
I took a few days off work in order to go hiking with my son up in the Olympic Mountains. We went to a new spot called Grand Lake, which neither of us had visited. It is within the national park and requires a wilderness overnight permit which can be purchased at recreation.gov. The difficult…

It’s July and my family spent a weekend up near Chinook Pass, and after everyone left and I finished my cleanup chores, I drove up to the pass for another dose of my favorite hike: Naches Peak Loop! It’s my go-to hike for July because of a number of factors. First the snow pack is…

It was a moody Juneteenth in the Olympics, with a marine layer just hanging out over the mountains and hiding them from view. I organized a hike with folks from work and over ten people participated, many hiking up into the Eastern Olympics for the first time. I was excited for them but was worried…
The first backpacking trip of the year was a great success! I was able to invite folks from work for a first overnight hiking trip for 3 of 4 of them, and get all my gear out and put it to use! We had a great time, and this particular part of Olympic National Park…
What activities do you lose yourself in? I always thought Groundhog Day was a pretty funny movie, until I actually considered the reality of it. Every day is another repeat… wash, rinse, spin over and over and over and over. For the characters in the original movie, obsession with getting a relationship right was not…

Yes, Mt Rainier National Park is still snowed in and will be until the 4th of July. Same with the Enchantments up near Leavenworth WA. In order to stay over night and backpack in these amazing locations, you need to enter a lottery at recreation.gov and see if randomly you get to pre-book you trip.…

The weather is beautiful and cold in the Northwest. We’ve had an unusual 10 days or so of clear skies and sunshine. The temperatures have been cold, but we decided to brave the chill and do a short hike to see some nature and a cute waterfall. We visited Ludlow Falls in Port Ludlow, Washington.…

There are a lot of national parks, and the top 5 get the lion’s share of attention. Everyone knows about Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon. These are iconic parks, that are matchless in their unique natural settings and huge yearly attendance. The Great Smoky Mountains have more visitors by far than any other national…

Fall vacation time is when my bucket list is just overflowing. Too many good ideas, and not enough time to fit them all in. We decided a ways back to take a trip to Disneyland with my brother-in-law and his 5 and 8 year old girls, both in the prime theme park demographic. Of course,…

The weather report was too good to be true. No systems rolling through, clear skies and sunshine. I had preplanned a different backpacking trip, but I decided it was one that needed a buddy to accomplish, and I was going solo this time. I could leave at noon on Friday, and so out came the…