For two days I hiked almost exclusively uphill. I’d ascend over 5000 feet from the trailhead just north of Stehekin through Bridge Creek Valley, up into Rainy Pass and then a big climb to the top of Cutthroat Pass.
National Park
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This past weekend I got to meet up with a hiking friend and explore the north end of Olympic National Park. We made the most of our three days together. We explored the popular Hurricane Ridge area, and then enjoyed a night backcountry along the Elwah River.
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Today, June 8th, is the anniversary of the 1906 Antiquities Act. This past month many protected areas of the United States have been under direct siege. On April 26, President Trump ordered the Secretary of the Interior to review over 50 national monuments created since 1996.
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Kings Canyon is really designed as a backpacker’s park, with most of the over 450,000 acres requiring an overnight hike to access. My first two visits to Kings Canyon National Park were through the backcountry…
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The front-country zone of Kings Canyon National Park only touches on a small piece of the large park, but is certainly worth a few days (or more!) of exploring, especially when you tie it in with a visit to Sequoia National Park
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Sunrise is a truly beautiful area of Mount Rainier to explore. We were lucky enough to get a taste of much of it, spending a couple nights at backcountry sites, a couple nights at a front country campground, hiking low, hiking high, seeing sunsets and sunrises.
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The day after our aborted backpacking trip in the north-east corner of Mount Rainier National Park was grey and dreary, though a bit less rainy. After some discussion and perusal of our map, we decided to head to Glacier Basin, a trail that conveniently started about 50 feet from our campsite.
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I was seriously itching to get back on trail after getting home from our California road-trip after completing the John Muir Trail. For Labor Day weekend we’d promised ourselves a trip to the Sunrise area of Mount Rainier, which is only open for a short time through the summer season.
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Dan and I rarely travel back to a previously visited location. Yosemite Valley is now an exception. Two years ago we came through Yosemite Valley as part of a backpacking trip from Tuolumne Meadows (in the High Sierras) to Half Dome and then to the Valley.
When we started planning our John Muir hike, we decided that we wanted a few extras days to spend in Yosemite Valley so we booked ourselves into the Curry Village tent cabins (now known as Half Dome Village.) -
A couple weekends ago we had an amazing trip to Mount Rainier National Park with the friends that will be joining us for a section of our JMT hike. Our goal was to hike up to Camp Muir, on the South-East shoulder of the mountain. The hike climbs nearly 5,000 feet in 4 miles, travelling over the Muir Snowfield.