Forest WoodwardHere's one celeb that's not afraid to say goodbye to summer.
Actress and activist Sophia Bush has been exploring the unpolished, diverse terrain of Alaska. While summer isn't over yet, Sophia, with the help of Eddie Bauer, replaced bikinis and Bardot tops with hiking boots and thermals. With a crew of her best gals, the actress bundled up and set out to discover Alaska's wilderness—and it was nothing short of majestic.
But the Chicago P.D. star was there for more than just a chilly Alaskan adventure.
While her itinerary included paddle boarding, white-water rafting and helifishing—which doesn't mean actually fishing from an airborne helicopter, but it's still cool—there was an important educational purpose to the trip.
As an environmental advocate herself, Sophia wanted to learn about climate change in the local area and how it's affected the wilderness in Alaska, such as ice melt and overfishing. She also expressed a deep connection to her surroundings, saying this trip had been a lifelong dream. "[My] whole life I've dreamt of Alaska. The wide open space of it. It's been a romantic notion tucked into my heart all these years. I've been nostalgic for it, though I've never been before," she posted on Instagram.
And dreamy it was.
Scrolling through photos of Sophia and her friends at Alaska's third largest glacier, The Triumvirate, is enough to have us booking flights. It looked like the group landed in the middle of a giant blueberry snow cone during their epic trek across the endless ice mass, with a backdrop of rich blues, white and black. "Walking across a massive glacier feels like being on the moon. The sheer size. The colors. To see something and be amazed like this? The gasps that come from awe? I will never forgot this adventure," Sophia wrote.
We already started packing our down coats.
And while most of us were lounging poolside, the One Tree Hill alum was immersed in nature at Judd Lake. She caught five fish while fly-fishing and tried out skeet shooting. The actress also spent time at a fishing weir, which helps monitor the fish population to keep it at a healthy number. Can stars catch their own salmon in Hollywood, too? We didn't think so.
Feeling inspired? So are we, and you don't have to be an environmentalist or an adventure seeker to plan a trip like Sophia's.
All you need is the right pair of boots and a high tolerance for low temperatures.