Skip to content

Ten Lakes Basin – a quick photographic pack trip

Earlier this week I spent a few days in the Ten Lakes Basin area of Yosemite National Park. Although I’ve backpacked widely in the high country of the park over the past years – OK, decades… – this was actually the very first time that I visited this popular backpacking destination. I think I had [...]

A few day hikes in the Tuolumne Meadows area

In an online discussion group I read and post to someone asked about hikes in the Tuolumne Meadows region of Yosemite. They were going to be there for only one day, and wondered what some of the options might be. Since I wrote up a reply and posted it to that discussion group, I figured [...]

Today’s Hike – New Almaden Quicksilver

Since school is out (yes, teachers look forward to that, too!) and I have a major pack trip coming up later this summer (more about that later) it is time to get serious about whacking the old body back into some sort of shape. Although I’ve always felt that the best conditioning for backpacking is [...]

Two-Heel Drive reports on one of my favorite hiking locations

Tom Mangan just posted a description of his Sunday hike at my favorite local park, the Calero County Park south of San Jose. I was there on Saturday (when it was cool and foggy in the morning, Tom… ;-) and he was there on Sunday after the Great Spring Warmup in Central California.
Tom hiked on [...]

A Good Sound on the Trail

Today, for the first time in almost a year, I heard the sound of running water during my hike in the Calero Hills. Here in dry California that is a special thing!

Young Lakes Information

I just replied to an email from future European visitor to Yosemite who wanted to know a bit about visiting the Young Lakes region in the Yosemite National Park high country, and I thought it might be useful to share the message with others who may want to go there. Here is the text, slightly [...]

Access to Mt. Whitney – a List of Passes

The Mt. Whitney and Eastern Sierra Hiking blog covers almost all things related to hiking/climbing Mt. Whitney. A post (“Mt. Whitney From Horseshoe Meadows“) covers some alternate approaches for those who either can’t or don’t want to use the usual Whitney Portal approach.
I’ve been over almost all of the passes mentioned, including [...]

A Brand New State Park…

… to me anyway. This morning I visited Pacheco State Park at the summit of Pacheco Pass between Los Banos and Gilroy. I’ve driven past here for years on my way to/from the Sierra, Death Valley, Los Angeles, but only turned off the road here briefly once a few years ago. This past week I [...]

Almaden Quicksilver County Park Photographs

&t