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j0sgomez-blog · 5 years ago

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By Michael Lanza

The best-known dayhikes in America’s national parks are certainly worth adding to your outdoor-adventure CV. Summits and hiking trails like Angels Landing in Zion, Half Dome in Yosemite, the North Rim Trail overlooking the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River, Glacier National Park’s Highline Trail, and many others represent the highlights of the crown jewels of the National Park System. But for that very reason, unless you take those hikes outside the peak seasons or times of day, you can expect to encounter a lot of other hikers.

But there are other national park dayhikes that remain off the radar of many hikers—so they attract a small fraction of the number of people flocking to the popular trails. On these 12 hikes, you’ll find scenery just as majestic as those famous trails, while possibly having these spots to yourself (as I did on several of them).

You might want to bring along a friend or your family—just to make sure you don’t get too lonely.

Hiking the Taylor Creek Trail, Zion National Park.

Taylor Canyon, Zion

Taylor Creek Trail, Zion National Park.

Easily accessible but far from the well-beaten paths of Zion Canyon, the five-mile, nearly flat, out-and-back hike up the Taylor Creek Trail explores a canyon with walls rising nearly 2,000 feet above a cool forest watered by a vibrant creek.

You’ll pass two historic cabins dating back decades, and at the end of the maintained trail, reach Double Arch Alcove, a pair of giant arches in the Navajo sandstone beneath 1,700-foot-tall Tucupit Tower and Paria Tower.

See my “Photo Gallery: Hiking the Kolob Canyons of Zion National Park,” and all of my stories about Zion at The Big Outside.

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Todd Arndt hiking Clouds Rest in Yosemite National Park.

Tenaya Lake to Clouds Rest, Yosemite

The view across Tenaya Lake of a breathtaking sweep of granite domes and cliffs sets the tone for this 14-mile, round-trip hike up 9,926-foot Clouds Rest (lead photo at top of story). In the same neighborhood as Half Dome, comparatively unknown Clouds Rest offers an even bigger panorama, taking in Yosemite Valley and Half Dome, plus an ocean of mountains spanning most of the park. But the hike’s highlight comes in the final 300 yards traversing the narrow summit ridge, above dizzying drop of 4,000 feet—that’s a thousand feet taller than the face of El Capitan.

See more photos from Clouds Rest and a video in “Best of Yosemite, Part 1: Backpacking South of Tuolumne Meadows,” as well as “The 10 Best Dayhikes in Yosemite,” and all of my stories about Yosemite National Park.

Hi, I’m Michael Lanza, creator of The Big Outside, which has made several top outdoors blog lists. Click here to sign up for my FREE email newsletter. Join The Big Outside to get full access to all of my blog’s stories. Click here to learn how I can help you plan your next trip. Please follow my adventures on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube.

View from the top of the Eagle Peak Trail, Mount Rainier National Park.

The Eagle Peak Trail, Mount Rainier National Park.

Eagle Peak Trail, Mount Rainier

The fact that this trail ascends relentlessly nearly 3,000 vertical feet in 3.6 miles partly explains its obscurity. But the main reason may be that it lies somewhat out of the way, starting in the little village of Longmire, in a park already possessing an embarrassment of riches when it comes to dayhiking options. But it passes through lush, quiet, old-growth Pacific Northwest forest and crosses wildflower meadows, ending at a saddle at 5,700 feet in the rugged Tatoosh Range, with a jaw-dropping, closeup view of Mount Rainier.

See my favorite dayhikes at Rainier and all of my stories about Mount Rainier National Park.

Want more? See “The 25 Best National Park Dayhikes” and “Extreme Hiking: America’s Best Hard Dayhikes.”

A hiker on the summit of Static Peak, Grand Teton National Park.

Static Peak, Grand Teton

While no casual stroll—17.2 miles and 5,000 vertical feet round-trip—Static Peak unquestionably ranks among the finest dayhikes in Grand Teton National Park. But it’s often overlooked by visitors, who focus on the canyons farther north. From Death Canyon Trailhead, hike past views of Phelps Lake, along a roaring cascade, and eventually to a panorama from 10,790-foot Static Peak Divide that encompasses Death Canyon, Jackson Hole, Alaska Basin, and the southern Tetons. Continue up the half-mile, 500-vertical-foot user trail to Static Peak’s 11,303-foot summit for even bigger views.

See my story “Ask Me: 8 Great Big Dayhikes in the Tetons,” and all of my stories about Grand Teton National Park.

I can help you plan the best backpacking, hiking, or family adventure of your life. Find out more here.

My son, Nate, at the Big Spring-Squaw Pass, Needles District, Canyonlands National Park.

Big Spring, Squaw, and Lost Canyons and the Peekaboo Trail, Canyonlands

Peekaboo Trail, Canyonlands.

While nearby Chesler Park commands the attention of most hikers in the Needles District of Canyonlands, the less-traveled trails into Big Spring, Squaw and Lost canyons and the Peekaboo Trail deliver similarly mind-blowing views of 300-foot-tall candlesticks and cliffs.

The 7.5-mile loop from Squaw Flat campground up Big Spring Canyon and down Squaw Canyon follows a circuitous route up steep slickrock over a sandstone pass overlooking the canyons and miles of redrock towers. For a longer outing, add five to six miles to explore Lost Canyon and the Peekaboo Trail.

See my story “No Straight Lines: Backpacking and Hiking in Canyonlands and Arches National Parks,” and all of my stories about Canyonlands.

Blacktail Deer Creek Trail, Yellowstone National Park.

Blacktail Deer Creek Trail, Yellowstone

Crevice Lake, Black Canyon of the Yellowstone River.

The Blacktail Deer Creek Trail doesn’t climb a mountain or pass any thermal feature. But from its nondescript trailhead east of Mammoth, it meanders across gently rolling grasslands and meadows that look like an American Serengeti, where there’s a good chance of running into herds of elk and bison—or wolves or bears. Reaching the cliff-flanked Black Canyon of the Yellowstone River at 3.7 miles, you can continue in either direction along the river; a quarter-mile downstream lies Crevice Lake, whose waters reflect the forest, hills, and cerulean sky.

See my Ask Me blog posts “The 10 Best Short Hikes in Yellowstone,” and “The Ultimate Family Tour of Yellowstone,” and all of my stories about Yellowstone at The Big Outside.

My wife, Penny, and daughter, Alex, hiking Chimney Rock Canyon, Capitol Reef National Park.

Chimney Rock Canyon, Capitol Reef.

Chimney Rock Canyon, Capitol Reef

By Capitol Reef standards, the 3.5-mile Chimney Rock Loop is “popular”—meaning you may see a few other hikers. But few dayhikers and backpackers explore lower Chimney Rock Canyon’s tall, sheer, red cliffs and truck-size boulders littering the bottom of the dry canyon.

For stunning views of the Waterpocket Fold cliffs—especially near sunset—hike the Chimney Rock Loop, which begins three miles west of the park visitor center on UT 24, and then out and back down Chimney Rock Canyon to Spring Canyon, a total distance of about 6.5 miles.

See a menu of all of my stories about Capitol Reef National Park on my All National Park Trips page.

Got an all-time favorite campsite? See “Tent Flap With a View: 25 Favorite Backcountry Campsites”

Hiking Telescope Peak in Death Valley National Park.

Telescope Peak, Death Valley

Hiking Death Valley’s Telescope Peak.

From 11,049-foot Telescope Peak in Death Valley, the highest summit in the largest national park outside Alaska, more than 11,000 vertical feet of relief separate your shoes from the valleys to either side.

The panorama encompasses a vast reach of barren, sharply angled, rocky ridges. The 14-mile, round-trip hike, with nearly 3,000 vertical feet of gain and loss, wanders a circuitous route with almost non-stop views, culminating in a beautiful summit ridge walk.

Go from April to May or September into November to avoid the deadly heat of summer.

See my story “11,000 Feet Over Death Valley: Hiking Telescope Peak,” and all of my stories about Death Valley National Park at The Big Outside.

Make your hikes better. See my reviews of “The 5 Best Rain Jackets For Hiking” and the 7 best daypacks.

My wife, Penny, hiking the Heather Pass-Maple Pass Loop, North Cascades National Park.

Heather Pass-Maple Pass Loop, North Cascades.

Heather Pass-Maple Pass Loop, North Cascades

In the vertiginous North Cascades, usually only climbers enjoy the views of this park’s sea of jagged, snowy peaks, that you get on this 7.2-mile loop from the Rainy Pass Trailhead on WA 20. Starting in a forest of towering fir, hemlock, and spruce trees, you climb to views of cliff-ringed Lake Ann, dramatic Black Peak from Heather Pass, and at Maple Pass, much of the North Cascades.

Go in August or early September, after most of the snow has melted out, and when the huckleberries are ripe and columbine and other wildflowers bloom.

See my story “Exploring the ‘American Alps:’ The North Cascades,” and all of my stories about the North Cascades region at The Big Outside.

Plan your next great backpacking trip in Yosemite, Grand Teton, or other parks using my expert e-guides.

David Ports hiking in the Wonderland of Rocks, Joshua Tree National Park.

Wonderland of Rocks, Joshua Tree

You won’t get far into the Wonderland of Rocks before feeling like you’re out in the middle of nowhere. Frequently not much more than a sandy wash, the Boy Scout Trail winds for nearly eight miles, from the Park Boulevard to Indian Cove Road, through a mind-bogglingly beautiful and disorienting maze of massive granite formations rising from the desert floor. Even most climbers stick to the rocks closer to park roads. Hike in from the south trailhead and turn around, or shuttle a vehicle to make the full traverse. Peak season is fall through spring.

See a menu of all of my stories about Joshua Tree National Park on my All National Park Trips page.

Hiking in Great Sand Dunes National Park.

The Dunes, Great Sand Dunes

Walk toe-to-heel along the inch-wide crest of giant sand dunes, with crazily steep drop-offs on each side. Then pause and listen to the eerie “singing” when sand avalanches down those faces.

Hiking any distance in the 30-square-mile sea of dunes rising several hundred feet tall in Colorado’s Great Sand Dunes National Park, in the shadow of the 13,000-foot-high Sangre de Cristo Mountains, is enchanting. But there are no trails, so you must navigate by sight or map, or retrace your footprints back to the start (as long as wind hasn’t covered them over).

