Author's posts
Sep 28 2024
Balconies Cave in Pinnacles National Park
Balconies Cave is one of the most unusual hiking destinations in Pinnacles National Park. Instead of entering a conventional limestone cavern filled with stalactites and stalagmites, visitors scramble beneath enormous volcanic boulders that tumbled into a narrow canyon and became wedged overhead, creating a twisting network of dark passages below. The result is part cave, …
Sep 28 2024
Olympic National Park’s Enchanted Valley
Deep inside Olympic National Park’s Quinault wilderness lies a broad river valley surrounded by steep forested mountains, seasonal waterfalls, old-growth rainforest, wildlife, and one of the park’s most recognizable backcountry landmarks. Enchanted Valley is the kind of place that feels far removed from the roads and visitor centers of the Olympic Peninsula—and reaching it requires …
Sep 28 2024
Best Hikes in Olympic National Park
Olympic National Park is one of the rare places where a single hiking trip can include glacier-covered mountains, moss-draped temperate rainforest, waterfalls, turquoise lakes, alpine meadows, wild Pacific beaches, and river valleys inhabited by Roosevelt elk and black bears. That diversity also means there is no single “best” Olympic hike. The Hall of Mosses is …
Sep 28 2024
Ruby Beach in Olympic National Park: Sea Stacks, Tidepools & Visitor Guide
Ruby Beach is one of the most recognizable stretches of coastline in Olympic National Park. Massive sea stacks rise from the Pacific, enormous driftwood logs collect along the upper beach, rocky tidepools appear as the ocean retreats, and dense coastal forest grows almost to the edge of the sea. Unlike many of Olympic’s wilderness beaches, …
Sep 28 2024
Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park: Hikes, Views & Visitor Guide
Hurricane Ridge is one of the easiest places to experience the high mountains of Olympic National Park without completing a strenuous wilderness hike. A paved road climbs from Port Angeles into subalpine country, where broad meadows open beneath jagged Olympic peaks and hiking trails lead toward panoramic viewpoints, wildflower-covered ridges, and wildlife habitat. On a …
Sep 28 2024
Lake Crescent in Olympic National Park: Hikes, Beaches & Visitor Guide
Lake Crescent is one of Olympic National Park’s most beautiful and accessible destinations, a deep glacial lake surrounded by forested mountains roughly 18 miles west of Port Angeles. Its famously clear blue-green water, historic lodge, old-growth forest, waterfalls, swimming areas, paddling opportunities, and hiking trails make it much more than a scenic stop along Highway …
Sep 28 2024
Hoh Rain Forest in Olympic National Park: Trails, Wildlife & Visitor Guide
The Hoh Rain Forest is one of Olympic National Park’s most unforgettable landscapes, a place where enormous Sitka spruce and western hemlock rise above carpets of ferns while moss hangs from bigleaf maples in long green curtains. Rain, mild temperatures, old-growth trees, and the constantly moving Hoh River combine to create one of the finest …
Sep 28 2024
North Cascades National Park Wildlife: Bears, Mountain Goats, Wolverines & More
North Cascades National Park protects one of the wildest mountain landscapes in the contiguous United States, and its wildlife reflects that ruggedness. Black bears forage in forests and avalanche chutes, mountain goats traverse cliffs that appear almost impossible to climb, hoary marmots whistle from subalpine meadows, and pikas disappear among high-elevation talus slopes. Some of …
Sep 28 2024
Diablo Lake in North Cascades National Park: Overlooks, Hiking & Visitor Guide
Diablo Lake is one of the most recognizable landscapes in the North Cascades, famous for intensely turquoise water surrounded by steep, forested mountains and jagged peaks. The lake lies along Washington’s North Cascades Highway, making it one of the easiest places to experience dramatic mountain scenery within the North Cascades National Park Service Complex without …
Sep 28 2024
Ross Lake in North Cascades National Park: Hiking, Boating, Camping & Visitor Guide
Ross Lake stretches through one of the wildest mountain landscapes in Washington, a long blue-green reservoir surrounded by steep forests, jagged peaks, remote valleys, and miles of backcountry shoreline. Unlike nearby Diablo Lake, which can be admired directly from the North Cascades Highway, Ross Lake requires visitors to make a little more effort. There is …
