california

I am going to try to skip my story and keep this short, because I have so many pictures I want to share! I focused on sharing the main tourist attraction photos and not necessarily my favorite, but you can see them all at the link below...

This relatively new National Park is located in Central California, closer to the coast than it is to the High Sierra, Pinnacles is a great day hiking destination. It remains snow free and accessible all winter. There is only one campground, located on the East side. There is no road through...

June-July 2016 This is a recap of my favorite backpacking trip – one I hope to repeat in the next few years. We were limited to the last week in June and first week in July due to work constraints. We lucked out that year because most of the snow had already melted. Had we gone the next year...

Intro Last winter I was looking for early season peak bagging opportunities and came across Harlan Stockman's trip report for Bat Mountain in the Funeral Mountains with photos of a tantalizing ridge traverse that chained the 2 main Bat peaklets. The winds ended up being bad on my original trip...

Fantastic Dayhike loop up a pretty canyon with plenty of dryfall scrambling, a visit to two major mine sites, and a descent down on of the longer trails in the national park. Any issues or concerns are diligently described in Michel Digonnet's: "Hiking Death Valley". Only recently restored and...

Three shorter but highly enjoyable summit scrambles on the south side of Jubilee Pass Hwy, 178 in the south end of Death Valley National Park. Straightforward. Lots of info out on Ibex Peak 4751" standard route. Most cars can do the 1.5 mile approach road. Small camping area at end but...

Nov. 21st: Lots of info out there for Corkscrew Peak. We possessed really none of it but I remembered needing to head for the spring identified on the south slope in the Topo. From near there we picked up a trail that led us rising through fog, sleet, and graupel squalls in a corkscrew...

A three day backpack with good water at Dead Horsre Canyon Spring and Upper Cottonwood Spring. Both had a flow for yards. We chose to modify the standard loop in order to add some challenge and uncertainty but mostly to avoid road hiking of lower Cottonwood Canyon. Thus, we went up Marble...

I love autumn in the Mojave, warm days & chilly nights. And no more Mojave Greens to look out for ! So I headed into the MNP to camp and hike near the cinder cones, Club peak (NUB bm) area. Made it to a camp late afternoon and took off up Button Mountain, one of said cinder cone remnants, and...

Between Bishop and Lone Pine, California sits the small town of Big Pine. West of town is Big Pine Creek, draining some of the High Sierra snowmelt. The creek canyon gives access to many of the Sierras 14'ers, including the Palisades group. The Creek splits into a South fork and a North...

Hi, and thanks to everyone that provided information to make this trip possible for me. I get about a week a year to do a backpacking trip out west. We've only been at this a short time and we wanted to try some cross country travel, but nothing too nasty. And to get better at finding...

Intro The fabled Bear Lakes Basin has been on my to do list for several years. There's no easy way in between the mileage, elevation gain, and 12-13,000 foot passes. I decided to suck it up and do it as an overnighter. My original plan was to loop back over Feather Pass through French Canyon...

June 2019 I left Reno on my bike by about 10:30 am. Originally I had planned to ride directly from the house but Joannie was going to Reno anyway so I got a boost from her. I followed the Truckee Pyramid bike route as far as Verdi then cut off and headed up Henness Pass rd. I enjoyed a brief...

The inspiration for this trip started with a trip to the Mojave National Preserve last year where they have desert tortoises in a protected environment. The Tortoises are protected now but prior to that people used to pick them up in the desert as they drove the roads and take them home as...

Since I was in Bishop on Sunday for a friend's bday party I took Monday off to take my fur niece, Pika, on a hike. I hadn't been up to Granite Park in a few years, so I took advantage of the cooler fall temps and foliage for a reunion. Route (out/back) Logistics Start/end: Pine Creek...

Sequoia/Kings Canyon NP Onion Valley Trailhead 8/1 - 8/8/18 (7 nights) Warning: this is long and probably has too many photos (mix of camera and cellphone) and definitely has too many details that most of you won't care about After a lot of backpacking in KY heat last summer, I decided that I...

Originally I had permits for a route in The Minarets area but the Lions fire kicked back up in activity and left me scrambling to find a new plan a week out. Conditions looked clear in SEKI and I remembered of a spot a friend had mentioned to me as one of the most spectacular spots in the range...

Nearest City: Kyburz, CA Trailhead: Twin Lakes TH, Desolation Wilderness Destination: Smith Lake ~2.8 miles Elevation Gain: 1750 New Gear for Miya: Sleeping Bag - Sea to Summit Spark SP II 35F Trekking Poles – Black Diamond Trail Ergo Cork Partners: Bobbi (Day hiking) Freckles First Time...

My nephew Daniel from Spain, his wife, and two of their friends had planned to visit us in California, and he had requested a camping trip to see Yosemite and, if possible a backpacking trip as well. The only challenge was that his schedule was a bit up in the air, and we couldn't count on...

Another short story inspired by the backpacking mishaps of Miya and Bobbi. (I really go back through and cut out as many words as I can, but it is still long...) https://evermoremoments.smugmug.com/What-Could-Have-Been I have a total of 8 days scheduled off and have been planning the LCT trip...