See my story “Exploring America’s Big Sandbox: Colorado’s Great Sand Dunes.”

My son, Nate, hiking in Idaho’s City of Rocks National Reserve.

Loop Around the City of Rocks National Reserve

While not an actual national park, this National Park Service reserve has long been popular with rock climbers for the hundreds of granite monoliths liberally salting the high desert of south-central Idaho. But it remains largely unknown to hikers, so most City of Rocks trails remain quite lonely. For a diverse experience ranging from high views overlooking this “silent city” of pinnacles to aspen-lined creek bottoms, hike the loop of roughly nine miles (with shorter options) from Elephant Rock on the Tea Kettle Trail, North Fork Circle Creek Trail, Stripe Rock Loop, and Box Top Trail, including about a quarter-mile of dirt road from the Box Top Trailhead to Elephant Rock. “The City” has become one of my family’s favorite getaway spots for camping, climbing, and hiking.

For information, visit nps.gov/ciro.

Tell me what you think.

I spent a lot of time writing this story, so if you enjoyed it, please consider giving it a share using one of the buttons at right, and leave a comment or question at the bottom of this story. I’d really appreciate it.

See a menu of stories at my All National Park Trips page at The Big Outside.

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thedonisborn · 6 years ago

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The Finest Ultralight Tents for Backpackers|Ultralight Tents 2018 - Backpacker

Are you prepared to slash your pack weight? Get a head start with our

lightest materials or settle for less space. The double-wall Saddle requires neither by utilizing a trekking-pole pitch to develop a 29.2-square-foot floor that's on the spacious end for a two-person camping tent this light. Its 84-inch length and 41-inch peak height let our testers stretch out and play cards after 15-mile days on Vermont's Long Trail. Double doors boost livability even more. ("Simply do not knock your poles down," our tester says.)For hikers who do not desire to utilize trekking poles, tent poles can be acquired separately($ 42; 10 oz.). There is a tradeoff: Pitching this shelter is a pain (with practice, our tester brought his PR down to 6 minutes). Thanks to the complete mesh walls on the inner camping tent, condensation was never an issue, even during a 35 ° F night

.(For more insulation, a choice with partly solid walls is available for$20 more.)Rain defense was no issue, but our tester watched out for the Saddle's efficiency in particularly gusty weather condition."In 15-mph winds, 6-inch strips of hook-and-loop closures at the base of the door came unstuck,"he says."Pitch this tent in a protected area." "We had a warm fall in New England, and the ability to break the Saddle down was fantastic on cozy trips with clear weather and no bugs,"

our tester states of the fly-only pitch, which brings overall weight down to 1 pound 4 ounces.$ 329; 2 pounds. 5 oz. Buy Tarptent Saddle 2 Now If you want to bring less than a pound each for a two-person tent, you have to ditch the floor. Like otherfloorless shelters, this one

does not have bug security, and you'll wish to beware to pitch it far from pooling water. Unlike others, it solves among our typical problems about going floorless: rain and snow splashing or blowing under the sides. Built-in skirts, up to 18 inches high, around the border avoid wetness from sneaking in and the 30-denier silnylon walls shrugged off rain and 20-mph winds without issue. A pair of travelling poles holds up the 2 47-inch peak corners, while an optional 2nd set can be utilized to prop up the vestibule door that doubles as an awning. The 41-square-foot interior is plenty huge for two campers and their gear.Six stake-out points make the Spike's setup similar to a tarp's, although testers reported a learning curve to discover the correct angles with the guylines. 2 vents assist with air flow, but the shelter collected some condensation when pitched on a snowfield throughout a chilly(high 30s)night. Tip: Pop that awning up with trekking poles for ventilation or views."This camping tent went through a lot with me: sharp rocks, a shower of glacial silt, and a High Wind Advisory with continual winds in the 30s and gusts around 55 miles per hour,"says our Alaska tester. "It still looks as good as new."$ 300; 1 pounds, 10 oz. Buy Nemo Spike&2P Now My Trail UL 3 In the dollars-spent-to-ounces-saved competition, the UL 3 wins, by far. It's so light we brought it as a two-person shelter, however it's still huge

enough for 3(as long as nobody utilizes a pad broader than 20 inches). And, it costs some 25 percent less than similar ultralights. Testers were impressed in moderate conditions, from rainstorms in the Washington Cascades to light snow in the Colorado Rockies. However there is a discount rate tradeoff: The structure doesn't provide sufficient support in high winds, and when we staked and guyed the UL 3 out in 35-mph winds on New Zealand's Mt. Taranaki, its aluminum poles bent (they didn't break, though). The UL 3 breathes incredibly well, with no interior moisture even when temperatures dropped to 20 ° F outside Aspen, Colorado. The one-pole setup is easy, however the interior walls droop unless they're staked out completely

, a downer if the tent is filled to capability. Livability is what you 'd get out of a tent at this weight and cost: Just true minimalists will like a single door at the head and an 8-square-foot vestibule for 3 people."With careful site selection, the 10-denier nylon fly and 20-denier nylon flooring withstood a summer season of backpacking around the Mountain West without suffering any damage,"our tester says.At just 11 ounces per person, this shelter earns the title"ultralight". With a peak height of 58 inches and a 56.6-square-foot flooring, the Apollo can accommodate 3 people(sans packs), or it's a palace for two plus gear. The pyramidal shape requires creative sleeping plans

:" All of us needed to sleep against the walls. No one wished to be the guy who kicked over the center pole,"states our New York tester.Floorless camping tents have fewer high-wear areas. The 15-denier nylon walls suffered no damage throughout our testers 'thru-hike of the 133-mile Northville-Placid Trail.This one-pole, single-wall shelter is a cinch to put together, however finnicky to get taut. Note: The tent has a huge, pentagon-shaped footprint that's 90 inches at its best and 108 inches at its longest.

Strategy websites accordingly.It compresses to the size of a cantaloupe, or if you desire it to pack even smaller, ditch the 9-ounce pole and tie the pyramid under a tree. Perk: It's light enough to bring as a basecamp cooking area or hangout shelter.$ 250; 2 lbs. 1 oz. Buy&Nemo&Apollo 3P Now Huge Agnes Copper Spur HV UL 4 Establish sufficient lightweight group tents and&you'll find yourself asking the same concern: How are four people supposed to fit in there? The response is usually"uncomfortably."But&the Copper Spur HV UL 4 fits four, full stop. Even testers up to 6'2"had the area they needed on our trip. That's not adequate to be a category-leading camping tent for five years.We've been using the initial since it came out-- the backpacker's take

on the 100,000-mile test-- and slept everywhere from forest to slickrock, meadows, swamps, and sand, and the ultralight floor is still intact and water resistant. With the exception of a few snags in the mesh and a small hole in the fly, this camping tent hasn't required much beyond routine maintenance.The pole structure is easy and extensive, and color coding on this year's design takes the final bit of guesswork out of the pitch. Weatherproofing is superb: With the primarily mesh canopy, condensation never develops up, and the tent has actually shown its strength once again and once again against light to gusty winds, heavy rain, and the periodic snow storm. And if that wasn't enough to make it the very best in class, consider the measurements: 57-square-foot flooring, 50-inch head height, 14-square-foot vestibules, and it weighs just a few tent stakes over 5 pounds. That's less than 1.5 pounds per individual. High-end rarely comes this light, so when it does, make your relocation.

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traveltoblank · 6 years ago

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Inspiring Photos and Hikes from Capitol Reef National Park

Capitol Reef National Park is located in southern Utah, encompassing the Fruita Historic District and a nearby scenic drive. Capitol Reef is known for its sweeping sandstone landscapes including features such as Capitol Dome, Navajo Formation and Chimney Rock, a 400 foot tall sandstone pillar.

Camping in Capitol Reef National Park

There is a developed campsite available inside the park in Fruita Historic District. Camping costs $20 and requires an advanced online reservation. The National Park itself is long and narrow and is just a few miles drive from either entrance to BLM land or National Forest where there is free dispersed camping, with no services.

Driving and hiking the scenic route of Capitol Reef

One of our favorite things to do in Capitol Reef is drive along the eight mile one-way scenic drive. Entrance to the national park is free, but if you would like to enjoy the scenic drive and its many viewpoints, it costs $15 per car.

Our favorite easy hikes were Goosenecks, Sunset point, and Capitol Gorge. Goosenecks has stunning and dramatic views of the canyons while Sunset point is obviously best point in the Capitol Reef to watch the sunset and take panoramic photography.

Capitol Gorge

In Capitol Gorge you will be hiking into a deep canyon and find petroglyphs along the way, and on towards the tanks, water pockets. Grand Wash Trail is also an easy hike that goes through canyons and narrows.

Goosenecks Overlook

To reach the Goosenecks Overlook the 0.2 miles round trip trail is more of a walk with an elevation of less than 50 feet. Sunset Point is a 0.8 miles round trip trail with a similar elevation than the Goosenecks trail.

Cassidy Arch

If you are more of an adventure type of hiker we recommend you to go to Cassidy Arch, Chimney Rock Loop and The Golden Throne. All three hikes are considered strenuous.

Cassidy Arch, a 3.4 mile roundtrip (5.6 km) hike with an elevation gain of 670 ft (204 m) offers slickrock, canyon views and of course the natural Cassidy Arch. If the hike is too strenuous for you, consider going to the viewpoint half a mile before the start of the trail.

Chimney Rock Loop

Chimney Rock Loop, a 3.6 mi roundtrip (3.6 km) with a 590 ft (180 m) elevation gain has beautiful panoramas of water pocket fold cliffs and it is also another great place to watch the sunset.

The Golden Throne

The Golden Throne, one of Steven’s favorite hike, is a 4 mile round trip (6.4 km) with an 730 ft (223 m) elevation gain trail has a beautiful panoramic view of the Capitol Gorge and the Golden Throne. The changing sky and clouds at the top give this formation a golden glow worth waiting for.

