Ken Burns' 6 part documentary National Parks: US's Best Idea is on this week on PBS. At least in Chicago its on right now.
Got the lottery to hike Half-Dome in Yosemite in Sept. Pretty stoked. Gonna camp for a week. Also went to Death Valley, Redwood, Moab and Arches last year. Hit the Wave and Grand Canyon earlier this year. Tons of fun.
Thats what Ive heard. Think we're gonna do the popular sites in the Valley one day and then stay away. Only problem is by the end of Sept lots of the campgrounds are closed. Think we're gonna try to get the Upper or Lower Pines campground.
The more "backcountry" camping you can get, the better. But there are still some pretty great trails available from the valley. It's mostly just getting out of the tourist loop. I'm sure you'll get it. But fuck...man do I love Yosemite.
Going to yosemite and avoiding the valley is like going to the beach and avoiding the water. As long as you are away from the road, you won't feel too congested. I don't care how many people are on the bridal/vail falls trail I'm still going to go on it
I figure everyone ITT would be against privatizing national parks since we're so into them. Well, tell Congress to fuck off so they don't do just that.
have plans to go there in may/june since it's only ~6 hours away. mrs tlau is huge on going to parks. i've somehow not made it to any of the smaller hill country state parks in 3 years. she put my training wheels on last week and we went to Pedernales Falls. Pretty awesome just to find a place in the middle of it and just sit and chill for a few hours Spoiler: large panoramic big smush had a blast too. not sure about taking him on the 6 hour ride to Big Bend but will be hitting all the local-ish state parks with him in tow
Also on the list of < 3 hour away hill country parks ( TAS any opinions of these places if you've been to them feel free to share) Colorado Bend Garner State Park Longhorn Cavern Inks Lake All of these could be done in one day which is great
OP, I'd suggest looking into the below. Yellowstone and the Tetons are great but tourist (RV) season will make you wanna slit your throat. CO and UT won't be as bad as the Park but are also very populated and it's tough to get away from people. Glacier would be even better but that's a long drive from Denver. I-25 is a straight arrow at 80 mph to get there, the scenery is as good as any unless you want crazy crags, and you get fewer neighbors than anywhere this side of Alaska. Bruh.
Going backpacking in Yosemite this summer. Last minute 6 day trip planned and everything is booked as I knew it'd be. Doing Tuesday-Saturday middle of next month. Have some suggestions on best spots in the back country/trail heads to start at?
Any tips on the lottery for the wave? Got it once last fall but turned out to be a time in April I couldn't go.
I waited until the last day of each month and picked the 3 days that had the least amount of people that put in. I was putting on for 4, but the first time I put In for 2 people I got it. Weekends are usually the busiest. So I stayed away. I wound up getting a Tuesday and went to Page and the grand canyon. And made a 4 day trip of it.
Woah, there's a lottery for halfdome now? When did that happen? Also how hard was it to get a permit for the wave?
Think they changed it back in 08 or 09. The wave isn't too difficult if you have patience and can go during the middle of the week. Do what I did and go with 1 or 2 people. Bigger groups are more difficult.
Just thawed myself out from the snow in Jasper Jasper/Banff>>>>>any other area I've been to Glacier and Yosemite are great but they really don't compare. People that travel all over the world but haven't seen these hills and lakes yet are doing it wrong.
I did the Tetons in the first week of June last year. The snow melt was amazing, waterfalls everywhere off the peaks.
I'd give all four perfect 10s and if you think Banff/jasper are that much better then the yose I suspect you might wanna spend some more time there.
I think it's certainly a notch above and I've trampled all around yosemite. The valley pics are on par with anything, but maligne, the glaciers, lake Louise, pinto lake, the wild life, the glacier highway, etc They are all as pretty or close to it, and there is just more of them. Plus it's not nearly as crowded with the exception of certain spots of banff Jmo, but alberta/BC is the perfect type of hiking for me
I've always fallen back on the old maxim comment about Alyssa milano. She's a 10. You might prefer a different type of 10 but its just preference. Only knock on Yosemite is all the socal folk blocking the road but once this Yosemite plan gets in that will be gone. I hope.
