Traveling Solo

In December, I graduated college and received a National Parks

pass as a gift. The mixture of freedom from school and the National Parks pass unsurprisingly set off my need to travel. So I decided that in a week, on New Years Day, I was going on a two week trip to several Southwest National Parks…by myself. That was where most people had a problem. My parents offered that one of them could come with me for part of it and then fly home or they suggested I invite a friend. I considered it for an hour or two, but I was resolute. I wanted to travel alone. Honestly, I didn’t exactly know why. I just knew I needed to do it. Everyone who I told, said I was crazy or unprepared or that it was unsafe as a small woman to be alone. But I didn’t care. I planned and packed and got excited. I decided to finally visit some National Parks that I had been dying to see for years and to revisit some of my favorites. Everything quickly came together and I was packed and ready to go on New Years Eve. At 5:30 on New Years Day, I got in the car and set off…all by myself.

Traveling alone is an interesting experience with ups and downs. Traveling alone as a woman… that’s a whole different experience, something I quickly learned on my trip. Either way, I highly advise doing a solo trip. As a solo traveler, you have complete control over everything. Everyday, I chose when I wanted to wake-up, eat, sleep, whether I wanted to hike, relax, sightsee, where I wanted to go, what I listened to, where I slept…EVERYTHING. There was a sense of freedom that came with these choices and I truly can’t emphasize how wonderful that freedom felt.

Of course there are some draw backs to going alone. With all of those choices comes a certain pressure to do everything. That pressure can cause frustration when you have to choose between several things you really want to do. Another problem is that since you are alone, you have to set up camp and make dinner all by yourself, which isn’t a big deal unless you drove for several hours and then hiked and then arrived at the campsite exhausted at sunset in 20-degree weather (which happened more than you’d think), that’s when having a partner would have been nice. And of course, there's the photography issue. If you want any photos of yourself you have to resort to selfies, begging some random person or you have to get creative. I used a mixture of the three but there were times when I couldn't capture the beauty and myself in the photo and there was no one around to help me.

But in the end, being alone was worth it. Even when I struggled, had a few breakdowns and was bored and even when I was happy, and excited and everything was perfect, I didn’t need to share it with anyone. I shared my experiences and photos when I got home which was enough. I checked things off my bucket list, things I didn’t even know I had, and I faced problems and fears that I didn’t know I could handle (like facing my arachnophobia with tarantulas). This trip will not be my last time traveling solo and I cannot wait for my upcoming solo adventures!