Exploring the historic district of Fruita

At the center of Capitol Reef National park the charming historic district of Fruita. While you are exploring Fruita you need to stop by the Gifford House and try one of the delicious fresh pies and homemade ice cream. It is the perfect treat to end your day of hiking and adventure.

More Inspiring Photos from Capitol Reef National Park

The post Inspiring Photos and Hikes from Capitol Reef National Park appeared first on Travel to Blank.

from Inspiring Photos and Hikes from Capitol Reef National Park

#Inspiring Photos and Hikes from Capitol Reef National Park #travel #travel blog #tourism #tourist #a

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yewtongue8-blog · 6 years ago

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a date with the desert

Alternate titles:

The Whole Enchilada with a Side of Nachos

In Over my Head

Baptism by Fire

We threw the last duffle in the car around seven. It was ninety something degrees and I had sweat seeping out of every pore.....and we were headed south. What were we thinking?

Our weekend adventure was a last minute plan--the kids were at grandma’s, we had a few days to cram in some fun. By the time we gassed up, filled the cooler, and did all the other un-glamorous tasks that are part of road tripping, we got a late start and didn't roll into Moab until midnight. We slept--kinda-- flat on our backs, spread out, "don't touch me!", because it was exactly one million degrees.

Our shuttle up the mountain left at 6:30 a.m. I piled in with eight guys; the van smelled like a locker room and stayed fairly quiet on the hour drive. The guy in front of us had gotten into the van with a Salted Caramel Talenti container half full of a lightish brown liquid. Melted ice cream? No—that would be weird at this hour (or any hour), so I assumed it was his coffee. But then he finished it up and pulled out a raspberry Talenti container full of a very melted, very raspberry colored thick liquid. He nursed it all the way up the mountain. Between watching him sip away at two pints of melted ice cream for breakfast, the smell of the van, the windy mountain road, something sticky on my seat, and my enormous case of nerves….. I felt sick.

Yeah, I was nervous. I’ve been out on my bike quite a bit this summer, but our trails are nowhere near as technical as what I was about to ride. Our trails are smooth, fast, and flowy. There’s an occasional rock, some roots, and I know them all pretty well, both on foot and two wheels. But Robby assured me (repeatedly), that I’d be fine….he’s usually more confident in me than I am in myself. So I trusted him….I think.

Click. Click. I was in my pedals. Started my watch. The Whole Enchilada…..let’s do this! The air was crisp, the forest floor was wet from the previous night’s rain, and we settled in to our seats. Ice cream guy was GONE. Just as I began to shake my nerves out, we began to climb. And climb. And climb. I was trying to focus on the view—the flowers were like fireworks, the smell was intoxicating, but all I could think about was my legs. And my lungs. They were on FIRE. We were somewhere above ten thousand feet and I was feeeeeeeling it. I looked up the trail, and one by one riders were hopping off their bikes, pushing them up the mountainside. Pedal, peddddal, pedddaaaalllll, they just wouldn’t rotate anymore. I was off. Push, push, push. I passed a few riders in my hustle to the top, all making comments like “nice day for a hike”, and "this is the worst", and then topped out at 11,150ft on Burrow Pass. I should have taken a picture, but digging my phone out of my pack would have taken a few extra breaths that I just didn’t have at the moment, so instead we headed down.

And then I wished we were climbing again. The trail wasn’t dirt--it was slippery, broken up pieces of rock, and it was STEEP. The switchbacks were just about as close to a complete 180* degree turn as you could get—I had to unclip to get around most of them, and even that was hard. We were three or four miles into the ride at this point—and I called ahead to Robby—“am I in over my head?”

“You’re fine.”

I trusted him. I think.

The trail leveled out, we wound through aspens, cows, bushes and flowers that completely covered the trail. I was relieved to have a bit more climbing to give my legs a rest from standing on the pedals. We crossed creeks that soaked our feet, and eventually made our way out of the forest to a wide open view of the desert below.

WOW. This is why I signed up for this ride! The green meadow in front of us seemed to drop off into nothing, as red desert towers rose up into the blue sky. It looked fake. Was this real?! I wanted to spend the day taking it all in, but we had miles to cover.

We began our descent, the green fading away and slowly turning to red stone and sand. We had a few miles of relief on a smooth(ish) jeep road where we were able to make up some time, and let the wind whip around us as the desert air began to heat up.

The next twelvish miles or so all blurred together. When I think back, I imagine rock. After rock. After rocky rock. The sections of smooth broken slickrock were my favorite. Choosing a line up and over this rock—around that rock. Robby would holler “stay right!”—I’d keep right and sit all the way back over my seat as my tires dropped over edges and landed with ease. This was FUN! I was finally getting it. Choosing my own lines—it was like a playground—which way should I go?! Weeeeeeee!

And then there were the sections I didn't love--no lines to choose—no way to go around. Up and over, up and over, times where I was like, “yeah, I’m not riding that”, so I’d hop down and carry my bike around, over, through. But then times where I was like “yeah, I’m not riding that”, but I could not for the life of me get unclipped in time, so I just held on tight and tried not to close my eyes. And yes I screamed a little lot.

And I surprised myself so many times. I still don’t really consider myself a mountain biker—I’ve been on my bike quite a bit this summer, but there is so much about the sport I'm still figuring out. As I learned to trust myself and my bike, I think I earned my mountain biking badge this trip. At one point in those impossibly rocky sections, I had a thought—it quickly became my cheesy motto for the remainder of the ride. I remember thinking I was so wise--like Ghandi or something--or maybe it was on a No Fear shirt I saw in middle school, but I just kept thinking:

“You can’t DO, what you don’t TRY.”

It’s making me laugh so hard right now—does that even make sense? Not really. It sounded a lot more profound and inspiring when I was on the verge of dehydration and ridiculously exhausted, but I repeated this to myself over and over as my wheels rolled over drops and boulders. And as I kept trying, and trying--I continued to surprise myself with what I could do with each turn of my pedals.

I ran out of water with two miles of trail to go. It was 104* and I could see the river ahead, taunting me. My brain was done—I kept shifting the wrong direction and I swear the rocks were moving. The trail spit us out on the road—we had 5ish miles back to town on the hot asphalt. We stopped at a little spring dripping out of the rock and drank until our bellies were bloated and full. And then we filled up our bottles and dumped them over our heads—again and again. We were soaked and I’ve never felt so good. I got my second wind—“let’s do it again!!” We laughed, deliriously high on endorphins.

We went and showered at the rec center in town. I think I may have fallen asleep while the cool water ran over my sore muscles. I took inventory: three new bruises on my legs, some skin off my legs and an elbow, a blister from gripping my handlebars so tight, and a baseball size goose egg on my arm from a hard spill onto the rocks.

All worth it.

We ate our fill of Mexican food (nachos for me, and the very appropriate choice of enchiladas for Robby), and drove towards our next destination: Capitol Reef.

this picture says it all. absolute, complete exhaustion.

The rest of our adventure was fairly easy going. We threw up our tent and crawled into our sleeping bags, not even noticing how uncomfortable our air pads were. We crashed.

We woke up with the sun, and headed out for our next ride. My legs were toast from the previous thirty four miles, but our second ride would be fairly gentle in comparison. We had cloud cover, a few rain drops even, and an oasis to dip in halfway through our ride. As we peddled our way across the desert, I wondered why I love this so much? My body was tired, my brain was mush, and for some reason, I still couldn't get enough. There’s just something about physical suffering that I crave, and I love doing it together. Robby pushed and I followed—trying not to question if I could do it—if he says I can, then I will. We pedaled on and ended our ride right under twenty one miles. It felt good.

our secret oasis

done! 55 desert miles in two days.

We checked in to our cabin for the night, showered in the outdoor shower surrounded by willows, and went to eat. And eat and EAT. Burr Trail Grill is hands down one of my favorite restaurants on the planet. We had fried green tomatoes, wings, burgers with potatoes, and their famous pie. We sat on our little porch as the sun set, and talked about our last fourteen years together, and what the years to come may bring…..fingers crossed, they bring more bike rides.

mmmm.....peach pie

....the end....

Source: http://inthelittleredhouse.blogspot.com/2016/07/a-date-with-desert.html

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cindycapo · 6 years ago

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Regrann from @usinterior - Located about 14 driving miles from Moab, #Utah, the Corona Arch Trail is an easy to moderately strenuous 3-mile round trip hike with striking views of the Colorado River and a large slickrock canyon. The trail leads to #CoronaArch with it impressive 140 by 105-foot opening and the adjacent Bow Tie Arch. The Corona Arch Trail was one of the 19 new national recreation trails designated today -- adding more than 370 miles to the national recreation trails system. What’s your favorite trail? Photo by Bureau of Land Management (@mypubliclands). #usinterior #travel #yourpubliclands #mypubliclands @edaccessible @CWcream @Capochino67

#klout

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starwolf57 · 7 years ago

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It was time to go on another hike with Aria. BLM trails are great for dogs. The sun was out and the temp in the mid 70’s when I set out. After asking about the trails at the BLM office, I decided the Corona Arch trail would be a good choice. I wasn’t wrong.

Weekends are very busy for almost every trail, so I decided to go on a weekday. A short drive from my campsite along the Colorado River brought Aria and I to the trailhead parking. Only a few cars sat in the lot.

Before getting to the start of the trail, you need to climb a path of stairs made of wood and rocks. Aria, eager for the hike pulled me along. I will admit, I did need to stop about half way up. I signed us in at the trail’s start and we made our way to a set of railroad tracks to cross. BLM made a minor maze in order to cross the tracks. Aria wanted to go under the fencing instead of following the maze. It was made go barbed wire with the intent of keeping the cattle from getting to the railroad tracks. For me it was a challenge to keep Aria on the path through the maze. But I did manage to get her to follow me instead of the direct path.

Initially the path we followed was the red/gold sand that I have grown accustomed to here in the Moab area. As we rose in elevation the sand gave way to the sandstone slickrock that also dominates this area. The terrain was dotted with bushes, some living some dead, a few cacti and lots of rocks. As with many of the trails there were cairns placed at spots to mark the trail. Aria seemed eager to lead the way. Inherently she knew where the trail was by the scents of people/dogs that had gone before us. Occasionally, she would stray from the trail to investigate some strong smell be a rock or bush.

