Becky Wood

I see your Elf on a Shelf and raise you Snack on a Shack. 😝 🍫 #ad ❄️ 🐕 I’ve been trying my best to keep the ho-ho-hums from stealing my Christmas spirit and tbh am failing pretty miserably. Yesterday I cried on the couch into a glass of eggnog at 3pm because I miss my friends, I miss my family, I miss fun. But Sunday was a good day. ❄️ We bundled up, hit the café for a breakfast burrito, then hit the highway, blasting Christmas carols all the way to the trailhead. 🚗 We strapped our snowshoes to our backpacks and stomped through 2 miles of freshly flocked forest until we saw it: a ghost town half-buried in snow, cradled in a majestic cirque of sawtooth peaks. 😍 Snowshoes on. Fresh powder. Blue skies. Colorful dots of GoreTex on the slopes above. Families laughing all around us.⛷ I usually seek solitude when I hike. But seeing people so happy during covid, especially in a lonesome ghost town, gave me the most joy I’d felt all week. The babies! I wanted to squeeze every snowsuited starfish of a toddler, so well-padded they couldn’t hold their limbs straight, waddling around with arms and legs flung wide. ⭐️ The dogs! Off-leash and off-the-charts excited, dashing through the snow in clouds of boundless joy (Juno in her scarf included.) 🐕 The snacks! A Chocolate Peppermint Stick @lunabar to keep me energized and feeling festive as we attempted to take family Christmas card photos. Juno didn’t cooperate, but I didn’t care. 😂 🍫 It’s going to be a long, hard winter in a lot of ways, so I’m collecting these little snowglobes of happy moments. The little things that bring me joy. Snacks and smiles. Dogs and babies. Peppermint and chocolate. Sun and snow. ❄️ #LUNABarCrew #LUNAChocolatePeppermintStick #outdoorwomen #alpinebabes #likeamountaingirl #sheexplores #mountaingirls #andshesdopetoo #coloradohikes #coloradohiking #explorecolorado #visitcolorado #womenwhoexplore #journeyswithjuno #52hikechallenge #alltrails #findmeoutside #radgirlslife #coloradogirl #adventuregirl #idhikethat #mayflowergulch #outdoorbella #peoplewhoadventure #allaboutadventures #radgirlslife #findyourmountain #sheisthewild #outdooradventures

Hey, remember when the internet was ✨FUN?!✨👀 Lately social media feels like a fridge I open & close every few minutes when I’m bored, but there’s never anything great. 😬 Ads & algorithms pushing my real friends’ content down-feed, political misinformation, bots, trolls, Karens, constant comparison & wondering if I’m doing enough, more ads, more algorithms... 🤦🏻‍♀️ If you’ve ever taken a social media break because it was fcking with your mental health (🙋🏻‍♀️) or seen The Social Dilemma on Netflix, you know what I’m talking about. That’s why I’m psyched to partner with @mozilla @firefox to Unfck the Internet, one small digital decision at a time. 💥 5 easy ways to get started: 🦊 Switch to Firefox, the only major browser that doesn’t sell (or even collect) your data. It’s run by the nonprofit @Mozilla so they don’t make $$$ off you like the other guys! 🍿 Watch The Social Dilemma on Netflix to see how your data is used online 😬 🙅🏻‍♀️ Keep what happens off Facebook, *off* Facebook with Firefox’s Facebook Container extension, which keeps FB from following you around the web (which they’re totally doing right now, by the way, even if you don’t have an account!) 😳 🗞 Support quality journalism by using Pocket  🤑 Remember that if you’re not paying for a product...YOU are the product. 💕 Stop counting your likes & comparing your behind-the-scenes to someone else’s highlight reel. And if you’ve read this far, drop an emoji in the comments to say hey? ☃️🎄😍 👋 Gotta feed the algorithm until we can fix it. 😂 Tap my link in bio to help unfck the internet with @firefox ! With love from my internet to yours, Becky #UnfckTheInternet #ad #hbtfirefox

