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August in Alaska (Part 1)

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August in Alaska (Part 1)

Hello Everyone! I am slowly but surely making my way through my Alaska photos. I have one more set to get through which I hope to look at this week. The photos in this post come from another tour I led to Denali and Seward, a personal adventure to Homer and to look for the old Russian Orthodox churches in the Kenai Peninsula and a few others which I took along the way. Meanwhile, I am back in California about to run my last trip of the season. I’ll be heading home to D.C. for a while after that and I will definitely be getting some work done from home. Expect plenty more photos in the near future and then I really hope to be back to blogging and taking photos full-time in early 2025. Thank you for reading and I’ll be back really soon.

-Mike

Mount Redoubt Across Cook Inlet

Hiking in Kenai Fjords National Park

Mountains, Lakes and Glaciers are Everywhere in Alaska!

The Salty Dawg!

The Marina on Homer Spit

Mount Iliamna

Skilak Lake from Bear Mountain

Russian Orthodox Cemetery

Transfiguration of our Lord Russian Orthodox Church

Lighthouse Grill in Homer

Veronica’s Cafe in Kenai

An Old Boat on the Homer Spit

Homer Spit in Kachemak Bay

St. Nicholas Russian Church in Nikolaevsk

Holy Assumption Russian Church Kenai

Dusk at the Salty Dawg

A Beautiful Moose

Lakeside Fireweed

Holgate Glacier in Kenai Fjords

A Beautiful Island in Kenai Fjords National Park

Craggy Mountain Peaks from Denali State Park

I See Denali!

Nagley’s in Talkeetna

Fairview Inn in Talkeetna

Stunning Mountains at Dusk on Resurrection Bay

Across Resurrection Bay

Byron Glacier

An Amazing Sea Arch in Kenai Fjords

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July in Alaska

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July in Alaska

Hello Everyone! It has been a heck of a summer in Alaska, the first I’ve spent in The Last Frontier since the pandemic. I’ve been crazy busy running camping tours so I haven’t had any time to get to these photos at all, but now that I’m back in the Lower 48 I hope to get through them so I can share them with you. This next batch comes from my July tour - an Alaska Wilderness and Wildlife camping adventure which I ran for Exodus Travels. It was really a wonderful trip and I even had an old friend join me who went on tour with me many years ago. We had a nice journey to Denali National Park and had some crystal clear views of the continent’s tallest mountain - something only 30% of visitors to the park get to see at all. From there we headed down to beautiful Seward, one of my favorite little towns in the country. We had a nice boat tour out into Kenai Fjords National Park to spot whales and sea lions, puffins and eagles and so much more. And then we lucked into another clear and sunny day to hike to the Harding Icefields in the inland portion of the park. We rounded out the tour with some rafting on the Kenai River, a little gold panning and a few pleasant if lesser-known hikes in the Cooper Landing area...

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August on the Road

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August on the Road

Hello Everyone! I apologize for how long it’s been since I last wrote, but it’s been a hectic and crazy month out here on the road. Until this past weekend, I had not had a day off in over a month and I’ve covered a lot of ground during that time. I guided four trips in a row which took a lot out of me, but I had great passengers with me and we saw some amazing and beautiful places. I have another solid month of guiding beginning in just a day or two, but I wanted to drop you all a quick ‘hello’ and share some of my favorite photos from this last month on the road.

I started with an old favorite – a six day hiking tour in Yosemite for Intrepid Travel. While I’ve done this trip several times including twice earlier this summer, it’s still nice to spend so much time on the trail and to show people one of my favorite National Parks. The waterfalls were still going strong for August and it was the first time I’d been able to get up to hike Cathedral Lakes in the high country this year. These hikes left everyone pretty tired, but I know every one of those passengers had a great and memorable trip and will remember Yosemite fondly for the rest of their lives.

After bringing that group back to San Francisco, I left the following day for Seattle where I started a six day trip to Portland via Olympic and Mount Rainier National Parks. It had been 20 years since I was last in Olympic and it was really nice to be back in this beautiful and often overlooked park. We did a whale watching tour, explored the Hoh Rainforest and walked by the Pacific Ocean looking out at the beautiful sea stacks of Second Beach. While I used to spend a lot of time at Mount Rainier, that’s another park I haven’t been to since before the pandemic. On our first day there we got some fantastic clear views of the mountain and I’m glad we took advantage of them because our second day was almost entirely shrouded in fog. We still had a nice hike and then headed on to Portland where we visited the International Rose Test Garden (it is the City of Roses after all) and then had a quiet dinner in the park before calling it a trip.

