I thought I'd feel at home in Washington, DC, but I didn't love the culture and wanted more nature.

To find my next home, I visited Taos, Santa Fe, Denver, and Long Beach and spent a month in each.

As soon as I visited San Diego, I knew that the balance of nature and community was perfect for me.

In 2025, Chattanooga, Tennessee became the first US National Park City. Seven North American cities have expressed interest in pursuing the designation for 2026, said Mark Cridge, executive director of the UK-based National Park City Foundation. 

National Park Cities qualify based on local investment in environmental protection, outdoor education, and accessible green space for residents. National Geographic Explorer and geographer Daniel Raven-Ellison created the National Park City concept in 2013 to “make cities greener, healthier, fairer and more harmonious places to live.” The designation is not affiliated with the US National Park Service. 

After living abroad for a few years in Italy and Nepal, I was excited to move to Washington, DC, for graduate school.

Although I never dreamed of living in DC specifically, I'd enjoyed attending college on the East Coast, so I expected to love the city.

I imagined running down the National Mall next to cherry blossom trees, exploring museums, and discussing foreign affairs at cultural events on Embassy Row.

Last year I drove across the United States solo and spent six months exploring the outdoors. I hit many of the outdoor classics in the West – Bryce Canyon, Zion (the “adult Disneyland” for adventurers), Moab, and Arches in Utah; Red Rock Canyon State Park in Nevada, Joshua Tree and Anza Borrego in California.

Of all these places, Death Valley was quite the unexpected gem. Coming out of crowded parks in Utah and Colorado, Death Valley is blissfully quiet. Death Valley is the largest US national park outside of Alaska, encompassing over 3,000 square miles of desert in California and Nevada. You can drive for hours without seeing a single car or human, just endless expanses of sand and rock with nothing man-made in sight. Bouncing up and down on these desert roads, you can imagine yourself to be a space explorer, or perhaps an extra in “Mad Max: Fury Road.”