We’re back, baby!! #clifbarcrew #clifseasonalflavors #ad After a month-long closure due to fires, my favorite hike in Rocky Mountain National Park opened back up this weekend. Seeing the familiar sights of frozen waterfalls and lumbering elk, friendly chickadees and grumpy jays made me extra emotional, recalling the awful, smoky weeks spent frantically refreshing InciWeb praying for their safety. Now Emerald Lake is open again, frozen solid and as beautiful as ever. 💕 And you know what else is back? The Peppermint Bark @clifbar ! 😋 They’re only around this time of year and add a bit of tasty cheer to all my snowy hikes. (If you like the year-round Cool Mint Chocolate flavor like I do, you’ll love Peppermint Bark.) There’s a yummy Iced Gingerbread one, too! Even better, every bar supports @americanforests as part of Clif’s mission to plant 1 million trees by 2025. 🌲 More forests means more carbon captured, more crystal-clear air and water, and more homes for the friendly chickadees and grumpy jays we love. 🐦 Tips for hiking Emerald Lake in winter (save for later): 🚗 Park at the Bear Lake Trailhead near Estes Park. It fills up early, especially on weekends, so get there by 8am or after 2pm. 🧊 Bring spikes for the slippery snow and ice! Seriously, the trail is like polished marble in parts. (Yesterday we saw five tumbles in the first mile. Only one other group made it to the lake!) 🥾 Just 1.8 miles each way, but the steep snow makes it feel longer. Bring a snack (like a seasonal Clif Bar) for the trip. 🧊 You’ll pass three smaller frozen lakes (Bear, Nymph, and Dream) before reaching Emerald. Wear insulated leggings or pants so you can slide around like a little kid without freezing your 🍑 off. 😂 #coloradohikes #hikecolorado #womenwhohike #girlswhohike #coloradogirl #colorado #andshesdopetoo #choosemountains #choosemountainswomen #outtherecolorado #sheexplores #womenontheroad #hiking #womenwhoexplore #rockymountainnationalpark #estespark #dreamlakecolorado #emeraldlakecolorado

Socks n’ crocs + stroll before scroll = my secret to happy WFH days.☀️ #sponsored What’s stroll before scroll? It’s my goal-turned-habit of getting out of bed and on a walk with Juno before I check my phone in the morning, to clear my head before I try to clear my inbox. The second I slide my feet out of bed and into my @crocs Slides, Juno starts jumping for joy like an extra-fluffy Tigger, launching her 60 pounds of chonk so high she rattles the dishes in the cupboard with each bounce. 😂 And once she starts bouncing, I can’t NOT take her on a walk. (Swipe to see some poorly coordinated jumps 😝) We stroll, we sniff, we breathe, and it sets the tone for a purposeful day before I spend so much of it staring at screens. If you’re a digital dopamine addict/social media feed-fiend like me, it’s a tough habit to adopt — but it’s the best thing I’ve done for myself this year. The new @crocs Slide is to WFH life what their classic clog is to camping: the ultimate comfort shoe. The Crocs slogan, #ComeAsYouAre , can also describe one of my favorite positive side effects of 2020: being more comfortable showing up as ourselves. Faced with what’s really important in life, we’ve started to shed our pixel-perfect personas and become a little more relaxed, a little more real. I’ve seen inside all of my clients’ homes now and met their babies and pets, but I’ve also seen THEM in vulnerable, human ways I wouldn’t have if life had kept going as “normal.” It’s acceptable now to join a professional Zoom in overalls, socks n’ crocs, but it’s also acceptable to show emotions, have a full life outside of work, and be yourself. Even when life goes back to normal, I hope that part stays normal, too. And as we slide/stroll into another week, I hope you take a few minutes for yourself. ❤️

Y’all know it’s public record whether you vote or not, right? We can’t see WHO you voted for, but we can see who decided to sit this one out. We have the receipts. So imagine it’s 2021 and, god forbid, Trump’s “victory” brings us to full-on demagogue dystopia. If someone like me is evaluating you as a potential love interest, friend, or employee and sees that you DIDN’T VOTE in the 2020 election?!?! Game over. No joke. Elections, like life, are determined by the people who show up. I hope you show up for your fellow humans, your planet, and your own future today, if you haven’t already. Not voting is not a protest — it’s a surrender. (If you’re voting in Colorado and need a ride/snack/company today, DM me. My county didn’t need any more poll workers and I need something to do!) P.S. Trump will likely declare “victory” early tonight/tomorrow after a lead from in-person voting. It’s not over until every.last.vote. is counted. See you in Stories while we wait, and if he tries something fishy?! See you in the streets. 📸 by @michaelunderwood of a good day in a bad year. I hope someday I can look back at this photo, this year and think “wow, that was a dark time but I’m glad it’s over!” and not “I wish I’d known then how much worse it could get.”

