Travel Essay — Maps & Mochas

Rivers in the Desert: A Roadtrip to Utah's Canyonlands

For a few sunny days in March, I was confronted by the west.

And for a few sunny days in March, I was confronted by the things that had been weighing on my heart during the previous months.

Because, real talk: I spent the first three months of this year stuck firmly in 2018. It had been both a beautiful year and a heartbreaking year crunched together, like strangers sat uncomfortably close to one another on a subway train at rush hour.

This is an essay on my roadtrip to Moab, Utah + a few thoughts on desert prayers.

Travel EssayAlly WillisSeptember 4, 20192019 Comment

Not Quite Mt. Everest (In Any Way Whatsoever): A Hike Across South Mountain in Phoenix

Not to get all “the mountains are calling and I must go” on you, but I do understand the desire to be a tiny speck wandering in the wilds. However, my safety-first personality beckons that my wilderness adventures remain at an altitude a smidge lower than 29,000 feet (unless, of course, in a pressurized cabin with lightly salted peanuts), and so it’s with this in mind that I begin the tale of my February hike across a desert mountain. (Spoiler: No one dies.)

This is a story of our low-risk (but high reward!) hiking adventure across South Mountain in Phoenix, as well as additional area hiking and dining suggestions.

Travel EssayAlly WillisJune 7, 2019 Comment

A Weekend in Sedona

To Sedona, you drive north from Phoenix through dusty lands of short shrubs and Saguaro forests, rugged mountains of black rock and rolling plains of nothingness as your backdrop. The road takes you through a charmingly-named “Bloody Basin” and onward through a changing landscape of distant snow-capped peaks and highway signs flashing warnings of ice and snow on roads further north. And quite suddenly, there to your left on the horizon you see it—the cliffs glinting red like hot coals against the sunset’s light, the towers growing higher and redder as you near.

This my red rock reflection + hiking recommendations for your own weekend in Sedona, AZ!

Travel Essay, City GuideAlly WillisJanuary 30, 2019December 2018, November 2018, 2018 Comment

Two Weeks in Canada: Alberta [Part 2]

In June, I spent two weeks in Canada’s British Columbia and Alberta regions, exploring the wild beauty of Canada’s Pacific Coast and Rockies.

These are the details of my second week + recommendations for your own trip to Alberta & the Banff area.

Travel Essay, City GuideAlly WillisJanuary 21, 2019June 2018, 2018 Comment

Two Weeks in Canada: British Columbia [Part 1]

Last June, I spent two weeks exploring Canada’s British Columbia and Alberta regions. It was a trip characterized by wild beauty and a swelling appreciation for the peace offered by a hike in the mountains, an experience of rest that my soul had been thirsting for.

These are the details of my first week + recommendations for your own visit to British Columbia.

Travel Essay, City GuideAlly WillisJanuary 17, 2019June 2018, 2018Comment

You're in Bear Country: What A Hiking Trip in the Canadian Rockies Taught Me About Fear

“You can’t do this,” Fear told me as I stopped to catch my breath midway up the ascent. Other hikers passed by clad in proper hiking gear—waterproof pants, boots with grip, collapsible hiking sticks. I was wearing yoga leggings, a barely-waterproof jacket found on sale at Burlington Coat Factory, and tennis shoes that I had owned since high school. Fear was right—I was not equipped at all for a hike in the Canadian Rockies.

This is an essay on fear, doing hard things, and hiking in the Canadian Rockies.

Travel Essay, City GuideAlly WillisJanuary 11, 2019June 2018, 2018Comment

Look, Listen, Attend: A Week in Southern California

I took a trip to California in April—an idea that was born under the blue skies of another trip west in January, as my friends and I ate pizza after our final hike together in Phoenix. “Let’s go to California,” someone suggested. Why not?

So we booked a week in Los Angeles. On our itinerary: a day hiking in Joshua Tree National Park.

If my home decor and the tattoo on my wrist and my Instagram caption enthusiasm don’t make it clear enough: I am a sucker for the desert, and cactuses in particular. I think the whole place is a magical, martian land, so different from anything I grew up in or experienced for the first 23 years of my life. I could sit on a rock on a desert mountain all day long, and I have, and I will do again exactly this in November.

This is an essay about hope and resurrection + photos & recommendations for your trip to Southern California.

Travel Essay, City GuideAlly WillisNovember 9, 2018April 2018, 2018 Comments

A Return to London

My London is circling Heathrow on our descent while playing The 1975’s “Robbers” on repeat. My London is a tree on Primrose Hill, sitting underneath it year after year, a bit like marking my growth on a door frame.

My London is a Thai restaurant with only six small tables tucked into a room in a square across from the Natural History Museum. My London is a bench on the banks of the Thames, the Shard barely visible behind a brown stone church on the opposite bank.

My London is a mocha and a notebook and all sorts of thoughts ready to wrestle with the blank page. My London is raindrops and wind gusts and grey skies spread wide.

This is an essay on what makes a city feel like home + photos from my trip to London in March 2018.

Travel Essay, City GuideAlly WillisAugust 24, 20182018, March 2018, London Comments

Good Winter: A Weekend in Milwaukee

We were in Milwaukee to see Bon Iver’s show for the 10th anniversary of the album, For Emma, Forever Ago—an appropriate time and place for a band whose name is based on the French “bon hiver”—good winter.

But good is hardly how I would describe winter. I am the scrooge of winter. I can appreciate the season for exactly 25 days in the month of December; once we pass Christmas, I am decidedly over winter, ready to trash it with the torn wrapping paper and leftover cookie crumbs. Most nights are spent hiding under a blanket and watching reruns of New Girl and The Office and longing for the days when the sun stays up past 4:30pm. Outside my apartment windows, tree branches that once carried armfuls of green life now look more like gnarled hands reaching up from the grave. Give me literally any season over winter, please.

This is an essay that asks, “Can winter be good?” + a few recommendations for your own Milwaukee weekend (mainly: the cutest coffee shop).

Travel Essay, City GuideAlly WillisAugust 13, 20182018, February 2018Comment