California » Wandern

Stanislaus- and Sonora Peak are two relatively easy accessible peaks from Sonora Pass. They are both pretty high, with Sonora Peak actually being the highest peak of the Sierra Nevada north of Sonora Pass. I had plans to climb these two mountains at the end of September last year already. However, I miserably failed due to the...

For this day I had 3 concrete goals: Climb Mount Elwell, test my newly acquired trail running shoes and catch some fish for dinner. I didn't think that I would successfully be done with all of this shortly after 2 PM already... Climbing Mount Elwell didn't seem like a big alpine challenge since there are easy accesses from the...

The first time I saw the Horsetail Falls, I wasn't all that impressed. Due to the drought then and the late season, the waterfall had nothing but a tiny bit of water trickling down from the Desolation Valley. The current situation with record amounts of melting snow should give the falls a much more impressive character. In...

I had plenty of real life views and took many many pictures of Round Top in the last few weeks. Due to the massive amounts of snow this area got during this winter, I thought of an approach to the top from northeast. I did not find any reports in the www about such a line, but judging from my inspection last week from the top and...

If I had to name "my favorite peak" in my new home, it would have to be Round Top. Not only because I have been on top of it 3 times already, but also because it offers quite a few interesting routes, in summer and winter and with it's >10000ft altitude a very nice view as well. One of the little more adventurous routes to the...

I actually wanted to do another ski tour on this day, but the weather forecast predicted snow fall for the Sierra Nevada over night and cloudy skies until noon. Therefore, I decided to do something in a coastal mountain range instead, where the weather was supposed to be very sunny. I didn't have much time to prepare a hike and...

My current "extended back-yard" is the American River in Fair Oaks. The so-called Sacramento Bar Park is one of many parks which all together form the American River Parkway, Sacramento Region’s great recreational asset. The American River Parkway also includes a wonderful bike path along the Lower American River, from...

Jacumba is a small town right at the US/Mexican border, about 60 miles east of San Diego. It's known for the sulfur containing hot springs, which were most likely already used by the Kumeyaay people. The commercialization of the hot springs began in the early 20th century. In 1919 rail service connected Jacumba to San Diego and 6...

Der Mount Soledad ist eine langestreckte Erhebung an der Küste nahe San Diego CA, welcher von einem riesigen Kreuz gekrönt wird. Um dieses Kreuz als christliches Symbol gab es langwierige Diskussionen samt Gerichtsverfahren, die erst nach Aufkauf der Liegenschaft um das Kreuz beendet werden konnten; siehe dazu den entsprechende...

What's special about 10935 feet? Nothing really, except if you convert it to meters, you end up with the "pretty number" 3333. Well that's the height of Highland Peak, my goal for the day. This peak also has a pretty high prominence of 2456 ft, so the view up there is expected to be quite impressive. One more time, the...