We drove out to the Whiskey Dick Wildlife Area east of Ellensburg to hike along the closed roads (the open May 1st) and enjoy the wildflowers in bloom. We hiked 7.5 miles round trip with 750 ft of overall gain. There were lots of lupine in bloom, along with large headed clover, phlox, guldenweed, and balsamroot (mainly Hooker's balsamroot today). Some views along the road: We hiked up to the top of this hill for our turn around point. Views from the top of the hill, to the west zoom of Mt Adams, zoom of Cascade foothills and peaks, zoom of Mt Rainier View to the southeast and the Colu ..read more

This morning I drove out on the Duckabush River Road to the trailhead for the Duckabush River Trail on the east side of Olympic National Forest. I hiked our to Big Hump and back an 8 mile round trip with 1,800 ft of overall gain. The trail enters the Brothers Wilderness about a mile into the hike (on the back side of Little Hump) On of the creek crossings along the trail. There were lots of yellow violets in bloom along the trail. Another creek crossing with  a small waterfall upstream. Views along the Duckabush River:   Lovely forest trail The trail goes up Big Hump in a seri ..read more

This morning we drove up into Prescott National Forest on a windy road through Jerome Arizona and further up to Mingus Pass, to take FR 106 to hike the Woodchute Mountain Trail 102. Overall we hiked about 8.5 miles and 1,100 ft.  We had read that the trail starts by hiking a mile up the road to the trailhead. Later, we realized with the gate open on the forest road we could have driven to the trailhead today. Gate at the beginning of the trail. This trail is a mixture of ridge lines, open slopes and pine forest. Here looking towards Sedona and the San Francisco Peaks to the north. zoom o ..read more

This morning we drove north of Tucson to the Linda Vista Trailhead in the Coronado National Forest. We did the outer loop, 2.6 miles with 450 ft of overall gain. The trail soon enters the Pusch Ridge Wilderness. We hiked the loop in a clockwise direction.  There was both a great abundance and a variety of wildflowers in bloom today. The desert was so colorful! There were lots of cacti including saguaros. bird on top of a saguaro lupine and chicory growing together ocotillo in bloom There were great mountain views all around the loop, and lots of brittle bush in bloom. bright orange ..read more

This afternoon we drove to Rock Hound State Park is southern New Mexico to hike a loop trail, combining the Jasper Trail, the Thunder Egg Trail and returning 0.5 mile along the road. We parked at the Visitor Center and started up the Jasper Trail (0.7 miles). To the south are the Florida Mountains. We saw a variety of interesting rocks along the trail: Claret cup blossoms on a mohave mound cactus Hedgehog cactus blossoms Barrel cactus and prickly pear cactus Views to the rocky ridges to the north along the trails At the north end of the Jasper Trail, we headed up the 0.8 mile ..read more

This morning we drove to the Dripping Springs Area of Organ Mountains and Desert Peaks National Monument in southern New Mexico. We hiked up to Dripping Springs and on the way back took the Crawford Trail down and around to La Cueva and then back to the Visitor Center making a loop of our return. Overall 5 miles and 800 ft of gain. Beautiful area!!! View towards the rocky area we would circle on our way back Panorama of the Organ Mountains as we hiked up to Dripping Spring:   some of the nearby peaks We saw many mule deer on our way up the trail. We also saw 4 oryx across the meadow, s ..read more

This afternoon, we drove to White Sands National Park, near Alamogordo, New Mexico to hike two short trails and walk up a dune or two for views. The Dune Life Nature Trail is 1 mile. The trail starts by walking up a path into the dunes. Up in the dunes is a loop route marked with blue stakes. I was amazed to see trees growing in the sand dunes. Area between the dunes with distant mountain peaks Continuing around the loop: The Interdune Boardwalk is about 0.4 mile round trip. views from the boardwalk: We then drove to the end of the road to climb up a couple of dunes: Lo ..read more

Across the road from the Three Rivers Petroglyph Site is a very short 0.5 mile round trip trail to a prehistoric village. Pottery shards seen along the trail:    ..read more

This morning we drove to Carlsbad Cavern National Park for our 8:30am self guided tour. It was very busy to get in, but once we on the trail, it never seemed crowded even in the Big Room. This is an amazing place and my photos can not do it justice. This is only a glimpse of what we saw. We were glad we did the Natural Entrance down into the cave, instead of taking the elevator as it was a mile of extra trail in a part of the cave not seen in the Big Room. The Natural Entrane,  The entire route can only be seen a little bit at a time as it continues down and down.  Looking back up ..read more

We stopped at Big Spring State Park this afternoon and hiked the Nature Trail from the end near the restrooms. From the parking area we walked down to the trailhead, hiked the trail and back for about 1 mile total. We saw some wildflowers in bloom along the trail. Wildflowers in bloom along the road on our walk to the trail. We would loss about 100 ft of elevation heading down the trail, and gained it on the way back. a ruin of some sort by the trail Some buds on a prickly pear cactus   some of the wildflowers we saw along the trail this afternoon:        ..read more