Hi! I'm Michaela
I spent the better part of my childhood dreaming about exploring far-flung places, but I didn't get the chance to travel much till I left home for school. When I wasn't busy with my classes, I spent my free time with people I met in the 'Outdoors Club' exploring California as much as I could, but eventually I set my sites further afield, taking several trips out of the country backpacking through Europe, Asia, and South America. All told I spent roughly 4 years travelling abroad in stints and only 'settled' down in Utah due to circumstance. Travelling took a toll on my wallet so I decided the perfect way to get back on my snowboard after so much time in tropical climates would be to get a job in Park City.
About a week after moving in I met my partner Mitch, a Utah native, who works as a snowboard insructor and river rafting guide. Between the two of us we make a pretty solid adventure duo -- or rather trio since the adoption of our redtick coonhound pup Scarlett. For the past five years we've spent as much time as possible hitting up Utah's national parks and various other low-key escapes, taking road trips to visit the Pacific Northwest, and even a trip to Japan and South Korea.
Our current goal is building out our 2004 Sprinter van into a tiny house so we can check out all the amazing places we haven't visited yet on wheels.
Skills and Experiences
- Photography/Vidoegraphy
- Adobe Photoshop
- Adobe Lightroom
- Adobe Premiere
- Avid Media Composer
- Canon DSLR Cameras
- HTML, CSS, Javascript
- Writing, Blogging
- Social Media
- Organized
- Self-starter/independent
- Content-Management
Majored in Film Production at University of Southern California. Though my life took a different direction photographhy and videography are still something I truly love and I try to incorporate them into my travels.
Obssessed with Lord of the Rings since the age of 10, I ditched school for a year to get a job on The Hobbit in New Zealand. They approved of my Elvish script, but sadly, production was halted when the director fell ill. So I bought a very low-key camper van and tripped around New Zealand before making my way back to school via Southeast Asia and Europe.
After graduating I spent a few months in Brazil teaching English. From there I hitchiked through Boliva, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, and Argentina before returning to the US. But I liked it so much I came back for round 2 during the 2014 World Cup and stayed about a year checking out the Brazilian coast, spending 2 months on friend's sailboat in Panama, trekking through the Amazon, and visting some out of this world locations like Chapada Diamantina and Lençois Maranhenses.
Worked for three years as the Digital Content Editor of Park City Magazine, specifically writing tourism-related articles taking photos, and creating videos about Park City, Utah and further afield in Utah. Check out some of that work here.
Interests
Getting into the outdoors and exploring with Mitch and Scarlett. These days that involves a combination of camping, hiking, rock climbing, yoga, river rafting, and snowboarding. And it usually involves a fair amount of photographhy and videography.
I also have a serious obsession languages. I speak Spanish and Porguguese, my Swedish is mediocre at best, can write in Elvish, and am currently learning Japanese and various programming languages/frameworks. Some of my other interests include writing, environment/sustainability, polictics, and cooking/eating.
Just being out in nature at any time is amazing, but I have to say my favorite activities that really help me appreciate the outdoors even more. Namely, rock climbing, snowboarding, camping, hiking, river rafting, and yoga.