Happy New Year Y’all and greetings from Boise. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, Hanukkah or whatever other holiday you may have been celebrating this month. I had a nice time in New Hampshire with my family over the last couple of weeks, with a fantastic Christmas at my brother’s house. The last two days included a long drive back to Washington DC and then an equally long flight back to the West Coast yesterday, so I’m pretty beat. I’ll tell you - it is one thing to gently ease into winter temperatures over the months while living in my van and another thing entirely to have central heat for a month and then glide back into Idaho winter at the end of December. But I’m very happy to be back with my van and with you fine people.
This year has been a tough one, with the loss of my dad, my Uncle Blaine, my Aunt Nancy, my cousin Meghan and several dear friends. But it has also been a year of learning a lot about myself and what I am capable of. I’ve also seen some beautiful and amazing places in 2025. When I left home at the end of July, I had a list of things which were going to help me heal: beaches, mountains, lighthouses, islands, small towns, national parks and books. The Pacific Northwest was a perfect place to spend these last 5 months, and I have included some of my favorite photos and places from this most recent part of my tour with this newsletter. I hope you enjoy looking back at some of these places as much as I did.
I will be here in Boise for a few days as I get my bearings back, try and catch up on some of the photos I planned to get to over Christmas but didn’t, and make a plan for the weeks to come. My current thought is that I will head back into Oregon and then south towards Nevada. I will spend a few weeks exploring Northern Nevada (with a quick dip over to Lake Tahoe to see some friends), and then make my way into Utah for a while. If all goes well, I will be on the road through all of 2026 with the hope of spending the whole summer in the Rocky Mountains. I plan on a lot more nature, more hiking, more landscape photography and more deep dives into the National Parks in 2026. It should be an amazing year and I hope you’ll come along for the ride. Happy New Year to you all, near and far. May 2026 be fantastic for us all.
-Mike
The Beautiful Ingomar Club in Eureka