Hiking information for families, beginning hikers and more advanced trekkers. Includes hiking trails and training, hiking destinations such as National and State Parks as well as International destinations and more local trails.
Or if you still have questions, here’s everything you need to know about Amazon Prime Early Access Days, now through July 11 (when Prime Day officially starts)!
What are Amazon Prime Early Access Days?
Prime Early Access Days are now thru July 11
Amazon – the huge online store that sells everything on Earth and delivers it right to your front door – has a humongous sale every year that’s called Prime Day.
This year, the annual Prime Day online shopping event is a major 2-day opportunity on July 11-12 to nab some major bargains on everything they sell online!
Get discounts on everything you need for a Summer adventure!
But products all across the Amazon site are discounted for Prime members already, and Early Access deals have been added on top of that!
This year, Early Access Daysallow members to get an even earlier jump on things! But you need to be a Prime Member to get the savings.
If you haven’t done it yet, click the banner below for your free 30-day Trial:
Early Access Days allow Prime Members to get great deals BEFORE the usual start of Amazon Prime Days for great Summer and Back-to-School deals.
That said, with your Prime membership you can get deals on everyday things you need for your household, too.
Prime Early Access is happening now!
I’m not a fan of conspicuous consumption, but everyone needs things for their home, their kids – and of course outdoor gear– and I am a big fan of getting quality items that you need at the best possible price!
Prime Early Access Dayscan help you do that. (Membership is free for 30 days, so you can use it until the sale is over, and then cancel if you like.)
Whether you’ve been lusting after a big ticket tech, fitness and outdoor gear, new household items, or just want to get the kids’ Back-to-School stuff at a discount, now would be the time to go for it!
Find deals on gear for your epic adventure!
This page contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through an affiliate link, I will receive a small payment at no additional cost to you. I do not get paid for recommendations, all opinions on this site are my own. See full Disclosure page here.
Click here to start your 30-Day Free Trial!
Your membership will not only let you get the deals on Prime Early Access Daysand Prime Day, but you’ll also have access to Amazon Prime:
Books,
Music,
Photos,
Next day delivery,
and other benefits, including access to Prime Video.
All you need is an Amazon Prime account with a valid credit card tied to the account.
Once you sign up, you’ll have access to all the Prime benefits, including Prime Early Access and the biggest shopping event of the year!
Okay, after you have a Prime membership, you can access all of the deals – and some have already started!!
Get all the deals you need to have a great getaway!
Deals Are Happening Now
Amazon Prime Early Access is already happening!
These Early Access deals are live right now and available through 11:59 p.m. PT on July 10, then Prime Day officially starts!
Hiking on the island of Corfu, Greece.
Hiking Gear on Sale? It Could Happen.
If you’ve been eyeballing something on the I’d Rather Walk gear and household pages below, you should take another look during Prime Day, to see if anything you want is on sale!
Some of the items on these pages are at a special price for Amazon Prime members, whether or not it’s Early Access Days, so be sure to get your membershipbefore you buy.
I hope this info has been helpful. Happy bargain hunting! 🙂
Thanks for stopping by – see you next time! LJ
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Myrtle Beach, South Carolina is a favorite Summer family vacation spot!
Located in the center of the 60-mile long stretch of beach known as “The Grand Strand”, it’s one of the major tourist destinations in the entire country, attracting over 20M visitors each year.
Myrtle Beach Spring Break
Spring Break reveler at Myrtle Beach 🙂
Myrtle Beach is also a notorious Spring Break destination, but it’s not what you think!
The Spring Break crowd in Myrtle typically has adult supervision and isn’t the crazy College break scene like you get in Fort Lauderdale.
So Myrtle Beach is a good choice for both adult travelers and families with school-aged children on Easter break.
Winter at the Beach
I usually go to Myrtle in the off-season, because it’s both less crowded and less expensive then.
North Myrtle Beach in February.
And I like the beach in the Winter, because you can walk by the water for miles without suffering heat stroke 😉
That said, more things are open in the Summer season, when more people are around.
Read on to learn about fun activities I’ve found in every season – including the beach – that work for adult travelers and families, too.
I finally got to explore the Great Channels on Brumley Mountain, Virginia earlier this Fall after obsessing over it for nearly a year!
On the Navajo Trail in Bryce Canyon, Utah
The Great Channels sit at the summit of a mountain, and features a maze of slot canyons similar to those you might find in the parks in Utah or Arizona.
But the Great Channels formation is a surprise geologic gem hidden in southwest Virginia!
Anyway, last year, while planning a hiking trip to Grayson Highlands State Park (more on that later), I stumbled across an article about the Great Channels.
“Stumbled” is probably not the best word for a hiker to use, but you know what I mean 😉
I made some new friends at Grayson Highlands State Park.
The Channels are a series of deep crevices worn into prehistoric sandstone outcrops, where you can walk down into the maze-like network of crevices and explore.
