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When my son asked me to plan a backpacking trip for this summer that he and his girlfriend could go on, I had originally wanted to backpack into Shoshone Lake and visit the geyser basin, but the criteria that he gave me didn't work out for the dates that were available so I instead planned a five day trip along the Chain of Lakes on the Central Plateau in Yellowstone. The Chain of Lakes includes Ice, Wolf, Grebe and Cascade Lakes from west to east. This would be a shuttle trip with us...

Hey there. Long time, no post. Just back from a long walkabout in the Winds with my brother. Green River Lakes to Big Sandy via a sorta highish route. Around 75 miles. Roughly 14,000 feet of vert. Millions of boulders. About half and half, on-trail versus not. Skipped Titcomb (didn't want to deal with Knapsack Col) and Cirque of the Towers (socked in with weather), but having visited both previously this wasn't an issue. Rather than the typical high route over Indian Pass and...

July 26-29, 2026 After last summer's trip to Alaska, we knew we wanted to go back and arranged to do another guided trip in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. That ended up being incredible and will eventually be a Part 2 post. Beforehand, we spent 3 nights along the Kesugi Ridge Trail in Denali State Park, which is on the other side of the valley from the national park and about 40 miles from Denali. I had wanted to do a Denali trip and was looking at the map and noticed the state park...

I headed up to the Uintas over the weekend for my annual get together with the Petersens and the Vanderbilts at Ledgefork Campground. On Saturday the 15th, I managed an 11.6 mile day hike from the campground up to North Erickson Lake. It was approximately a 2300 foot climb from our campsite to the lake and it took me a good portion of the day to complete. Showy Goldeneye and thistles were the star wildflowers on this hike, and fresh raspberries, thimble berries, currants and Oregon grape...

UP DOWN UP DOWN UP DOWN UP We were in Pennsylvania recently for a 2 week vacation, and I had a few free days. I decided to spend them doing a tough, get-in-shape backpacking trip. I did the Black Forest Trail, which is a a 42 mile loop with almost 8,000' of elevation gain. I started from the village of Slate Run, at the bottom of the Pine Creek Gorge. I went clockwise, mostly because I wanted to spend one night on Hemlock Mountain, and there was a good chance of rain the second night...

It is never easy to follow up excellent trip reports and photographs posted by @scatman and @b.stark , but I will do my best. :) Hugh's Report: Scatman's version of events Brent's Report: A Stark perspective I know Bob took some pictures, if he decides to post them I'll add a link to his contribution. First, a feature picture if this report should be worthy. So where to begin? Back in 2025 Bob posted a group message to some usual suspects about possible locations/routes he has in...

This trip... . Hmm. It started out easy enough to plan. But there was recreation . gov and its ability to mess up plans before they ever get started, and then there was a family medical emergency, and it was just kind of a mess. Ultimately it worked for most of us. On the appointed day, Mary, Alex, and I did our shuttles, and started hiking down Yellowstone's Delacy Creek Trail. I always like it. It is scenic, mostly shady, and mostly downhill. Downhill is my favorite. Much of the...

Cover photo Hugh aka @scatman has posted a very detailed report of this hike, so I'm going to just breeze through with my highlight photos. Check out his trip report for all the details: https://backcountrypost.com/threads/bighorn-crags-frank-church-river-of-no-return-wilderness-july-26-2026.12680/ The brief summary of the trip is that 5 of us including Hugh, Bob, Dave, Gary, and myself headed out into the Bighorn Crags area of the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness for 6 days...

Last week, I completed a six day backpacking trip into the Bighorn Crags in Idaho. It was my first time to the Crags, and joining me on this merry adventure were @Bob, @b.stark, @TractorDoc, and @Chuckwalla. While the Crags are beautiful, conditions were smoky for the six day we were back in there and thus there will be some hazy pictures throughout this report. Besides the backpacking itself, we got to spend some enjoyable time in Arco and Challis on our way up, and on our way back...

Another fun one in the southern Absarokas! I wasn't sure I'd have any company for this one, so I posted it in the Meet Up forum a few months ago. @wsp_scott expressed interest and was able to join me, which was an absolute pleasure. Ended up adding a couple others - one a frequent hiking partner and the other a friend-of-a-friend that ended up being a great fit. So we would start out from the Box Creek TH as a group of 4. I'd caution anyone reading this report that this is not a logical...

