Melinda Crow

Before becoming a top-producing freelancer for Yahoo Travel, Crow began her writing career at the age of 28, writing for Texas Highways, 3-2-1 Contact, and Parenting, among others. In 1992, she wrote The Rockhound’s Guide to Texas, a Falcon Guide. That was quickly followed by The Rockhound’s Guide to New Mexico. Following the successes of those two guidebooks, Crow approached Falcon’s editors with a new subject– camping. While writing Camping Colorado, she developed the format for the series that would come to shape the entire Falcon brand, now known primarily for publishing guides that revolve around outdoor travel, particularly camping, hiking, climbing, and paddlesports. Camping Colorado is now in its third edition and Camping New Mexico in its second edition.
Following those early years of grueling guidebook research and writing, Crow took time off from writing to raise a daughter, own and operate a lakeside cabin resort, and spend every opportunity traveling North America and the Caribbean. Those years gave her a broad base of travel and tourism knowledge that continue to shape her writing today.
Yahoo Travel was reorganized into a digital online travel magazine in April 2014, by the editorial dream team of Paula Froelich, Laura Begley Bloom, and Jo Piazza. Crow began writing for Yahoo Travel in September of that year, continuing until February 17, 2016, when the magazine was shuttered as part of a larger corporate reorganization at Yahoo. During those 18 months, Crow wrote more than 80 stories for the magazine, covering a wide array of topics including camping, cruising, and culinary travel. Those stories attracted millions of views from an engaged audience that left thousands of comments, with shares and likes reaching near 100,000 across social media channels.
Particularly popular was the 50 States Series, written exclusively by Crow. Story topics ranged from the best french fries in each state to the “Most American Experience” in each state.
Just one week before it was shut down, Yahoo Travel was named as the top online travel magazine by the North American Travel Journalists’ Association. Among the individual awards garnered by Yahoo Travel writers and editors, Crow took home the only Gold Prize.