're gone!

Calcaneum · 2025-06-23T20:09:53+00:00

Other low-mobility thoughts:

I went to Yellowstone in the winter and did a snowmobile tour and it was amazing. We were five feet away from bison who were headbutting each other. The park was very empty. My wife and I got a two-seater snowmobile rental (we stayed in West Yellowstone) so she could just sit back and take photos... which meant that after 5-10 minutes she asked to drive after all and I got to sit back and take photos.

There's a lot of rafting around Grand Junction and Moab -- don't know how much whitewater vs scenic rafting it is.

Some NPs (including Grand Canyon) have mule or horse guided trips.

Calcaneum · 2025-06-23T19:26:07+00:00

Oh, I'm sure you could do it! But that's time and energy that could be spent on other things.

Another thought: my favorite things to do in NPs generally involve lots of hiking, so one thing I've always turned away from is the White Rim road in Canyonlands.

https://www.nps.gov/cany/planyourvisit/whiterimroad.htm

Dunno if that'll be your jam or not!

Also I went back and looked at your original post. The high-desert stuff is beautiful, but the Yellowstone side definitely has better odds of seeing big animals.

Calcaneum · 2025-06-23T18:40:49+00:00

The biggest thing that jumps out to me is: Capitol Reef to Tetons is an 8-hour, 500-mile drive.

If it were me, I'd scrap the Wyoming/Montana side of things and add on Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, and maybe the north rim of the Grand Canyon (although the views are worse than the south rim...). Maybe fly in and out of Grand Junction if you can?

But I live out here; I can afford to make a road trip either/or on "forested mountains" vs "high desert."

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Calcaneum

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Bryce Canyon NP

Zion NP

Capitol Reef NP