Cauliflower is ghost broccoli so this counts as a Halloween post, right?? 👻 🥦 If you’re ghosting gluten like I am, @outeraislegourmet cauliflower Sandwich Thins at @sprouts are a treat so tasty it feels like a trick! 🎃 I started ghosting gluten a few months ago, partially because I gained the quaran-ten during the bread-baking part of early lockdown and wanted to keep it from becoming the covid-nineteen. 😅 #OuterAisle Sandwich Thins and Pizza Crusts were an easy swap, and one I’m still making even though I sometimes eat gluten now. They’re versatile enough for sweet potato or carnitas tacos, shakshuka-scooper-uppers, burger buns, avo toast, and even mini pizzas w/ prosciutto, burrata, & balsamic glaze. 😋 Cauliflower can pull off so many costumes, Halloween or not! (And as a meme I saw the other day said, “if cauliflower can be pizza, you can be anything you want.” 😝 💕) Find #OuterAisle Sandwich Thins at your local @sprouts ! 😋 P.S. Sometimes adventure is climbing a mountain; sometimes it’s dodging a phalanx of shopping carts and masked mamas on a random Tuesday trying to get a decent photo (and cracking yourself and your photographer up because you’re the most awkward ✨influencer✨ever.) 😂 Juno was hanging out the open window of my car dressed as a taco while we took photos, which conveniently distracted shoppers on their way in long enough for my friend Dallin to snap the shot. 😂 See Stories for the taco and Juno’s costumes throughout the years! 🌮 And speaking of tacos, I’m about to make some #OuterAisle tacos for lunch. 😋 Happy Halloweekend y’all! #OuterAisle #sproutsfarmersmarket #sprouts #teamsprouts #hbtouteraislenowatsprouts #hbtsponsored

Just me in my happy place (an aspen grove) in my Colorado hat reminding you to VOTE as if your house is on fire, because it is. 🔥 Also, please get a flu shot. ❤️ That’s it, that’s the post. I usually share long, thoughtful captions that test my followers’ attentions spans and the IG character limit. But sometimes, all the words are spent because I wrote thousands of them for clients this week and I just wanna share a selfie. 🤷🏻‍♀️ It was a good hair day and a good day all around, in a year where good days seem more rare. But there ARE still good days, with many more good days to come. You are loved and we’re gonna get through this together. 💛

If there was ever a TV show about our road trips it’d be “Bookstores, Bakeries, & Burritos” (apologies to Guy Fieri) because that’s what I’ll drive 100 miles out of my way or pull a hasty U-turn for. 😋 When I’m home planning my next trip — Utah & New Mexico next month!— my burrito of choice is the @luvcoolbeans vegan frozen burrito, now available at @sprouts . It’s quick and yummy plant-based protein, ready in 3 minutes between Zoom calls. Just heat & eat! 😋 (Pssst - it’s also gluten-free.) Tap my link in bio to find where Cool Beans is carried near you! #eatcoolbeans #luvcoolbeans #coolbeans #ad #hbtcoolbeans #journeyswithjuno

Too close to home. 2 new wildfires in 2 days with flames just 10 miles from my front door. (And that’s on top of the Big One, the biggest fire in CO history, that’s been smoking up the skies for 2 months now, just 20 miles away. And the dozens of other wildfires raging across the west, each a Big One for someone.) We’re safe, just smoky. And heartbroken, and headache-y, and helpless. When the fire jumped the highway, it only burned one home in my town — the ranch owned by my 89 year-old friend Ken. He’s safe, as are Jib, Gamby, and Abby the horses and Trouble the Cow, who you might remember from my Instagram Stories. But the ranch is a total loss, razed to its very foundations. When I texted Ken to offer support, he told me there was nothing to help with because there’s nothing left. 😭 Too close to home. It’s one thing to watch CA go up in flames on the internet, devastating places I lived and love. Orange skies over my old house in Oakland, such smoke you can’t see Half Dome from Tunnel View, and my favorite resupply spot on the John Muir Trail, my home away from home last summer, evacuated in a daring nighttime rescue by military chopper. But now it’s here, too, threatening my new homes away from home in the form of my favorite hiking trails. You can see the flames at night, smoldering through the forest. I’ve cried for the hawks and foxes, moose and marmots, elk and bluebirds who lived there, but also, admittedly, for myself. Too close to home. That’s 2020 in a nutshell, isn’t it? Our lives are smaller, lonelier; leaving home more fraught. Many days this year I couldn’t even leave my home itself — first an airborne virus, still far from gone, and then a thick smoke that burns my throat, makes microscopic holes in my lungs and gives me a raging headache. I’m okay, just angry and heartbroken and helpless. But not hopeless. I’m about to go drop off my ballot, then mail some celebratory cards to friends — one with a new baby, one with a new job, one with a new home. Today there’s a bit of blue sky beyond all the gray, and it doesn’t hurt to breathe in my backyard. 📸 from happier times aka 2 weeks ago. 😂 Sending blue skies & big smiles your way!

