Category: Arizona
I did it again. I hiked to Havasupai for a third time in less than a year. This time, however, I went with 2 other hiking buddies - Michelle and Jeannette. Hiking with others offer opportunities not readily available for a solo hiker - one being hiking in more remote areas. The hike to the … Continue reading Confluence Hike
My last visit to Havasupai was cut short by a day due to potential rainfall on my last day. So there were a few places that I didn’t get a chance to check out. Hidden Falls is one of the least visited waterfalls due to its relatively hard to find and hidden location. The fact … Continue reading Unfinished Business
Shortly after returning home from my last Havasupai trip, I found myself looking for another hiking permit. This year may be the only year where permits are easy to obtain, and I reckoned that it would be foolish of me not to take advantage of this. There’s no guarantee that I will be lucky enough … Continue reading Second Time Around
I had one more day in camp but decided to leave a day early because of an incoming storm. My biggest concern was the dry washes becoming impassable during monsoon flooding. Hiking in the rain generally isn’t ideal for me, so it was another alpine start the morning before. Woke up at 3AM, broke down … Continue reading Solo Backpacking
After breakfast in camp I made a beeline for Havasu Falls to try to get a clean shot of the place. These travertine pools were full of people yesterday afternoon, but early morning offers a chance at solitude. The waterfall from a different perspective. I took advantage of having one other person there to snap … Continue reading Beaver Falls
There are several hiking permits in the US that are generally hard to secure. You have lottery systems for Yosemite’s Half Dome and Grand Escalante’s Wave, and others like Havasu Falls that require you to have fast internet connections to purchase permits. Permits for Havasu Falls for the entire year generally sell out within 5 … Continue reading Havasu 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
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
Since we had covered the Western district of the Saguaro National Park yesterday, I decided that we’d revisit the Eastern district today. We would later find out that the use of the word “revisit” was completely wrong, because when we pulled into the park we realized that we had literally never even been to the … Continue reading Saguaro National Park
It’s astonishing that there are places we had never been to in Tucson despite having lived here for 5 years. We didn’t even know that the Saguaro National Park is split into East and West, with the town of Tucson sitting in the middle of it. We’d been to the park on the East side … Continue reading Trip Down Memory Lane
Three days of rest and rehab with eccentric calf strengthening and foam rolling did wonders for my achilles. Managed to tuck in my 18-miles this morning before hitting the road for Phoenix at 10AM. The 5.5-hour drive went by quickly with minimal congestion. That is until we got closer to Phoenix, when we encountered the … Continue reading Phoenix
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
The Grand Canyon is one of my favorite National Parks, if not the favorite. In the 5 years we’d lived in Tucson, we’d been to Grand Canyon 3 times, including an overnight at the Bright Angel Campground at the bottom of the Canyon. However, all 3 trips were to the popular South Rim. After a … Continue reading Grand Canyon North Rim
FIRE'd @ 47 