Saddle Pass

Saddle Pass Trail to Castle – Medicine Root Trail Loop (Badlands National Park, SD)

Saddle Pass Trail, Badlands National Park, August 2024 By now I was nearly three weeks into my cross-country trip, but I was savoring my last couple days out West before the relatively lackluster drive across the Great Plains to the East Coast. After making my way east from the Black Hills to Badlands National Park …

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Mount Falcon (Mount Falcon Park, CO)

Mount Falcon, rising to 7,841 feet above sea level, guards the eastern gateway to the Front Range outside Denver, Colorado. A short drive from the city, Mount Falcon Park is a popular destination for local residents, attractive hikers, mountain bikers, dog walkers, and horse riders to its grassy meadows and rocky outcrops. While the Mount …

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The Castle Trail (Capitol Reef National Park, UT)

Visible from just outside the Visitor Center, the cragged hunk of ochre-colored Wingate sandstone known as “the Castle” is one of Capitol Reef National Park’s iconic landmarks. The monument’s blocky façade—the only surface seen by the vast majority of visitors—disguises a far more rugged northern face, an eroded cluster of spindly fins and needles. An …

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