Many years ago I did  a four night trip into the John Muir Wilderness from Wishon Reservoir to Blackcap Basin and back. I thought the area was pretty spectacular high country but with a fair bit of climbing to get there. On the trip, I spent two days getting to Portal Lake and an extra [...]

Arrasta Mountain Wilderness is essentially the big blank space on maps of Western Arizona to the west of Highway 93. Big mountains, some deep canyons, lots of sand, little water and no trails. Lets go. I have been driving past this area for years on my way through Arizona to other hiking locations. It’s about [...]

I had read some articles on Peoples (Peeples) Canyon and read the write up in Exploring Arizona’s Wild Areas and was intrigued. Arizona Highways described the area as ‘one of the wonders of public land in Arizona’. Riparian areas in the desert are always beautiful places to visit and see the stark contrast between the wet and the dry. So I decided to take a Spring trip to this area. Five nights up through the canyon from the South and then looping back with a play-it-as-it-goes route coming back.

Apache Kid Wilderness is located not far from Hwy 25 about 3 hours South of Albuquerque. I had gone to New Mexico to visit friends in Albuquerque and had wanted to do some backpacking while there. Where, I wasn’t sure. It was still high season and I didn’t want to fight the crowds that go [...]

Wonder Mountain wilderness, neatly tucked into a remote section South of the Olympic National Park, is probably only really visited by locals. It’s a bit hard to find via the logging roads that wind around, there is no trailhead as there are no trails that lead into it. But as it was, I was with a local who had been there before and wanted to return for a backpack trip.