This year for BiGTRiP V, I flew to Las Vegas to rent a car and drive all over Utah and eastern Nevada to visit six national parks — a new personal record for park visits in such a span of time. I booked this trip several months ago without giving much thought to some logistics – namely, that mid-August temperatures in this region would top out at 105 Fahrenheit. Oops. No matter, I reassured myself; I'd just treat this year's BiGTRiP as a literal wilderness journey. This year, more than any other, I would escape to the undistracted wilderness and return to civilization a different man.