Half of that group stayed on with me for the next six days and a lovely Swedish couple joined us as well. That week brought us from Portland all the way back to San Francisco. We visited Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Gorge, ate smoked salmon with a lovely couple who run an indigenous salmon business on the Warm Springs Reservation, Kayaked in a volcanic crater near Bend, Gazed out over Crater Lake National Park and cruised the California Coast feasting on some fresh oysters. We finished with a walk through Muir Woods and a lovely view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

I got a day to wind down and wind back up again and the very next day I picked up my last group of that run for a fast and furious 15 day tromp through some of America’s best National Parks. We started off with a few days in Yosemite and then had to duck around Death Valley due to the rains from Hurricane Hillary, staying in Tonopah instead. After a quick trip to Cathedral Gorge State Park, we went on to Zion and then had two great days at the North Rim of Grand Canyon. You may remember that the last (and only) time I was at the North Rim, I was recovering from Covid so I didn’t push myself too hard out there. This time I headed deep into the Canyon on the North Kaibab Trail and it was really nice to see the Canyon from a different angle. We headed from there to Monument Valley to spend some time with the Navajo and then had two great nights in Moab visiting Arches National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park. Then we were off to Salt Lake City to learn about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints from the Mormon missionaries at Temple Square. Finally we spent three days in the splendor of Yellowstone before winding up our journey in beautiful Bozeman, Montana.

It was a long but quiet ride back to San Francisco from there, but I did get a few days to catch up on some sleep and a few other things before turning north again to Seattle where I am writing to you from today. Tomorrow I will meet another group and we will be headed east from here to Glacier National Park, my favorite place in the whole world. Then we’ll have some nice days in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons before winding up in Salt Lake City. I’ll get a day to myself there and then turn around and do the same trip in reverse bringing me back to Seattle in the first week of October. It’s going to be cold in the Rockies by then, but it should be quiet and beautiful as well and I’m really looking forward to it.

I don’t think I’m going to get much of a chance to do anything here on my blog over the next month, but I’ll check back in with you when these two trips are done in October. The summer sure flew by this year, but time flies when you’re having fun. I hope you’ve all had a great summer out there, wherever you are and that you’re looking forward to cooler days ahead. Thank you, as always, for reading and I hope you enjoy this little sampling of photos of some of the spectacular places I’ve been this summer.

-Mike

(Click the link to see my favorite photos from this month)

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July on the Road

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July on the Road

Hello Everyone,

I’m coming into the busiest part of my summer tour season, but wanted to drop a quick hello to let you all know that I haven’t forgotten you. I’ve just finished a hot couple of weeks out in the Desert Southwest, but it was also a really good tour. I’ve had a few days here in San Francisco since that trip ended, but I’ve been busily preparing for the next month which won’t have any days off for me at all. I’m ready for it and I’m looking forward to it, but it hasn’t left much time for anything else. But before I depart on my next trip tomorrow morning, I thought I’d send you all a quick update and a few photos from my last trip.

I wrote to you last from L.A. as I was getting ready to pick up the trip I just finished. I met 6 wonderful people the following day, all of whom were really excited to be out on tour. The trip was exclusively for passengers under 30, so you can imagine that I probably wasn’t who they expected walking through the door. Nevertheless, they gave me a chance and I know that by the end they had all had such a wonderful experience and were very grateful for the work I put into it. They thanked me a lot which may or may not surprise you is a rarity in my line of work. I know that my passengers feel thankful but they aren’t always the best at expressing it.

Our trip left L.A. bright and early the following morning and took us out to Joshua Tree National Park where we had lunch in the shade in the back corner of Hidden Valley. We did the one mile Hidden Valley Loop Trail which was probably enough hiking in the midday sun at 118°. We made a few other photo stops and spent some time at Skull Rock before beating feat out to Lake Havasu City which was just as hot. After a quick stop at the London Bridge, we went down to the lake for a swim and a barbecue dinner as the sun set in the desert heat. It had been a really good day and we were all thankful to be in a hotel instead of a tent that night.

