Do you like history? How about train tunnels? Or is a hike through the mountains more your thing? Along the mostly-unknown Manitou Railroad Grade near Colorado Springs, CO you can experience all these things, as well as much more. The…

Do you like history? How about train tunnels? Or is a hike through the mountains more your thing? Along the mostly-unknown Manitou Railroad Grade near Colorado Springs, CO you can experience all these things, as well as much more. The…
Garnet Canyon in Grand Teton National Park is spectacular. I mean, really, really spectacular. Other hikes (such as Table Mountain) are beautiful, but they don’t have the jaw-dropping splendor of Garnet Canyon. As you’re hiking along, you keep looking up,…
Oh, the fall colors! I love them! Even the ordinary trails are alive with color, making them so much more fun to hike, bike, or simply stroll. This week, my “foliage adventure” was to bike down the Hojack Trail. This…
It was a lovely day in October. The trees in the back yard were just beginning to turn color, but the air was unseasonably warm. The sun shone (very untypical for western New York State at this time of year).…
Usually, the park maps and brochures at a given national park are really good. Most of the time you can just use the map to get around the park, from hiking to camping to deciding where to watch wildlife. This…
In the last post, I talked about taking the Face Trail up to Table Mountain, right on the edge of Grand Teton National Park. The views from the top are beautiful; some of the best views of the Tetons I’ve…
“Well, I’ll give this an ‘A’ for Spectacular.” “It’s amazing to me that anything could be quite this beautiful.” “This has got to be the best view of the Tetons I’ve ever seen.” “How could anything be this pretty?” “I…
After my adventures in the snow trying to climb the Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail, we decided to try to get to the top of Mount Washington again later in the summer. So, last weekend, we set off again, this time via…
After we’d taken the Staten Island Ferry to Manhattan, we visited Castle Clinton. However, we really wanted to do something more before we took the ferry back to where we’d parked on Staten Island. And, oh, did we find something…
In the Columbia Gorge is an awesome monolith, considered by some to be the largest in the world next to Gibraltar. Actually, it’s the remains of an old volcanic plug. From most vantage points up and down the Gorge, the…