Marriott Basin Trail, Pemberton, BC, September 2025 Set in a gorgeous bowl in the Cayoosh Range in western British Columbia, the Marriott Basin Trail is a less-crowded alternative to nearby Joffre Lakes. After a relatively ho-hum walk on logging roads, the route ascends through pine forests and glacial moraines to Upper Marriott Lake and Wendy …
Black Elk Peak, Black Elk Wilderness, Black Hills National Forest, August 2024 At 7,241 feet, Black Elk Peak is South Dakota’s highest point and the tallest peak in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. The mountain (formerly known as Harney Peak) was a sacred place for the native Lakota and tops a band …
Continue reading Black Elk Peak Loop (Black Elk Wilderness, SD)
Baker Lake, Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, Bitterroot National Forest, August 2024 After dropping Lisa at the airport in Missoula, I was riding solo for the rest of the cross-country trip, and after the 2.5 days in Glacier National Park, I set off southwards to explore a few other mountain ranges in Montana. After spending a stormy night …
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Upper Two Medicine Lake, Glacier National Park, August 2024 After a change of plans that required us to leave Glacier National Park a day early, we were left with only ½ day in the Two Medicine area, a lesser-visited alternative to very popular Many Glacier. Unlike in Many Glacier, we opted for the boat tour …
Continue reading Twin Falls & Upper Two Medicine Lake (Glacier National Park, MT)
Grinnell Glacier Trail, Glacier National Park, August 2024 Now on Day 9 of the cross-country excursion, we finally caught a break with the weather—a clear morning in the paradise of the Many Glacier section of Glacier National Park. It came with a catch, however—or two. For one, my hiking partner wasn’t feeling well enough to …
Continue reading Grinnell Glacier (Glacier National Park, MT)
Hidden Lake Overlook, Glacier National Park, August 2025 Fast-forwarding a couple of days in early August, we zipped across southeast Washington and northern Idaho to reach Montana’s Glacier National Park. For such a hard-to-reach destination, this place is teeming with visitors in summer, with trail crowds the likes of which I had never seen. Good …
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Eagle Lake Trail, Sequoia National Park, July 2024 West of the Great Western Divide, California’s Sequoia National Park is effectively bisected by three branches of the Kaweah River—the Marble, Middle, and East Forks—all of which carve deep canyons fed by snowmelt from the 12,000-foot mountain range. Most visitors remain in the vicinity of the first …
Wildcat Peak, Tilden Regional Park, May 2021 Of the 73 parks in the East Bay Regional Park District, Charles Lee Tilden Regional Park is certainly one of the best-known and most-visited. Sure, part of that is convenience and close proximity to the bustling hubs of Berkeley and Oakland. But the real draw of this scenic …
Wildcat Gorge Trail, Tilden Regional Park, April 2020 Note: This is part two of a three-post effort to chronicle short day hikes in the East Bay’s Tilden Regional Park. The focus of this post is on the central part of the park, namely the sections located roughly between the Tilden Nature Area to the north …
May Lake, Yosemite National Park, August 2023 Requiring only a 1.2-mile hike to reach, May Lake is one of the most-accessible subalpine lakes along Tioga Road in California’s Yosemite National Park. This makes the lake, set in a basin below imposing Mount Hoffmann (10,850’), one of the most popular day hikes in the area (although …
Live and Let Hike 