The temperature grew hotter and we took multiple breaks to rest when we found shade and have a drink of water. This trail doesn’t have much to provide shade during the midday hours. About 3/4 of the way to the end, we encountered the first of two challenges for us. The trail led up a steep rock.

I took this on our way down since Aria started the climb before I could take a picture going up.

Aria was like a mountain goat as she bounded up the rock from one foothold to the next. I had no time to think this out and followed. She was fine until the last few at which she halted, looked at me with a look that said “oops, I don’t know what to do now…”. I had one hand on the guide wire and the other bracing her butt. I was amazed at her faith in me as I directed her to a foothold and she leaped to it, followed by another and then another. We reached the top and within a dozen steps saw our second challenge.

Ahead of us was a six-foot ladder to climb with a withered tree at the top. I carried Aria up the ladder, placed her on the ledge and scrambled onto the ledge, using the tree to steady myself.

We came upon Bow Tie Arch first. This looked more like a skylight to me than an arch. But it was picturesque with a small stream that formed at its base and one lone tree growing out of it. I tried to capture the view with a photo, but didn’t really capture it. Perhaps if I had a real camera and a ten foot ladder, it would have looked better. I guess you the reader will need to visit this on your own to see what my iPhone missed.

From a distance, with no people in the view, Corona Arch doesn’t look very tall. However, get closer to it and you will see how tall it is. I asked somebody to take a picture of Aria and me. In order to get the entire arch and us in the picture, the person only stood about 30 feet away. But we look tiny compared to the arch.

The arch provide shade which I took advantage of to share a snack with Aria and drink some more water. As there were no other hikers nearby, I felt no need to leave the area. We relaxed and soaked in the view of the valley and surrounding rocks. Eventually I heard voices of other hikers and decided it was time for us to head back the way we came.

Enjoying the shade of the arch

Break time

The trip back was just as enjoyable as it was heading to the arch. However, Aria was in no rush to return, which I notice happens on every hike so far. For the two challenges, I carried Aria down them. I would say that the hike in and out took a little over 2 hours and is about 3 miles, round trip. Other than the climb to get to the start of the trail, the gain in elevation is so gradual that you may not notice it.

I have found that I like the BLM trails for two reasons. First they allow pets and second there are generally few other hikers on them. Perhaps this is because most people are drawn to spending time at the two national parks or they just don’t know about the BLM trails.

Corona Arch It was time to go on another hike with Aria. BLM trails are great for dogs. The sun was out and the temp in the mid 70's when I set out.

#Arch #BLM #Hiking #Moab #Nature #Trails #Utah

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janerchambers88 · 7 years ago

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12 Best Adventure Towns For An Affordable Fall Vacation

You don’t have to break the bank to have a once-in-a-lifetime adventure this autumn. With so many canyons, lakes, mountains, and more to explore right here in the US, you’ll find there’s a perfect fall vacation for every budget!

Top Adventure Towns You Can Afford

We looked into the cost of a week-long fall vacation to bring you 12 outdoorsy destinations where adventure knows no bounds. Whether you’re searching for a rock face to scale, a mountain to climb, or a river to cast your fishing line, these adventure vacation spots across the country have it all (and for an affordable price!).

Instead of roughing it in the woods during your trip, consider booking a vacation home with all the comforts and amenities you’re used to. By staying in a FlipKey rental, you can fuel up with a home-cooked meal prepared in your fully-stocked kitchen, or enjoy a comfy bed after a long day outdoors. From secluded mountain retreats to cozy cabins surrounded by trees, all that’s left to do is gather your friends and find the perfect rental in one of these amazing adventure towns.

Prices reflect the median cost for a week-long stay in a two-bedroom rental in that destination, between the months of September, October, and November.

Pahoa, Hawaii: $795/Week

The alternative to Hawaii’s glitzy, one-size-fits-all beach vacation, Pahoa is a sleepy town known for its abundant natural beauty and laid-back atmosphere. Wade into the waters of Ahalanui Beach Park, a spring-fed pool that’s volcanically heated to a balmy 90 degrees Fahrenheit. For spectacular snorkeling, plunge into the Kapoho Tide Pools. Need a day off from outdoor adventures? Walk along the raised wooden boardwalk, and admire the century-old buildings that give it a “Wild West” feel.

See all Pahoa vacation rentals on FlipKey!

Cody, Wyoming: $959/Week

Cody, named after its legendary founder, Buffalo Bill Cody, is a charming blend of old and new. It sits at the edge of Yellowstone National Park where buffalo roam (yes, really!), geysers gush, and the pristine wilderness awaits outdoor enthusiasts. Rent a cozy western cabin in Cody and see why travelers describe this one-of-a-kind adventure town as a “must-see!” Filled with natural wonders and a brilliant display of colorful foliage during the fall, choose Cody for your affordable fall getaway.

See all Cody vacation rentals on FlipKey!

McCall, Idaho: $990/Week

This Idaho adventure town may be known for its renowned winter skiing, but plan a trip to McCall during the fall and witness the roadside explosion of color that starts to pop every October. For panoramic mountain views, slip a kayak into the water and paddle around Payette Lake. Prefer to stay on land? Wander through the forests of Ponderosa State Park—which covers a thousand-acre peninsula that juts into the lake, or make a tee time at McCall Golf Club. With its stunning scenery and exhilarating outdoor experiences, you can explore from sun up until sun down in McCall!

See all McCall vacation rentals on FlipKey!

Whitefish, Montana: $1,120/Week

Once you arrive in Whitefish, however long you’re planning to stay just won’t be enough. Lace up your hiking boots, and head to Glacier National Park, the “Crown of the Continent.” At the park, gaze at the arresting fall foliage or choose a trail—long or short, easy or challenging—for panoramic views of the rugged Rockies. Other activities nearby include cycling, fishing, golfing, and even huckleberry picking. There’s no better time than fall to enjoy all Whitefish has to offer the adventurous vacationer.

See all Whitefish vacation rentals on FlipKey!

Ellijay, Georgia: $1,120/Week

A hidden gem in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia, Ellijay is a quiet town perfect for your fall getaway. Rent tubes and float down the Ellijay River for a unique view of the area, or tour the sprawling local vineyards. And what’s a trip to Ellijay without a stop at the apple orchard? Located in Gilmer County, the “Apple Capital of Georgia,” there are many farms nearby for apple picking. If you’re not feeling active, sit in a rocking chair on your vacation home’s porch and take in the blazing leaves and breathtaking mountain backdrop.

See all Ellijay vacation rentals on FlipKey!

Taos, New Mexico: $1,200/Week

Searching for a place that balances thrilling outdoor activities with laid-back, low-key vibes? Then Taos is your answer! Whether you fill your days hiking through Taos Ski Valley (watch out for wildlife!), rafting down the Rio Grande, or marveling at the ancient ruins of Taos Pueblo, there’s never a dull moment here. Rent a private casita on the outskirts of town and escape the hubbub of everyday life.

See all Taos vacation rentals on FlipKey!

Lake Tahoe, California: $1,260/Week

What would a list of idyllic fall adventure towns be without Lake Tahoe? Set amidst the jaw-dropping Sierra Nevada Mountains, this city boasts the largest alpine lake in North America and is a hot spot for autumn excursions. Visit the Gondola at Heavenly and ascend the mountains for a bird’s eye view of the area, coast across the clear blue water in a pontoon boat, or hop on a mountain bike to explore. Just one trip to Lake Tahoe will convince you that this destination truly has it all!

See all Lake Tahoe vacation rentals on FlipKey!

Logan, Ohio: $1,266/Week

Often overlooked, Logan packs lots of adventure within its borders. It’s tucked away in the Hocking Hills region, where you’ll find cascading waterfalls, towering gorges, and dense forest extending for miles—right in Ohio. Need a reward to motivate you along your hike? Make the trek to Ash Cave. This enormous, horseshoe-shaped cave is found at the end a tree-lined path and will take your breath away. Roam the wilderness by day, and cozy up around the fire in your Logan vacation home by night for the ultimate fall vacation.

See all Logan vacation rentals on FlipKey!

Durango, Colorado: $1,330/Week

Mountain bikers, hikers, hunters, horseback riders, rafters, fishermen, and more are drawn to Durango. Home to the two-million-acre San Juan National Forest, the roaring Animas River, and an interesting Old West heritage, this outdoorsy destination is one of the top adventure towns to visit, especially during the fall. Tour the scenic landscape on foot, or climb aboard a coal-fired, steam-powered locomotive and travel along the same tracks that early settlers used over a hundred years ago. No matter how you choose to explore, you’ll discover something new in Durango each time you visit.

See all Durango vacation rentals on FlipKey!

Sevierville, Tennessee: $1,374/Week

Picturesque nature trails cut through the colorful foliage, leaves rustle with the wind, and rivers rush down the sides of mountains: Sevierville is at its best during autumn. The city is surrounded by wilderness, with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park only minutes away. At Foxfire Mountain, soar amidst the treetops on a zipline excursion or cross the river by walking the longest swinging bridge in the US, the Bridge to Prosperity. Adventure abounds in the beautiful Smoky Mountains, and you’ll quickly see this hidden gem is no exception.

See all Sevierville rentals on FlipKey!

Moab, Utah: $1,420/Week

Moab’s dramatic landscape and extraordinary attractions beckon all types of outdoor adventurers—hikers, bikers, climbers, white water rafters… you name it! This fiery destination is situated at the edge of Arches National Park and Canyonlands, making it a popular base if you’re looking to explore the extensive network of trails—Balanced Rock and Slickrock—that snake through the sprawling red rock playground. Experience an unforgettable sunrise from 2,000 feet above the Colorado River at Dead Horse Point, or watch the sun dip below the horizon from the backyard of your vacation home.

See all Moab vacation rentals on FlipKey!

Lake Arrowhead, California: $1,551/Week

Nestled in the heart of the San Bernardino National Forest and known for its infinite recreational activities, Lake Arrowhead is widely referred to as “The Alps of Southern California.” Its mile-high location provides the ideal setting for hiking, biking, boating, and more. Explore the pine-scented trails that surround this adventure town, drift across the lake in a paddle boat, or browse the specialty shops in Lake Arrowhead Village. With so much to see and do here, you can be sure there’s a new adventure to be had every day of the week!

