Mountaintop adventures
June 25, 2022
We arrived at the Castle Creek trailhead around dawn. We drove the rough, 2-wheel drive road up towards 10,000 feet, parking just below the creek crossing. And after fiddling with some gear we were off, up the long dirt road towards Castle and Conundrum peaks.
Continue reading “Castle & Conundrum Peaks”
June 19, 2022
Mount Princeton rises dramatically above Buena Vista, Colorado. While the Sawatch Range includes perhaps a half dozen taller summits, Princeton likely ranks among the most commanding and charismatic.
Continue reading “Mount Princeton”
June 17, 2022
Beaver Creek ski resort offers ample hiking opportunities in summer. Many routes stay within the confines of the ski resort, crossing grassy ski slopes and ducking into lush, piney tree islands. A few other trails connect into the adjacent Holy Cross Wilderness, where they amble on for miles into the alpine.
Continue reading “Beaver Lake Trail and the Royal Elk Trail”
June 12, 2022
Summer 2022 would mark my second year of Colorado 14er peak bagging. But staring at a spreadsheet of these hikes mid-winter, I discovered something concerning. Of the 17 peaks I had climbed in 2021, the vast majority sat within a couple hours drive of Denver. Thus I reached one obvious conclusion: it was time to venture further afield.
Continue reading “Culebra Peak and Red Mountain”
May 20, 2022
Glymur waterfall marked the final hike of my Spring 2022 trip to Iceland. I had spent a week encircling the island nation along the Ring Road, seeing literally dozens of waterfalls. That said, Glymur would prove particularly spectacular.
Continue reading “Glymur Waterfall hike”
May 16, 2022
Skógafoss lies in the south of Iceland roughly 2 hours from Reykjavik. The famed waterfall sits just off the “ring road” near the eponymous town of Skógar. The massive falls appear from the Ring Road, and tower above the large, dirt parking area.
Continue reading “Skógafoss and the hike of never-ending waterfalls”
April 12, 2022
My day began with a morning rush hour drive along US-36 from Denver towards Boulder. Traffic moved thick but fast. I pulled off onto CO-170 and suddenly found myself deposited onto rolling ranch land, dotted with deciduous tree stands and farmhouses. Just beyond this bucolic scene, the Flat Irons and foothills loomed large, aglow in the morning light.
Continue reading “South Boulder Peak and Bear Peak Loop”
November 28, 2021
The United States has no shortage of amazing, beautiful volcanoes. And some of them, while dormant, are very much not extinct. Some have erupted within the past century.
All that said, you shouldn’t visit most of these places expecting to see a molten lake of lava. Unless of course, you are visiting Kīlauea! Kīlauea has been erupting, nearly continuously, for the past 40 years. As luck would have it, I found myself on the Big Island of Hawaii at an opportune moment to witness its fresh, spewing lava first-hand. (The name Kīlauea in fact means “spewing”).
Continue reading “Kīlauea Iki Trail (Hawaii Volcanoes NP)”
November 27, 2021
I arrived well before dawn at the Mauna Kea visitor’s center, roughly 9200′ above sea level. The complex sits six miles off the “saddle road” between the island’s two main population centers: Hilo and Kona. I parked in the empty lot, donned my backpack, and headed off for the Humu’ula Trail.
Continue reading “Mauna Kea via the Humu’ula Trail”
November 24, 2021
You may not know it, but you’re probably quite familiar with Kauai’s Nā Pali Coast. Jurassic Park ostensibly takes place on an island near Costa Rica. But the original film sourced its lush, tropical landscapes from Kauai. And the iconic helicopter shots bookending the movie’s main events prominently feature this stunning, rugged coastline.
Continue reading “Hanakapi’ai Falls via the Kalalau Trail”