The following day took us out to Grand Canyon with a stop along Route 66 in Seligman. We spent some time at the Canyon during the day and returned later for sunset which was fantastic as always. The sun wasn’t gone for long though and we were up to see it return the following morning at 5am. My group split in two for the day as half of them went towards Plateau Point on the Bright Angel Trail and the other half headed for Skeleton Point on the South Kaibab Trail. Everyone enjoyed their hike and they were all grateful for the early start.

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These Weeks on the Road - June 25th - July 12th

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These Weeks on the Road - June 25th - July 12th

Hello Everyone! It’s been a busy two weeks in Yosemite National Park, but a really good two weeks as well. Since I last wrote, I ran back-to-back 6 day hiking tours in the park with only a day in between, but both groups were really good and I definitely enjoyed my time with them. The weather was actually pretty cool for the first week but heated up considerably for the second. Of course the 4th of July has also come and gone and I can think of few better places to celebrate America than in our beautiful National Park System. There were no fireworks in the park or in the entire county since it’s mostly very dry forest, but we made up for that with stunning views from the newly reopened Glacier Point Road. I’ve been back in San Francisco for a few days of relaxing and planning and now I’m off to L.A. to run a 10 day trip which will take us to Joshua Tree National Park, Lake Havasu, Grand Canyon, Vegas and Yosemite, dropping us back in S.F. at the end of the month.

I’m always quite fascinated that I can run the exact same tour back-to-back and it is an entirely different trip. Different groups with different abilities and interests coupled with openings and closings in the park and a holiday weekend thrown in to boot and these last two trips only loosely resembled one another. Both were great though and I’m really happy I had the opportunity to run them both especially since one was a last second switch in my schedule. I had tweaked my knee a little bit on my last trip to the desert and have been really careful with it on these hiking-focused trips but I’m happy that it is healing well and will hopefully be back to 100% soon.

We set out on the first of the two trips on June 25th. After a nice lunch at the Iron Door Saloon in Groveland (California’s oldest saloon), we had a nice hike in the Tuolomne Grove of Giant Sequoias just inside the park entrance. These beautiful trees are the largest things by volume that have ever lived on the face of the earth. They start out as a tiny seed inside an egg-sized pine cone and can live for over 3,000 years under the right conditions. They are immense and majestic and always a sight to see. From there we dropped down into Yosemite Valley, made a photo stop up at magnificent Tunnel View, hiked to the base of Bridal Veil Falls and then made our way out to our hotel in El Portal, just outside of the park for the night.

We were up early the next morning to hike the Mist Trail past beautiful Vernal and Nevada Falls. A relatively cool June has kept the snow from melting too fast in the mountains so all of the waterfalls in the park are still going strong which is great for both the park and the state of California. As the name implies, the Mist Trail can get quite misty and it definitely was while we were out there. The trail takes you up a number of granite steps and past Vernal Falls for incredible views and a sizable soaking. We spent some time drying out on the top of the falls and then most of the group continued up to the top of beautiful Nevada Falls for lunch. After a nice long break we took our time coming back down from the waterfalls and stopped for a well-earned ice cream break at the bottom.

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In Focus: Joshua Tree National Park

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In Focus: Joshua Tree National Park

I absolutely love Joshua Trees. Much like the Saguaros are iconic to the Sonoran Desert, the Joshua Trees are iconic symbols of the Mojave Desert and it’s too easy to imagine human characteristics in both. Every time I pull into an area with Joshua Trees it makes me smile and feel happy. Interestingly, Joshua Trees aren’t really trees at all, but rather a tree-like member of the yucca family. They may have been given their name by early Mormon pioneers who thought they resembled the Biblical Joshua with his arms raised.

It is believed that people have been living in the region of Joshua Tree National Park for 10,000 years. The first people of European descent who laid eyes on the area were with Spaniard Pedro Fages who was pursuing Native Americans who had “escaped” the mission in San Diego. After the Mexican-American War, American settlers started moving in, building ranches and doing some small-scale mining. Franklin Roosevelt protected the area as Joshua Tree National Monument in 1936 and it became a National Park in 1994. The park covers 1,242 square miles - slightly larger than the state of Rhode Island.

