We don’t usually make reservations in advance, but after stopping on a whim at Goblin Valley State Park on Halloween a year ago, we suspected that if we ever wanted to stay at this small and quirky campground, we’d better plan ahead and book some dates (October 25 – 27, 2016). A year ago, there […]
The 5.5 mile (one way) hike up to Grinnell Glacier is one of the most popular in the Glacier National Park. Indeed, the parking lot at the Swiftcurrent trailhead was just about full when we arrived at 10:30 am. Just cars though, no humans. Earlier that morning, I’d been reading online reports about grizzly bear […]
We made time to do one more high altitude hike on Mount Hood before departing for a six week camping trip that will swing through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and Utah. Compared to last week’s Mazama trail, the Elk Cove trail is slightly less challenging but longer trek It departs from the Vista Ridge Trailhead […]
It’s been a while since we hiked in our own backyard, which in our case is Mount Hood. One of our favorite trails was up to Cairn Basin on the northeast flank so we thought we’d approach it from a different trailhead, a little further up Lolo Pass, instead of from Top Spur. We arrived […]
With five days of rain headed our way, we decided to get a hike in while the weather held. We decided to try Angel’s Rest again which is less than a half hour away from our house. The temperature hovered around 50 degrees with overcast skies. About half the parking lot was full when we […]
We’d been waiting for a month for road construction at the Chiricahua National Monument to be completed before visiting. With time running out, we took a chance that a spot would be open at Bonita Canyon, the monument’s campground. Arriving at 8:30 am Monday morning did the trick, and we scored the only open spot […]
We camped for a few days at Oliver Lee Memorial State Park near Alamogordo, NM. It’s a beautiful campground at the base of Dog Canyon in the Lincoln National Forest. The trail head departs directly behind the Visitor’s Center and climbs steeply to a series of plateaus, one of which grew a happy grove of […]
Wow! This first part of our hike, Lookout Mountain Loop is a keeper, featuring the most dramatic views in the shortest distance for the least effort. True to form, our arrival at the High Prairie trailhead was straight up noon. On the dot. That left less than six hours to get back to the car […]
This eight mile, scenic loop trail starts at Tumalo Falls, 14 miles southwest of Bend. The parking area was small and full when we arrived, but we found a spot along the road. From the number of cars coming and going, we got the impression that most of the people were there for the viewpoint […]
We headed to central Oregon to enjoy the gorgeous fall weather, intending to hike around Smith Rock State Park and then drive south to Tumalo State Park to camp overnight. Unfortunately, Smith Rock was packed full of people (an archeology event and lots of other like-minded hikers/climbers). To avoid the crowds, we thought we’d hike […]
Since both the school year and the rainy season started three weeks ago, our weekly hikes have been on hiatus. September set records for rainfall throughout much of Oregon. When the clouds cleared over Mount Hood in early October, we were surprised to see it completely blanketed in white. Saturday dawned bright and clear so […]
We thought we’d switch it up from our recent Mt. Hood hikes so we focused on the Columbia River Gorge, settling on the Herman Creek Trail to Indian Point. The trailhead is a few miles east of Cascade Locks and, being relatively early on a Monday, parking was readily available. The trail immediately starts climbing […]
In typical fashion, we got a late noon start from Timberline Lodge. This time, our goal was to head east on the Timberline Trail #600 from the lodge and get over to Mt. Hood Meadows Ski Area where Umbrella Falls is located. To do so, we’d have to drop about 1300 feet down to the […]
We vowed to get an early start for Sunday morning’s hike from Timberline Lodge. Which means 10-ish. Expecting the parking lot at Timberline Lodge to be sparsely populated at that hour, we were surprised to see it nearly as full as during a prime winter skiing day. Apparently for many, July 14 is also a […]
We had made plans to climb Mount Saint Helens in Washington and reserved climbing permits months ago. With the climb less than a week away, we double-checked our equipment and did more online research in preparation. Recent reports included words such as “ice ax”, “crampons”, “snow field” which really got our attention. We read that […]