Silver Creek Pathway, Pere Marquette State Forest, June 2022 The 54-mile Pine River, a tributary of the Big Manistee River, undulates gently through the modest hillocks of northwest Michigan, making for a popular floating destination—but also a few decent hikes. The Silver Creek Pathway—a nearly four-mile loop that is a short drive from Cadillac, Michigan—is …
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Bailly/Chellberg Trail, Indiana Dunes National Park, June 2022 A prominent French Canadian fur trader, Joseph Bailly settled in the Indiana Dunes area in the early 19th century, establishing a trading post in 1822 near present-day Porter, Indiana. Decades later, Swedish immigrants Anders and Johanna Kjellberg purchased 80 acres of land on the other side of …
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Dune Succession Trail, Indiana Dunes National Park, June 2022 Arguably the most impressive sight in Indiana Dunes National Park, the moderately tall sand dunes at West Beach can be explored on this short, 0.9-mile loop. The Dune Succession Trail—one of three loops in the West Beach area—traverses coniferous and deciduous forests, cottonwood stands, and high …
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Dune Ridge Trail, Indiana Dunes National Park, June 2022 Wedged between a railroad, two steel mills, a power plant, and several junkyards, Indiana Dunes National Park looks and feels world’s apart from other iconic settings that also bear the national park name: the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, etc. The draw here is modest: windswept sand dunes, …
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LaSalle Canyon, Starved Rock State Park, June 2022 Note: This is the second of four posts covering hikes in northern Illinois’ Starved Rock State Park, which boasts 18 sandstone canyons, dozens of waterfalls, and an impressive network of trails along the southern shores of the Illinois River. This post covers a 4.4-mile stem-and-loop hike from …
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Sound of Silence Trail, Dinosaur National Monument, June 2022 Like Canyonlands or Capitol Reef in southern Utah, Dinosaur National Monument in Utah and Colorado features nearly two dozen sedimentary rock layers that span the Permian through Cretaceous periods (66-300 million years ago). The view from Cub Creek Road at the trailhead for the Sound of …
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Mariposa Grove Trail, Yosemite National Park, May 2022 Though not the tallest, nor the widest, giant sequoias—found only in California’s Sierra Nevada—are the largest trees by volume in the world. The largest of three sequoia stands in Yosemite, Mariposa Grove is a top destination for visitors to California’s most popular national park. As with basically …
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Balconies Cave Trail, Pinnacles National Park, March 2022 Talus caves—formed when crashing boulders fall into chasms, flooding the canyon with darkness—are an intriguing feature of central California’s Pinnacles National Park, which boasts two such pseudo-karst caverns. The most popular of the two is Bear Gulch Cave, most easily accessible from the east side of the …
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High Peaks Trail, Pinnacles National Park, March 2022 So jagged, sharp, and forbidding are the towering spires of central California’s Pinnacles National Park that there is no road able to bisect it, leaving visitors to drive up to the base of the breccia wonderland—and then hike the rest. The High Peaks area, easily the centerpiece …
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Panorama Trail, Andrew Molera State Park, March 2022 Traversing a scrubby escarpment above the Pacific Ocean, the Ridge – Panorama – Bluffs Trail is a pleasant 8-mile jaunt in the Big Sur area and one of the best hikes in Andrew Molera State Park. Don’t be fooled by the gads of visitors at the parking …
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Live and Let Hike 