I’ve visited Joshua Tree National Park several times before, but always in the middle of summer when it was boiling hot out. We might get out and take some photos, but long hikes were pretty much out of the question. I was really happy to get there this past spring when it was cool and pleasant and I could get out on the trails. I hiked the Short Loop Trail from Black Rock Campground, Ryan Mountain, and the Lost Horse Mine Loop among others and they were all fantastic. Joshua Tree National Park is a special place and while it doesn’t get the hype of our other western National Parks, it’s definitely worth a visit. I can’t wait to return. I hope you enjoy these photos from beautiful Joshua Tree National Park.

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This Week on the Road - June 11th-23rd

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This Week on the Road - June 11th-23rd

Hello Everyone!

I hope your summer is starting out as great as mine is. The summer solstice is upon us and I’m trying to make the most of the long days. This week I’ve been guiding a trip for two wonderful ladies from San Francisco to Las Vegas via Yosemite, Death Valley, Zion, Bryce, Monument Valley and Grand Canyon. While I definitely prefer guiding a larger group, the three of us have clicked well and have been having a good time out here. We’ve had some windy days, but they’ve also been sunny and bright and of course these parks are truly magical places to spend time.

We left San Francisco early Monday morning and made a beeline for Yosemite. I was happy that route 120 was open again after being closed due to road damage on the final decent into the valley. That closure caused me to detour around to the 140 on my last two trips, which added about an hour to the drive and threw my regular route, landmarks and commentary out the window. It was nice to do things a little differently for a change, but I was happy to fall into my familiar groove on that drive this week. Unfortunately by the time we were dropping into the valley in the afternoon, it had clouded up and there was some rain falling. This should be quite normal for this time of year, but after 20 years of drought it doesn’t feel normal. El Capitan was in the clouds and Half Dome wasn’t even visible. Thankfully the waterfalls were going strong and we stopped at a couple of viewpoints to check them out. The rain slowed to a drizzle and we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the old Ahwaneeche village behind the visitor center and visiting Galen Clark’s grave in the old cemetery. Clark came to the valley in 1851 after being diagnosed with consumption (tuberculosis) and having been given just a few months to live. He fell in love with Yosemite and decided to dedicate the rest of his life to preserving it. That life was supposed to be short, so he dug his own grave and planted Giant Sequoia saplings around it. He ended up living another 54 years but was eventually buried in the grave he dug for himself. After I told that story and we paid our respects, we headed to our hotel out in El Portal for the night.

We returned to the valley on Tuesday morning under blue skies and sunshine. Linda wasn’t convinced her knee would hold up on long ascents or descents, so we stayed on the valley floor for the day. We went out to Mirror Lake in the morning which was as full as I’ve ever seen it (it turns into Mirror Meadow pretty early in the summer most years). Then we wandered back to the Ahwanee, Yosemite’s classic park lodge. We had lunch in the Great Room and a nice chat about the afternoon. From there we made our way out to Lower Yosemite Falls which is still raging pretty hard right now and putting out plenty of spray. It’s awesome to spend some time there and the ladies really enjoyed it. Then we headed back to Yosemite Village for a coffee and then back to our hotel for the night.

Wednesday was kind of a quiet day. We chose a late start and then made our way down to the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias. The shuttle is finally running again, cutting out the 4 mile roundtrip hike to the grove from the parking lot. We enjoyed our visit to the big trees and then spent some time in historic Wawona, checking out some of the cool old buildings from Yosemite’s past. In the afternoon we returned to the valley for a quick coffee and then made our way back to the hotel. I’d been eating salads for a few days so I decided to grab a pizza which was nice. My knee was giving me some trouble too so I was grateful to be able to ice it and rest for the night.

Since the Tioga Pass over the Sierras is still under many feet of snow and likely won’t open until August, I had to make the long drive around the mountains to get to Death Valley on Thursday. Not only is this route far less scenic, but it also adds 2-3 hours to the drive. It wasn’t a fun or beautiful drive except at the very beginning or the very end, but we got there. I haven’t been to Death Valley in years, and we were greeted with a cool 107° when we arrived…

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Two Weeks on the Road with Austin College

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Two Weeks on the Road with Austin College

Hello Everyone!

