Mount Evans is a high peak in the Front Range and prominent Fourteener (14er) with a 14,271′ elevation summit. Along with several other peaks of the Front Range, Mount Evans dominates the skyline of a hundred miles of the great plains to the east. In March 2022, Clear Creek county approved a state proposal to …
Guanella Pass is a high mountain pass in the Front Range west of Denver. The pass, which has an elevation over 11,660′, hosts a scenic byway that connects I-70 in the north with US highway 285 in the south, and runs near a pumped hydroelectric power plant above Georgetown, CO. Trip Length Overnight Activities Camping, …
The Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve conserves the tallest sand dunes in North America, rising over 750′. Winds bringing exposed sand from receding lakes from the west deposited eroded sediment over a geologic time period of tens of thousands of years, forming 30 square miles of enormous sand dunes, estimated to contain over …
Trip Report: 2022-07 Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, CO Read More »
San Isabel is a little unincorporated community built around Lake Isabel, a old reservoir built in the Wet Mountains during the 1930’s to supply the CF&I Steel Plant in Pueblo, CO. Today the lake is managed by the National Forest service as a recreation area. Trip Length Extended Weekend Trip Activities Hiking, Swimming, Sightseeing, Cabin..ing? …
South Valley Park of Jefferson County, Colorado is a 909 acre county park on the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. It’s known for a couple red rock formations that jut out of the high mountain meadows and scrubland of the park. A short drive from downtown Denver, it’s a very convenient loop to take …
On the face of Green Mountain, a synclinal ridge that separates Fort Valley and Little Fort Valley lies a network of trails maintained by a dedicated volunteer group, running through the Virginia wilderness. Access to this part of the National Forest is a little out of the way and much of what I make use …
Trip Report: 2021-05 George Washington National Forest, Lee District, VA Read More »
Sugarloaf Mountain is a monadnock, an isolated small mountain that rises abruptly from level farmland in Montgomery and Frederick counties in Maryland. It is described to be either an outlier of Catoctin Mountain, or the root remnant of an ancient Appalachian land mass. Privately owned by the Stronghold Corporation, the mountain park is open to …
Meneka Peak is one of the peaks on Green Mountain, a synclinal ridge that separates Fort Valley and Little Fort Valley, frequently called a “valley within a valley” as the entire area lies within the region between the two arms of the Blue Ridge mountains in this part of the Shenandoah Valley. The peak itself …
The Dolly Sods Wilderness in the Monongahela National Forest is located in eastern West Virginia, just north of Seneca Rocks. It hosts a unique biome, well known for its open expanses of sphagnum bogs, heath shrubs, and stunted red spruce on its windswept open-topped mountain meadows. The high altitude draws foliage seekers in early fall, …
Assateague Island National Seashore is operated by your National Parks Service. It offers great opportunities for wildlife and nature lovers, fishermen, and families to enjoy a treasured natural resource. Assateague is renowned for its native wild horses, diminutive in stature as an adaptation to the nutrient sparse brush on this barrier island. This location is …
Trip Report: 2020-06 Assateague Island National Seashore, MD Read More »
