Kibbie Lake, Yosemite: Early Summer & Full Moon Backpacking
Happy National Parks Week! Yosemite National Park is currently closed help stop the spread of COVID-19. The whole situation is a bummer, but that does allow more time to look at old photos and plan future trips. To be honest: Yes, I have canceled multiple trips because of the quarantine orders. Even some of the local hikes I was looking forward to are now off the table because the Stanislaus…
Yosemite Point Trail, via Yosemite Falls: Spring Snow and Snow Melt
Hands down, the weather during this late April hike up the Yosemite Falls trail is the best weather for hiking in Yosemite Valley… and I consider myself a connoisseur of day hikes in Yosemite. Here are my tips: Pick a cool morning (Starting temp: 48°F) Start hiking early (Starting Time: 8:15 AM) Wait until temps peak before hiking back down (75°F on this trip). Trust me – The blowing mist…
Backpacking Virginia Lakes to Green Creek – Day 1 to Summit Lake & Yosemite
The Virginia Lakes and Green Creek trails into the Hoover Wilderness can make for a stunning day hike. Curtis and I have spent past weekends leisurely exploring the first few miles of both of these areas. At one point, I think I spent a solid hour at Blue Lake willing a pika to pop out the rocks. It looks like there should be pikas there! Obviously I said YES when…
Backpacking Parker Pass, Yosemite
Parker Pass is an amazing little backpacking trip to keep in your back pocket for an open weekend – awesome AND doable without much planning. I have a couple of these just-in-case trips that are short distance, on trail, and generally not overwhelming. Short and sweet, but deliver some much needed wilderness time. I would consider Parker Pass the sister to the much more popular Mono Pass trip. Also an…
High Peaks Trail, Pinnacles: On the Edge among the California Condor
Happy last day of National Park Week (April 15-23)! Also, Happy Earth Day (April 22), awesome job with the March for Science (April 22), +++ Happy Birthday to John Muir (April 21) and Mr. William Shakespeare (April 23)! I had an amazing day in Yosemite Valley yesterday celebrating science, Earth, and Yosemite. It was an inspiring afternoon of listening to the speakers and pondering how much more there is still left to…
Backpacking Kerrick Meadow, Yosemite & Peeler Lake: Days 2 & 3 of Independence Day 2016 Trip
If Kerrick Meadows is the Northern Sister to Tuolumne Meadows, then Peeler Lake is Cathedral Lake’s Northern cousin. It is a really nice lake, the approach from the meadows has deep drop offs from the granite boulders with crystal clear waters
Backpacking Crown Lake: Herbert Hoover and Day 1 of Independence Day 2016 Trip
Fourth of July 2016: Another Independence Day and another backpacking trip into the Hoover Wilderness on the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. But of course, on one of the busiest backpacking weekends in the Sierra Nevada we returned to the place where wilderness permits are moderately easy to obtain. But maybe, perhaps subconsciously, I was also returning on the 4th of July to the wilderness named after the 31st president of the United States….
Westfall Meadow: Easy Winter Yosemite Backpacking
While laying in our yellow slug winter tent, in the impossible quiet of the dark Yosemite forest, the question arose: When was the last time we actually backpacked in Yosemite? It was only last spring (2015), when Curtis and I backpacked to Styx Pass and Boundary Lake – an area straddling the Yosemite Wilderness and the Stanislaus Emigrant Wilderness. But does that count since we were able to get our permits from…
Snowshoeing to a Frozen Tokopah Falls, Sequoia National Park
Hiking guides for popular trails rarely have give a good impression of what you will find in the winter. For example, I just typed in “Tokopah Falls Winter” into Google image search, and that 5th image is not really winter. Pah-lease, Google. And forget about it when looking for postcards: As you can see, Tokopah Falls in the summertime looks like a familiar Sierra Nevada cascading fall tumbling down granite –…
Hello! I am a 30-something outdoors-lady, backpacker, and resident of Groveland, California - 
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