Explorer Chicks of Dallas

Benvenuti in Italia

This is the trip to Italy that you’ve always dreamed of – the Dolomites, wine, epic sunrises, lakes, and food. Call the craggy Italian Alps sirens home as you explore jaw-dropping trails and impossibly cute mountain villages on this 8-day women’s hiking adventure in northern Italy.

We’ll meet in Venice before heading out for views of stunning glaciers, dramatic spires, and towering vistas complete with secret WWI tunnels. Our debut hike to Tre Cime di Lavaredo is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (aka photogenic panty-dropper) where we’ll stay in a luxurious mountain “hut” and eat our body weight in alpine cooking.

You’ll learn how to traverse via-ferrata style as we sling our powerful bodies across vertical rock walls to climb Monte Paterno. From there, we’ll shuttle to the iconic trailheads of Cinque Torri and Puez-Odle Nature Park, where we’ll spend the night sleeping in an authentic family-run hut high up in the mountains where even Starbucks can’t reach.

Also, no, you don’t have to hulk your beefy Samsonite up the mountains. Throughout your adventure, you only have to sherpa your daypack. We’ll shuttle your main luggage from hut to hotel since you’ll have your hands full moonlighting for National Geographic.

We’ll have down time in villages that can only be described as bucolic AF––including Cortina d’Ampezzo, Corvara, Ortisei, and the stunning South Tyrol wine region which we’ll explore by e-bike. Amidst all the hiking, including an epic sunrise climb, we’ll build in time for slow mornings and plenty of relaxing. There’ll be wine tastings, an alpine spa visit, a hands-on Italian cooking class, and epic sailing on Lake Garda. Did you just become the most interesting woman on the school board? Yes, you did!

Hit your bucket list with all the feels on this women’s guided hiking and backpacking weekend! During your Yosemite Half Dome Hike adventure, tour Yosemite National Park as you climb the famous cables of Half Dome with ladies who do their own stunts. Live out every last one of those John Muir nature quotes in the backcountry of Yosemite National Park. Mountains calling? Check. Between two pines? Check. Walk with nature? Double-check.

GUIDED BACKPACKING IN YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK BACKCOUNTRY
Romp through the backcountry on a demanding, yet epic backpacking trip. Meet your new woman crushes in the Yosemite Valley as the landscape gives way to mountains, waterfalls, and a piney perfume that’ll make Yankee Candle totally jelly. Mother Nature swiped ALL THE WAY right. Leave the phone on airplane mode to immerse yourself in stunning national park backcountry over the course of four epic days. Climb steep, challenging trails to look down upon the Valley with a panoramic view that includes Mt. Starr King, Half Dome, Nevada Falls, Illilouette Falls, and plenty of ant-sized tourists with tiny selfie sticks.

HALF DOME: HIKING TO THE TOP
Fuel up for the real MVP—the famous cables of Half Dome! Blast that hiker booty (and bring plenty of water) while ascending 500 feet up a .5 mile of steps carved into the rock. Then, the real fun begins. It’s a 400-foot gain up the top of Half Dome with some points at 70%+ grades. Pace your footwork on wooden slabs spaced out on the climb as you get the upper body workout of a lifetime. Worth it? HELL YES!

BACKPACKING EQUIPMENT PROVIDED
Don’t have backpacking equipment, but can Beastmaster the stairs? Perfect. Explorer Chick has you covered with:

• a backpack
• sleeping bag
• sleeping pad
• shared tent

All you need to do is show up for this Yosemite Half Dome Hike to backpack like a boss and get that National Parks bucket list checked.

OVERVIEW

Are you into endless views? Old-growth forests? Mist bouncing off a 100-foot waterfall hitting your face? Then spend a long weekend with a small group of women hiking the best trails in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (including parts of the Appalachian Trail).

Channel your inner goat girl as you stroll through iconic scenery and listen to stories of the women who helped shape the Smokies. Take a brief break from the trail living out your pottery fantasies throwing clay on the wheel and sculpting your very own mug. Then kick back like a queen with nightly glamping near Gatlinburg, TN.

