From the category archives:

National Parks and Monuments

Vintage National Park Window Stickers

June 22, 2010

Apparently, well before I was stomping around any hiking trails, the National Park Service had a little tradition of handing out window decals when you visited a park. Starting in 1918 (probably unofficially) as a way to tell which motorists had paid their entrance fees, the practice was eventually officially adopted by the Park Service, [...]

Read the full article →

Hiking the Devil’s Postpile

June 8, 2010

An under 6-mile trail in Devil’s Postpile National Monument. This is spectacular Sierra scenery all around, with the Wild and Scenic San Joaquin River, several waterfalls, and the Postpile itself – an exquisite example of columnnar basalt. While the Monument itself is small, it is nestled within the Inyo National Forest, with plenty of opportunities [...]

Read the full article →

Hiking Cathedral Lakes – Yosemite National Park

May 20, 2010

A 7 mile out-and-back on the John Muir Trail to a set of glacial lakes in the Yosemite Wilderness. This northern hike near Tuolumne Meadows offers some relatively easy hiking away from the crowds, with some fantastic scenery not usually associated with Yosemite National Park. No views of Half Dome or tourists biking along paved [...]

Read the full article →

Hiking North Dome and Indian Rock – Yosemite National Park

April 5, 2010

A moderate 9.5 mile hike to North Dome – a granite promontory with commanding views of Half Dome, Cloud’s Rest and the Yosemite Valley below. This meandering trail on the north rim of the valley is usually not crowded, providing a nice break from the throngs in the valley. The trail is mostly shaded, but [...]

Read the full article →

Hiking The High Sierra Loop – Yosemite National Park

March 23, 2010

A nearly 13 mile trail that hits some of the highlights of Yosemite National Park. This route starts out with a refreshing soak from Vernal Falls on the Mist Trail, then treats you to great views of Nevada Falls and Half Dome before giving wide vistas of the Valley Floor from the Panorama Trail and [...]

Read the full article →

Online National Parks Holiday Cards

December 9, 2009

If you usually send out holiday cards, but are concerned about the carbon footprint of sending hundreds of letters through the mail — or are just too lazy this year — you’ll be happy to know the National Parks Conservation Association has you covered. The nonprofit organization is offering ten images of National Parks with [...]

Read the full article →

Yosemite Roads Closed for Winter

December 3, 2009

Just an FYI for anyone who was thinking of heading up to Yosemite soon – both Glacier Point Road and Tioga Road have been closed for the winter this week, meaning you will no longer be able to enter the park from the Eastern Sierras or access the northern half of the park on Tioga [...]

Read the full article →

Public Comment on World War II NPS Historic Sites

November 30, 2009

This Thursday and Friday, the National Park Service will hold listening sessions in Los Angeles and San Francisco to take public comments about its grand program for preserving World War II-era Japanese Internment sites. I know it’s not technically hiking news, but I had the opportunity to visit Manzanar National Historic Site this year on [...]

Read the full article →

Free Admission to National Parks

November 9, 2009

If you’re lucky enough to be able to take time off of work in the middle of the week, you may want to head outdoors … even more so than you usually would. This Wednesday, in honor of Veterans’ Day, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar will be waiving entrance fees on public recreation lands [...]

Read the full article →

The Ken Burns Effect

October 1, 2009

… and no, not the built-in photo-dissolving technique in iMovie … but rather, the positive effect Ken Burns’ documentary series has already been having on attention paid toward the National Park System — and I’m not just talking about all my Twitter friends finally coming to realize how awesome John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt were. [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries