Maggie McKenzie Higgins

Conservation biologist, musician and traveler. A B.S. in Biological Sciences (Conservation Biology & Ecology) from Montana State University, field study with the Scottish Forestry Service in the northern Highlands, a month on foot across the Alps — and a guitar in most places in between. She writes her own songs.

Start here — Where the map begins.

A Denver kid raised on the edge of the Rockies, in a city that lives outdoors. Always knee-deep in a creek to see what lived there, always camping, and tearing around the mountains near Denver on her own little hot-pink ATV. The curiosity started early and never let up.

Everybody at one table — Home is a backyard in Denver.

A big blended family, the smoker running since morning, and everyone talking at once. It's where she learned that good food is how you keep people around the table.

Conservation biology & ecology — Montana taught her to look closer.

A B.S. in Biological Sciences from Montana State University in Bozeman — field seasons under the Bridgers, and her dog Iona along for most of them.

A semester abroad — A season in the Caledonian pines.

Field study with the Scottish Forestry Service in the northern Highlands — surveying the pinewoods and the peat bogs, learning a landscape that wasn't hers yet.

One month, one pack — Then she just kept going.

A month across Switzerland, Italy and France after graduation — on her own, and loving it that way. High passes, small villages, new languages, and a real gift for ending up at a table full of strangers eating something she has never had before.

See her travel photos

Oceans & beaches — The water always calls her back.

Hawaii, Tortola, Mexico — she finds the water wherever she is. Once swam with giant sea turtles and, in the excitement, very nearly drowned a sister. There's usually a ukulele in the bag.

Music, always — And it all comes back to a song.

She writes her own songs — lyrics that hold up on the page as poetry, stories told with a wit that sneaks up on you. Guitar, ukulele, cello, and a voice worth staying up for. Happiest with a guitar, a fire, and the dogs for company.

Hear her on TikTok · Maggie@McKenzieHiggins.com