I love it when a plan doesn’t work out. Last week at Stone Mountain was only mildly colorful at 2,300 feet, so this week I surmised the woods would be blazing around 3,500. I woke at an absurdly early hour…
Score another one for the magnetic personality of Stone Mountain: I had just finished a fine loop hike of just under 6 miles on the Blackjack Ridge and Wolf Rock trails. I sat on the grass near the base of…
“What did you guys do for fun when you weren’t working?” I ask the guy. “Any girls we could find!” Hoots and giggles fill the Bathhouse at Hanging Rock State Park, where one Dr. Harley Jolley is just about done…
Driving in the pitch-black predawn and arriving at the trailhead just at daylight starts to take over is the next best thing to camping in the wilderness. (Better, actually, if sleep eludes you in a tent on the ground). The…
Roan High Bluff Overlook must be seen to be believed. Assuming there’s anything to see. The bluff is perched on an outcrop 6200 feet up in the Roan Highlands, one of the most storied locales in the Southern Appalachian Range.…
Glacier National Park in Northern Montana is one of those big-and-wild places that seems the most remote of the national parks in the Lower 48. Rick at Best Hike calls it “arguably the best hiking park in the continental United…
Is there a more spectacular mountain range in North America than the Grand Tetons? I’d have a hard time imagining it. Having seen Yosemite, Zion and the Grand Canyon, I feel like Grand Teton National Park has to be next…
McAfee Knob might well be the most-documented stop along the Appalachian Trail. (Click for the essential turn-by-turn guide at Hiking Upward.com). A rocky slab juts out from a rock face, creating a perfect promontory for snapshots giving the impression you’re…
I combined an excellent Appalachian Trail loop with a pilgrimage to the famed Neels Gap/Mountain Crossings store and hostel last weekend. If you’ve ever gotten a Trail Journals jones, you’ve heard of Mountain Crossings: it’s where the outfitter’s staff patiently…
