|
While visiting North Cascades National Park, I found that this is one of the most recommended hikes if you are willing to endure 13 miles of rough gravel road to get to the trailhead. The Washington Trails Association says "At Cascade Pass, the wow factor far exceeds the “ow” factor – perhaps no other trail in the state delivers as much reward for the effort." I can vouch that the rewards are high and, while there is still some effort required in this 7-mile out-and-back trek, it's easier than the just-as-rewarding Maple Pass Loop I did two days earlier.
2 Comments
Today, Linda set up a lounge chair by the Skagit River and read to her heart's content, while I headed out to do the Maple Pass Loop Trail on the eastern boundary of North Cascades National Park. Technically, this fantastic trail with incredible mountain views is in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, but we made it part of our visit to North Cascades.
We were lucky to have perfect weather on our first visit to North Cascades National Park. This post includes some photos from overlooks and viewpoints, and details from a wonderful hike on the Blue Lake Trail.
We were passing through eastern Nevada and took the opportunity to stay at Great Basin National Park for a couple of nights. With uncooperative weather, we decided to do the tour of Lehman Caves which is weather independent. We were pleasantly surprised.
Only thirty minutes from the Las Vegas Strip is a scenic wonderland filled with beauty and diverse landscapes. It's also a hiker's playground with over thirty designated trails and the ability to combine those trails in an almost limited array of loops and challenges of varying length and difficulty. Welcome to the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, one of only 16 areas of public land in the United States with that designation. Red Rock is managed by the Southern Nevada Conservancy under a formal agreement with the Bureau of Land Management. This post discusses the 13-mile scenic drive through Red Rock Canyon and the major stops along the way.
The best of Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada can be found by hiking in the park. However, much of the scenic beauty and interesting attractions can also be seen from the paved roads and at stops requiring only a short walk.
This post provides photos and a map of the various points of interest along the park roads.
Today we returned to the area of the hike we did yesterday, and we joined our friends John & Pam for a little off-trail hiking in the colorful rocks of Valley of Fire State Park. There are few restrictions on where you can hike, and we took advantage of the opportunity.
The plan was to hike the first two thirds of the loop hike we did yesterday and then return via a different route. Well, we did that, but not quite in the order we intended. We went through two small slot canyons, encountered a nesting hummingbird, and enjoyed views of multi-colored rocks in every direction. Another gorgeous day in Valley of Fire State Park.
In Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada, there are relatively few designated trails. However, there are also very few restrictions on where you can hike.
Today, with some hints and tips we picked up online, we took on the challenge of creating our own two-mile loop through some of the most colorful rocks you will see anywhere.
This is a popular hike in Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. There is a parking area with great views of the colorful valley to the north, and then you can get more of those views on this short, easy hike. In addition, you can hike through a little canyon to an overlook of the red rock Fire Canyon. The roundtrip is about a mile and three quarters.
Photos and videos of an amazing few hours with several Desert Bighorn Sheep rams in the Atlatl Rock Campground in Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada.
The White Domes Loop Trail is a popular hike of a little over a mile. The trailhead is located at the end of the White Domes Road that begins at the Visitors Center at Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. The trail descends into a canyon and then continues in a wash through a short slot canyon before climbing back up to the parking area.
This is a 1.2-mile roundtrip hike to one of the iconic landmarks in the Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. If you love amazing landscapes of multi-colored rocks, this one is not to be missed.
We started today with a short, easy hike (.7 miles roundtrip) in Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. A "tank" is a depression in the rocks that holds water after a rain, and "Mouse" was a Southern Paiute that camped near such a tank here in Valley of Fire. But the highlights of this hike, besides the beauty of the red rocks all around, are the many panels of petroglyphs.
The Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge is a natural oasis in the Mojave Desert in southwestern Nevada. It's just a few miles east of its much more famous neighbor across the California border, Death Valley. Actually Ash Meadows is officially a detached unit of Death Valley National Park. The Refuge consists of 24,000 acres of protected land that is being restored after early pioneers settled around the natural springs and diverted the water. Crystal clear spring-fed pools with endemic and endangered pupfish and blue water reservoirs contrast with the surrounding desert terrain. It truly is an oasis close to the "driest place in North America".
Today, the plan was to do a three-mile hike among the Joshua Trees here in the Mojave National Preserve. As I've mentioned before, though there is over 1.6 million acres in the park, there are very few designated trails. This one happens to be one of the more popular ones, and it is said to have the highest concentration of Joshua Trees in the world, more than even Joshua Tree National Park.
|
