Mountaintop adventures
June 19, 2024
I wound my way up the narrow, winding road to Taos Ski Valley late one Friday evening in June. Eventually, I arrived at my hotel at the base of the ski area. It was a super nice hotel, the sort of place that charged a small mortgage for nights in the winter, but had some sweet deals in the off season. There I’d catch some very comfortable sleep before ascending Wheeler Peak in the morning.
Continue reading “Wheeler Peak, New Mexico”
June 10, 2024
We arrived at the large (and largely empty) parking lot beside the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). A brutalist research lab rose up on this grassy plateau, surrounded by open rolling hills peppered with tall, sparse evergreens. Behind the lab, rising much higher in the distance, were the southerly rock formations of Boulder’s famed Flatirons. The lot also doubled as a trailhead for recreating amongst these giant rock slabs.
Continue reading “Scrambling Sunnyside II and Buckets (Flatirons)”
January 20, 2024
I pulled into the small trailhead parking lot below Monument Canyon around 8 am. Being mid-January, this meant the sun was only just beginning to rise above the tall hills and mesas to the East. Above me was Colorado National Monument, in my opinion among the most underrated units in the National Park system. Less than a mile in the opposite direction was the muddy floodplain of the Colorado River.
Continue reading “Monument Canyon (Colorado National Monument)”
October 13, 2023
I reached Chimney Top Gap, and the Beech Bottom Falls Trailhead, around 8 am. Morning sunshine already poked through the trees near the trailhead. It was a luxuriously late start for the final hike in my Southern Appalachians high pointing tour.
Continue reading “Sassafras Mountain (South Carolina)”
October 12, 2023
I drove winding roads, into the heart of the Chattahoochee National Forest. It was just after sunrise, on a rainy Thursday in October. Which is to say, I had these country byways all to myself. Fall colors were just coming in in these southernmost hills of the Appalachians.
Continue reading “Brasstown Bald via Wolfpen Ridge”
October 10, 2023
It was drizzly and overcast as I cruised up the gentle switchbacks of Kuwohi Road. Even on these highest peaks of the Smokies, peak Fall foliage would not arrive for another week or two. But tinges of reds and oranges still festooned select stands of precocious hardwoods.
Continue reading “Kuwohi (Great Smoky Mountains NP)”
October 10, 2023
I left Gatlinburg well before dawn, in hopes of getting up and into Great Smoky Mountains National Park sans traffic jams. This basically worked. I wound my way through the pitch darkness of the forest, en route to the high ridge crest at Newfound Gap. The lack of views did not bum me out: I’d be coming back the same way later that day.
Continue reading “Charlies Bunion (Great Smoky Mountains NP)”
October 9, 2023
My day began early, beneath Mount Mitchell, which I had hiked the day prior. The plan was to drive the famed Blue Ridge Parkway around sunrise, from the Black Mountains to Asheville. Starting at this somewhat remote mid-point at such an early hour, I hoped to avoid getting stuck behind any camper vans or traffic snarls.
Continue reading “Craggy Pinacle”
October 8, 2023
I pulled into the trailhead along the South Toe River well before dawn. I was deep in the remote heart of the Black Mountains of North Carolina, ready to take on the state’s auspicious high point: Mount Mitchell.
Continue reading “Mount Mitchell”
October 7, 2023
The road snaked its way up the mountainside, from the fittingly named town of Appalachia, Virginia. It was blue skies and orange foliage, in the far western extremes of the state. Finally, the road leveled off at a small pass just below 3800′. I had reached the Kentucky border.
Continue reading “Black Mountain (Kentucky High Point)”