Looking at a Thursday - Sunday Big Bend road trip first weekend of August. Gonna look back through this thread to see what's already been discussed but as always any TMB exclusive tips or general wisdom is appreciated for those that have been Probably be ~10 people
was at rocky mnt the past few days. a ranger told me about this trail that crosses a stream down from a waterfall/end of another trail. tons of pools and little waterfalls along the creek, led up to a basin and nice boldering with a few little caves and view of the devide. just hung up there for the most part, went down to the pools for a swim in the afternoon. didn't see another person til I got back on the marked trail today
This sounds like you're under the assumption that we know what we're doing. So far this is what we got: We wanna go camping Big Bend is supposed to be great We know 2 weekends everyone can do That's pretty much it... Nobody has ever been before so it's a bunch of Jon Snow here. What's the outer mountain loop entail and what is that the alternative to doing? Only "advice" I've heard IRL is that it's hot at shit trying to camp/sleep "down on the bottom" so you "wanna be up top". Idk what that even really means but plan to look it up. We do have our buddy's mom that lives on the last little hostel/camp before you get to BB. So her and her BF will give us a feast and recreational supplies on our way in
Outer Mountain Loop is the 30 mile trail that covers pretty much the entire gamut the park has to offer, both mountain peaks and desert trails. We did the hike in mid March and it was extremely difficult. At the time, just 1 in 3 people were completing the loop. I believe they advise against hiking the full loop in the summer months. The Dodson Trail in particular is brutal, 7-8 miles thru the desert, with zero shade all day. I know a lot of people use the Chisos Basin as a base camp to start individual day hikes, they have campsites and cabins as well. I've never done it that way, but it is probably what you want to plan around.
Here's a good message board that will have just about anything you want to know about Big Bend http://www.bigbendchat.com/portal/forum/index.php?action=forum
Damn just got sucked into that message board for 3 hours. Got a pretty good grasp on everything though I think. Pitched this as options for the group to do at least 2 of them: Talley Mountain / Fresno camping: black gap, mariscal mine, mariscal canyon Tornillo Creek camping: lost mine. pummel peak. casa grande peak. Pine Canyon camping: South Rim hike. Emory Peak.
People, please quit being jack asses at Yellowstone http://nytimes.com/2016/06/09/us/man-falls-into-hot-spring-yellowstone.html 6 more people caught off the boardwalks at Grand Prismatic this morning too
Yellowstone is literally the only place in north America where people should be shot for not following the rules
Survival of the fittest. If you aren't smart enough to realize to stay on boardwalks around extremely active volcanic features, you probably deserve to boil alive.
Speaking of volcanoes, got the pleasure to visit Crater Lake for the first time this weekend. Amazing views and pictures absolutely doesn't do the rim justice on how steep/deep it is to the water. Couple of places you could go up to the rim and if it gave away they would find your body in a mess 1,000 feet below, or maybe you just roll into the +1,900 foot deep lake to never be seen again. Pretty cool with snow being over 10 feet deep in places and entire open areas still covered in the stuff with a nice, crisp 55 degree temps. Drove back down and 20 minutes after being on the peak it was 85 degrees at 3,500 feet. By the time we got back to Portland it was north of 100 degrees. I love mountains.
My grandfather's brother was a ranger in the National Park Service who spent about 20 years at Crater Lake from the mid-50's to mid-70's. By the time I got old enough to visit, he moved to Denali, which was too far to visit. Always wanted to check out Crater Lake. As a 6-7 year old, I used to listen for hours about the place.
It's very odd, because you see this lake and everything in pictures and it looks amazing but it still looks like just a lake that is surrounded by a few hills, but even with most of the top blown off you still have a mountain (or actually a ton of mountains surrounding a lake). Your driving around the rim and there are 1,500 foot cliffs left and right. The sheer size of the thing is mind-blowing. It really makes you appreciate the size of the other volcanoes in the area (Crater lake before it was blown to shreds is believed to be over 12,000 feet). The views from the top are amazing as well, you see volcano and ridge lines of other mountains all over and the water is just blue glass. Has to be 1 of the 20 most unique/beautiful geological features on planet earth.
Make sure you get down and go for a swim. Dive in the water and the blue is just crazy from everywhere.
Any tips on how to deal with the rattlesnakes you encounter while hiking? Besides killing it with fire?