Posts in Nature
Travel With Me: Yellowstone National Park (Day One)
Travel With Me: Yellowstone National Park (Day One)

Last week, I was given the amazing opportunity to travel to Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park as research for a novella. This trip was funded by a grant I was awarded by the English department at Minnesota State University, Mankato, where I'm currently obtaining my MFA in Creative Writing. It was nine days in total, including four 12-13 hour driving days, and I brought along my forever traveling partner, Mary, and my brother. Using research from other bloggers' itineraries and improvisations due to time constraints and weather, we conquered almost all of Yellowstone's coolest spots in four jam-packed days. Let's get started with day one!

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Nature, TravelHannah Schultzyellowstone national park, itinerary, day one, wyoming, wapiti, cody, lake, mud volcano, hayden valley, norris geyser basin, porcelain basin, back basin, steamboat geyser, mammoth hot springs, wildlife, prairie dogs, ground squirrel, elk, black bear, grizzly bear, cubComment
Wind Cave National Park: Touring the world's densest cave and seeing 95 percent of the earth's boxwork
Wind Cave National Park: Touring the world's densest cave and seeing 95 percent of the earth's boxwork

According to Lakota tradition, Wind Cave is where their people's souls emerged from the earth before their creation event. They held the site as sacred, aware of its existence long before brothers Tom and Jesse Bingham stumbled upon the natural entrance, an inexplicably windy hole in the ground, in 1881. By 1903, it had become America's first cave designated as a national park.

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Travel, NatureHannah Schultzsouth dakota, lakota, wind cave, national park, boxwork, 95, percent, cave, badlands, black hills, custer state park, garden of eden, popcorn, formation, bison, prairie dogs, flowstone, calcite, limestone, explorerComment
Succulents: A Year of Co-Habitating with Nature (A Collection Update)
Succulents: A Year of Co-Habitating with Nature (A Collection Update)

About a year ago, I bought my first succulents on a whim. I wanted a little piece of one of my favorite places on earth (the Oxford Botanical Garden) in my undergrad dorm room and purchased six succulents in two terra-cotta window planters. Since then, I've learned a lot about succulents, had some ups and downs, and expanded my collection. I'm living my 10-year-old self's dream and slowly accumulating a jungle inside my apartment. 

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NatureHannah SchultzSucculents, collection, panda plant, baby toes, ghost plant, blue giant, drunkard's dream, moon cactus, burro's tail, golden goddess, aloe vera, sedeveria, hybrid, prickly pear cactus, bunny ears, propagationComment
First Impressions of a Minnesota Blizzard
First Impressions of a Minnesota Blizzard

That brings us to this message that popped up on my phone last weekend: the forecast for my first Minnesota blizzard. And folks, it was a good one. As promised, it snowed bucketfuls overnight Sunday into Monday. Before I fell asleep, MSU called off classes for Monday for severe weather conditions (whiteouts are no joke). When I awoke, everything outside my window was a blindingly bright pure white. The roads were untouched, yards blanketed in smooth marshmallow fluff—that oddly satisfying vision of unblemished perfection. 

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NatureHannah Schultzfirst, impressions, minnesota, blizzard, snow, snowstorm, kentucky, february, 2015, march, january, mankato, Minnesota State University, msu, mnsu, plow, snow dayComment
A Wintry Trip to the Minnesota Zoo
A Wintry Trip to the Minnesota Zoo

Because I'm a biology nerd who loves animals, I love going on "dates" to the zoo or aquarium. One of my all-time favorite memories of my semester abroad in Europe was a wintry visit to the Dortmund Zoo in Germany with Ryan, and that zoo earned my top spot for its South American giant otter exhibit and a free-ranging sloth. Now that Ryan and I are long distance once again, we needed to make a tradition out of our off-season zoo trip and check out the nearest one in my new locale: the Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley, MN.

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Nature, TravelHannah Schultzminnesota, minnesota zoo, apple valley, otter, otters, sea otter, river otter, asian small-clawed otter, wolves, wolf, bear, lynx, bald eagle, caribou, camelsComment
My happy place: University of Oxford Botanic Garden (ft. baby succulents)
My happy place: University of Oxford Botanic Garden (ft. baby succulents)

The glasshouses were my favorite spot in the entire city. There were palm trees and coconuts, pitcher plants and lilies, lemon and orange trees. It was life, and life abundant. I could (and, in fact, did) spend countless minutes crouching and staring at the pond in the Lily House or trying to find every yellow plant to match my rain jacket. One glasshouse even included the corpse flower, which is a giant flowering plant that smells like rotting meat to attract flies for pollination. It is native to the rainforests of Sumatra, and this was the first time I'd ever seen one in person. 

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Nature, TravelHannah SchultzOxford University, Botanical Garden, Succulents, Venus flytrap, cactus, cacti, Lowe's, botanic gardenComment
Slippery souls: The otter's survival instinct
Slippery souls: The otter's survival instinct

Otters are often misunderstood creatures. We've all seen the adorable videos of otters playing with a lucky group of people in a swimming pool. Or the latest video of otters at a zoo nosing snow off a wooden bridge. It was this mesmerizing cuteness that beguiled the public and led to the conservation of otters in Europe when their numbers in the wild were dipping.

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NatureHannah SchultzOtters, otter, conservation, aquarium, sea otter, Dortmund, Newport, riesenotter, zwergotter, giant river otter, asian small-clawed otter, environmentalism, advocacy, Wildlife conservation society, international otter survival fund, otter country, miriam darlington Comment