See all Lake Arrowhead vacation rentals on FlipKey!

Affordable Adventure Towns For Fall Vacations

Pahoa, Hawaii

Cody, Wyoming

McCall, Idaho

Whitefish, Montana

Ellijay, Georgia

Taos, New Mexico

Lake Tahoe, California

Logan, Ohio

Durango, Colorado

Sevierville, Tennessee

Moab, Utah

Lake Arrowhead, California

The post 12 Best Adventure Towns For An Affordable Fall Vacation appeared first on FlipKey Blog.

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kevingbakeruk · 7 years ago

Text

12 Best Adventure Towns For An Affordable Fall Vacation

Top Adventure Towns You Can Afford

Prices reflect the median cost for a week-long stay in a two-bedroom rental in that destination, between the months of September, October, and November.

Pahoa, Hawaii: $795/Week

See all Pahoa vacation rentals on FlipKey!

Cody, Wyoming: $959/Week

See all Cody vacation rentals on FlipKey!

McCall, Idaho: $990/Week

See all McCall vacation rentals on FlipKey!

Whitefish, Montana: $1,120/Week

See all Whitefish vacation rentals on FlipKey!

Ellijay, Georgia: $1,120/Week

See all Ellijay vacation rentals on FlipKey!

Taos, New Mexico: $1,200/Week

See all Taos vacation rentals on FlipKey!

Lake Tahoe, California: $1,260/Week

See all Lake Tahoe vacation rentals on FlipKey!

Logan, Ohio: $1,266/Week

See all Logan vacation rentals on FlipKey!

Durango, Colorado: $1,330/Week

See all Durango vacation rentals on FlipKey!

Sevierville, Tennessee: $1,374/Week

See all Sevierville rentals on FlipKey!

Moab, Utah: $1,420/Week

See all Moab vacation rentals on FlipKey!

Lake Arrowhead, California: $1,551/Week

See all Lake Arrowhead vacation rentals on FlipKey!

Affordable Adventure Towns For Fall Vacations

Pahoa, Hawaii

Cody, Wyoming

McCall, Idaho

Whitefish, Montana

Ellijay, Georgia

Taos, New Mexico

Lake Tahoe, California

Logan, Ohio

Durango, Colorado

Sevierville, Tennessee

Moab, Utah

Lake Arrowhead, California

The post 12 Best Adventure Towns For An Affordable Fall Vacation appeared first on FlipKey Blog.

from Tips For Traveling https://www.flipkey.com/blog/2017/08/24/affordable-adventure-towns-fall-vacation/

0 notes

mrrolandtfranco · 7 years ago

Text

12 Best Adventure Towns For An Affordable Fall Vacation

Top Adventure Towns You Can Afford

Prices reflect the median cost for a week-long stay in a two-bedroom rental in that destination, between the months of September, October, and November.

Pahoa, Hawaii: $795/Week

See all Pahoa vacation rentals on FlipKey!

Cody, Wyoming: $959/Week

See all Cody vacation rentals on FlipKey!

McCall, Idaho: $990/Week

See all McCall vacation rentals on FlipKey!

Whitefish, Montana: $1,120/Week

See all Whitefish vacation rentals on FlipKey!

Ellijay, Georgia: $1,120/Week

See all Ellijay vacation rentals on FlipKey!

Taos, New Mexico: $1,200/Week

See all Taos vacation rentals on FlipKey!

Lake Tahoe, California: $1,260/Week

See all Lake Tahoe vacation rentals on FlipKey!

Logan, Ohio: $1,266/Week

See all Logan vacation rentals on FlipKey!

Durango, Colorado: $1,330/Week

See all Durango vacation rentals on FlipKey!

Sevierville, Tennessee: $1,374/Week

See all Sevierville rentals on FlipKey!

Moab, Utah: $1,420/Week

See all Moab vacation rentals on FlipKey!

Lake Arrowhead, California: $1,551/Week

See all Lake Arrowhead vacation rentals on FlipKey!

Affordable Adventure Towns For Fall Vacations

Pahoa, Hawaii

Cody, Wyoming

McCall, Idaho

Whitefish, Montana

Ellijay, Georgia

Taos, New Mexico

Lake Tahoe, California

Logan, Ohio

Durango, Colorado

Sevierville, Tennessee

Moab, Utah

Lake Arrowhead, California

The post 12 Best Adventure Towns For An Affordable Fall Vacation appeared first on FlipKey Blog.

from FlipKey Blog http://ift.tt/2ivp98v

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j0sgomez-blog · 5 years ago

Photo

By Michael Lanza

You might want to bring along a friend or your family—just to make sure you don’t get too lonely.

Hiking the Taylor Creek Trail, Zion National Park.

Taylor Canyon, Zion

Taylor Creek Trail, Zion National Park.

See my “Photo Gallery: Hiking the Kolob Canyons of Zion National Park,” and all of my stories about Zion at The Big Outside.

Find your next adventure in your Inbox. Sign up for my FREE email newsletter now.

Todd Arndt hiking Clouds Rest in Yosemite National Park.

Tenaya Lake to Clouds Rest, Yosemite

View from the top of the Eagle Peak Trail, Mount Rainier National Park.

The Eagle Peak Trail, Mount Rainier National Park.

Eagle Peak Trail, Mount Rainier

See my favorite dayhikes at Rainier and all of my stories about Mount Rainier National Park.

Want more? See “The 25 Best National Park Dayhikes” and “Extreme Hiking: America’s Best Hard Dayhikes.”

A hiker on the summit of Static Peak, Grand Teton National Park.

Static Peak, Grand Teton

See my story “Ask Me: 8 Great Big Dayhikes in the Tetons,” and all of my stories about Grand Teton National Park.

I can help you plan the best backpacking, hiking, or family adventure of your life. Find out more here.

My son, Nate, at the Big Spring-Squaw Pass, Needles District, Canyonlands National Park.

Big Spring, Squaw, and Lost Canyons and the Peekaboo Trail, Canyonlands

Peekaboo Trail, Canyonlands.

See my story “No Straight Lines: Backpacking and Hiking in Canyonlands and Arches National Parks,” and all of my stories about Canyonlands.

Blacktail Deer Creek Trail, Yellowstone National Park.

Blacktail Deer Creek Trail, Yellowstone

Crevice Lake, Black Canyon of the Yellowstone River.

See my Ask Me blog posts “The 10 Best Short Hikes in Yellowstone,” and “The Ultimate Family Tour of Yellowstone,” and all of my stories about Yellowstone at The Big Outside.

My wife, Penny, and daughter, Alex, hiking Chimney Rock Canyon, Capitol Reef National Park.

Chimney Rock Canyon, Capitol Reef.

Chimney Rock Canyon, Capitol Reef

See a menu of all of my stories about Capitol Reef National Park on my All National Park Trips page.

Got an all-time favorite campsite? See “Tent Flap With a View: 25 Favorite Backcountry Campsites”

Hiking Telescope Peak in Death Valley National Park.

Telescope Peak, Death Valley

Hiking Death Valley’s Telescope Peak.

Go from April to May or September into November to avoid the deadly heat of summer.

See my story “11,000 Feet Over Death Valley: Hiking Telescope Peak,” and all of my stories about Death Valley National Park at The Big Outside.

Make your hikes better. See my reviews of “The 5 Best Rain Jackets For Hiking” and the 7 best daypacks.

My wife, Penny, hiking the Heather Pass-Maple Pass Loop, North Cascades National Park.

Heather Pass-Maple Pass Loop, North Cascades.

Heather Pass-Maple Pass Loop, North Cascades

Go in August or early September, after most of the snow has melted out, and when the huckleberries are ripe and columbine and other wildflowers bloom.

See my story “Exploring the ‘American Alps:’ The North Cascades,” and all of my stories about the North Cascades region at The Big Outside.

Plan your next great backpacking trip in Yosemite, Grand Teton, or other parks using my expert e-guides.

David Ports hiking in the Wonderland of Rocks, Joshua Tree National Park.

Wonderland of Rocks, Joshua Tree

See a menu of all of my stories about Joshua Tree National Park on my All National Park Trips page.

Hiking in Great Sand Dunes National Park.

The Dunes, Great Sand Dunes

Walk toe-to-heel along the inch-wide crest of giant sand dunes, with crazily steep drop-offs on each side. Then pause and listen to the eerie “singing” when sand avalanches down those faces.

See my story “Exploring America’s Big Sandbox: Colorado’s Great Sand Dunes.”

My son, Nate, hiking in Idaho’s City of Rocks National Reserve.

Loop Around the City of Rocks National Reserve

For information, visit nps.gov/ciro.

Tell me what you think.

See a menu of stories at my All National Park Trips page at The Big Outside.

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j0sgomez-blog · 5 years ago

Photo

By Michael Lanza

The heat presses in from all sides as we hike down the Bill Hall Trail off the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The overhead sun feels as if it has expanded to a supernova threatening to engulf the planet. The rocks radiate waves of heat up at us; I wonder if they might actually reach egg-frying temperature today. Even the air seems to be rising to a boil like a vast kettle on a stove. We hike cautiously over broken stones that slide underfoot, leaning out onto our trekking poles for the two- and three-foot ledge drops on this path—which appears better suited to bighorn sheep than to bipedal primates hauling backpacks weighed down with gear, food, and a surplus of a rare element out here: water.

It’s not even 9 a.m. at around 7,000 feet in the second week of May, and the forecast for the bottom of the canyon—where we are headed—calls for highs in the 90s over the coming days. In other words, we must remind ourselves that these are the coolest hours of the day, and we should try to enjoy them because this respite from the heat—however much it may not feel like a respite—won’t last long.

Three friends—Todd Arndt, Chip Roser, and Jeff Wilhelm—and I have set out on a four-day backpacking trip on the 25-mile Thunder River-Deer Creek Loop off the Grand Canyon’s North Rim. We’ve come in mid-May hoping to get lucky with the temperatures during one of the two brief seasonal windows for taking this trip. And it turns out we did get lucky in that the trailhead access road only became free of snow and passable days ago; had we planned dates much earlier, we might have been shut out. (Autumn often has a slightly longer ideal window for backpacking this loop. See my trip-planning tips in the Take This Trip section at the bottom of this story.)

