Balabanova All Over
#TakeYourTimeOff
About Nadya
Hi there! I am so glad you found me! My mission is to empower you to #TakeYourTimeOff and explore the world. I started this blog as a way to keep family and friends in the loop when I went on a 3-week trip to Asia in 2011. Although I’ve always enjoyed traveling, it wasn’t until a trip to Peru in 2012 that I started to think about ways to make travel a… Read More
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Top Posts
[Big Bend National Park & Marathon, TX – Dec 28, 2021] After 2 full days in the park, it was time to say good-bye to this fascinating place. Our flight back to Los Angeles wasn’t until later in the day. Since we were going to gain two hours from Lajitas to El Paso, we took our time. We slept in a little and started late compared to the other two days. We… Read More
[Big Bend National Park, Dec 27, 2021] For our second full day in the park, we decided to take the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive. With stops at some of the scenic viewpoints and short hikes, we expected it to take about 5-6 hours. The 31-mile point-to-point drive begins in the Chisos Mountains section of the park and winds down to the Rio Grande. From there, you can come back the way you… Read More
[Big Bend National Park, TX, Dec 26, 2021] For our first full day in the park, we decided to do one of the most popular trails in Big Bend, Lost Mine. Although it’s short – less than 5 miles round-trip – it’s not exactly easy due to the 1,100 ft of elevation gain over a fairly short distance. It’s in the Chisos Mountain area of the park. Lost Mine trail gets it… Read More
[El Paso & Lajitas, TX – Dec 24 & 25, 2021] To cap off 2021, we decided to sneak in another national park. Big Bend had been on my list ever since we went to Texas’ only other national park, Guadalupe Mountains, in early 2020. Both parks are in West Texas and only about 3.5 hours apart. However, we had already packed 3 national parks into that 3-day itinerary (the other two… Read More
Pinnacles National Park is small but its two entrances make planning a trip there more difficult than it should be. While the east and west roads do not meet in the middle, a lot of trails do. Therefore, it’s possible to see both sides of the park without driving yourself all the way around, which takes about 90 minutes. There are a lot of trails that intersect and loop with each other,… Read More