You can also climb up on top of the Channels to get a stunning 360 view of the surrounding mountains!
Read on to learn how you can hike to the Great Channels, too.
I found Apple Hill Farm – a working Alpaca textile farm – when I was hiking out in the Grandfather Mountain area few weeks ago.
I was looking for an activity to take a break from hiking (uphill!) in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, but was still outdoors.
Apple Hill Farm was the perfect find! It’s a working textile farm on the site of an old apple orchard that offers farm tours, and even has a fiber gift shop on site.
Alpaca graze at Apple Hill Farm.
The farm was started in 2002 by a single Mom (and cancer survivor) with just 2 pregnant female alpacas and one young male.
Today Apple Hill Farm is home to 9 kinds of animals: alpacas, llamas, angora goats, zebu cattle, horses, pigs, donkeys, chickens, and livestock guardian dogs.
The farm site includes 15 fields, 4 barns, and a farm store on 43 acres of land.
They’re still a working textile farm, and lucky for us, they now also give visitors educational tours of the farm all year round.
Read on to learn about my tour, and how you can visit too.
I’ve been driving the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP) in North Carolina and Virginia to get between places for more than 25 years.
But, I have to admit – until the last couple of years – I have completely neglected Blue Ridge Parkway hikes!
Then last year, a hiking friend introduced me to the Rock Castle Gorge trail near Rocky Knob on the BRP. Ever since then I’ve kept an eye peeled for new Parkway hikes I could try.
Tunnel beneath the BRP on a carriage road at Moses Cone Memorial Park.
And this summer… I found some! 🙂
This past season, I hiked some trails in and around Grandfather Mountain State Park (more on that later) and found myself driving the Parkway more than once to get from my lodgings in Banner Elk, NC to nearby trailheads and attractions.
One afternoon I finished a hike earlier than planned, and spotted Moses Cone Memorial Park on the way back.
It was a beautiful day, and I still had a couple of hours until sundown so I stopped to check it out.
Hike the carriage roads to the Flat Top Observation Tower.
I found beautiful grounds with 25 miles of hikes along old carriage roads, including a 5-mile RT hike to the Flat Rock Observation Tower!
Read on to learn more about the Flat Top Tower hike in Moses Cone Memorial Park and all of the other beautiful bridle and hiking trails you can experience there, too.
To celebrate the re-opening (and “re-imagining”) of the North Carolina Museum of Art’s newly updated collection galleries, the Museum is kicked off an opening weekend October 7-October 9 with a whole host of activities each day.
Newly updated collections open to the public this weekend at NCMA.
Though the celebration is over, the updated galleries and collections are still there to enjoy and explore!
The People’s Collection got a major facelift!
I was excited to receive an invitation to a Press preview of the “re-imagined” galleries earlier this week, and I have to say, I was both relieved and impressed.
Relieved because whenever someone uses the word “re-imagined” – most notably when doing a remake of a beloved movie classic of the 80s or 90s – the result is usually a disappointment.
And impressed because I’m happy to report that is NOT the case with the re-imagined collections and galleries at the NC Museum of Art!
One of the new spaces to explore in the West building.
New River Gorge National Park and Preserve in West Virginia is our nation’s 63rd – and newest – National Park.
Rock wall along the Rend Trail in the Thurmond area.
The park encompasses over 70,000 acres of land along 53 miles of the New River from Bluestone Dam to Hawk’s Nest Lake.
In spite of it’s name, the New River is one of the oldest rivers on Earth, and has carved the deepest and longest river gorge in the Appalachian Mountains – dropping 750 feet over 50 miles!
More than a million people visit the gorge each year to kayak, canoe, and fish in the river or hike, bike, and camp on the land.
For the past two years, I’ve been one of them!
Each Summer, my family has a reunion in Indiana over the July 4th holiday.
One of the smaller Falls at Sandstone Falls in the Park.
It’s a long drive, so on the return trip I’ve stopped at New River Gorge National Park to break up the drive and check it out.
The first year, I only had a day at the Park, but this time I scheduled 4 whole days! I was NOT disappointed 🙂
I made the journey to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia again this Spring, specifically to (finally!) hike the iconic Old Rag summit hike.
Until this year, Old Rag was my Moby Hike – the one that got away!
It was the hike that got away – my Moby Hike!
I’ve had plans to hike Old Rag for the past three years – but each attempt was thwarted by weather or logistics.
So I went back to try again – and I’m so glad I did!
It was a perfect-weather weekday in May before all of the families started their Summer vacations, so there were other hikers on the trail, but the place wasn’t over-run.
There’s a long rock scramble to the mountain’s summit that works better with some teamwork – especially if you’re a little bit vertically challenged, like I am 🙂
I conquered Old Rag, then I found a couple of other rock-scrambly hikes in Shenandoah that were a little less daunting to do the next day.
Read on to learn how you can hike Old Rag, and those other hikes too!