Chip Roser on the higher Tapeats Creek Trail in the Grand Canyon.

When reserving a backcountry permit months in advance, it’s a roll of the dice to guess which dates in spring will reward you with snow-free roads and lower-than-supernova temps. While the recent heat wave melted away the last snow and dried out the roads on the North Rim, it unfortunately also transformed the inner canyon into the inferno it normally becomes from late May well into September—when this environment shows its true face as a place hospitable to lizards, snakes, and scorpions, but not so much to humans.

The Grand Canyon doesn’t just get hot, it gets really hot.

But our circumstances can certainly be viewed as a water bladder half full rather than half-empty. While the higher stretches of the Thunder River-Deer Creek Loop pass through parched, waterless desert—the reason we are each hauling three liters or more of water now—the lower sections that form the roundish part of this lollipop loop we’re hiking have an unusual abundance of water in fast-moving, perennial streams.

Todd Arndt backpacking the Granite Narrows route in the Grand Canyon.

In fact, the two creeks and one river (in addition to the Colorado River) that we will hike along pour over some of the Big Ditch’s prettiest waterfalls, course through spectacular narrows, and nurture oases of trees and vegetation. That’s why the Thunder River-Deer Creek Loop has become a prized destination for in-the-know backpackers and river rats. Plus, even though the upper parts of the loop are dry, the vistas are the biggest of the hike, revealing the Grand Canyon’s majestic breadth and depth.

And while most of the route’s mileage offers no more shade than you can find under a prickly-pear cactus, there are pockets of shelter from the sun beneath trees along the creeks. We can hunker down like native desert fauna through the incinerating heat of the middle hours of each day, while hiking in the cooler early mornings and evenings.

We came here with a clear-eyed understanding that this hike from the North Rim down a vertical mile to the Colorado and back up again, on often-rugged trails, in heat that pushes the edges of human tolerance, will be really tough. But in compensation for that suffering, we’ll explore one of the more unique corners of the Grand Canyon.

All we have to do is survive it.

Read about how climate change is affecting the Grand Canyon and other parks in my book Before They’re Gone—A Family’s Year-Long Quest to Explore America’s Most Endangered National Parks.

Thunder River

After hours of perspiring copiously while hiking downhill, the incongruous sight of the Thunder River can make your stewed brain suspect it’s a mirage.

By early that first afternoon, we’ve dropped nearly 4,000 feet from the Monument Point-Bill Hall Trailhead. We traversed the Esplanade—a broad plateau of slickrock, massive boulders, and sand at around 5,000 feet, with long views of the canyon—and descended off that plateau on a double-black-diamond-steep portion of the Thunder River Trail, occasionally surfing the smashed dinner-plate stones that comprise it. Then we crossed the starkly barren and absolutely-devoid-of-shade Surprise Valley in skull-baking heat. Only the wind, ash-hot but mercifully strong, makes the steadily rising temperature barely tolerable.

Now, standing the edge of Surprise Valley, we’re looking down at today’s third long, knee-pounding descent through countless switchbacks over loose and rocky ground on a steep canyon slope. Hundreds of feet below us, a lushly green oasis of tall trees stands out against the landscape of cliffs and dirt in shades of ochre and brown. Immediately above this tiny but spirit-lifting soul patch of forest, a roaring, spring-fed waterfall erupts from the middle of a cliff face: the origin of the Thunder River.

Find your next adventure in your Inbox. Sign up for my FREE email newsletter now.

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In one sense, the Thunder River isn’t much of a river: From that waterfall at its source, it only flows about a half-mile, although it drops some 1,200 feet in a continuous cascade to its confluence with Tapeats Creek. One of the shortest rivers in the country, it’s also certainly one of the few rivers that’s a tributary of a creek.

But the sheer volume of water gushing from the cliff makes it one of the most dramatic tributaries along the Colorado River’s entire 277-mile length through the Grand Canyon. Unlike most rivers that begin as trickles and streamlets coming together, it leaps from its headwaters birthplace fully formed. Naturally, it’s a great spot to escape the heat. In the shade of the trees and the mist below the waterfall, it feels about 25 degrees cooler. We lounge in the water and beside it for an hour or more. Not surprisingly, in the time we’re there, several parties of river rafters arrive, having walked a couple miles up the Tapeats Creek Trail from the Colorado River to see this waterfall.

We reach a designated campsite in the Upper Tapeats camping area on Tapeats Creek around 3 p.m., in the full-on blacksmith’s forge heat of the day—it’s probably in the mid-90s. We’ve hiked nine horizontal miles and almost a vertical mile downhill, somehow also accumulating over 800 feet of elevation gain over the course of the descent from the North Rim. Although we’ve all completed days of hiking that were three to five times that distance, the fatigue of the heat, the rugged terrain, and the equivalent of walking down well over 400 flights of stairs carrying a pack—if those stairs were intermittently built of loose stones ready to tumble with each step—has left us all feeling physically spent far beyond what we’d expect.

Plan your next great backpacking trip in Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, or other parks using my expert e-guides.

Jeff Wilhelm on the Tapeats Creek Trail, Thunder River-Deer Creek Loop, Grand Canyon.

The almost inevitable dehydration resulting from hard exertion in that kind of heat certainly contributes to the physiological toll: We’re all guzzling water in camp to refill our tanks. Chip and I will both go hours before peeing again.

Of the two campsites at Upper Tapeats, the one slightly upstream is larger, but the downstream one has shade sooner and plenty of space, and sits right on the creek; both are empty, so we grab the lower. While walking between them and the creek for a matter of minutes, I make the egregious error of leaving the top of my backpack not securely closed, and return to find Jeff saying he caught two ravens pulling food from my pack. I assess the damage: a bag of bars torn open, and another bag of the pita bread that was to be part of my lunch every day shredded, with its contents torn up in the dirt or gone. A little while later, as I’m still cursing them, we see one of the ravens fly overhead with a chunk of pita in its mouth.

As dusk dims toward night, bats emerge, making jet-fighter aerial maneuvers overhead, somehow throwing together a meal from the meager offerings of insects in the desert. The steady drone of Tapeats Creek gifts me with a night of coma-like sleep.

Tapeats Creek

In the morning, Todd emerges from his sleeping bag after spending the night out under the stars instead of in one of the tents, and tells me he didn’t sleep well; mice and other small critters kept darting over him, startling him awake. “I may have to rethink the tent thing tonight,” he says.

Today, we have to hike only two miles from Upper Tapeats to the Lower Tapeats camping area, where the creek spills into the Colorado River. Knowing there’s no shade down there, we decide to find shade to hide out in for most of the day. After the sun hits our campsite shortly after 9 a.m.—instantly jacking the temp up about 10 degrees, from pleasant to “time to go”—we start hiking, passing through sprawling, beautiful prickly-pear cacti gardens, with flowers in bloom, on the canyon bottom before the trail climbs up the canyon wall.

While stepping carefully along that narrow goat path, with a potential hundred-foot plunge below my left elbow, I glance down to see a bighorn sheep, with a full curl to its horns, leisurely sauntering through the sparse scrubland along the creek below me.

The trail descends again, and we find a sandstone ledge beside Tapeats Creek with a four-foot wall that casts a strip of all-day shade just wide enough for all of us to lie down on pads. And there we pass the next several hours reading, talking, eating, and chugging water.

I can help you plan this or any other trip you read about at my blog. Find out more here.

. . .

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j0sgomez-blog · 5 years ago

Photo

By Michael Lanza

As a parent of teenagers who’s taken his kids on outdoor adventures since before they can remember, I’ll share with you the biggest and in some ways most surprising lesson I’ve learned from these trips: Our outdoor adventures have been the best times we’ve had together as a family—but not only because of the places and experiences themselves. The main reason is that these trips have given us innumerable days with only each other and nature for entertainment—no electronic devices or other distractions that construct virtual walls within families in everyday life. These times have brought us closer together.

That’s a gift we’ve given ourselves as a family, that I’ve cherished every minute of (well, most of the minutes, anyway). I also know our kids will fully appreciate it when they’re older—and, hopefully, pass this gift on to their own children.

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River, from the brink of Lower Yellowstone Falls.

No matter where you go or what you do with your kids, you can reap that reward. But if you want to share with your family the very best experiences and places in nature, well, I have a pretty darn awesome list for you.

For this newly updated story, I’ve picked out the 10 very best adventures my family has taken and I’ve written about at The Big Outside. This tick list includes seven national parks, three world-class paddling adventures, three trips that should be on every backpacker’s to-do list, America’s most fascinating volcano hike, and cross-country skiing or hiking among the greatest concentration of active geysers in the world.

Not surprisingly, all of these trips are extremely popular and require planning and making reservations months in advance.

All are linked to my full feature story about each, which include numerous photos, and a video in most of them. Below the top 10, I’ve included several bonus trips that made this list in previous years but have been bumped as I’ve regularly updated it.

You may also want to peruse my 10 all-time favorite adventures, domestic and international—there are definitely trips that could be on either list (and there’s no overlap between the two).

I’d love to read your comments about any of these trips or the entire list, and other readers and I would appreciate any advice you have on any of these trips. Share your thoughts in the comments section at the bottom of this story.

Here’s wishing you many years of forging lasting memories together as a family.

My teenage nephew and daughter and 80-year-old mother on the Tour du Mont Blanc.

1. Trekking the Tour du Mont Blanc in the Alps

Why not begin my list with one of the biggest, most beautiful and fun adventures my family has ever taken? You’ll find the Tour du Mont Blanc on just about any list of the world’s greatest trails. The main reason is the sheer majesty of this roughly 105-mile (170k) walking path around the “Monarch of the Alps,” 15,771-foot (4807m) Mont Blanc. Passing through three Alpine nations—France, Italy, and Switzerland—and over several mountain passes reaching nearly 9,000 feet, it delivers almost constant views of glaciers, pointy peaks and “augilles,” and the snowy dome of Mont Blanc. Making this trip all the more special was the fact that we had three generations of my extended family represented, including my 80-year-old mother. Read my story “Hiking the Tour du Mont Blanc at an 80-Year-Old Snail’s Pace.”

