Once Glacier Point Road closes for the season, hiking the Four Mile Trail becomes the only way up — and there's only a short window before ice and snow close that trail too. This narrow stretch of late fall is the absolute sweet spot for the hike: more solitude at the top, ideal temperatures for the climb, and golden late-fall light. Here's everything I learned hiking it on a sunny late November day, including what you need to know to be fully prepared.

The Devils Garden Trail in Arches National Park is among the most popular day hikes, and for good reason: it leads you to the well-known Landscape Arch and many more lesser-known arches, along a trail that will also impress you with other rock formations and views reaching beyond the desert landscape to the seasonally snow-capped La Sal Mountains in the distance. In this article, I take you along this not always so straightforward, yet all the more rewarding trail, and share what I learned along the way.

The Tomales Point Trail at Point Reyes National Seashore offers a beautiful hike along California’s central coast, featuring stunning Pacific Ocean views and wildlife sightings like tule elk and coyotes. The trail is set within a historic landscape where past land use meets today’s conservation efforts.

The James Irvine Trail is an incredible hike through a dense redwood forest, leading down to Gold Bluffs Beach and the popular Fern Canyon. Along the way, you can spot redwood sorrel, with its heart-shaped, clover-like leaves, banana slugs, or even Roosevelt Elk, that live in this unique habitat. In this article, I’ll take you on a journey through this magical hike, share fascinating facts about the majestic redwoods, and my best tips for exploring this route!

Yosemite National Park is beautiful any time of year, but visiting in winter offers a chance to experience a true winter wonderland. If you visit from mid- to late February, you may also witness the phenomenon known as the firefall, when the last rays of sunlight hit Horsetail Fall at just the right angle, making it appear as if fire, rather than water, is falling down. Join me on a snowy hike along the Mist and John Muir Trails to Vernal and Nevada Falls, as well as the attempt to see the firefall. Plus, learn what to know before hitting the icy trails in Yosemite in Winter!

The Twenty Lakes Basin Loop is a stunning hike that begins at Saddlebag Lake and leads you through a series of breathtaking alpine lakes and scenery. Along the way, you'll be treated to impressive views of nearby mountain peaks. In this article, I’ll take you along with me on this hike, which I did in late summer after a particularly snowy winter. The lingering snow patches, which persisted until September, made the hike both tricky in places and exciting.

What was that? It sounded like someone or something broke a bunch of thicker branches and I immedetly knew that it was impossible that a squirrel, a mouse or even a coyote could have caused this. The trail was rather narrow at this point. To my left side, there were thick bushes that were hiding the river down in the valley below us. The sound was so close. It must have come from these bushes! I turned my head to the left and all I could see was fur in the midst of greenery, A LOT of brown fur.