Please excuse my little diversion from personal finance stuff. Recently, Anna from Are Ya Gonna Eat That? wrote a nice post about running finding peace. We started chatting about hiking and I promised to post some photos of my adventures. I always try to have a camera with me and love taking pictures. Before we get to that, I wanted to mention how much I enjoy little walks in the woods.
This past week, we’ve been living in a cabin in the mountains while we wait to close on our next home. We’re in the shadow of Long’s Peak in the middle of nowhere and it’s fantastic! Every day after work, I go walking for a couple hours. I never have a destination in mind. I just start walking and see where it takes me. I get to think about stuff and clear my head. It’s like hitting the reset button on the brain.
Yosemite
Yosemite National Park is my favorite place on earth. Go there in the spring and you’ll see water tumbling down massive walls of granite. It is spectacular!
My favorite hike at Yosemite of all time is the Mist Trail that leads up to Half Dome. It’s a strenuous one that clocks in at 16 miles round trip with 4800′ of elevation gain. The first part of the trail follows a river where you’ll walk next to several spectacular waterfalls fed from the snowmelt. Prepare to get soaked from the mist. You then go around the back of Half Dome. Finally, you climb Half Dome itself, using a set of cables fastened to the granite for the final ascent. The climb is as steep as 45 degrees, so hold on tight. I don’t like heights and this last part is terrifying, but that hasn’t stopped me from doing it twice. If you’re a hiker, I highly suggest you put this one on your bucket list. Just don’t let go of those cables!
Mt. Whitney
Mt. Whitney, at 14,496′, is the tallest peak in the continental US. Coming in at 22 miles round trip with 6100′ of elevation gain, this hike is a real leg burner. It took two attempts to make it. The first time, we started at 8am (much too late), so had to turn back before the summit. The second time, we started off at 4am, summited at noon and were back at the bottom at 6pm. My knees yelled at me for a solid week.
Quandary Peak
This is one in my backyard. It’s not nearly as brutal as Half Dome or Whitney, but makes for a nice little hike when you make it out to Colorado.
The last time I did this one, I really pushed myself and made it up pretty quickly. I wasn’t running, but walked pretty fast and didn’t take any breaks longer than a couple minutes. On the way down, I spot a guy who looked like he was about 70 RUNNING up the trail. I am nothing.
What are your favorite adventures? What places inspire you? Please fill me in and maybe we’ll hike together some day.
Wow, I love all of your pictures. Very pretty and makes me want to go hiking right now!
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Glad you took us on a detour! I enjoyed your pictures 🙂
Wow, beautiful pictures! I definitely need to add a Yosemite camping and hiking trip to the bucket list. Fortunately, I’m also blessed with many great nearby hiking spots in the Pacific Northwest.
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Yep, your neck of the woods is awesome. I’ve always wanted to to Rainer and St. Helens.
Yosemite is just great though. Make it down in June or early July to see the water at full force.
I can hardly dream up a better way to spend our time than hiking, except for perhaps running the slide show of our photos later that night with a few pints!!! Great pics and highly entertaining read!!!
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Right on! Perfect day is a big hike during the day and pints at night, preferably an IPA for me at least.
I’m in! IPAs and all. Wow, Mr. 1500. These photos make me want to dive through my window and go running out to find the nearest peak. Wait, I live in Houston. Better get a flight.
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Texas has some great hikes too! I loved the Hill Country. Enchanted Rock State Park is pretty awesome, so just drive a bit west! Well, maybe a lot west; Texas is big!
We camped and hiked a lot when I was a kid. So many of your pictures reminded me of those trips. Great memories…makes me want to do some more!
Loved the diversion 🙂
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I’ve always thought that it would be awesome to be a kid in California. Maybe I’ve seen too many movies, but all I think about is skateboarding, surfing and the beach!
Oh man, that Whitney hike was killer. We actually would have been down a couple hours fast, but my knees were in terrible pain. Going up is the easy part for me. I’ve since fixed the problem by wearing those band things on my knees and using hiking poles.
YOU MUST go to Yosemite! Remember that you need a permit for the Half Dome cables now. They are a pain to get, so plan ahead. Also, you should stay in the park at least the night before the hike. It is also a super pain to get accommodations. You can book a year out and I highly suggest doing so.
Whoah, I can’t imagine hiking in knee deep snow. Arrrrgh!
