Category: Day Hikes (Page 2 of 14)

I visited Badlands National Park several years ago in late summer, in ridiculous heat, and the trail I really wanted to hike was closed for maintenance. This time was much better weather-wise, and I finally got to hike the Notch Trail.

Even if one doesn’t like hiking or exploring on foot, Badlands National Park is an amazing place to visit. The Badlands Loop Road is incredible, with 360-degree views. I stayed at Cedar Pass Campground inside the park, which has zero privacy and is more like parallel parking than individual campsites, but great views of the cliffs and rock formations from many sites. Sunrise from the campground was wow.

The Yellow Mounds area is quirky, a wonderful color palette of yellows, tans, and reds in layers. Not much hiking here, but plenty of places to pull over along the road and get out to stretch the legs and wander a bit.

The Notch Trail was closed on my previous visit, so that is what I headed to first. This is not a long trail, nor incredibly strenuous, but it’s definitely not for anyone afraid of heights or ladders. After a short walk through a canyon and scrambling up the ladder, the trail winds through more canyon and other-worldly rock formations to the edge of the upper cliffs. From here there are several vantage points to look out what seems like forever across the badlands area. This is an out-and-back trail, meaning you have to go back down the ladder on the return. Fun for me, but not for some.

The Door Trail starts in the same parking area as the Notch Trail, and though it’s quite short it allows you to walk out onto a large area of surreal rocks and formations. This is a great place to sit and just be, preferably with a nice cold iced tea.

This is definitely a place everyone should see at least once in their life.

It is about an hour and a half drive between the North and South Units of TRNP. I spent a day at the North Unit hiking, taking in the views, and exploring.

The day started with a quick stop at the Cannonball Concretions, alien-looking balls of stone embedded in a cliff.

From there I drove to the end of the Scenic Drive to Oxbow Overlook and hiked out to Sperati Point. It’s an easy, rolling, out-and-back hike with beautiful views at the end.

Next was another quick stop at River Bend Overlook, with a beautiful stone structure looking out over the Little Missouri River.

The last part of the day was hiking the loop Caprock Coulee Trail. Unfortunately I didn’t get any photos of this hike because the wind was so fierce it was a struggle just to stay upright in some places, much less stand still and take a picture. The Caprock portion of the trail follows a cliff edge and offers expansive views. The Coulee section meanders through easy open meadow and a juniper forest to complete the loop back to the car.

TRNP has been on my “need to see” list for a long time. I finally planned another road trip to North Dakota and South Dakota so I could re-visit Badlands and the Black Hills, but also see and explore new places. This was springtime before temperatures were too hot, unlike my last trim in the middle of summer.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park has 3 different units: North and South, which are about 1.5 hours of driving apart, and the Elkhorn Ranch area, which is the site of Theodore Roosevelt’s ranch. I camped at Cottonwood Campground in the South Unit. Along the Scenic Loop Drive there are many short hikes, including Peaceful Valley Ranch, Biocourt Trail, Buck Hill, Wind Canyon, and Coal Vein Trail. Twice I saw the herd of wild horses near Biocourt. I love catching early morning light, which I certainly did here.

The Little Missouri River winds its way through part of the park, with some beautiful views down into the river valley. I imagine what it would have been like to see millions of bison roaming these lands, before humans with no morals or integrity killed them for sport and nearly extincted them.

Thankfully, there were many bison, including up close and personal in the campground. On the first morning, groggy from waking, I ran into one very handsome and huge bull between my trailer and the restroom. The next morning I found huge hoof prints just a few feet from my trailer. There were also a few times I had to stop in the road to let a herd cross, which is just fine because it’s a treat to watch these majestic animals. This is their home, we are just the visitors.

Another fun place to visit in the South Unit is a short drive from the main entrance, where there is another visitor center at Painted Canyon. And yes, more bison. I had time so I hiked a couple of miles down into the canyon/valley, with beautiful views, formations, and colors. It’s impossible to capture the light and colors through photographs, just note that it’s well worth a hike if this is your kind of thing.

I’m in love with the southwest corner of Utah in wintertime when it’s dark and gray in the PNW and I’m spiraling into my yearly bout of Seasonal Affective Disorder. Of course, I love the entire lower half of Utah, but in winter the SW corner is my favorite. The winter light in the desert is amazing, and even though it’s often freezing, there is sunshine and blue sky and it fills my heart up to full. While I re-visit many of my favorite places while there every winter, we explored some new places in 2024.

Here are a few new places we discovered in 2024:
Cathedral Gorge State Park, NV
Sandstone Mountain
The Vortex
beyond Scout Lookout on West Rim Trail, Zion NP
new areas of Yant Flat / Candy Cliffs
Elephant Arch
>>> Please see each individual post for more info and photos!

You can also see hikes in this area from previous years HERE.

I highly recommend the book Favorite Hikes In & Around Saint George by Bo Beck and Jeremy J. Gorzalski for exploring this area.

As different as it possibly gets, on the flight from SEA to LAS, we were fortunate to be able to do an extremely close fly-by of my beautiful mountain, Mt. Rainier. Seeing my wilderness love so up close from this perspective took my breath away! The river valley is created by the White River, which flows from the Emmons Glacier below the Sunrise area.

I had hiked to the Vortex the year before, one of those hikes that I love because I didn’t see another person the whole time. That’s my kind of hike! But… apparently the first time I was there I missed the actual Vortex!

The hike begins down an uneven lava rock path to a dry riverbed, then up onto beautiful Navajo Sandstone petrified dunes. After meandering along the trail across easy-to-navigate sandstone, following cairns in some places, we had to do a bit of exploring to figure out where the actual Vortex is. It’s an easy short climb up onto a petrified sand dune and across the top of that to the Vortex.

