Tower Trail, Devils Tower National Monument, August 2024 From the Bighorn Canyon area, I set out across the Bighorn Mountains and visited Little Bighorn Battlefield before leaving the Rockies behind. Traversing a whole lot of nothing between Buffalo, Wyoming and the Black Hills, I made it to Devils Tower National Monument in the late afternoon. …
Continue reading Tower Trail (Devils Tower National Monument, WY)
Cottonwood Creek Trail, BLM Lands (Wyoming), August 2024 After my afternoon in Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area, I went in search of a camping spot and settled on the modest (but free!) BLM campground at Cottonwood Creek, on the east side of Bighorn Lake. After sleeping amid the sagebrush, I ventured out in the morning …
Continue reading Cottonwood Creek Trail to Melody Falls (Bureau of Land Management, WY)
Wraith Falls, Yellowstone National Park, August 2024 After spending much of the afternoon on the nearby Bunsen Peak Loop, I had a little time left in the day for a short walk. After recharging at Mammoth Hot Springs, I ventured partway east on Grand Loop Road and settled on this brief jaunt. In a park …
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Bunsen Peak Trail, Yellowstone National Park, August 2024 Heading south and east from the Bitterroot Range, I spent the night at Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park and then--in a rather spontaneous move--set out for a day in Yellowstone, America’s first national park. The park, of course, is massive, so I bit off only a …
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Medicine Bow Peak Trail, Medicine Bow National Forest, July 2022 As 2022 draws to an end, it is—as per tradition—time to look back on the year at Live and Let Hike. This is the ninth year of the blog—the tenth anniversary coming in 2023—and there was no let-up in content, as I published 68 entries, …
Fossil Butte National Monument, July 2022 Visitors to southwest Wyoming’s Fossil Butte National Monument, when they get out of their cars at the Visitor Center, are treated to a walk back in time: interpretive signs and markers along the deck and sidewalk point out different geological epochs and the creatures that inhabited the Earth at …
Medicine Bow Peak Trail, Medicine Bow National Forest, July 2022 At 12,013 feet, Medicine Bow Peak is the highest mountain in southern Wyoming’s Snowy Range, a small but exceptionally scenic slice of the broader Medicine Bow Mountains, which extend into northern Colorado. The peak is accessible via a relatively straightforward climb, with some decent elevation …
Continue reading Medicine Bow Peak Loop, including Lakes Trail (Medicine Bow National Forest, WY)
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), …
As glaciers carved the various canyons of Grand Teton National Park, they pushed enormous heaps of rocky debris down to the base of the sharp peaks, forming what geologists and climatologists today call moraines. In the centuries—millennia—that passed, the retreating glaciers left behind still, blue lakes, and vibrant evergreen forests and meadows blanketed the moraines, …
It’s not too often that one can say that they overcame death. But conquering the Death Canyon Trail in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park offers such an opportunity. The beauty of the canyon—with its rushing cascades, inviting meadows, and cool forests—belies the ominous name, making this one of the finest hikes in Grand Teton. While …
Continue reading Death Canyon Trail to Patrol Cabin (Grand Teton National Park, WY)
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