Northern California

Evan Perigo is a lifestyle, music, and travel photographer living in Chicago. Whether he is camping, touring with a band, or training on the trails for his next half or full marathon, he is always on the move from the city to the woods. 

Most people don’t have the luxury of living the “freelance life”. My fiancé is a display coordinator for Anthropologie and she only has a certain amount of days off each year, so whenever we have the chance to take a trip we always try to keep in mind proximity. The first question we usually ask each other is, “where could we travel to that is epic but still close enough for another escape?”

Here’s what we did: Yosemite for 7 nights (got engaged there – woo woo!), Big Sur for 2 nights, and San Francisco for 2 nights. This allowed us to cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time while still experiencing a variety of incredible scenery.

• Don’t get caught up on trying to have all the right hiking gear. Chances are you’ll end up wearing the same thing almost every other day. Pack light!

• Think about topping the trip off in a big city nearby. It’s nice decompressing your trip in normal civilization.