Anza Borrego Desert State Park
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With the forecast calling for rain, we headed to the desert to stay dry. And what place is better than Anza Borrego, the largest state park in the lower 48. It's a large and varied park which includes slot canyons, vehicle recreational areas and lot of hiking trails. We didn't stay dry but still had a great time. I'll defitiely be back, but the for the meantime, you can read our full adventure here.

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Zion National Park
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Attempting to mix it up a bit, we head off into the desert for four days to experience Zion National Park. The trip caught our attention when we read about the Subway and canyoneering. That represented something new that we just couldn't resist. Check out the complete story here.

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Yosemite National Park (Second Trip)
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The trip we've been looking forward to for nearly a year, Dale, Thomas and I set off to see as much of Yosemite as we could. We ended up doing 50+ miles and 11,000 vertical feet over 5 days (basically everything you see in the picture above. We encountered bears, rattlesnakes, deer, conquered Half Dome and Cloud's Rest, and battled mosquitoes. Truly an epic adventure to remember. A (very) detailed account can be found here.

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Switzer Falls (Angeles National Forest)
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Trying to get a jump on the Fourth of July crowds, Casey and I left LA Friday morning and headed to Switzer Falls. A short hike gets you to the falls where you can jump into a small, cool pool. This is a popular attraction that can draw a crowd. Check out the entire story here.

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San Gorgonio Wilderness (San Bernardino National Forest)
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After considering a trip to Joshua Tree (and carrying in our water), we instead decided to head for the mountains. I've been eyeing San Gorgonio for quite a while, so I decided it was a good time to check it out. We managed to cover 15 miles and 4000 vertical feet in less than a day, and we were rewarded with breathtaking views from one of the many peaks in the San Gorgonio wilderness. Check out the gory details here.

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Yosemite National Park
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A spur of the moment trip allowed me to see one of the greatest parks at an optimal time. Mike and I set off for an easy camping trip, but we ended up at the top of Yosemite Falls (2500 vertical feet later). The waterfalls were in full effect and I did my best to take as many pictures as possible. Read about our adventures here.

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Bridge to Nowhere (Angeles National Forest)
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The original spot we wanted to camp was covered with snow, so we scrambled to find a new spot. Unfortunately, we realized this was a popular location once we saw the hundreds of cars parked by the trailhead. It took getting off the main trail and braving the river to finally get away from the people, trash, and graffiti. Check out the full story here.

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Mount San Jacinto State Park
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Staying close to LA, this trip included first timers Stephen and Casey.  The trip started slow with unremarkable trails and tons of people, but quickly evolved into a scenic trip that included a large monolith called Suicide Rock, more snow than we were prepared to deal with, and several opportunities to get lost.  View the full trip details here.

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Sespe Wilderness (Los Padres National Forest)
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Needing to get away from it all, I identified a couple of potential camping spots near LA.  I finally settled on Sespe since it had less vertical change and warmer temperatures than some of the other local wilderness areas.  My buddy Mike and I set out for a two night trip that involved seeing non-existent mountain lions, getting lost in the Piedra Blancas, hiking through desert and snow, and battling boy scouts for campground space.  For the full trip details, click here.

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Lost Maples State Natural Area (Second Trip)
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Another trip to Texas, we were torn on where to go.  Enchanted rock is too small, Inks Lake is too small, Sam Houston is too flat.  Oh the dilemmas.  We decided that we would instead revisit one of our favorite parks, Lost Maples.  For this trip, we had a newcomer with us, Thomas Loupe, but he showed he wasn't wet behind the ears.  The full trip details are available here.

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Lake Georgetown
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We planned a two night trip to Lake Georgetown, which is a park maintained by the US Army Corps of Engineers and located about 20 miles north of Austin.  It consists of the 26 mile Goodwater Trail that surrounds the lake and has primitive campsites scattered throughout. Based on other people's reviews, we decided to camp at the Sawyer campsite, 6.5 miles from the Cedar Breaks Trailhead.  For the full trip details, click here.

