Once one of the area’s best kept secrets, Stout Grove in California’s Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park is now one of California’s most popular redwood groves. Even the crowds cannot ruin the beauty, however, of this cathedral-like forest, a dense cluster of towering sentinels that casts a dark shadow over a lush understory. In late …
Continue reading Stout Grove Loop (Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, CA)
The redwoods, once seen, leave a mark or create a vision that stays with you always. No one has ever successfully painted or photographed a redwood tree. The feeling they produce is not transferable. From them comes silence and awe. It's not only their unbelievable stature, nor the color which seems to shift and vary …
Continue reading Prairie Creek Trail – Foothill Trail Loop (Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, CA)
Situated just off Interstate 5 in northern California, Castle Crags State Park covers a scenic pocket of the Trinity Divide—a small but alluring mountain range that separates the Sacramento River and Trinity River watersheds. The star feature is a large outcrop of granite formations, technically situated outside the park, but visible from many of the …
Continue reading Vista Point Trail (Castle Crags State Park, CA)
Northern California’s Castle Crags State Park hugs the eastern slopes of a cluster of dramatic granite formations that is reminiscent of Yosemite National Park. While the actual crags lie outside the park boundary, several trails run close to their base, including the family-friendly Root Creek Trail. Wheelchair-accessible for the first mile, this path offers an …
Continue reading Root Creek Trail & Root Creek Falls (Castle Crags State Park, CA)
- Civil War Series - While the fort itself steals the show, Georgia’s Fort Pulaski National Monument also contains a handful of hiking trails. Among the easiest (and mostly wheelchair-accessible) is the North Pier Trail, a 6/10-mile stem-and-loop which begins and ends at the northwest corner of the park’s main parking area on Cockspur Island. …
Continue reading North Pier Trail (Fort Pulaski National Monument, GA)
The Piedmont Forest Trail is the only wheelchair-accessible hike in Virginia’s Prince William Forest Park and, with its numerous curves, looks something like an amoeba or an octopus on maps. Situated steps from the Visitor Center and Pine Grove Picnic Area, it is an easy and convenient walk in the hardwood forest for which the trail …
Continue reading Piedmont Forest Trail (Prince William Forest Park, VA)
The Edge of the Woods Trail is a short, wheelchair-accessible path in Rock Creek Park, starting and ending at the Nature Center. Along the way are interpretive signs on the area’s flora and fauna, but there’s not much to see besides woods and a very small meadow. The hike The Nature Center is a popular …
Continue reading Edge of the Woods Trail (Rock Creek Park, DC)
It must have come as a surprise to early pioneers in the area northwest of present-day Washington, DC—where the Potomac River is mostly calm, wide, and still—to find a sudden, powerful plunge impassable by boat. Owing to a geomorphologic break extending 900 miles along the Eastern Seaboard, Great Falls tumbles 76 feet in less than …
Continue reading Great Falls Overlooks (Great Falls Park, VA)
There’s not much to the Custis Trail, which spends the majority of its time following Interstate 66 through suburban Arlington County, Virginia. But it’s popular with runners and bikers as a connector route—the 4.4-mile route serves as a shortcut between the Washington and Old Dominion (W&OD) Trail and Mount Vernon Trail. While relatively easy for …
For a suburban destination, Glencarlyn Park in Arlington, Virginia is a nice one. The 96-acre park can be approached from multiple directions and boasts a dense network of hiking trails of varying difficulty. The focal point is a pleasant stream valley where the Long Branch stream meets Four Mile Run, the latter a relatively high-volume …
Continue reading Glencarlyn Park (Arlington County Parks, VA)
Live and Let Hike 