This could be the perfect hike for a four-year-old. In fact, it was the perfect hike for three four-year-olds (friends of our four-year-old, Catherine) and our seven-month-old twins. We left Pasadena at 7am on a recent Saturday and were at the 49 Palms Oasis trailhead by 9:30am. This trailhead is accessed from outside the park […]

After a day of acclimatization in Huaraz, we arranged for a taxista (taxi driver) to pick us up at 6:30 am for our first real hike since Machu Picchu. We met an Australian couple at Casa de Zarela and invited them to join us for the hike. We were a bit skeptical the first time […]

Mt San Gorgonio in the San Bernardino Mountains is more than the highest peak in Southern California at 3506 m (11,503 ft)…it is also also the 18th most prominent mountain in the United States. The peak is visible from great distances and nicknamed “Old Greyback.” It has the strange distinction of claiming the lives of […]

What do you think of when you hear “Birmingham, Alabama?” Do you think of the Old South and Steel Industry or do you instead see a city of rolling hills and great restaurants being remade in the model of New South? Birmingham is a surprise for those who haven’t been there. If you look around, […]

The following is a continuation of Hiking the Halemau’u Trail to the Paliku Campsite at Haleakala National Park. One of the best parts of camping is sleeping when the sun sets and waking when it rises. We were awake a little after 5am with the pleasure of enormous slugs crawling on the tent’s screen. It […]

The Halemauu Trail to the Paliku Wilderness Campsite is not a two-day hike for the casual hiker. Fortunately, we’re no casual hikers and were well-prepared for the altitude, wet, cold and 32.8 km (20.4 miles) round trip. We paid our $10 to enter the park for three days, and made our way to the Haleakala National […]

Another weekend and another chance to bag a peak in the San Gabriel Mountains near our home in Pasadena. This is one of the more popular hikes in Los Angeles, as it turns out. San Gabriel Peak was once thought the highest in the area close to Pasadena at 1878 m (6,161 ft) but is […]

With an afternoon to spend near Thousand Oaks, California, we decided to take one of the several trails we found on the National Park Service sites in the Santa Monica Mountains. We chose Cheseboro Canyon over Paramount Ranch based on a recommendation from the Visitors Center. While Paramount Ranch would have been interesting for its […]

We love to find new hikes in Los Angeles, and this time we made a late decision to hike Mount Lowe, a 1,708 m (5,603) peak just north of the more-famous Mount Wilson and stepped onto the Sunset Ridge Trail at 2pm. The sky was ominous but the forecast called for clouds and not rain, […]

We know people who are paid to have an adventurous life, and we’ve interviewed a few like Eric Weihenmayer, Melissa Arnot, and Lee Farmer.  But what about the rest of us…those who have jobs and responsibilities that make it tougher to take the time and cover the expense of all of the things we’d love […]