There are several bowls carved out of the sandstone, some shallow, but one much deeper than the rest. My first time there I came across the first 2 bowls, but didn’t realize the deepest one was just a few dozen yards away. Unfortunately when the winter sun is so low in the sky, it casts deep shadows into the Vortex even at mid-day, so photos don’t do it justice. Regardless of whether or not you like the Vortex, the hike itself is lovely and beautiful. The far off views are stunning, well worth a cup of tea or coffee and a rest.

I’ve wanted to see Cathedral Gorge State Park for a while, finally got there on my 2024 visit to southwest Utah. It’s a long drive from where I was staying, but a good playlist helps.

Cathedral Gorge isn’t very large, at least not the interesting parts of it, so it was more of a meandering than hiking day. I love slot canyons, and though the Moon Slots were short and very easy to walk through, they were so interesting and fun to explore.

The Miller Point Trail is short and beautiful, taking you up a short gorge that seems more suited to a Star Wars movie than planet Earth. We had a lovely coffee and tea break at the gazebo at the top before heading back down and to the car.

I’ve hiked out of Chinook Pass along Highway 410 many times, up to Sheep Lake and Sourdough Gap. I’ve also done the steep hike up to Crystal Lakes many times, but have never connected the two. A good friend and I had a wonderful hike from Chinook Pass to Sheep Lake, up to Sourdough Gap, and to the ridge above Crystal Lakes. Stunning! I’m not sure why I’ve never accessed it this way before, but so glad we did, and it was a perfect way to celebrate my friend’s birthday.

Once we crested the trail looking down on Crystal Lakes, we found a wonderful lunch spot to sit and relax. Just a short hike on from there to the right brings incredible views of Upper Crystal Lake and Mt. Rainier. The kind of view that makes your jaw drop. I’m so thankful for good friends, and for having places like this to go to in order to connect back to what really matters. My recent favorite phrase is: Lose Reception, Gain Perspective. This is one of those places.

It was a 4-volcano day with Rainier up close, and further off Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens, and way into Oregon Mt. Hood.

I’ve been camping, hiking and backpacking at the Hoh Rainforest several times, and it never stops enchanting me. Gordon Hempton, who studies nature sounds and is the founder of “One Square Inch of Silence” says that the Hoh Rainforest is one of the quietest spots in the lower 48 states – “quiet” as in no human-made noise pollution, so that the true sounds of nature can actually be heard. It is indeed a special place.

The Hoh Rainforest is also one of the places with the most biomass per square acre on the planet. Verdant doesn’t even come close to describing the sheer amount of green there. This is the first time I’ve been to the Hoh Rainforest without seeing elk, but I did hear a barred owl for the first time.

(HINT: It’s called a “rainforest” for a reason. It averages 12 FEET of rain per year. Rain + soil = mud. If you show up in your designer $300 sparkling white Nikes, they will not be sparking white for very long.)

The Hall of Mosses Trail is fantastic, almost otherworldly, with massive sheets of moss hanging from big leaf maple trees. This is a one-way trail, but apparently some people aren’t able to understand the signs pointing in one direction. Sigh.

The Spruce Nature Trail is a lovely walk through soft, cushioned earth with more ferns, conifers, and moss than anywhere I’ve ever seen. The Hoh River is beautiful along part of this trail, and I’ve never seen better examples of nurse logs anywhere else. There is a fantastic example of what the rootball of a single downed tree can sustain, how it can support and nourish new life. As Robin Wall Kimmerer and Suzanne Simard say – it’s all connected.

The Hoh River Trail is an out-and-back that leads up the valley toward the Blue Glacier 18 miles away, under Mount Olympus. We hiked the first few miles of this trail at 6 a.m. and didn’t see another human, just us and the sights and sounds of Mama Nature for miles.

Magic. Mother Nature’s Magic.

My first time at Cape Disappointment, and my first camping trip of the year, were just perfect (except for mosquitoes, but we won’t talk about those little blood-suckers much here). There is a little bit of everything here, beautiful forests, beaches, the Pacific Ocean, lighthouses, a wonderful visitor center, and old bunkers. On the far side is Oregon, in between the end of the Columbia River where it empties into the Pacific.

The mouth of the Columbia River, in particular the Columbia Bar, is a particularly treacherous section of boat/ship travel that has claimed over 2000 wrecks over the centuries, sometimes called “Graveyard of the Pacific.” It is considered one of the most dangerous sandbar crossings in the world.

The Campground was very quiet, and my site was close to the beach, but thankfully not too close because the wind out on the beach in the afternoons and evenings was fierce! But long morning walks barefoot in the sand were a joy after a dark and dreary winter.

The short Mckenzie Head Trail leads up to a hill with views, and several old military bunkers that nature is slowly taking back.

The Forest Loop Trail (1.5 miles) is a wonderful forest trail with a lot of little plant gems – it was a slow 1.5 miles because I kept stopping to look at all the spring blooming plants, until mosquitoes chased me along my way again.

The Cape Disappointment trail including the Lewis & Clark Visitor Center, Deadman’s Cove, and the Cape D. Lighthouse is another lovely forest + coast trail well worth exploring. The Visitor Center is built on top of old military bunkers, and it’s fun to explore through some of the tunnels and rooms, imagining what it would have been like to be there when they were active.

My final hike was the North Head Trail, from near McKenzie Hill out to the North Head Lighthouse. Again, beautiful forest and ocean views in one trail. Some of the spruces here are massive, with a large diversity of forest plants and critters including some impressive slugs.

What a good way to welcome in the 2024 hiking season.