Abbey (and climate change) has had a profound effect on my view of traveling. I once had a bucket list to visit every national park (and every continent, and ev

Abbey (and climate change) has had a profound effect on my view of traveling. I once had a bucket list to visit every national park (and every continent, and every wonder, etc), but after reading Desert Solitaire I've tried to better appreciate and pursue a deeper relationship with what's around me (even in somewhere as "dull" and flat as the Midwest), rather than dreaming about and planning shallow, wasteful trips to other places. One quote in particular has really stuck with me: "A man on foot, on horseback or on a bicycle will see more, feel more, enjoy more in one mile than the motorized tourists can in a hundred miles." Looking over the tens of thousands of miles I've traveled, it's always the hiking/walking that's the most memorable, despite being the tiniest proportion, in distance, time, and cost. Whether hiking to Half Dome or walking around my local park, forest preserve, or neighborhood, there's so much more to experience. Most tourists today are just checking off items on their list and taking a selfie for Instagram, then moving on to the next item, without ever really experiencing anything.