Sally Vogel graduated in 1957 from Pomona College in California with a B.A. in Botany. In addition, she took many other courses in the Biological and Earth Sciences. Her professional life was in Education and she has taught at all levels, including teaching college classes in Limnology and Plant Anatomy. Her final assignment was teaching high school Spanish.

Concurrent with her job as a teacher, she began a second profession as a travel operator who specialized in soft adventure trips with a focus on cultural and natural history. Although she named it Peruvian Adventures, after learning that the easiest people to sell to are former clients, she branched out by adding trips to many more countries in Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. She has traveled extensively, indulging her interests in all of nature and in photographing wildlife above and below water, and in landscapes. She planned and led both international and river trips for Sierra Club Outings for a number of years before moving from California to Washington.