Category Archives: North America

Trips in North America

Mount Stuart and Cradle Lake from Pt 6909
Backpacking, July, Washington

Backpacking Blackjack Ridge and Cradle Lake

Blackjack Ridge offers exceptional views of the central Cascades — a particularly striking angle on Stuart, with good views of Tahoma (Mount Rainier) and Dakobed (Glacier Peak) — along with a high alpine lake, mid-July wildflowers, and birds.

We did this as a 3-day, 2-night back from the Jack Trout Trailhead. That said, we’d recommend against doing this route as a loop for most backpackers. The Blackjack Ridge Trail between Bootjack Mountain and the Snowall-Cradle Lake Trail is poorly marked, inconsistently mapped across every major source, and requires route-finding experience. More on that below.

Continue reading →

Manly Beacon and the Badlands, from near Zabriskie Point, Death Valley National Park
California, Day Hiking, January

Death Valley in January: A 3-Day Weekend of Hiking

Death Valley has a reputation as the hottest place on Earth, which makes a January visit delightful. For those of us in the Pacific Northwest, it’s also a welcome excuse to chase some sun in the depths of winter. With mild temperatures, long golden hours, and a fraction of the spring crowds, a winter visit lets you actually hike the place. We easily filled three days from sunrise through sunset, with hikes and views.

Continue reading →

Square Top and the Green River
August, Backpacking, Wyoming

Exploring the Green River in the Wind River Range

On our 2020 and 2021 trips to the Wind River Range, we explored the central and southern ends of the range. For 2022, we decided to visit the northern end of the range. On this trip, we entered at the Green River Lakes trailhead and spent five stunning days on the trail.

The view over the Green River Lakes to Square Top is, for many, one of the four iconic views of the Wind River Range, along with Titcomb Basin, Island Lake and Mount Fremont, and Cirque of the Towers. Less obvious from those photos, though is that not far past the lakes, the trail reaches spectacular meadows and then climbs to a high country of equally magnificent alpine lakes.

Continue reading →

Crater and Jack Mountains from Devil's Dome
August, Backpacking, Washington

Devil’s Dome Loop, North Cascades

In August 2022, we backpacked a new part of the North Cascades for us: the Devil’s Dome Loop on the western edge of the Pasayten Wilderness. We hiked the route clockwise, from the East Bank Trailhead, taking four days and three nights.

This was a stunning loop that took us to parts of the North Cascades we had not visited. We enjoyed excellent weather and beautiful views.

Our total distance, including a side trip, was about 41 miles, and 10,800′ of elevation gain. Trail conditions made the route more difficult than the stats would imply.

Continue reading →

View of the Tetons at dusk rom Mount Meek Pass
August, Backpacking, Wyoming

Teton Crest Trail

The centerpiece of our summer 2021 Wyoming trip was five days backpacking the Teton Crest Trail. We started at Granite Canyon and camped at Marion Lake, Death Canyon Shelf, South Fork of Cascade Canyon, and Holly Lake.

As with many summer backpacking trips in the west, storms shaped our experience on the Teton Crest Trail. We were glad to be prepared and fortunate to mostly be in camp when they hit, but the weather also curtailed some of our explorations.

Continue reading →

Grand Prismatic Spring
August, Day Hiking, Wyoming

Two Days in Yellowstone National Park

Kyle and I had each visited Yellowstone National Park on our own. I had spent about a week there when I was a kid and passed through several times on cross-country drives. Kyle had visited only briefly on his move to Seattle, and was unable to stray far from parking lots because he was traveling with a dog. We decided to take advantage of our summer 2021 Wyoming trip to spend a couple of days in Yellowstone together, before heading to the Tetons.

Continue reading →