find your park

Before starting back onto the next section of the PCT, hubby and I spent a couple nights camping in Mount Rainier National Park. We had a picture perfect day of hiking in Sunrise.

Sequoia National Park is a place of extremes. In the frontcountry zone of the park, you can find the Giant Sequoia Trees, considered the largest living things on Earth. In the backcountry, you find the tallest peak in the Lower 48 of the United States: Mount Whitney.

This past summer’s thru-hike of the John Muir Trail took me through a large swath of Kings Canyon National Park. We travelled along the western corridor of the park for eight full days, giving me a great sense of appreciation and awe for all that the Park protects.

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…

Last week’s blog entry introduced you to Yosemite Valley, the central hub and most visited area of Yosemite National Park. However, Yosemite Valley is only about 8 square miles within a nearly 750 thousand acre park!

Redwood National Park, along with three partnering state parks, helps to protect about 45% of all remaining coast redwood old-growth forest, including the tallest trees in the world. ​Del Norte Coast, Prairie Creek Redwoods and Jedediah Smith Redwood State Parks were founded in the 1920s, when it became clear that the last remaining old-growth redwood forest was going to disappear due to unrestricted clear-cut logging.

Lassen Volcanic National Park offers an awesome exploration of all things volcanic. ​The main highlight of the park is Lassen Peak, standing proudly above the surrounding geology at 10,457 feet high.

Crater Lake is an amazing geological formation that can teach us a fair bit about the world around us, from rock formations, to water minerals, to weather patterns. Visiting this park is best done in a couple days than in a couple hours.

Rainier is a mountain that will get under your skin, in a very, very good way. There is something captivating and enchanting about Mount Rainier that pulls us in and doesn’t let us go. John Muir, one of America’s best naturalists, understood the draw of Rainier.

I was completely oblivious of our nearest national park until only a couple years ago. Now that I’ve had the chance to explore it, I consider it one of my favourite parks, and one of the best places to venture for a weekend of hiking.