Outdoor Travel Geek

Category: hikes

  • mt tamalpais

    This weekend I went hiking at Mount Tamalpais with a few new friends. Our plan was to hike from near Stinson Beach to the eastern peak of Mount Tamalpais, then drive to the Tamales Bay Oyster farm to enjoy some seafood. We started out on the Dispea Trail, which starts near Stinson Beach. It takes…

  • mesa verde

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    Mesa Verde National Park is located in the southwestern part of Colorado. It’s famous for it’s cliff dwellings, built by the Ancestral Pueblos who lived in the cliff dwellings almost a thousand years ago. The drive into the park is pretty epic, a winding road built into the side of a mesa. Mesa Verde means…

  • antelope canyon

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    Antelope Canyon is probably the most famous and most photographed slot canyon in the world. I’ve seen it in pictures many times, in magazines, in galleries, and even in framed photographs on friends’ walls. It’s a place that I’ve wanted to see in person for a long time, and I finally got to visit and…

  • the subway

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    Zion National Park is one of my favorite places. It’s home to spectacular hikes, including Angel’s Landing, the Zion Narrows, and the Subway. These three hikes form an amazing trilogy of hikes, a trilogy that for me was finally completed this weekend, almost exactly three years after first hiking the Narrows in 2010. I did…

  • angel’s landing

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    This weekend Jack and I flew out to Denver to meet with Ray and drive back with him to California. On our way back we took a slight detour to Zion National Park in southern Utah to hike Angel’s Landing. On road trips there are many different conversations. At one point we talked about the…

  • pyramid peak

    Over the past few weekends I’ve done some pretty long hikes, so I could use a little bit of rest. This weekend was supposed to be my break weekend, I was planning to just sleep in and rest for the entire weekend. But when my friend Mary invited me on a day hike into the Desolation…

  • half dome revisited

    The hike to the summit of Half Dome is probably one of the most famous hikes in Yosemite, if not all of California. Nowadays it’s somewhat difficult to get permits for the hike. You have to enter a lottery, and the chances of getting a permit aren’t that great. (From what I’ve heard, the odds…

  • lassen peak revisited

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    This weekend I went to Lassen National Park with a few friends. We left Friday after work and got into camp pretty late at night. The campground was pretty crowded and the campsites were pretty close together, so I guess we were a little too loud for the people around us who were trying to…

  • arches national park

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    Moab, UT is famous for mountain biking. It’s also famous for being sort of a base camp for people who are visiting Arches and Canyonland National Parks, which are among the most photographed parks in the United States. You can tell just from the parking area at the Arches visitor center that the scenery is…

  • tilden regional park

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    Today I went out to Tilden Regional Park near Berkeley to hike with a group from the south bay. When I looked at the trail maps of the area earlier this week, I noticed that some of the trails were open to mountain biking. It’s been a while since I’ve ridden my mountain bikes, so…

  • pinnacles

    This weekend I went for a hike at Pinnacles National Monument along with a group of guys for my friend Johann’s bachelor party. The ‘before’ picture. I didn’t realize that we were supposed to be smiling for this picture… Pinnacles is known for rock climbing. At various points along the trail that we hiked, we…

  • yosemite in winter

    I love Yosemite. I’ve been to Yosemite many times, but I always find new things I love about it. Of course part of the reason is the many epic hikes in Yosemite, like Half Dome or Cloud’s Rest, but even shorter hikes out of the valley are nice there. Even though I’ve been to Yosemite…

  • carson pass snowshoeing

    Today I went snowshoeing with some friends from my small group. Originally it was supposed to be an overnight trip, but we ended up changing it to a day trip instead. The trailhead was the Carson Pass sno-park, same as last weekend. Here we strapped on our snowshoes and began our hike into the Mokelumne…

  • snow scouting

    Today I went snow camping. Or I guess I should rephrase that. The original plan was to go snow camping, spending the night in a snow cave. We ended up doing a day trip instead. It’s all good for me though, I was planning to go up to the same place next weekend anyways, so…

  • cold canyon

    It’s been a pretty rainy week. Today there was a break in the rainy weather, so after Sunday service I decided to try to go and do something outdoors. I ended up just going to Cold Canyon to hike on my own. I’ve been there numerous times but for some reason I don’t have a…