My blog about our hike Sunday at Russian Ridge Open Space unexpectedly grew large- just like the hike itself more than doubled in length based on choices we made on the fly- so I've split it into a second blog entry.

I left off in part 1 of our hike at Russian Ridge with us angling up a wide-open hillside just beneath the ridge. After climbing ( Read more... )

North Carolina Travelog #13
Pisgah National Forest - Thu, 21 Sep 2023. 4:45pm

After visiting a bunch of waterfalls on the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge Mountains today, most recently Log Hollow Falls, we drove up to the ridge itself. Here the Blue Ridge Parkway traces along the crest of the mountain for an amazing 469 miles. We will only drive ( Read more... )

North Las Vegas Travelog #15
Desert National Wildlife Refuge - Mon, 19 Feb 2023, 1pm

After our morning scenic drive beneath Mt. Charleston (previous blog in this series) we ate a quick lunch in the northeastern corner of Las Vegas then drove back out to the Desert National Wildlife Refuge (DNWR). At the visitor's center they had a nice display ( Read more... )

Hawaii April Travelog #30
Puakō - Fri, 15 Apr, 2022, 5:30pmWe took it easy around the resort in the morning and the afternoon today in exchange for going out later. Our first plan was to visit Puakō Beach, recommended by semi-local friend, Dave. Then we saw on the map a petroglyphs reserve and decided to visit that first. So the beach would be our ( Read more... )

We made our hike last Sunday a twofer. Not only did we hike through Corte de Madera Open Space to the Tafoni Monolith (aka SKULL ROCK); after that we visited the Methusela Tree. It was right next to where we parked, so in that sense us parking at the "wrong" parking lot to hike to Sku- I mean,Tafoni- wasn't really wrong.


( Read more... )

North Coast Roadtrip travelog #5 
Crescent City, CA - Sun, 28 Mar 2021. 8pm.

We've had a busy day out here on the far northwestern coast of California. But busy in a good way: less driving to places and more doing stuff once there. Today we've taken short hikes to a few waterfalls, walked through old growth forest among huge redwood trees, and ( Read more... )

We've had really nice weather around here the past few days. Not only has it been warm- pleasantly warm, as opposed to scorching hot like it was a few weeks ago- but the skies have cleared up after weeks of heavy smoke from wildfires in the region. We've been able to open our windows and doors to enjoy fresh air again ( Read more... )

Great Basin National Park - Mon, 5 Aug 2019, 3pm

Climbing to the glacier below Wheeler Peak (see previous blog) was an epic hike. After enjoy such amazing views it's easy to fall into a mindset of "Now we go home". But the adventure's not over just because the far end's been reached. There can be a lot of value in stopping to smell the roses on ( Read more... )

It only makes sense that on a plantation you'll see... plants. Well, at Magnolia Plantation outside Charleston, SC, there were none of the rice plants that made the growers wealthy, but there were many other plants we learned a bit about ( Read more... )

Congaree National Park, SC - Wed, 3 Jul 2019, 11:30am

Today we hiked in a swamp. Why? Because it's there. More specifically, because it's there and it's a national park. Visiting all 61 of the national parks is one of our bucket list items. Visiting the newest national park, Indiana Dunes, earlier this week was number 45 for us. Today is 46/61 ( Read more... )