I am excited you want to get to know me better! One of the best things about traveling, is the amazing people you get to know along the way. Many of them become some of the most important people in your life.
I grew up on a hobby farm in the rolling hills of Wisconsin. I was a snowboard punk who was obsessed with animals and anything art related (nothing has changed). My passions were spending the winters shredding the snow and the summers riding horses and traveling Northern Wisconsin with my family. I loved my childhood, yet I always had a strong, unknown connection with the west. I dreamed of the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Two weeks after I got my driver’s license, I took some time off of high school and embarked on my first cross country road trip to Southern California. I finally got to go WEST. The golden sands, the barrelling waves, the salty air, the people I met. It changed my life. It opened up my world. When I returned home, I became obsessed with maps and the places in my Geography textbook. I wanted to visit every single page I thumbed through; Mount Fuji, the pyramids of Egypt, the Great Barrier Reef, all of it. I no longer felt trapped in the walls of my high school; I knew that there was an entire, moving world out there to discover.
After many more road trips out west, I moved to Colorado in 2011. I discovered who I was as a person in the Rocky Mountains. I was constantly surrounded with adventures and rough terrain that really pushed me and allowed me to discover what I was capable of. Colorado will always be my home, but my lust for traveling and new adventures is so strong that I now travel full-time.
I have now seen all 3,000 miles of the Rocky Mountains, a sunrise from the easternmost point in the world, I’ve lived on a boat amongst the Lesser Sunda Islands, I learned the Maori Haka around a campfire on the shores of New Zealand and I don’t plan on stopping there.
I started She Wandered West because A) I wanted to document my travels and B) I got tired of travel blogs always making travel look perfect. I enjoy the mishap stories, and have plenty of them! My travels are low budget, spontaneous [my money is planned diligently but my destinations change with the wind] and minimalist [I live out of a backpack]. My diet is strict. I eat a vegan and gluten free diet – both because I want to and to keep my Autoimmune Disease at bay – which adds an extra challenge to international travel. Not everything about traveling is easy and glamorous, but it is all worth it, and I’m here to make it easier for you. Don’t take life too seriously!
Want to get in touch? Click on CONTACT ME.