It’s been a great couple of weeks out here on the road. I spent two weeks guiding a tour for Austin College, a small university based in Sherman, Texas (far from Austin, Texas – the school is named for Texas hero Stephen Austin). The tour was for a class on environmental concerns in our National Parks, a topic quite near and dear to my heart. It consisted of 10 students and their professor and took us from the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the desert. I really enjoyed these young people and I got along really well with the professor, Dr. Baker, as well.

I met the group two weeks ago on a Tuesday night here in San Francisco. They invited me to join them for dinner at House of Nanking in Chinatown which is a pretty cool place to eat as a group and we all enjoyed quite a feast. It was interesting to hear what the students were studying and what their specific area of interest was for this particular class. Their topics ranged from birds to flash floods to water conservation and all of them were really important to our western parks.

We spent the next three nights in Yosemite, hiking and meeting with the rangers to discuss the park’s key issues. There was still a lot of water in the valley and it was great to see everything so wet and green. On our first full day we hiked up the Mist Trail to Vernal and Nevada Falls and there was a ton of water coming over those waterfalls. Everyone got absolutely soaked, but thankfully it was a sunny day and we dried out quickly. The last time I did that hike was last November when those waterfalls were barely a trickle and the trail was completely dry. The next day we went out and hiked to the Giant Sequoias in the Mariposa Grove in the south of the park and it’s always awesome to see these massive 2-3,000 year old giants. In our meetings with the rangers and staff, we discussed fire management and bear conservation and the conversation was quite interesting. Leaving the park we headed south and around the mountains and ended up in Barstow for the night. We did some serious grocery shopping and then enjoyed a nice dinner at Peggy Sue’s 1950s Diner just outside of town. That night we had our first group discussion and I really enjoyed hearing the student’s opinions about Yosemite and what they had seen and heard over the previous few days.

We left Barstow early the next day as we had a pretty long drive to Grand Canyon that day. We stopped in Seligman to get our kicks on Route 66 and then headed on to the South Rim…

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In Focus: Channel Islands National Park

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In Focus: Channel Islands National Park

The Channel Islands are an eight island archipelago off the coast of Southern California and five of these islands make up Channel Islands National Park. The waters surrounding these islands are also protected as a National Marine Sanctuary. The Channel Islands were created by tectonic forces 5 million years ago and have always been islands, although they were closer to the mainland during the last ice age when the sea levels were lower. Because of their isolation, the islands are home to several endemic species of plants and animals meaning those found nowhere else on Earth.

People have inhabited these islands for a very long time. In fact the oldest human remains ever found in North America, dating back 13,000 years, were discovered on Santa Barbara Island in 1959. In more recent times, the northern islands were home to different bands of the Chumash people while the southern islands were inhabited by the Tongva. Juan Cabrillo observed the islands on his 1542 voyage up the coast and in more modern times the islands were used to raise sheep and cattle. They were protected as a National Park in 1980.

I was unfortunately only able to visit one of the islands in Channel Islands National Park during my stay, but Santa Cruz is the biggest and most accessible and made for a wonderful visit. I stayed in the campground at Scorpion Ranch for three nights and was able to hike to Cavern Point, Smuggler’s Cove, Potato Harbor and the incredible Montañon Ridge. For the last two days I was on the island, there were only 19 other people there which made for a peaceful and incredible stay. It was hard to believe that we were only an hour car ride and an hour ferry ride from the second largest city in the country, but it sure was nice to be there. I can’t wait to go back again. I hope you enjoy these photos from Channel Islands National Park.

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This Week on the Road - March 22nd-29th

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This Week on the Road - March 22nd-29th

Hello Everyone,

It’s been another busy week here in Southern California. I spent half of the week out on Santa Cruz Island in Channel Islands National Park which was an absolutely wonderful experience. When I returned to the mainland, I made my way south to Los Angeles and have been here since, catching up with old friends and visiting some old haunts and some new places as well. I haven’t traveled far this week, so this probably won’t be a particularly long post, but it’s been nice to get some hiking in and the sun is finally shining again.

