Meet Jillian Kimberlin

Jillian, before we jump into specific questions about your work, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I’ve always loved the outdoors. Even as a kid, I remember camping with my parents and younger brother. Today, I carry on that love by camping, hiking, biking and just exploring Arizona in general. When I first started recording two years ago, there were very little content creators that had videos specific to Arizona; in fact, a lot of content creators were in the colder climates. They would talk about things like using quilts when camping, which were not required in Arizona. I wanted something geared towards our state specifically, such as camping and hiking in the hotter temperatures, as well as focusing on the National Parks of Arizona.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The challenge is always trying to get the word out there and let people know how easy it is to hike and camp in Arizona. I just love telling people that getting started on their own adventures isn’t as hard as it seems. Trying to grow the readership and viewership is secondary to all of this, but it’s also an ongoing battle. It is difficult to start a channel and build subscribers while generating consistent content. This is where being on social media helps on all levels.

Please tell us about your work.
I am most known for camping and hiking in Arizona. I just finished a video series on how to hike the Grand Canyon: it starts with a walkthrough on how to fill out the form for the Backcountry Permit, and it goes all the way to the end where I did daily Vlogs on the different stretches of hiking highlighting the various difficulties (no water on the North Rim, this time!). I am most proud of showing people how easy it is to hike and camp in general by just using items around your house. Also, I love teaching others how easy it is to get into the Grand Canyon and hike it, provided you do it the right way.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
When I was a kid, my parents owned a camper which they parked at a campground called “Evening Star.” It had a huge waterslide there that cost 25 cents per ride, with tons of twists and turns. There are many memories of that campground and hanging out with my brother; I’d beg him to go on the slide with me. I loved taking him down the waterslide. We drove by that campground recently, and the waterslide was dried up, unfortunately, even though the campground was still open. I have many happy memories of that campground.