Chilling on the California Coast
Perhaps you’ve heard of the Wānaka tree. Framed by New Zealand’s snow-capped Southern Alps, the sparse yet expressive willow bows to one side in the frigid shallows of Lake Wānaka. Modest tourist interest ticked higher in 2014 thanks to an award-winning photograph of the tree swaddled in winter fog. Today, you can review the tree’s many moods on Instagram and other social media. Search for #thatwanakatree.
Burt Munro set a world speed record of 184 mph in August 1967 aboard a 47-year-old modified Indian Scout. The record for under 1,000 cc motorcycles, set during Speed Week at Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats, still stands. We stopped by Invercargill’s E Hayes & Sons hardware store on our way to Stewart Island to pay our respects to the hometown hero and check out his legendary Munro Special.
Continue reading “Invercargill Hardware Store Cradles ‘Speed Week’ Record-holder”
Multiple brochures and blogs – even our tour company – describes the hike up New Zealand’s Rocky Mountain at Diamond Lake as moderate. Some sturdy AllTrails contributors dismiss the 4.4-mile loop as easy. Don’t believe them. The trail is deceptively difficult.
Diamond Lake and Rocky Mountain Track, 4.4 miles, 1,591 feet (March 5, 2024)
Continue reading “An Unexpected Glute-stretcher at New Zealand’s Rocky Mountain”
Most days, a peek inside prospector Sam Summer’s stone hut might be the highlight of the Mount Crichton Loop. Or the view of New Zealand’s Lake Wakatipu from an outcropping not far from the trail’s apex. Instead, a night of rain drowned the stepping stones across 12-Mile Creek, And so a tricky swift-water crossing became our most memorable trail moment.
Mount Crichton Loop 4.8 miles, 1040 feet of elevation gain (March 4, 2024)
Continue reading “A Creek Quandary at New Zealand’s Mt. Crichton – Boots or Barefoot?”
The Routeburn Track in New Zealand’s Southern Alps winds among chiseled peaks that served as a backdrop for Isengard in the “Lord of the Rings” film trilogy. Our day hike on a magnificent sliver of that track was our introduction to the nation’s Great Walks.
We began our Bay Area Ridge Trail adventure in April 2021 at Purisima Creek Redwoods Preserve in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Three years, 403 trail miles, 530 total miles and 13.7 miles of elevation gain later, we completed the last of the 73 segments listed in the 2019 Ridge Trail guide book with a difficult 12-mile tramp across Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve at Los Gatos.
We are hiking the Bay Area Ridge Trail. Sign up to follow our progress here.
Continue reading “Sierra Azul Trudge ‘Completes’ Bay Area Ridge Trail Odyssey”
Glaciers that drifted across the upper Midwest tens of thousands of years ago bypassed the southwestern corner of Wisconsin. Instead of the flatlands that distinguish much of the region, a land of rugged bluffs overlooking shallow river valleys survived – Driftless Wisconsin.
Continue reading “Architectural Genius & the Bizarre in Driftless Wisconsin”
The Bay Area Ridge trail at Trione-Annadel State Park begins on a connector path through Howarth and Spring Lake parks in Santa Rosa. It snakes past a pair of reservoirs – Ralphine and Spring lakes – wraps around a bevy of water tanks and crosses an earthen dam. Upon reaching the state park, the trail parallels Spring Creek before rising into wooded highlands on the east side of Bennett Mountain. As the rocky track descends, it passes through a marshy meadow and finally a series of switchbacks through a blackened redwood forest. Portions of the state park were damaged by the 2017 Nuns fire and 2020 Glass fire.
We are hiking the 407-mile Bay Area Ridge Trail. Sign up to follow our progress here.
Continue reading “A Deadfall Scramble on the Ridge Trail at Trione-Annadel”
Duluth and Minnesota’s North Shore may rank among the Midwest’s best kept secrets.
Dan and his brother visited in 2018 as a diversion on a trip to North Dakota . A stop in Fargo netted Dan and his brother their 49th and 50th states, respectively. (Find that post here.) Smitten by Duluth, less so by Fargo, Dan returned to the North Shore with Dawn on their 2023 Great Lakes road trip for a second helping of “Minnesota nice.”
Continue reading “Duluth and ‘Root Beer’ Cascades on the North Shore”
Shipwrecks have taken some 6,000 ships and 30,000 lives on the Great Lakes over the past 250 years. The maritime museums that dot the shorelines are replete with tales of fierce storms and dense fog, bravery and bravado, negligence and incompetence. Divers can explore the remains at more than a dozen watery sanctuaries. And several glass bottom boat vendors offer glimpses of wrecks located in lakeshore shallows.
The itinerary of our three-week visit to the Midwest last spring did not include getting wet. So, we confined our shipwreck explores in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to a morning at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point, MI, and a pasty-fueled cruise aboard a glass-bottomed boat in the shallows of Lake Superior near Munising, MI.
Continue reading “Pasties Fuel Great Lakes Shipwreck Explore”
The Bay Area Ridge Trail at Sierra Vista Open Space Preserve begins on a ridge 2,000 feet above the Santa Clara Valley. The trail traverses the face of a steep hillside before rising and then dropping steadily into the valley below. It ends abruptly just past the park’s historic homestead, where a locked gate, yellow caution tape and sign with skull and cross bones make clear that the last two miles are closed indefinitely.
