If you decide to hike the Grandview Trail in Grand Canyon National Park, the only way I can recommend it is if you go another couple miles (3+ km) out onto Horseshoe Mesa. This is where the “grand views” really…
Horseshoe Mesa Loop, pt. 1: Grandview Trail
I love the Grand Canyon! And I love finding new trails into the canyon I’ve never thought about doing before! So, last winter, when my hiking colleagues and I began talking about a dayhike on the Grandview Trail this spring,…
Free Soak in a Hot Spring: Hot Springs State Park, WY
Ever dreamed of swimming in a thermal hot spring? Feel that it’s just too expensive to go to one of the commercial thermal swimming areas? The answer to your dilemma can be found in central Wyoming at Hot Springs State…
Historic Flume Trail: Beartooth Highway Side Trip
Do you love history? Fishing? Waterfalls? Picnic areas with mountain views? The Clarks Fork River Valley along the Beartooth Highway offers each of these…from the same parking lot! Also the trailhead for the Flume Trail, the area has a small…
The Best Hikes in Big Bend
After having visited Big Bend numerous times over the past several years, I thought I’d share what I’ve found to be the best hikes in Big Bend National Park, and which trails are overrated. Then, I thought, What if someone…
Mammoth Hot Springs: Should I Go?
Whether or not you want to visit Mammoth Hot Springs depends on a lot of things. First, if you’re looking for short, easy hikes, this is a good one: going over all of the boardwalks will likely take you less…
Rare History at Aladdin Tipple
Sometimes trips don’t go as planned. Sometimes even the best plans don’t work out. That’s what happened on a recent trip to the Northwest US. After a week of beautiful weather, it was raining – and the forecast said it…
Fun on The Chimneys Trail, Big Bend
The Chimneys. They’re just rocks sticking out of the ground – nothing grand in the southern area of Big Bend National Park. Yet it’s quite an interesting destination. For one thing, there are petroglyphs on one of the Chimneys. I’m…
Truckhaven Rocks: Views, Scrambles, and Geology!
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park has many things that most places don’t, but Truckhaven Rocks sticks out in my mind. Why? Maybe it’s the desolate scenery. Or the eerie silence. Or the fact that it’s usually deserted. Or the lack of…
Jockey Hollow: Wick House and Soldiers’ Huts
As I’ve said many times before, history is something that I enjoy. I like going to places where I can see where history happened and get an idea of what these places look like and looked like when history was…