Last Wednesday, I packed up my backpack and hopped on The Islander in Ventura for the one our crossing to Scorpion Ranch on Santa Cruz Island. The water was rough, but it wasn’t too bad and thankfully it wasn’t a long voyage. When we arrived, we met briefly with the ranger and then headed off to set up camp. It had been raining all night and most of the morning, but the sun was out and it’s always easier to set up a tent in the sun than in the rain. The campground was pretty soggy and we had been warned about branches falling from the eucalyptus trees, so choosing a good spot to set up was essential. After getting my tent up and ready, I decided to use whatever sunshine was left to hike up to the Potato Harbor overlook. This was only about a 4 mile round-trip hike, but it was really muddy on the trail. The mud had a high clay content too, so it stuck to my shoes and it caked on so thick that it looked like I was wearing snowshoes. I made it to the overlook which was absolutely stunning and on the way there I saw several endemic Santa Cruz grey foxes. These foxes have evolved to be much smaller than their mainland cousins, and growing up on an island with no predators, they’re also very friendly. I loved watching them wander around the island and found they made me smile every time I saw them.

After having my lunch at the overlook, I could see the rain coming towards me across the ocean so I started to make my way back to camp. Unfortunately the rain caught up with me before I got there, but worse it turned the clay trail into a slick downhill path. I almost made it back to camp without falling. In fact, I could see the campground from where I fell, but my feet just went out from under me and I landed pretty hard on my shoulder. While I didn’t do any damage and didn’t even get a bruise, it hurt for a few days and I didn’t have any pain killers with me in my pack. I wasn’t happy about it, but it could’ve been worse, too. I headed back to my tent and caught a nap while the rain kept pounding down. It eased up in the evening and hasn’t been back since. That night I ate the first freeze-dried meal I’ve had in many years. When I was a teenager, I spent two summers working at a Boy Scout backpacking camp in Virginia and we ate freeze dried food most of the time. It’s come a long way since I tried it last and I must admit that it was actually pretty tasty. After dinner, the sun went down and there wasn’t much to do so I slipped into my tent and called it an early night…

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In Focus: Pinnacles National Park

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In Focus: Pinnacles National Park

The formations in Pinnacles National Park are thought to come from the western half of the Neenach Volcano which erupted 23 million years ago. Between then and now, this geologic formation is believed to have shifted almost 200 miles north and west thanks to plate tectonics.

This area was originally inhabited by the Ohlone people. Spanish missionaries established a mission at Soledad in 1791, just about 5 miles from the park’s current boundary. When American settlers moved into the area, they referred to the formations as “the Palisades”, and investors once considered putting a resort hotel at their base. The area was first protected as Pinnacles Forest Preserve in 1906 and then as Pinnacles National Monument in 1908. It became a National Park in 2013.

I had a great day in Pinnacles during my visit to the west side of the park. It had been raining for days and it was nice to see some blue sky for a change. I arrived early and was able to park in Bear Gulch, although there is a shuttle to bring people up from the Visitor Center as well. From there I hiked up the Condor Gulch Trail to the High Peaks Trail and then returned on the Bear Gulch Trail to the parking lot. It was a wonderful 6-7 mile loop through the pinnacles and provided great views in every direction.

The highlight of my day was definitely seeing the endangered California Condors which call the park home. I saw no fewer than 6 of them, which would be around 2% of the entire wild population of California Condors in the world. Some came so close I could’ve touched them if I’d have been sitting on your shoulders and I had never seen condors so close before. Watching them in flight is a truly special experience as they are enormous and cover a tremendous area in a short time. They move so quickly that they are tough to photograph, but there is one in the photo directly below. The condors alone were worth the visit, but I had aa awesome hike as well and it was reasonably quiet while I was there. While Pinnacles is one of the lesser known national parks in California, and for good reason, it is still a wonderful place to visit and worth a stop if you are in the area. I hope you enjoy these photos from Pinnacles National Park.

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Snapshots: Grand Canyon's North Rim

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Snapshots: Grand Canyon's North Rim

Hey y’all. I just wanted to share a few of my favorite shots from my time on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I’m doing this as a Snapshots post instead of an In Focus post because I’ll make one for all of Grand Canyon later this summer, but with any luck I will get down to Phantom Ranch between now and then, making it somewhat more complete. But I promised you some Grand Canyon photos before I transitioned to more recent California shots next week, so here you go. Enjoy!!

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