Category Hiking
The last of Banff! Vistas and rivers and icefields… in the rain
Right on cue with the weather forecast, the clouds rolled in overnight and today was dark and cloudy and more wet than not. So it was a good thing we’d done our big hiking day yesterday. On deck for today: the Icefields Parkway that runs through Banff National Park and adjacent Jasper National Park. Along […]
More Banff! Lakes and Larches
Today was an exercise in travel adventures that consisted of (1) reading the weather forecast and deciding that we needed to throw out our plans for today and instead do what we’d planned for tomorrow, (2) getting up way before the crack of dawn to drive from Canmore up to Lake Louise where we embarked […]
Banff!
What could be better than an extra-long weekend in one of the most spectacular national parks in North America? Doing it with a good friend, and in early autumn when the colors are hitting their golden peak. Two Jack Lake Lake Minnewanka Cascade Pond Grotto and Pool Gondola & Top of Mount Sulphur Bow Falls […]
En route to Las Vegas
By Sunday morning we had done everything we had planned to do in Zion national park, and since Vanessa’s flight left super early on Monday morning we decided to wend our way back to Las Vegas. Along the way we stopped at the Valley of Fire state park, which was a step down from the […]
More Zion!
Up again in the wee hours, out with the first shuttle, and on the trail before dawn. Today we did three different hikes, with snacks and naps and a healthy serving (or five) of ice cream in between. Vanessa’s step-counter says we did more that 30,000 steps over more than 12 miles. Another fun day […]
The Narrows!
Yesterday I met up with Vanessa in Las Vegas and drove to the tiny town of Springdale, Utah, which sits at the entrance to Zion national park. This morning we set our alarms for o-dark-middle-of-the-night so that we could be on the first shuttle into the park and among the first people to head into […]
Misty hike around Coldwater Lake
It has been so chilly and wet in the Seattle area that it’s hard to believe we’ve almost reached the summer solstice and are about to turn the corner to shortening days. I really miss the warm springtime and early summer of other places I’ve lived. The risk of course is that if you wait […]
Hiking and grilling and 75 degrees
This past week has been the best week of weather we’ve had all year so far. Day after day of clear sun—and sun in the Pacific Northwest is hard to beat. On Thursday and Friday I worked most of the day on my roof deck. Today we went on a hike to Bridal Veil Falls […]
Petroglyphs and sea arch!
Within Volcanoes National Park there’s a road that leads down from the craters to the water’s edge, where the lava cliffs and ocean waves make for a dramatic coastline. Along the way there’s an understated stopping point with a trailhead to the middle of nowhere. This particular bit of nowhere happens to be a stretch […]
Plants!
The big island seems to alternate between vast swaths of barren lava sheets, lush jungle, and scrubby desert hillside. Seeing how the micro climates change from one place to another has been fascinating, and one of my favourite aspects of the trip has been discovering the range of plants that characterise each one. My absolute […]
A More Gentlemanlike Manner 