Click here now for my e-guide “The Perfect, Flexible Plan for Hiking the Tour du Mont Blanc.”

The Big Outside is proud to partner with sponsor Switzerland Tourism, who supported this trip and story about trekking the Tour du Mont Blanc. Click on the Switzerland logo to find out more about traveling in that beautiful country.

Half Dome, Liberty Cap, and Nevada Fall seen from the John Muir Trail, Yosemite National Park.

2. The Magic of Hiking to Yosemite’s Waterfalls

Stand at the brink of a thunderous waterfall that drops a sheer 1,400 feet over a cliff. Hike a trail in the heavy shower of mist raining from a clear, blue sky. Dayhike through one of the most iconic landscapes in America—Yosemite Valley. The Valley’s towering cliffs and waterfalls will awe any adult and even the most cynical teenager. But for kids, there are also the thrills of walking through the mist from a giant waterfall, and moments like traversing the narrow catwalk blasted out of granite on the final steps to the top of Upper Yosemite Falls. Read my story and start planning your trip.

Plan your next great backpacking adventure in Yosemite and other flagship parks using my expert e-guides.

Hi, I’m Michael Lanza, creator of The Big Outside, which has made several top outdoors blog lists. Click here to sign up for my FREE email newsletter. Please follow my adventures on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube. Subscribe now to get full access to all of my blog’s stories. Click here to learn how I can help you plan your next trip.

My kids, nephew, and mother standing at the crater rim of Mount St. Helens, with Mount Adams in the distance.

3. Three Generations, One Big Volcano: Pushing Limits on Mount St. Helens

I’ll make you this guarantee: Mount St. Helens is one of the coolest dayhikes in America, period. Hikers on the standard route, Monitor Ridge, soon emerge from shady rainforest onto a stark, gray and black moonscape of volcanic rocks, pumice, and ash, with infinite views of the Cascade Range, including other snow-capped volcanoes like Hood, Adams, and Rainier. It’s also a tough hike at 10 miles round-trip and 4,500 vertical feet up and down, most of it on rugged terrain that varies from loose stones and dirt to ash that’s like hiking a giant sand dune. We had a special component to our trip up and down the mountain: a three-generation family group with a 66-year spread between the youngest, my 10-year-old daughter, and the oldest, my then-76-year-old mother. When I scored last-minute permits to hike the mountain, I wasn’t sure everyone could make it. Then, hours into the ascent, events seemed to take a bad downturn. Read for yourself how it all turned out.

Hiking Mount St. Helens was one of my “25 Most Scenic Days of Hiking Ever.”

Campsite below Zoroaster Temple, along the Tonto Trail in the Grand Canyon.

4. Dropping Into the Grand Canyon: A Four-Day Hike From Grandview Point to the South Kaibab Trail

Sure, any trip in the Big Ditch is worthy of a top 10 list—you could fill a top 10 list just with Grand Canyon hikes. But in this rugged terrain and unforgiving environment, choosing the right backpacking route becomes critical; most trails are rough, many trailheads remote. This four-day, 29-mile hike combines two of the most spectacular and accessible trails coming off the South Rim—the Grandview and South Kaibab—with an easier, less-busy stretch of the Tonto Trail that delivers constant, big views. See more photos and read my story about it now.

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Backpacking near Strawberry Point on Washington’s Southern Olympic Coast.

5. The Wildest Shore: Backpacking the Southern Olympic Coast

For our kids, who were nine and seven, this three-day backpacking trip on the wilderness coastline of Washington’s Olympic National Park ranks as a favorite for all the expected reasons that children love a wild ocean shore: playing for hours in water, exploring the variety of sea life in tide pools, and picking, awestruck, through the myriad flotsam from civilization like old, salt-worn buoys (my son took one home). For adults, the scores of offshore sea stacks, giant trees, and natural beauty make the Olympic coast one of America’s classic backpacking trips. Find out why in my story.

How do we raise kids who love going on outdoor adventures? Read what I’ve learned over the years in

my “10 Tips For Raising Outdoors-Loving Kids” and “10 Tips For Getting Your Teenager Outdoors With You.”

Floating the Green River through Stillwater Canyon, Canyonlands National Park.

6. Still Waters Run Deep: Tackling America’s Best Multi-Day Float Trip on the Green River

For 52 miles through Stillwater Canyon, the Green River slowly unfurls beneath a constant backdrop of giant redrock cliffs and spires. Off the water, you camp on sandy beaches and slickrock benches (including one spot on my top 25 all-time favorite backcountry campsites), hike to centuries-old Puebloan rock art and cliff dwellings, and maybe even spot bighorn sheep scrambling around on precipitous rock faces. An easy trip for beginners and families—our party of 17 ranged in age from four to 80 and included eight kids—floating the Green River is still my family’s gold standard for river trips.

Planning your next big adventure? See “My Top 10 Favorite Backpacking Trips” and “The 20 Best National Park Dayhikes.”

A mangrove tunnel on the East River.

7. Like No Other Place: Paddling the Everglades

Seeing scores of large, exotic birds like brown pelicans, roseate spoonbills, white ibises, and black anhingas. Canoeing among remote islands to camp on a wilderness beach you have all to yourself. Watching a dolphin surface just off your canoe’s bow and swim a wide circle around you. Paddling a flatwater river shared with alligators (kept at a safe distance). It’s hard to overstate how exciting and fun this park is for adults and children. And the trip my family took when our kids were ten and almost eight was one of the most beginner-friendly in the Everglades.

I can help you plan the best backpacking, hiking, or family adventure of your life. Find out more here.

Backpacking the West Rim Trail in Zion National Park, Utah.

8. Pilgrimage Across Zion: Traversing a Land of Otherworldly Scenery

Many hikers content themselves with exploring the trails of Zion Canyon and the popular dayhike up Angels Landing—all worthwhile. But backpack into the backcountry and you discover a sprawling landscape that’s unique even in the Southwest. Cliffs of pure white and blood-red sandstone soar hundreds of feet overhead, rock ripples like water, and you walk along a high rim looking down on a labyrinth of slot canyons and isolated mesas. This trip’s moderate difficulty and multiple itinerary options make it ideal for families and beginner backpackers. Read my story and I think you’ll see why.

Score a popular permit using my “10 Tips For Getting a Hard-to-Get National Park Backcountry Permit.”

Skiing the Biscuit Basin Trail through the Upper Geyser Basin in Yellowstone.

9. Exploring Yellowstone

Visiting the world’s first national park, Yellowstone, should be a requirement of American citizenship (and I would gladly contribute to a fund to make it affordable for every family). Besides the opportunity to see a range of wildlife that nearly mirrors what North America looked like before Columbus, you can watch geysers erupts, and see natural hot springs, whistling fumaroles, bubbling mud pots, and some beautiful waterfalls. I’ve visited many times, with my kids and before I had a family, in every season. It’s wonderful for everyone, at any stage in life, partly because so many of its highlight features can be seen on short walks. And to me, cross-country skiing the almost flat, 2.5 miles of trail through Yellowstone’s Upper Geyser Basin, past one-fourth of the active geysers in the world (and the greatest concentration of them), is one of the most fascinating experiences in the National Park System.

See my stories “Ask Me: The Ultimate Family Tour of Yellowstone,” “Ask Me: The 10 Best Short Hikes in Yellowstone,” “Cross-Country Skiing Yellowstone,” and all of my stories about Yellowstone.

Want this lifestyle for your family? Use my “7 Tips for Getting Your Family on Outdoor Adventure Trips.”

The “kids raft” running Cliffside Rapid on Idaho’s Middle Fork Salmon River.

10. Big Water, Big Wilderness: Rafting Idaho’s Incomparable Middle Fork Salmon River

For a complete package of sheer thrills, five-star scenery, immersion in a vast wilderness, beautiful campsites, repeated episodes of children shrieking with joy, and the company of like-minded people for six days—not to mention eating like every day was Thanksgiving—few trips we’ve taken as a family compare to our guided float down Idaho’s Middle Fork of the Salmon River. Flowing like an artery through the heart of the second-largest federal wilderness in the continental United States, the nearly 2.4-million-acre Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, the Middle Fork is a world-class whitewater river widely considered second only to the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in terms of raw beauty. My family already has our next Middle Fork trip on the calendar. See many more photos in my story about it.

I ended that story about rafting the Middle Fork of the Salmon with this passage from Robert Service’s poem, “The Spell of the Yukon:”

“There’s a land where the mountains are nameless, And the rivers all run God knows where; There are lives that are erring and aimless, And deaths that just hang by a hair; There are hardships that nobody reckons; There are valleys unpeopled and still; There’s a land—Òoh, it beckons and beckons, And I want to go back—Ò and I will.”

See also my All Trips and Skills pages and a menu of all of my stories about family adventures at The Big Outside.

Tell me what you think.

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Past Top 10 Family Adventures

I update the list above every year, and sometimes one or two trips get bumped for something better. But that doesn’t diminish their appeal. So I will keep this list below—what I could call my “junior varsity” top family adventures—to give you more choices for your family.

In the narrows of Paria Canyon.

The Quicksand Chronicles: Backpacking Paria Canyon

We had our first run-in with quicksand just an hour into a two-family, five-day, 38-mile backpacking trip down Paria Canyon, which straddles the border of Utah and Arizona and joins the Colorado River at Lees Ferry, the gateway to the Grand Canyon. Many more encounters followed, with almost no one avoiding an immersion (none of them dangerous)—and it quickly became a game for the five teens and ’tweeners among us. But Paria Canyon is more than muck—it’s one of the most continually stunning, multi-day canyon hikes in the Southwest.

Read my story about this top-drawer adventure for avid backpackers.

Peek-a-Boo Gulch, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Playing the Memory Game in Southern Utah’s Escalante, Capitol Reef, and Bryce Canyon

With America’s greatest concentration of national parks and a wealth of other public lands spread across southern Utah, it just plain takes a lot of time to really explore this region. I’ve been at it for years just to begin scratching below the surface. In this weeklong spring trip with another family, we dayhiked in Capitol Reef and Bryce Canyon national parks, and focused most of our efforts on the lesser-known Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, where we hiked to arguably the area’s finest waterfall, squeezed through the slot canyons Peek-a-Boo Gulch and Spooky Gulch, and backpacked for three days in one of the gems of canyon country, Coyote Gulch. The photos and videos alone will sell you on this trip.

