[1] Parrish was born in San Francisco in 1878, the only child of parents who brought her up to be a lady who would have a respectable marriage.
However, she wanted more than that, having from a young age the urge to explore the world, perhaps inherited from her father who had trekked across America by caravan to California's first gold rush.
After having been refused a dissolution of the marriage in a court case that turned to violence, she left San Francisco without telling her parents or her husband, buying a passage to Nome, Alaska before making her way to the gold rush area of the Yukon,[2] travelling on horseback, and by river boat and dog team.
[3][4] After leaving Dawson City, she met four miners who had decided to prospect for gold in Patagonia in the southern end of South America, and invited her to go with them.
In Shanghai she met many people at the Astor House Hotel who proved useful in assisting her onward travels.