We are hiking the 407-mile Bay Area Ridge Trail. Sign up to follow our progress here.
Continue reading “A Sea of Clouds below the Ridge Trail at Sierra Vista Open Space”
The Bay Area Ridge Trail winds past parking and picnic tables along the wooded banks of Penitencia Creek at Alum Rock Park before ascending, more steeply than anticipated, more than 1,500 feet into the pastures and chaparral of the Sierra Vista Open Space Preserve. The parking lot was full when we arrived at 10 a.m. on a weekday. But we found a curbside spot in the San Jose neighborhood just outside the park. Trail traffic was minimal once we began hiking uphill.
We are hiking the 407-mile Bay Area Ridge Trail. Sign up to follow our progress here.
Continue reading “A Ridge Trail Toe Jammer at Alum Rock Park”
The Bay Area Ridge Trail at Mount Umunhum climbs steadily and occasionally steeply through a mixed forest of madrone, bay laurel and oak. The 3,486-foot peak, pushed skyward by a left bend in the San Andreas fault, is the fourth highest in the Santa Cruz Mountains. In addition to the requisite views and a large parking lot, the summit contains “The Cube,” the shell of a Cold War era radar installation that was decommissioned in 1980.
We are hiking the 410-mile Bay Area Ridge Trail. Sign up to follow our progress here.
Continue reading “Logistics Complicate Ridge Trail Hike at Mount Umunhum”
The Bay Area Ridge Trail grew nearly four miles this summer with the grand opening of the Máyyan ‘Ooyákma – Coyote Ridge Open Space Preserve. The five-mile loop that encompasses the Ridge Trail begins with a steep ascent – nearly 900 feet in the first mile – through grasslands to Máyyan ‘Ooyákma, which means “Coyote Ridge” in the native Chochenyo language. The trail runs along the ridge for about a mile before looping back to the trailhead. The Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority requires a “Butterfly Pass” for the Ridge Trail segment. Hikers also must clean their boots before entering the sensitive preserve.
We are hiking the 424-mile Bay Area Ridge Trail. Sign up to follow our progress here.
Continue reading “Bay Area Ridge Trail Grows at Máyyan ‘Ooyákma”
Looking for something completely different from the National Park Service? Head for the Great Lakes to see the three national Lakeshores – Sleeping Bear, Pictured Rocks and Apostle Islands. And stop by Indiana Dunes National Park while you’re in the area.
Continue reading “National Lakeshores Boast Dunes, Crags, Cliffs & Color”
Seeking spectacular desert landscapes or ocean breezes? You won’t find them at Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Looking for amazing mountain vistas? Look elsewhere. Hoping to get away from it all? Not here. But you can find a nice selection of walks in the woods with food and lodging nearby.
Continue reading “Falls & Ledges at Cuyahoga, Ohio’s Only National Park”
Perched on the backside of a 361-foot tall volcanic rock between the Pacific Ocean and a sea of private pastureland, the Point Sur Lighthouse is barely visible from California Highway 1. Most visitors to the Big Sur coastline cruise past without a glance.
We drove down from our hotel in Monterey and lined up on the shoulder of Highway 1 for the 10 a.m. tour on a sunny Saturday in April. As the gate swung open, about a dozen cars crept past grazing cows to a dusty staging area at the base of the rock. Our windswept, three-hour tour began with a trudge up a narrow road to the top of the rock. Our cap-clip accessorized docents admonished us to hang onto our hats. Access has never been easy.
Continue reading “Point Sur Lighthouse Hides in Plain Sight”
Quick. Think of a national park in California. Did Pinnacles National Park in the Gabilan Mountains east of the Salinas Valley come to mind? Probably not. We paid a visit.
A national monument elevated to national park status in 2013, Pinnacles is roughly three hours of bad traffic southeast of our home on the San Francisco Peninsula. Fractured volcanic cliffs, talus caves and California condors comprise the most prominent features. The park is hot in summer and cold in winter. Nearby lodging is scarce.
Continue reading “Props for Underappreciated Pinnacles National Park”
The Bay Area Ridge Trail at Joseph D. Grant County Park rises and falls along a ridgeline with a view of San Jose to the west and the Lick Observatory atop Mount Hamilton to the east. Large and lovely meadows bookend the trail at the north and south ends of the trail. Watch out for feral pigs.
We are hiking the 405-mile Bay Area Ridge Trail. Sign up to follow our progress here.
Continue reading “Big Sky & Wild Pigs at Grant Park on the Ridge Trail”
The core of the Bay Area Ridge Trail across Mission Peak Regional Preserve rises 1,600 feet in just three miles from the parking lot at Ohlone College. It then rises some more. The trail flattens out as it bypasses Mission and two other peaks before diving steeply down the west side of the mountain toward Ed R. Levin County Park. The views and elevation gain are breath-taking. Recent trail extensions meander through neighboring hills at the college and county park.
We are hiking the 400-mile Bay Area Ridge Trail. Sign up to follow our progress here.
Continue reading “Battling Ridge Trail Anxiety at Mission Peak”