Read my story about it now.

My kids on the Gunsight Pass Trail, Glacier National Park.

Jagged Peaks, Mountain Lakes, and Wild Goats: A 3-Day Hike on Glacier’s Gunsight Pass Trail

Glacier National Park belongs on every serious backpacker’s must-do list. But much of this vast wilderness of rugged mountains is remote, which translates to long, challenging trips that aren’t always ideal for families or beginners—not to mention that this park has the highest concentration of grizzly bears in the Lower 48. When I wanted to take our kids, then nine and seven, backpacking in Glacier, I chose a three-day hike on the popular, gorgeous, and relatively accessible Gunsight Pass Trail, a hike brimming with classically Glacier-esque jagged peaks, waterfalls, and wildlife like marmots and mountain goats.

Read my story about it now.

Trail 785 to Image Lake, Glacier Peak Wilderness.

Wild Heart of the Glacier Peak Wilderness: Backpacking the Spider Gap-Buck Creek Pass Loop

Washington’s Glacier Peak Wilderness sprawls over more than half a million acres of the North Cascades region, in my opinion one of America’s most spectacular mountain ranges. And the five-day, 44-mile Spider Gap-Buck Creek Pass loop gives you five-star views of 10,541-foot Glacier Peak and the sea of lower, jagged mountains surrounding it. Plus, this route has earned a reputation for its somewhat more adventurous flavor, owing to the route over 7,100-foot Spider Gap, which does not follow a maintained trail.

Read my story about it now.

Spring Canyon, Capitol Reef National Park.

Plunging Into Solitude: Dayhiking, Slot Canyoneering, and Backpacking in Capitol Reef

In many ways, this week spent in Utah’s Capitol Reef National Park compares with the “Playing the Memory Game” trip to Capitol Reef, the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and Bryce Canyon National Park on the list above. But don’t count it out: It offers a perfect combination of two days of off-trail hiking and slot canyon exploring with a family-friendly, three-day backpacking trip in one of the most accessible areas of the Capitol Reef backcountry.

Read my story about it now.

Banner Ridge yurt, Boise National Forest, Idaho.

Snowstorms, Skinny Skis, Yurts, and a Family Tradition

This trip makes my list more for sentimental reasons than any other—but that’s why it or something similar should be on your list. We all, parents and children, excitedly anticipate this annual, multi-day, cross-country ski trip to a backcountry yurt in Idaho’s Boise Mountains—for many reasons that the story explains. Your family’s equivalent could be a different type of outdoors adventure, closer to your home so that it’s accessible. The most important elements: a commitment to it, and reserving this time only for each other, uninterrupted by electronic devices or other distractions. Read on to see what I’m talking about.

Read my story about it now.

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j0sgomez-blog · 5 years ago

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By Michael Lanza

From natural arches, hoodoos, and hanging gardens to balanced rocks and towering mesas, slot canyons and vast chasms, the desert Southwest holds in its dry, searing, lonely open spaces some of America’s most fascinating and inspiring geology. The writer “Cactus Ed” Abbey no doubt had this region in mind when he said there “are some places so beautiful they can make a grown man break down and weep.” Much of it sits protected within southern Utah’s five national parks: Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches, Canyonlands, and Capitol Reef.

The good news? Many of the best sights can be reached on dayhikes of anywhere from a couple hours to a full day.

The list below of the best dayhikes in southern Utah’s national parks derives from numerous trips I’ve made to each of these parks over the past almost 30 years. Use my list as your compass, and I guarantee you will knock off the best hikes in these parks—and you won’t need a quarter-century to do it.

I’d love to read your thoughts about my list—and your suggestions for dayhikes that belong on it. Please share them in the comments section at the bottom of this story. As I continue to explore more trails, I will regularly update this story.

Hiking Angels Landing in Zion National Park.

Angels Landing and West Rim Trail, Zion National Park

Angels Landing belongs on any list of the best dayhikes in Utah. The five-mile, 1,500-foot round-trip hike of Angels Landing culminates in one of the airiest and most thrilling half-mile stretches (actually, 0.4 mile) of trail in the entire National Park System. You scale a steep, knife-edge ridge crest of rock, using steps carved out of sandstone and chain handrails in spots. And the 360-degree panorama from the summit takes in all of Zion Canyon.

Two tips: If you can hike a strong pace, start in very early morning or wait until mid-afternoon (when the lower section of trail falls into shade) to avoid the crowds and the heat of midday. And after summiting Angels, continue up the West Rim Trail for another mile or two before turning back—you will ditch the crowds and explore a sublimely beautiful area of giant beehive towers and white walls streaked in red and orange.

See my story “Great Hike: Angels Landing, Zion National Park” and all of my stories about Zion at The Big Outside.

A hiker on the Peek-a-Boo Loop in Bryce Canyon National Park.

Navajo-Queens Garden and Peek-a-Boo Loops, Bryce Canyon National Park

If the view of Bryce’s stone forest of multi-colored hoodoos is breathtaking from roadside overlooks, hiking in their labyrinthine midst is mesmerizing. Combine the popular and short Navajo Loop/Queens Garden Loop—which features one of the park’s best-known formations, Thor’s Hammer—with the Peek-a-Boo Loop, and you will lose the crowds while walking through a maze of multi-colored limestone, sandstone, and mudstone towers.

The hike, mostly on good trails that are easy to follow, weaves among tall hoodoos, passes through doorways cut through walls of rock, and wraps through amphitheaters of wildly colored, slender spires that resemble giant, melting candles. The six-mile loop, with a total elevation gain and loss of about 1,600 feet, begins and ends at Sunset Point.

See “Photo Gallery: My Favorite Hike in Bryce Canyon,” and all of my stories about Utah national parks at The Big Outside.

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Sunset at Delicate Arch in Arches National Park.

Delicate Arch at Sunset, Arches National Park

The trail to what is probably Utah’s most famous natural arch is certainly a well-traveled path. But here’s the smart hiker’s strategy: Do it in the evening, timing your arrival at Delicate for shortly before sunset. The final stretch of the trail traverses the face of a small slickrock cliff before suddenly depositing you on the rim of an amphitheater of solid rock, looking across the broad bowl at Delicate Arch, with the La Sal Mountains, snow-covered in spring, visible through its keyhole. Then hold your jaw in place while watching as the low-angle sunlight seems to electrify the sandstone’s burnt color.

Just three miles round-trip with minimal elevation gain, it’s an easy stroll, even returning by headlamp; and that time of day is far more pleasant than trudging it during the morning or afternoon heat. Tip: Bring a headlamp and jacket and linger for a while after sunset, until most other hikers have departed, and you’ll enjoy a quieter, enchanting walk under a sky riddled with stars.

Hike all of my “10 Best Backpacking Trips in the Southwest.”

Wading a pool in The Subway, Zion National Park.

The Subway, Zion National Park

Zion’s most-famous, technical slot canyon, The Subway (also shown in lead photo at top of story) takes its name from a bend where floodwaters have bored an oval passage that—yes, you guessed it—resembles the most strikingly colorful subway tunnel you will ever see. Requiring a popular permit, the 9.5-mile, top-to-bottom dayhike descends a canyon at times wider than a soccer pitch, with trees growing in the shade of walls hundreds of feet tall, and narrows to a slot barely more than shoulder-width across. You will clamber over giant boulders in a twisting canyon of wildly sculpted, kaleidoscopic walls, wade or swim a few deep, frigid pools (bring a dry suit, which can be rented in Springdale), and make three short rappels.

See my story “Luck of the Draw, Part 1: Hiking Zion’s Subway,” for many photos and details on how to get the permit and do this classic hike.

I can help you plan the best backpacking, hiking, or family adventure of your life. Find out more here.

Partition Arch in Devils Garden, Arches National Park.

Devils Garden, Arches National Park

Much of the mass popularity of Arches owes to the ease of viewing many of its signature features on short to very short hikes and roadside walks. That’s exactly why Devils Garden is the best hike in the park (at least among hikes that follow established trails). Besides being really scenic—you can view seven arches, including the park’s largest, 306-foot-long Landscape Arch—it’s much more adventurous.

The hiking is nearly flat and easy up to Landscape Arch; beyond it, though, you’ll discover part of the magic of Devils Garden: immersing yourself in the landscape off the trail. You will scamper up and down steep sandstone fins and out onto exposed overlooks, and you can even scramble up into Partition Arch. Hike to all seven arches in the Devils Garden area, and you’ll cover about eight miles by the time you return to the Devils Garden Trailhead, at the end of the park road through Arches.

See my story “No Straight Lines: Backpacking and Hiking in Canyonlands and Arches National Parks,” and all of my stories about Arches National Park.

Plan your next great backpacking adventure using my downloadable, expert e-guides. Click here now to learn more.

Hikers on the Chesler Park Trail, Needles District, Canyonlands National Park.

Chesler Park, Canyonlands National Park

Hiking to Chesler Park in the Needles District of Canyonlands has the quality of approaching the Emerald City in the land of Oz. Multi-colored, 300-foot-tall towers of Cedar Mesa sandstone form a castle-like rampart, looming ever larger as you approach Chesler. The trail then leads steeply uphill through a break in the row of pinnacles—the doorway into Chesler Park, a horseshoe of sandstone spires arcing around a patch of desert more than a mile across.

From ledges between the spires of Chesler, you get views of the park’s pinnacles and the sprawling badlands outside its walls, where giant, white-capped mushrooms of stone sprout from the earth, and more red spires rise in the distance. It’s roughly 10 miles out-and-back hike to Chesler without probing into it. But if you have the time and stamina, hike the path almost three miles around the park to the Joint Trail, which passes through a very narrow, sheer-walled slot in solid rock.

See my story “No Straight Lines: Backpacking and Hiking in Canyonlands and Arches National Parks.”

Want more? See “The 20 Best National Park Dayhikes” and “Extreme Hiking: America’s Best Hard Dayhikes.”

. . .

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