Gray Butte is not particularly rugged nor jagged. The soft-shouldered butte is home to a cluster of antennas and a utility road the climbs there. But this 13.3 mile out-and-back route begins and ends in beautiful Smith Rock State Park, taking you down across the Crooked River before climbing out of the park, across a […]
Backpacking the Red Peak Pass Loop in Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park features some of the most beautiful backcountry in all of the Sierra Nevada. Surprisingly, however, most people stick to a few main trails – namely the John Muir Trail between Yosemite Valley – Tuolumne Meadows – Donahue Pass and the High Sierra Camp trails leading to Merced Lake – Vogelsang – Sunrise. […]
Wonderland Trail Day 13: Maple Creek to Longmire
Our final day required a four-mile climb out of Stevens Canyon, a stop at Reflection Lakes, the descending almost exactly the elevation we climbed to the Nisqually River and the Cougar Rock Picnic Area to complete our loop on the Wonderland Trail. This final section of our Wonderland Trail trek began foggy and damp. It […]
Wonderland Trail Day 12: Indian Bar to Maple Creek
Day 12 would start with a foggy climb with no views, then take us plummeting downward 3,805 feet to camp at Maple Creek, our final campsite for the trip. Before we headed out, we took one more look at the ravine at Indian Bar, then started the climb up to Cowlitz Divide. The divide begins […]
Wonderland Trail Day 11: Summerland to Indian Bar
Two of the most-wanted camps on the Wonderland Trail are Summerland and Indian Bar. They lie just five miles apart. And our itinerary included both of them. The sunrise from our camp at Summerland was a spectacular send off for the day. We’d be climbing 874′ to the highest point on the Wonderland Trail: 6,750′ […]
Wonderland Trail Day 10: Sunrise to Summerland
For Day 10 on the Wonderland Trail, we returned to double-digit mileage after three short days. Our legs were well rested, and we were looking forward to seeing Summerland. The trail begins by heading along the rum of the canyon, then turns and drops 2,000 feet in two miles to White River Campground. There is […]
Wonderland Trail Day 9: Granite Creek to Sunrise
Day 9 on the Wonderland Trail was our final low mileage day. We would be hiking over scenic Skyscraper Pass, through wildflower-laden Berkeley Park and down to our destination: Sunrise Camp. Sunrise Camp is about a mile from the Sunrise Information Center, a grill that serves cheeseburgers, a small market, and our final resupply point. We […]
Wonderland Trail Day 6: Eagle’s Roost to Dick Creek
On Day 6 of our Wonderland Trail trek, we continued our hike on the more scenic alternate route through Spray Park. Spray Park is 0.7 miles shorter than the actual Wonderland Trail over Ipsut Pass, but it climbs higher on the slopes of Mount Rainier and is generally considered more scenic, rising above the timberline […]
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