Chilling on the California Coast
Pandemic. Wildfires. Political drama. It’s been a challenging year. We finally got back on the trail last month and found respite with a hike through the coast redwoods at Sam McDonald Park in the Santa Cruz Mountains – open space with a history.
Continue reading “Hiking Among the Redwoods in the footsteps of a Stanford Legend”
You’re Never Far from the charm of Main Street when you hike the Mendocino Headlands.
Continue reading “Overwhelmed by Mendocino Charm? hike the Headlands for a Dose of Rugged”
“Red sky in morning, sailors take warning.” That’s sound advice from a wise mariner. But what about when smoke from California wildfires plunges The Coastside into darkness and the blood-orange sky persists at midday? We went for a drive to immerse ourselves in the weirdness.
Continue reading “Cruising The Coast Beneath Apocalyptic Skies on the San Francisco Peninsula”
Every hike begins with great expectations. And while the redwoods at Russian Gulch State Park proved less grand and the fern canyon less lush than expected, we still found plenty to enjoy. Continue reading “Great Expectations on the Trail at Russian Gulch State Park in Mendocino”
Weekly hikes in the Santa Cruz Mountains have been a highlight of our socially distant summer. Sadly, our recent tromp at Wilder Ranch State Park will be our last for a while as the CZU August Lightning Complex fires rip through this coastal range. Continue reading “A Fiery End to a Summer of Hiking in the Santa Cruz Mountains”
The last blast from the IXL quarry north of Santa Cruz echoed up Fall Creek a century ago. Today, the gurgle of the creek prevails beneath the descendants of the old growth redwoods that fed the quarry’s lime kilns. Continue reading “A Forest Reborn Amid Lime Industry Relics on Fall Creek at Henry Cowell Redwoods”
Pandemic hiking rules can have unintended consequences. For example, when the one-way trails at Big Basin Redwoods added 4.5 miles, a degree of difficulty and four waterfalls to our day hike. Continue reading “Magical Falls & Pandemic Protocols on the Trail at Big Basin Redwoods”
There’s more to the Santa Cruz Mountains than redwoods, fence lizards and banana slugs. We hiked the Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve for views that stretch from the Pacific Ocean to San Francisco Bay. Continue reading “Astride the Crest of the Santa Cruz Mountains at Russian Ridge”
The Santa Cruz Mountains are awash in microclimates. Too warm? Too damp? Too cloudy? An alternative is nearby. If hiking a sun-baked hillside and a shady live oak woodland sounds nice, visit Monte Bello Preserve. But beware of angry squirrels! Continue reading “Crispy Grass, Live Oaks and Chuntering Squirrels at Monte Bello Preserve”
Shut down for months by the pandemic, we thrilled at stepping back onto the trail last week deep in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Ticks lurked. Covid-19 loomed. Poison oak loitered in the underbrush. It was glorious! Continue reading “A Walk in the Santa Cruz Mountains at Pescadero Creek Park Eases COVID-19 Blues”
Chill air, an icy trail and high wind beneath blue skies greeted us at 10,400 feet as we stepped off to take on the Lookout Lakes Trail in Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest. No problem. But an earworm of the classic “Smokey Bear” song nearly drove us nuts. Continue reading “A Rather Blustery Lakeside Hike High in Wyoming’s Medicine Bow Mountains”
Last in a series: “It’s just a hike. It’s just a hike,” our guide Rob insisted as he prepped us for our trek up the Ascencio Valley to the namesake towers of Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park. Then why did he have to say it twice?
Continue reading “Assessing the Ascencio Valley Trail at Torres del Paine: Is it ‘Just a Hike’?”
Context can make a hike. While the trek to Scott Lookout Tower in the Nebraska National Forest is rather ordinary, the concept of walking through a 20,000-acre forest engineered in the middle of the Great Plains makes it special. Continue reading “Hiking the Sandhills of Nebraska in America’s Largest ‘Man-Made’ Forest”
Prairie Creek Redwoods doesn’t need a gimmick. But if the idea of Bigfoot prowling a towering old-growth forest or of tiny flesh-eating dinosaurs scrambling through a fern-laden canyon stimulates your imagination, then head to California’s Humboldt County. Continue reading “Hiking ‘Jurassic Park’ in Bigfoot Country at Prairie Creek Redwoods”
Neither of us are poets. Yet our hike on a blustery fall day through trembling Aspen groves in the Gunnison National Forest at Crested Butte, CO, inspired us to give poetry a try. And so, with a nod to junior high English teachers everywhere, we present: “Ode to Autumn at Crested Butte.”
Continue reading “‘Ode to Autumn at Crested Butte’ – A Fall Hiking Adventure in Verse & Images”
The sheer walls and stone towers of the narrow, half-mile deep gorge at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in Colorado are breath-taking. But once you catch your breath, then what?
Continue reading “Night Sky Brightens a Visit to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park”
Considered one of the best hikes at Arches National Park, the Devil’s Garden trail draws a crowd. Be patient. The pack will thin when the scramble begins.
Continue reading “Scrambling Beyond the Bus Tours in the Devil’s Garden at Arches National Park”
Trek in. Walk out. Drive by. We found no shortage of opportunities to enjoy magnificent vistas at Canyonlands National Park. So, we mixed in a scramble to the park’s only meteor crater.
Continue reading “Weary of Iconic Vistas at Canyonlands National Park? Hike to Upheaval Dome”
A woodland hike in the Santa Cruz Mountains rarely disappoints. And every so often it yields something unexpected. Exhibit A: The tafoni sandstone formation at El Corte de Madera Creek Preserve.
Continue reading “Tafoni Sandstone at El Corte de Madera Creek Preserve Defies Expectations”
Part 3 in a series: If you want a selfie with the Patagonian peaks that make up Argentina’s iconic Fitz Roy massif, you have to earn it. Expect wind, rain and steep ascents. Watch out for stinging caterpillars and feral cows. Photo bombs by meandering cloud banks may drive you mad. Continue reading “Playing Hide & Seek with Fitz Roy in Patagonia; Beware of Stinging Caterpillars”