Great Sand Dunes! Ever since he first saw the dunes in a book when he was five or six, one of my group members wanted to visit. Unfortunately, that first visit didn’t turn out so well due to a sandstorm,…
Climbing Goat Peak near Wanless Lake
While researching trails to hike in the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness in western Montana last spring, I discovered a couple of things: 1) While there are many trails in the Cabinets, you can’t find good information about most of them, and…
Exploring to Gavilan Falls
Last summer, after we climbed Wheeler Peak (the highest point in New Mexico), we also wanted to climb Gold Hill. However, everyone was pretty worn out after hiking above 13,000ft., so we decided to take a rest day in between. …
Cliff Lake and Climbing St. Paul Peak
The Cabinet Mountains Wilderness is considered one of the most remote areas to hike in the lower 48 states. It’s true that it’s pretty remote – at least in terms of the full spectrum of wild animals that call the…
Copper Lake and Chicago Peak – Remote Cabinet Mountain Views
One of the more view-saturated hikes we took in the Cabinet Mountain Wilderness actually has almost no trail. There is a trail – at least as far as Cliff Lake – but if you want to see everything in the…
Atoko Point – Bushwack Grand Canyon Viewpoint
After our great success at Honan Point, a trailless trek through the forest of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon to fantastic views, we decided to try out another trailless trek on the North Rim, this one ending us…
The Lava Falls Trail has Changed in 13 Years!
It’s long been one of my group member’s dreams to go to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Even in the days when we were young and couldn’t hike very far, we trekked down as far as we could go…
Gold Hill via Bull of the Woods Pasture
Gold Hill was probably one of the most peaceful, most beautiful trails I took on our trek across the southwest last summer. There was a quality to it that was nothing short of pleasant – a ramble through the wilderness…
Hidden Densmore Falls
There are many hidden waterfalls in the eastern US. Many are protected by state or local parks, but there are so many that many are on private or not-quite-private property. In search of one of these waterfalls on not-quite-private…
17 Arches Across the West (you probably haven’t heard of)
There’s something about the gracious span of an arch that takes our breath away. The gravity-defying feat is eye-catching at worst, and enthralling at best. Many people know about famous arches and natural bridges, like Delicate Arch or Landscape Arch…