Appalachian Trail, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, October 2024 Having returned to the Washington, DC area last fall, my opportunities to get out hiking have unfortunately declined. But I have been able to resume my quest to achieve a long-term goal of completing all the nearby Appalachian Trail (AT) sections (see MD Sections 1, 2, …
Mount Saint Helena, Robert Louis Stevenson State Park, February 2024 Long before the Napa area became renowned for wine-making, author Robert Louis Stevenson—of Treasure Island fame—spent an extended stay here on the slopes of Mt. St. Helena, one of the highest peaks in northern California’s Mayacamas Mountains. The trip in 1880 inspired The Silverado Squatters …
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Lower Granite Lake, Yosemite National Park, August 2023 The out-and-back hike to Gaylor Lakes is a popular hike in the eastern reaches of Yosemite National Park; this is a pleasant, 2-hour trek with terrific views across Tioga Pass to Mount Dana and access to two trout-filled lakes below the Sierra Crest. It is nearby Granite …
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Fort Bowie Trail Loop, Fort Bowie National Historic Site, November 2022 - Civil War Series - At a time when most eyes were on the major battlefields of the Civil War out east, the Union Army was engaged in 1962 in a series of smaller skirmishes in the American Southwest with Confederate cavalry and an …
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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 …
Daemonelix Trail, Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, July 2022 Imagine a creature roughly approximating a beaver or large prairie dog but one that digs holes in a spiral nearly 10 feet deep, forming tunnels resembling a corkscrew or drill bit: this is the curious activity of the prehistoric paleocastor, which lived between 20-30 million years …
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Calumet Bluff Trail, Gavin's Point Dam area, July 2022 During the first summer of the famed Lewis & Clark Expedition in 1804, the travelling company camped for four nights at the base of a high bluff along the Missouri River, described by the party as “composed of a yellowish red, and brownish clay as hard …
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Spirit Mound Trail, Spirit Mound Historic Prairie, July 2022 With a system of dams effectively flooding much of the Missouri River shoreline where Meriweather Lewis and William Clark once camped during their 1803-6 expedition, there are few places left where one can walk, with certainty, in the footsteps of the famed explorers. One such spot, …
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Circle Trail, Pipestone National Monument, July 2022 Pipestone National Monument in southwest Minnesota preserves the site of an active pipestone quarry used by the Sioux and other American Indian tribes to craft famed “peace pipes” popularized by groups in the northern plains of the United States. The Sioux Quartzite that predominates in the park dates …
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Fire Point Loop, Effigy Mounds National Monument, July 2022 Perched on the bluffs high above the Mississippi River Valley in northeast Iowa lies a hidden treasure of burial mounds, estimated to have been created by American Indians between 850 and 1,400 years ago. And these are no usual resting places: best viewed from the air, …
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Live and Let Hike 