Category: National Parks
-
Olympic Alone
Pacific Beach, Washington is sometimes wistful, sometimes dreamy, always pure peace and solitude. There are no crowds or colorful umbrellas; no spread out towels or portable radios. The smell is salt spray instead of SPF and the view is somewhere through the mist. It is a dream world lost in time to the hustle and…
-
All Cheer Mt Rainier
Carlsbad has its under-otherworldly caverns, Bryce has its spooky hoodoos, Arches has its, well, arches but Rainier doesn’t Have, Rainier IS. Rainier is omnipresent. Whether its lurking in the clouds, looming behind the fog or lighting up the city, Rainier is compass rose in Tacoma Washington. Sunrise Camping The Sunrise Visitor Center is two hours…
-
All the way to Tacoma …
“I went from Phoenix, Arizona All the way to Tacoma, Philadelphia, Atlanta, LA …. Steve Miller Band (1976) The world is not all sunshine and waterfalls. Or is that rainbows? The point is, vertical hikes can be mean and nasty and as tough as we are it could beat us to our knees and keep…
-
Flirtin with Disaster
Mt Rainier could blow its top any day now or it could wait a little while, which in geologic terms could be like 10,000 years. At 14,410 feet, Rainier is the tallest volcano in the Cascades and the most glaciated peak in the lower 48. We took our chances on America’s largest active volcano, flirtin…
-
Escape to Mt. Baker
When summer temperatures in Seattle soar into the 70’s, there is nothing else to do to escape the insufferable heat but flee 90 minutes north to Mt. Baker mountain in search of snow. Hopping on that bandwagon, we threw our tenting gear into Boss and left Roxie stowed in her gated Jim Creek Naval Radio…
-
Three Amigos: Ross, Diablo and Jim Creek
After a day of head-in-the-clouds exploring the insurmountable Cascade Pass and Hidden Lakes trails of Marblemount, we backtracked to the National Park treasures of Ross and Diablo Lakes for some grand views from easier to reach places. It’s a 30 mile stretch between Ross Lake and Marble Creek, snaking along the Skagit River, passing the…
-
North Cascades – The American Alps
North Cascades National Park is one of the least visited National Parks in the lower 48. Judging from the license plates in campgrounds and at trailheads, eight out of 10 visitors are Washingtonians, one is from California and the other is a pick your plate state. Two hundred miles from Seattle to the west or…
-
Glacier Gone Wild
With East Glacier National Park still closed and West Glacier attractions exhausted, we extended our footprint and made some wild discoveries. Hungry Horse At 564 feet high and 15 miles from West Glacier, Hungry Horse is Dam one of the largest concrete arch dams in the United States, and its morning-glory spillway, with water cascading…
-
Scurry and Plod Attempt Mt Brown
On the second anniversary of walking out of corporate America, we saw no better way to commemorate the event than with walking up 4,325 vertical feet in 5.4 miles and back down again on a whim. TLDR: It didn’t end well, but the memory of it is getting better with time. We honestly lost our…
-
Biking to the Sun Road Glacier
Glacier National Park is in Phase 1 re-opening and while we can’t get to a glacier or the East Side of the park, or most of the West Side or camp in any campgrounds or explore the visitor centers, we’re surprisingly okay with that. It’s like the Royal Taj Indian buffet in Columbia, MD. Sheri…