BOOTS = HIKING

Get your blues and greens in on three stunning hikes that don’t even look real. The views from Charlies Bunion and Ramsay Cascades are complete madness. Wind your way through pine trees and over classic creek crossings that make you momentarily consider a coonskin hat. (But not really, because animals ♥️)

ROOTS = HER-STORY

Did you know a woman was the first settler to move to the Smoky Mountains? You didn’t? That’s because Martha Jane Huskey Ogle’s husband called dibs on the fame. Learn about the deliciously woman-heavy history of a wilderness that man tried real hard to claim as his own. Your Explorer Chick guide will drop all the juicy gossip, connecting you to the goosebumpy sisterhood who walked before you.
Deep dive into Appalachian crafts straddling a wheel and molding a coffee mug with your very own hands. Local artists will guide you through the entire pottery process and only help when needed. After 10 weeks of drying, firing, and glazing, your mug will show up at your doorstep. Surprise! Relive the SHE-nanigans of your Smokies trip.

YOU FEELING MAX COMFY WHILE GLAMPING

Put your feet up in total Insta-worthy digs at our adorable glamping site minutes from Gatlinburg. You will sleep in a tent that has been tastefully decorated and luxuriously appointed with WiFi and temperature control – with meals freshly prepared at camp by your Explorer Chick guides. You only have one task after hiking: RELAX.

ADVENTURE HIGHLIGHTS:

• Hike the Appalachian Trail to the sweeping panaromic views from Charlies Bunion
• Get up close and personal with the Smokies tallest waterfall, Ramsey Cascades
• Learn how to work clay on a wheel as you create your one of a kind glazed coffee mug
• Kick back at camp with breakfasts and dinners cooked by your Explorer Chick guides.
• Sleep easy at our Glamping site with canvas tents outfitted with all the creature comforts.
• Relax with a comprehensive itinerary that makes the logistics, transportation, navigation, meal planning, lodging, and everything between easy.
• Geek out with supportive and encouraging Explorer Chicks on a private, women-only, small group adventure tour.

This life-changing, 4-day women’s Yosemite hiking adventure will give you jaw-dropping views of granite mountains, wide-open meadows, and ancient Sequoia trees. Maybe this trip is what your boss means when they demand leaving no stone unturned? Set that out of office and buy the hiking leggings with the deep pockets because your girl gang is WAITING FOR YOU.

With your new besties beside you and our professional guides showing you the good pee spots, we’ll explore the best Yosemite peaks and valleys in this crazy-beautiful playground. By day, we’ll clamber up towering domes and stroll through lush valleys. By nightfall, we’ll laugh until we can’t breathe and fall asleep smiling, snuggled up in our cozy cabins.

Enjoy a Google Earth view of Yosemite Valley from the top of Taft Point. Hike through a grove of forever-old Jeffrey Pines to summit Sentinel Dome. Feast on the panoramic majesty of Half Dome, Yosemite Falls, and Glacier Point. Seriously, this is your life right now, and you are HERE!

Hiking the famous Mist Trail will lead us through pristine wilderness to the deafening roar of Vernal and Nevada Falls. You’ll forget an entire household depends on you as you dash through the heart of Yosemite’s High Sierra meadows, taking a lunch break by a diamond-clear lake, surrounded by the towering granite peaks of the Cathedral Range.
We’ll cross wooden footbridges and babbling streams to stand inside a cathedral of trees, where sequoias stand like ancient sentinels. These living legends have names, personalities, and GOSSIP. You’ll meet Grizzly Giant, The Bachelor, Three Graces, and The Faithful Couple. (Or so they claim…)

Your only mission after the day’s Yosemite hike – eating, sleeping, and cackling with your new friends. No, you can’t help us with dishes. Yes, you can have seconds. Enjoy the feral highs of traveling with adult women who love and accept you just as you are.