A trip from late June 2026. For my full blog post go to: https://www.wanderingtherockies.com/blog/bighorncrags-salmon-idaho-2026 Harbor Lake A backpacking trip to the Bighorn Crags has been on my bucket list ever since seeing pictures of the area a few years ago. We were in Idaho and looking to do a backpacking trip. I was worried the Sawtooths had too much snow, and thought the Bighorn Crags might be a little more melted out. So, Mike and I stopped at the grocery store in Challis and...

Back in late June my son called me and told me he'd found a hike that he thought I'd enjoy. This was a first so I got my schedule covered and made plans to join him the week after July 4th. He lives down in Bishop which is on the eastern side of the Sierra just a bit south of Yosemite and Mammoth Mountain. I didn't get much info,...didn't figure he was out to kill me...just that we would be hiking up past Lamarck Lake, spending a night, then hiking out. I looked it up on the map just to...

Jim and I were going to do a five night, six day hike up Cache Creek (Yellowstone), and back. Then a heat wave arrived. So we made alternate plans, hopefully to someplace higher, and cooler. We ended up hiking the Chain of Lakes, which probably was cooler, but it was still hot. But when you make your plans two days ahead, you get what you can. I had been doing early morning walks in preparation for the hike. This was the reward one day. These happen every day. Every. Day. And they...

Seven years since my last summit of Timpanogos. Where has the time gone? Yesterday on my 62nd birthday, I headed back up to see if I could reach the summit one more time. Started out at the Timpooneke Trailhead with my family and our friend Jon who has been doing my birthday hike with me for a number of years now. We left just after 6:00 am for the 7.3 mile trek to the top. Along our way the wildflowers were everywhere, and we got to see some mountain goats up high. Katie and I were the...

Weather was good, flowers are out. Decided at the last minute to take a 4 day trip. Starting at Darby MT, taking the Magruder Trail to Elk City ID. Then backroads to Kamiah, ID to pick up the Lolo Motorway. The Magruder splits the Frank Church Wilderness, 101 miles. The Lolo Motorway, 90 miles, follows fairly close to the Trail Lewis & Clark blazed out west in 1805. Plenty of flowers, blue sky, few people. From Nez Pearce pass on the Magruder Along the Magruder Hell's Half Acre...

After a couple years without any meaningful back country adventures due to my wife's declining health, I've been sneaking out a day or two at a time in an effort to preserve whatever sanity I have remaining. Last week it was a drainage sandwiched in between a couple I've frequented many times but never set foot in the middle. Some real Jeep trail followed by a somewhat invigorating bushwhacking hike. The cirque was just gorgeous and more than a little mining activity remains...

Day 1 - Chepeta Lake to Fox Lake (9.4 miles) Day 2 - Fox Lake to Painter Basin (11.8 miles) Day 3 - Painter Basin to Oweep Creek Basin (15.2 miles) Day 4 - Porcupine Basin to Fork Lake Drainage (9.9 miles) Day 5 - Lake Fork Drainage to Moon Lake (9.8 miles) Total Mileage - 56.1 miles Chepeta Lake Day 1 My dad dropped me off at Chepeta Lake on June 23rd. I had food for 7 days, and a pack weight of about 35 pounds (without water). I was behind schedule due to Apple Maps taking us on the...

At just over 235,000 acres, the Flat Tops Wilderness ranks as the 3rd largest wilderness area in Colorado. The eastern portion of it is accessed via the Flat Tops Trail out of Yampa along CO-131 north of Vail, and I'd seen the massive White River Plateau from that state highway multiple times. I'd seen it on the way up to Dinosaur National Monument to its west, to Steamboat and the Mount Zirkel Wilderness to its north, and even from its west along CO-13 south of Meeker on a circuitous drive...

It's been three years since I last summitted Mount Raymond, so yesterday I decided to give it a go and see if it is still in my wheelhouse. The approach was my usual one from the Bowman Fork Trail in Millcreek Canyon. Total miles on the hike was approximately 11.4 to the summit and back. The wildflowers were special throughout. The Millcreek approach never lets you down this time of year. Review Image: Overview map Getting a 7:00 am start Upper Millcreek is closed due to...

6/17 - 6/23/26 Trailhead: Cottonwood Pass I've gone over Cottonwood Pass a couple of times and each time I looked down on Big Whitney Meadow and thought it looked interesting/appealing. I've always thought it would make a good early season trip and this year was a very low snow year so I started researching flights. My youngest two kids are 13 and 15 and are capable hikers so I thought this would be a good chance to introduce them to the Sierra even if it wasn't the High Sierra. Day 0...