I am not a morning person. Sometimes I think 90% of the reason I went freelance is so I could decline all morning meetings and never set an alarm again. Mornings are infinitely more peaceful and pleasant when you wake up naturally, with the sun, and pleasant mornings generally lead to pleasant days (which is my definition of success.) But sometimes, once in a bright blue moon, there are things worth setting an alarm for. I punched my alarm off at 3:15AM and begrudgingly began the pitch-black ascent in my pajamas, fueled by nibbles of Clif bar, swigs of iced instant coffee and a bit of bleary-eyed resentment. The stars were still out, and falling ones streaked the sky at each headlamp-lit pee break. As we stomped up the switchbacks, the air thinner and our noses colder with each step, color leaked onto the landscape. We stopped every few minutes, frozen fingers be damned, to take more photos and delight in the light from as an as-yet sleeping sun. “How does it get EVEN PRETTIER?!” I squealed at the flaming clouds, spinning my iPhone around to capture Melanie’s happy dance, Michael’s smile, and Juno’s patient glowing eyes. We raced the sun up the final approach, coaxed Juno up The Scramble (unnecessary, as she’s part mountain goat,) and found ourselves panting on the peak JUST as the sun crested the clouds. Even with a thin cloak of smoke, you could see a hundred miles — on a clear day, all the way to New Mexico. Uncompahgre is the ceiling of the San Juans, the tallest of fourteen 14,000-foot peaks sprinkled with snow that we surveyed from our frigid perch. The wind tried its best to blow us off the peak, succeeding with one of the sparkly paper party hats I’d brought for Melanie’s birthday. We lingered long enough for the birthday girl to shotgun a pumpkin beer — the best way to kick off a fresh new year on a fresh new day. Happy as we were there, I found myself looking forward to more: to birthday parties post-pandemic, more summits, a post-hike meal, and that time a few hours away when I’d finally feel warm again, peel off my sweaty layers, and squint at the sun we’d just raced above the clouds. I am not a morning person. But I’m a sunrise person. 💛

I opened my front door this morning to clouds of fine white ash swirling through the sky like sinister snowflakes. More wildfire smoke from more uncontained forest fires. I ran back inside to grab an N95 mask to wear underneath my COVID-19 mask — already coughing, eyes burning, from a single breath of poison air. 😷 Now, after the world’s shortest walk, Juno looks like she sat in someone’s lap while they ate a dozen powdered sugar donuts. But that’s too cute an analogy for what she’s ✨actually✨ covered in, which is carcinogenic carbon particles from trees brutally murdered by the oil & gas industry and decades of climate inaction.💀⁣ ⁣ The ash is in my car, in my house, and in my lungs, despite the expensive indoor air purifier I’m very lucky to have and that turns purple to signify Extremely Unhealthy Air Quality™️ every time I open the front door. 😭 ⁣ ⁣ I freaking hate this. ⁣ ⁣ And I’m not experiencing the worst of it, not even close. ⁣ ⁣ And it’s only going to get worse. ⁣ ⁣ Skies are still turning black and red across the west, even if they’re not in your social feeds anymore (or never were.) The people stuck inside are the lucky ones, while the farm workers, firefighters, postpeople, and teenagers I saw coughing while working the line at Chick-Fil-A today risk serious side effects just being outdoors.⁣ ⁣ It’s permanent golden hour here, hazy and pink but horrible for what it signifies — the sunset not of a single day but of our liveable, breathable planet. ⁣😢 ⁣ I know the wind will shift and the smoke will clear, probably even tomorrow. The sky will be blue and sparkling, the air crisp and clean, and Juno and I will once again take neighborhood walks around the lake with singing birds to cheer us on. ⁣ ⁣ But I don’t want to forget the fear I’m feeling now. If you’ve been enjoying a smoke-free summer, I hope you feel a little of my fear, too. ⁣ ⁣ In the words of Greta Thurnberg, vote like your house is on fire. Because it is. ⁣🔥 ✨ more fun festive fall content when I can breathe again 😷 🍁 please please please make a pumpkin-spiced plan to VOTE!! ✨