“Why don’t you climb up on that ledge to take a photo,” Paul said. “That way you’ll cut out all that stuff in the foreground.” I mumbled a response about how I kind of liked the stuff in the foreground, but what I was thinking was, “Nice try, Lucifer. I’m not going to make it that easy for you.” Lucifer had already made me dizzy, the way he popped out [...]
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That’s what everyone says, right — “Ithaca is Gorges.” We have, at last count, three items in our (downsized) house that bear those three words. You can’t go anywhere here without seeing these three words stamped or printed or carved on every object imaginable. The phrase even has an entry in the urban dictionary. With that said, um…yes…this area is gorgeous. Reminding us of that fact on a regular basis [...]
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I keep having this recurring nightmare: Paul and I are standing on the edge of a canyon. One after the other, we fall in. Paul falls in, then I fall in. I fall in, then Paul falls in. Over and over. Sometimes we fall in because the wind blew a little too strongly or because the rock gave way under our feet or because we couldn’t keep our footing on [...]
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Yes, Dinosaur National Monument has dinosaur bones. The best bones have long been removed and placed in museums, but they’ve left a few in place to illustrate the amazing forces that made these bones find-able in the first place: first, lots of animals and dinosaurs died in a river bed. Sad. The smaller animals and dinosaurs were washed away by the river but the bigger ones settled down and were buried by [...]
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The most famous view of Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park is the vista from Glacier Point. That’s where everyone heads, and you’ve got to see it, but try this first: stop at the Sentinel Dome trailhead and hike the 4.9 mile Sentinel Dome/Taft Point loop trail. Head towards Sentinel Dome first and scramble up its bald, granite head for an amazing, 360 degree view of the granite-coated park. Then [...]
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Hiking isn’t like walking in the city. In the city, you’re just trying to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible while avoiding eye contact at all times. Sometimes people bump into each other, sometimes they step in dog poop, sometimes they accidentally meet another person’s eyes, for a moment. But out here, this is the wilderness. So here we are, in Yosemite National Park. It’s [...]
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The Trail of Terror starts with the flat and easy 1.4 mile stroll to Third Beach near La Push, WA along Olympic Park’s Pacific shore area. Walk south down the beach towards the waterfall. Look for the trail sign near where the beach narrows. It’s right above the freshly eroded cliff, near the dangling rope. The Trail of Terror connects Third Beach with the beaches to the south. It’s the [...]
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After a few visits, we’d exhausted all there is to do in Arches National Park, but since we were in the area, we couldn’t resist stopping again for a scramble around the Fiery Furnaces and a Delicate Arch revisit. Hiking in the Fiery Furnaces is an ordeal. You first must stop at the visitor’s center, watch an instructional video, be quizzed by a Ranger (Ranger: “Now, tell me how to [...]
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After our haphazard trip across mid-central-south Utah, we ended up in Capitol Reef National Park and wanted to chill for a few days in the relative warmth. Much to our surprise, so did a few hundred other people. Capitol Reef is always listed as one of the least visited, quietest National Parks. What happened? Was it becoming a victim of its own success, like the North Rim of the Grand Canyon? [...]
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Zion National Park is my favorite place in the country, beating out even Death Valley. The trails and vistas in the park are so fantastic that they sometimes defy belief. These trails wouldn’t be built today, and I live in fear that they’ll finally be closed down one day. In addition to maintained trails, there are entire slickrock sections of backcountry where you can explore to your heart’s (and compass’) content. This [...]
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