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Sequoia National Park
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Sequoia was our first trip outside of Texas.  This four day, 25 mile and 10,000 vertical foot hike proved to be more challenging than expected. As a summary of the trip, most of our trails seemed to be up hill, Dale fell in a creek, threw up and then decided to walk through another creek to make himself more sick.  We encountered more deer than people and the deer were less scared.  I've posted the full trip details here.

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Big Bend National Park
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Big Bend is one of the least visited national parks in the US yet it's surprisingly diverse in terms of plants, animals and geology.  The elevation ranges from 1800 feet down by the Rio Grande all the way up to 7825 feet atop Emory Peak.  Dale and I planned a four night trip to the park just when temperatures were starting to rise and the rain had long since fallen.  For the complete trip report, check it out here.

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Bastrop State Park
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Bastrop State Park is a fairly decent sized park that is located a short drive from Austin.  One of the draws of the park is the 7 mile Lost Pines Trail that runs through the primitive area where you can camp anywhere you desire.  While the elevation change is minimal (165 feet), the tall pine trees and the needle covered forest floor were supposed to make this one night trip interesting.  But it took some equipment failures to provide any sort of excitement.  Click here for the full trip report.

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Lake Somerville State Park
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Lake Somerville is a lesser known Texas park that offers ample amounts of water (with both a lake and large pond) and over 20 miles of trails. It also has the benefit of being close to Austin. Since there was little that we could find out about the park, Dale, Ted and myself decided to give it a try.  Unfortunately, the winter conditions not only made freezing temperatures but also everything in the park was very brown.  The bright spot for the trip was the abundance of wildlife.  For the complete trip details, click here.

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Hill Country State Natural Area
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Hill Country SNA, is a big enough park where it takes a couple of weekends to see the entire thing.  Seeing as we had a great time on the first visit, Dale and I returned to the park with Ted in tow.   We once again had rain and fell prey to the poorly marked trails.  Read the full trip details here.

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Lost Maples State Natural Area
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Lost Maples is one of the most popular parks in central Texas (and for good reason).  While it is best known for the changing leaves in the fall, it proved to be a beautiful park even when the leaves weren't turning colors.  Not only does it offer beautiful scenery and an abundance of water, it also has a variety of challenging trails.  Click here to see the full trip report.

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Pedernales Falls State Park
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Pedernales Falls State Park is best known for the falls it is named after.  It's really more like a 3000 foot marble slide than is it a falls.  However, it can go from fairly dry to raging river in a matter of minutes due to flash floods.  Aside from the falls, they have a nice primitive camping area along with an interesting trail system.  Ted, Dale and I made a two night trip to the park.  Read the full story here. 

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Colorado Bend State Park
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Nestled away in the hills northwest of Austin, Colorado Bend is one of the most underrated parks in Texas.  Not only does it have one of the best stretches of trails in Texas, it also has a 60 foot falls and a cave to top it off.  While the park may not offer a prime primitive camping area, it more than makes up for it with spring fed waterfalls. Read about our quick one night trip here.

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Hill Country State Natural Area
Trip Report | Photo Gallery | Trail Map

Hill Country SNA is a fairly large park but due to it being primitive only, it doesn't get as much traffic as other near-by parks.  As a result, you have a vast amount of wilderness to explore... seemingly alone.  There are several moderate hills that give you a bit of elevation change and some great campsites.  Dale and I made this one night trip in the middle of a thunderstorm.  Read all about it here.

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Some of the trips we plan on making in the next few years:

Yellowstone NP
Glacier NP (Great Northern Traverse)
Rocky Mountain NP (Long's Peak)
Grand Teton NP (Teton Crest Trail)
Denali NP
Grand Canyon NP (Rim to Rim)
Kings Canyon NP (Rae Lakes Loop)
Acadia NP
Ranier NP
Sequoia NP (Mt Whitney via JMT)
Olympic NP
North Cascades NP
Everglades NP
Canyonlands NP
Great Smoky Mountains NP (AT)
Wind River Range