Category: Hiking
Given the desert conditions of SoCal, our national parks pale in comparison to the ones located further north in the state. One of the best and most well known national parks in California is Yosemite. Due to its popularity, visiting the park requires advanced planning to secure lodging, permits, and reservations. But that’s not always … Continue reading Upper Yosemite Falls Trail
It’d be a shame to come to California and not visit any one of the National Parks. So we dragged Angela to her second National Park during her monthlong stay with us. Sequoia National Park is famous for its gigantic sequoia trees. General Sherman being the largest tree in the world by volume. While other … Continue reading Tokopah Falls Trail
California is one big National Park. In total we have 9 National Parks with varying scenery, from the desert terrain of Death Valley and Joshua Tree, to the Giant Sequoias in King and Sequoia, granite rocks with waterfalls in Yosemite, volcanic rocks of Lassen, and the shores of Point Reyes and Channel Islands. Today we … Continue reading Redwood National Park
Wherever we travel to we try to imagine ourselves living in that place. At the end of the day, we always ultimately decide that Laguna Beach can’t be beat. We joke that in SoCal, the thing you can always count on are sunny days. That lack of precipitation is reflected in our brownish and not-so-pretty … Continue reading Multnomah Wahkeena Trail
My 6-week work stint lasted a grand total of 7 days! The ever efficient government VA failed to submit paperwork to request funding for the month of May. Finally government bureaucracy working in my favor. I am re-retired! How do I let my recruiter know that he can no longer make money off my back … Continue reading Watson & Toketee Falls
The big day is here. I had been thinking of hiking to the Wave for a few years, but never got around to entering into the lottery for a permit until this year. Tried the online lottery twice without success, and finally won the walk-in lottery on our first try. I will admit we were … Continue reading Coyote Buttes North – The Wave
We decided to sandwich an off day in between yesterday’s Angels Landing hike and tomorrow’s Wave hike. Nothing was really planned for today until the very last minute. I had initially thought about doing a short hike at Bryce Canyon, but we changed course at the last minute when we realized that Page is about … Continue reading Horseshoe Bend & Toadstool Trail
Angels Landing is Joe’s favorite trail, and a tie for second for me (the other being Bright Angels in Grand Canyon). Today is our third, and likely final, Angels Landing hike before the lottery permit system takes effect in 2022. It is unfortunate that a permit system needs to be implemented, but due to overcrowding … Continue reading West Rim Trail – Angels Landing & Walter’s Wiggles Viewpoint
We are back at Zion National Park. The thin November crowd makes the park visit much more pleasant. Here’s a view outside our hotel room. Before heading out for any hikes, we had to go to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) office in Kanab to see if we could get lucky with getting one … Continue reading Our Happy Place
Having visited five cities and towns on this trip, I will say that Ronda is my favorite. I now understand why many authors are enchanted by this town. Listening to chirping birds and watching them soar across the deep gorge, inhaling crisp fall air in the peaceful morning, and enjoying breakfast with a view of … Continue reading Exploring Ronda
We scheduled the Beehive Trail for our afternoon hike on the last day of our trip. As we were making our way back to the hotel after lunch to regroup, I saw an interesting trail on Google maps. There’s a little hiker icon in the middle of the water! Intrigued, we made a quick detour … Continue reading Beehive Trail
Two of the most popular and challenging trails in Acadia National Park are the Precipice and Beehive trails. I decided to save the best for last, and did both trails on our last day in Acadia. First, the Precipice trail, a vertical climb of 0.9 miles to Champlain Summit at 1,058 ft, involves a lot … Continue reading Precipice Trail
With toddlers in tow, we opted for an easy family friendly hike in the morning. The Ocean Path is a 2-mile stretch along the northeast coastline of Acadia National Park. We probably only covered a third of the length in an hour and a half. Varied terrain made the path interesting A brave little 4-year … Continue reading Ocean Path & Dorr Ladder Trail
The Boston Marathon is traditionally held on Patriot’s Day in April, but due to Covid and repeated postponements, this year’s race was held in October. The week of the race coincided with peak fall foliage in the Northeast, which gave us the chance to go leaf peeping up in Acadia National Park in Maine. Having … Continue reading Jordan Pond Trail
Phoenix is an urban sprawl much like LA, albeit cheaper. One wouldn’t expect to find any nature paths or scenic hiking trails in such a mega city, but there is one — the popular Echo Canyon Trail on Camelback Mountain, which reaches up to 2706 ft in elevation. Not a very imposing height for those … Continue reading Echo Canyon Trail @ Camelback Mountain
There are several trails in the Koke’e State Park that bring you out onto ridges to view the NāPali Coastline. The 2 most popular are the Awa’awapuhi and the Nu’alolo trails. There is the option to do both by hiking the connecting Nu’alolo Cliff trail between the 2 to form a 12-mile loop, which is … Continue reading Nu’alolo Trail
Owing to yesterday’s Hanakapi’ai Falls hike, waking up this morning was incredibly hard. Is this another sign of aging, where we can’t do back to back 8-mile hikes anymore? Since we only have 2 more days of hiking on the island, I decided to push the agenda. I have 5 trails on my hike list. … Continue reading Pihea Trail
Anyone who’s watched the movie Jurassic Park will be familiar with the famed NāPali Coast. To view the NāPali coast, one would have to be on a helicopter, catamaran, or kayak. Since none of those options appealed to us, we decided on the second best option - hiking it. The Kalalau trail is the 11-mile … Continue reading Hanakapi’ai Falls Trail
In the days of social media, it has now come down to this - if you want to access a particular trail, you will need to book your parking and entry permits 30-90 days in advance. Gone are the days when you can stroll onto a trail after having read about it in a guidebook … Continue reading Park Permits & Reservations
There are 3 popular trails that bring hikers down into the canyon - South Kaibab and Bright Angel from the South Rim, and North Kaibab from the North Rim. People will attempt rim-2-rim by hiking down North Kaibab, stay overnight within the canyon and hike up either Bright Angel or South Kaibab. For day hikers, … Continue reading North Kaibab Trail
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