Living in New Mexico we have tons of hiking available. We like hiking with our two dogs who just love to get out there. Our goal for this summer is to get all the way up to the summit of Wheeler Peak which is 13,167 feet!
Great post. Loved the shot of the cables climb!
My favorite climb was Mt Fuji, Japan. Started in the late afternoon, climbed through out the night except for a few hours sleep in a bizarre cabin and reached the top as the sun was breaking. We were above the clouds and it was a magnificent sight. Coming down was fun since it is a volcano there is a lava slide where you literally jump and slide on your feet all the way down…..several hours…. Your calves will bark for a day after that. I misplaced my photos but hope to retrieve them soon.
Trivia…height of Mt Fuji (at least this is what they told us). The number of months in a year and the number of days in a year….thus 12,365 feet.
Wiki is saying 12,388… It must have grown since 1972!
http://climbing.about.com/od/mountainclimbing/a/MtFujiFacts.htm
Have you ever Hiked Blue Lake? It’s amazing!!! Now, is a great time to do it. It’s outside of Nederland.
No, but I’ve added it to my list! Thank you for the suggestion!
Also add Hanging Lake if you haven’t done it yet! It’s gorgeous. After the hike you can go to Glenwood Springs and soak in the hot springs.
Thanks again Michelle! We’ll talk hiking at the next Denver meetup too.
Wow what a gorgeous place. I have to admit when I first saw the lion sign I read it as “moderate lion activity” not “Mountain lion activity” and I was like “moderate lion activity, how is that different than actual lion activity, lion activity is lion activity” lol.
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Yeah!
If a lion decides I’m dinner and goes after me, maybe the attack would only be moderate? 🙂
I was a little freaked out by the sign, so I talked to a bunch of other hikers. They all said lion attacks are extremely rare. I also talked to park rangers at Rocky Mountain National Park who stated that an adult can usually scare a lion off. Bears on the other hand…
Love the pictures, especially of the mountain goat! I used to hike a decent amount before I moved to Florida (we measure elevation in inches around here…), and your picture reminds me of a time when I was hiking with a school group in Germany in high school and one of the German chaperones started calling me a “Kleine Ziege” but no one would tell me what it meant. I knew I was being called small, but wasn’t sure about the other part so had to look it up when I went home for the night. Turns out, he spent the whole day calling me “Little Goat”. =)
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“Little Goat!”
Now that sounds like a compliment if I ever heard one.
“…measure elevation in inches”
For me, I really like living near water or mountains. They are both pretty awesome. If I could live in place where I could hear the waves crashing, I’d never have an issue falling asleep.
We’re actually thinking about real estate in your neck of the woods. It probably won’t be for a while (wish it would have been 2008 or 2009), but it’s fun to think about.
Wow! Amazing pictures! Haven’t hiked these three but they’re on the list now.
We recently were in eastern Canada and hiked Gros Morne, what an amazing way to spend a day! For more adventurous people there is the LRT, but that’s way past my level of expertise.
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I just took a look at Gros Morne and that looks awesome! My Canadian adventures have been confined to BC which is absolutely spectacular. Someday soon, I plan to explore the rest.
Love the pictures! Especially the awesome Yosemite pictures. My nice camera was stolen just before we got to Yosemite earlier this year. The pictures I took with the iPad could not capture the majesty of Yosemite. This post is getting me excited for our family vacation to South Dakota and Wyoming. Just a few more weeks!
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I hiked Quandary about 3 years ago when I first moved to Colorado… and we saw mountain goats on the trail that day too! Haha!
The best hike I ever did was in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison… we got a permit to backpack there. It was pretty awesome!
Man or Mr 1500, thanks for posting this! 🙂 Being an Aussie, haven’t had the chance to do any hiking in the US yet, however we’ve done the Inca Trail (in Peru), Everest Base Camp & the Kokoda Trail (in Papua New Guinea)..
I’d be keen to check these out & who know’s we may even cross paths 🙂
Love the blog btw & am gradually making my way through it all
Cheers!
Everest Base Camp? Holy cow, that is all sorts of awesome.
When you make it to the states, go to Yosemite. Beautiful. The Na Pali Coast in Hawaii is spectacular as well.
Thanks for the kind comments!
Yeah man! I’m keen to head back although hearing about the 2 Aussies that ran into trouble makes you question whether you should
Appreciate your suggestions there, I’ll pop those on the bucket list 🙂
Cheers!