David wanted to do a fall backpack. But his first choice of Sawtooths was rejected because of a fire. Hemingway-Boulders traverse—an interest for several years—was selected as plan B. In 1988 we did an overnight backpacking trip to Amber Lake … Read More
It happened on the third day of a three-week trip in the High Uinta Wilderness in northern Utah. I was coming down Red Knob Pass—the second, steep thousand-foot descent of the day. The first was a skittery scramble on washed-out … Read More
Avoiding crowds in popular areas is always a challenge; and California’s iconic High Sierra mountains have always drawn people. First, they are only hours from the heavily populated California coastal cities. Second, their iconic splendor graces many scenic calendars. And … Read More
We expected to get wet in the Cranberry Wilderness, a series of ridges (with red spruce forest on the highest elevations) punctuated by two rivers and many creeks in southeastern West Virginia. Most of our spring and summer trips in … Read More
On our first visit to the High Uintas in summer 1975, we covered about 78 miles in five days, enjoying mellow trails. Long, leisurely approaches up bright green meadows; winding switchbacks over high passes; smelling damp earth and seeing stately … Read More
I have vague memories of a 1975 overnight trip with University of Arizona friends to the Sierra Ancha Wilderness in central Arizona: a long drive on backroads, short hike through a clearing marked by “Sierra Ancha Experimental Forest” sign, a … Read More
Last month we celebrated my birthday with a backpack trip in Saguaro Wilderness east of Tucson—perhaps my 14th visit since 1970s hikes with the University of Arizona Ramblers. The area—astride the Rincon Mountains that roll up from 2,700 feet at … Read More
The roar of the jet boat reverberated against the canyon walls. We stood on a gravel spit, watching our transport disappear up the river. We backtracked to Granite Creek to drop our packs, hike up the canyon a couple miles, … Read More
The wind howled fierce and cold across Baptie Lake, at 10,000 feet our highest and coldest campsite on a nine-day loop in the Pioneer Mountains (Pioneers). All day we’d hiked through early winter in September. Chased out of Moose Lake … Read More
Three signs—two on the outskirts of Jarbidge, Nevada and one near our trailhead for a weeklong wilderness trip—illustrate the infamy of disputed but rarely visited Jarbidge Wilderness. Ironically, the 113,000-acre wilderness we traversed for a week was a world apart … Read More
We try to stick with public lands on our hikes; private land often spells trouble. In the 1980s, a week-long backpacking trip on national forest land in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains ended abruptly at a landowner fence. On a 1990s … Read More
It took three tries over three years, but we finally made it. Our weeklong journey across public and private land in the Pioneer Mountain area (Pioneers) provided nearly exclusive access to vast fields of flowers, high grasses and sagebrush, lofty … Read More
Last May 2019, I posted Wildlife management: predators and prey in the Phoenix suburbs, where my sister and her neighbors shared misadventures of a mallard duck and her family. The female had grown up in my sister’s yard (nice duck … Read More
Confusion about water dominated our 2020 return trip to Dark Canyon Wilderness—and led to other problems on what we thought would be a fairly easy canyon hike. Our first visit was in April 1985. The access road that crosses near … Read More
We had planned to revisit the Aldo Leopold Wilderness in southern New Mexico for years. Our first trip in late May 1982 whisked through the area on a loop encompassing part of the Black Range (on a short segment of … Read More
In 1980, Congress took 200,000 acres out of the 55-year-old Gila Wilderness and named it the Aldo Leopold to honor its namesake. Conservationist Aldo Leopold spent his early career years with the Forest Service in New Mexico and persuaded the … Read More
We emerged from Four Peaks scratched, beaten and sporting minor injuries. My left knee—whiny under any circumstances—started to “pop” as I clambered up steep slopes through heavy brush in Alder Canyon. David, who clipped back manzanita and thorny ceanothus branches … Read More
Two days into Four Peaks Wilderness, we had to accept defeat. Our plans to loop the well-known peaks visible from Scottsdale, Arizona, were foiled by postfire vegetative regrowth, unreliable information, and neglect. The trip started at the Arizona Trail (AZT) … Read More
Year 2020: unprecedented. Unpredictable weather continues. Phoenix, our winter home, missed its monsoon rains last summer but got them in fall and winter with cool temperatures. In late January we returned to Idaho for skiing. One small snowstorm and no … Read More
Nano warned me to stay out of the Superstition Mountains. As we traveled along Highway 60 toward Miami, she pointed out the red-walled mountains along our route. Having lived 50 years in this small Arizona mining burg, my grandmother was … Read More
We started this venture in 2012 by visiting all wilderness in Virginia where we lived at the time. We then sought to revisit wilderness areas in the West we had visited before to observe natural history, use and management over … Read More
Alone in wilderness quiet, we broke camp and started a few miles cross-country—over a hill, into a wash, and over another ridge into upper Red Raven Wash while skirting overhanging mesquite trees. A hawk dived down—maybe hunting a jackrabbit, the … Read More
Steward Quit Job to Save Trails in Nation’s Oldest Wilderness Six weeks backpacking in the Gila Wilderness in 2000 sealed a long-term commitment. Melissa Green found a life purpose in the Gila, an extensive area of mountains, canyons, rolling ponderosa … Read More
It started in Virginia. And it led to revisiting favorite places across the country and rediscovering our own need for wilderness. A plan to visit all the wilderness in Virginia—and write a book about our adventures—was born in summer 2012. … Read More
I recently made my 10th visit to the Gila Wilderness in southwestern New Mexico—the nation’s oldest wilderness lying along a vast ridge and valley landscape with forests of ponderosa pine and oak-pinyon-juniper on ridges above Middle and West forks of … Read More
My WildernessNeed blog has been selected by Feedspot, an international marketing/promotion company, as one of Top 30 Wilderness Blogs in the world on the Internet. This Top 30 is an eclectic collection of adventure travel, advocacy, therapy and personal views … Read More
During college days in the late 1970s, I backpacked 11 days in the Gila Wilderness in southwest New Mexico in early May: strolling mellow trails through big ponderosa pine stands, glimpsing elk on the edges of verdant parks, crossing the … Read More
As an avid hiker I’m saddened by loss of legacy trails, especially on National Forests. The U.S. is blessed with a vast trails system on public lands. Some were early Indian and trapper routes; others built for mining, grazing and … Read More
The first surprise came after we crawled over a precarious pass above Bighorn Basin: down at Walker Lake, midweek campers occupied every lake site. Entering the weekend we met dozens of backpackers in or en route to lake basins in … Read More
Thru-hiking seems on the rise. Some even do a “triple crown”—Appalachian (AT), Continental Divide and Pacific Crest (PCT) Trails for a total 7,750-miles. I love trails. The idea of the 2000-mile trail AT intrigues me. I longed to do it … Read More