Category Archives: California

Coastal Trail – Lands End Section, including Mile Rock Beach (Golden Gate National Recreation Area, CA)

Posted on February 10, 2018 by

The windswept shoreline of Lands End forms the northwest tip of the San Francisco Peninsula and is easily accessible from northern California’s iconic cultural capital. For those looking for a brief urban escape, the Land’s End section of the Coastal … Continue reading →

Posted in California, Moderate Hikes | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Top 10 Hikes in 2017

Posted on December 31, 2017 by

2017 is nearly in the books, and it’s been a banner year for Live and Let Hike. Viewership reached new heights (roughly 85,000 and 167,000 page views in 2017), and I added 76 new posts this year that covered hikes, … Continue reading →

Posted in Acadia National Park, California, Dolly Sods Wilderness, Easy Hikes, George Washington National Forest, Maine, Maryland, Moderate Hikes, Monongahela National Forest, Redwood National & State Parks, South Mountain State Park, Strenuous Hikes, Virginia, West Virginia | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Sentinel Cave (Lava Beds National Monument, CA)

Posted on November 5, 2017 by

Sentinel Cave is the longest of the “easy” caves in California’s Lava Beds National Monument, as well as one of the only lava tubes in the park with multiple entrances. Inside the cave, the roughly 2/10 mile traversed by hikers … Continue reading →

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Golden Dome Cave (Lava Beds National Monument, CA)

Posted on November 5, 2017 by

Unlike limestone caves, lava tubes are usually characterized by their drab, colorless interior. Not so with Golden Dome Cave, which sports shiny ceilings, made possible by tiny bacteria that give the lava tube a golden sheen. Golden Dome Cave is … Continue reading →

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Skull Cave (Lava Beds National Monument, CA)

Posted on November 4, 2017 by

Lava tubes, cavities in the earth once filled with flowing lava, are the principal attraction of northern California’s Lava Beds National Monument, which boasts the greatest concentration of them in the United States. Reaching as wide as 60 feet in … Continue reading →

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Stout Grove Loop (Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, CA)

Posted on November 4, 2017 by

Once one of the area’s best kept secrets, Stout Grove in California’s Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park is now one of California’s most popular redwood groves. Even the crowds cannot ruin the beauty, however, of this cathedral-like forest, a dense … Continue reading →

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Yurok Loop Trail (Redwood National Park, CA)

Posted on November 4, 2017 by

Although sans redwoods, the short Yurok Loop Trail in California’s Redwood National Park features terrific seaside vistas and an ecologically diverse environment along the shores of the Pacific Ocean. Named for the Native American tribe that once predominated in this … Continue reading →

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Prairie Creek Trail – Foothill Trail Loop (Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, CA)

Posted on November 4, 2017 by

The redwoods, once seen, leave a mark or create a vision that stays with you always. No one has ever successfully painted or photographed a redwood tree. The feeling they produce is not transferable. From them comes silence and awe. … Continue reading →

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Fern Canyon (Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, CA)

Posted on October 29, 2017 by

Fern Canyon—a short but exquisite passage between fern-strewn walls—is an otherworldly hike in California’s Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, a subset of Redwood National Park. Enveloped by overwhelming greenery, it’s no wonder that this jungle-like canyon was a shooting location … Continue reading →

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Falls Loop Trail (McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park, CA)

Posted on October 28, 2017 by

Plunging 129 feet over a moss-laden cliff, Burney Falls is arguably California’s most impressive waterfall north of Yosemite—so beautiful and picturesque that President Teddy Roosevelt reportedly dubbed it the “eighth wonder of the world.” The falls are now the centerpiece … Continue reading →

Posted in California, Moderate Hikes, Mount Shasta area | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment