The Golden Canyon Trail is one of the most popular hikes in California’s Death Valley National Park—and with good reason: its dazzling colors, sun-soaked badlands, and valley views entice hikers of all stripes to the park’s Furnace Creek area. Yet far fewer visitors combine Golden Canyon with the adjacent Badlands Loop and Gower Gulch Trails, …
Carving a dramatic gorge hundreds of feet deep in the Grapevine Mountains, Fall Canyon is a relatively popular destination in California’s Death Valley National Park. The hike through the lower reaches of the canyon is moderately difficult but climbs relentlessly, a common trait of canyons in the area, tilting upward from the vast expanse of …
Continue reading Fall Canyon (Death Valley National Park, CA)
Mojave National Preserve is a wild playground of desert peaks, sand dunes, Joshua tree forests, rocky jumbles, and dry lakebeds situated in southern California, near the Nevada and Arizona borders. Considerably less crowded than nearby Joshua Tree National Park, Mojave boasts a seemingly endless set of hiking opportunities, as well as a relatively liberal roadside …
Continue reading Teutonia Peak Trail (Mojave National Preserve, CA)
Fremont Peak, one of the highest in the Gabilan Range south of the Bay Area, takes its name from the 19th century explorer, military officer, senator, and presidential candidate John C. Fremont, whose survey expedition passed through the area in 1846. Facing objections from the Mexican authorities who controlled the area at the time, then-Captain …
Continue reading Fremont Peak Trail (Fremont Peak State Park, CA)
Sporting one of California’s finest talus caves and shoreline access to a picturesque, rock-hewn reservoir, the Bear Gulch Cave Trail is one of the most popular hikes in Pinnacles National Park. Here a jumble of boulders, so large and tightly-packed that it blankets the ground with darkness, forms subterranean passages home to a resident colony …
Continue reading Bear Gulch Cave – Rim Trail Loop (Pinnacles National Park, CA)
2019 has come and gone, and it was an excellent year for hiking. Over the course of the year, I added 43 posts to Live and Let Hike and notched nearly 150,000 site visits (81,000 visitors). As always, the travel was diverse, spanning hikes and scenic drives from 13 states (plus the District of Columbia), …
Most visitors seeking views of Yosemite Valley from above will drive out to the end of the Glacier Point Road for a fantastic, but crowded, vista. Those looking for a greater challenge with arguably greater payoff, however, should consider the all-day hike out to North Dome (7,542’), which has maybe the best vantage point of …
Continue reading North Dome Trail, inc. Indian Rock (Yosemite National Park, CA)
The redwood groves of Muir Woods National Monument, while lovely, have a people problem. Within a half-mile radius of the park’s tiny visitor center, there are scores and scores of visitors. Yet the western stretches of the park—or better yet, the areas belonging to Mount Tamalpais State Park that surround Muir Woods—solitude and wildness are …
Continue reading Ben Johnson-Bootjack Trail Loop (Muir Woods National Monument, CA)
The San Francisco Bay Area in northern California is a fantastic launching point for redwood hunters, with accessible groves of these mesmerizing trees within an hour and a half both north and south of the Golden Gate. While the largest groves lie further north, the Santa Cruz Mountains between the Bay Area and Santa Cruz …
Continue reading Purisima Creek Redwoods Loop (Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve, CA)
Unless you are a resident of Elko, Nevada—the nearest major town—chances are that you have not heard of the Ruby Mountains. Yet, at times, this spectacular range in northeast Nevada rivals the mountain scenery of the better-known Sierra Nevada or Colorado Rockies. From the jumping-off point at Lamoille Canyon, hiking trails take off in several …
Continue reading Ruby Crest Trail to Lamoille Lake (Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, NV)
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