California

The Santa Ynez Mountain Range near Santa Barbara is one of the very few east-west oriented mountain range in the United States, almost all other ranges are north-south oriented. This mountain range is also known for its hot springs, most of them very primitive and not commercialized (see for example this one). One exception was...

Tomales Point Trail is a very popular hike from Pierce Point Ranch to the northern most tip of the Point Reyes Peninsula. It offers spectacular coastal views toTomales Bay, Bodega Bay, and the Pacific Ocean. It is also a prime wildlife viewing trail. Lots of seals, gulls, pelicans, cormorants, interesting flora and you'll most...

While visiting a friend in Santa Barbara we decided to climb the close-by Gaviota Peak. Besides the marvelous view from the top of this mountain, the main attraction is the natural hot springs on the way to the peak. The hike itself is very easy and mostly follows a gravel fire road. We start our hike at the Gaviota Hot Springs...

Nachdem wir am Vortag den bekannten Alta Peak bestiegen haben, war für heute ein weniger bekanntes Ziel in der abgelegeneren Mineral King Region des Sequoia NP geplant. Einer unserer Gründe für die Wahl war das Labour Day Wochenende. Gestern hatten wir schon auf der Rückfahrt vom Alta Peak Parking ins Hotel das absolute...

Der Alta Peak Trail wird auf zahlreichen Wanderportalen als eine der schönsten etwas anspruchsvollen Tagestouren angepriesen, die man im Seqouia National Park machen kann. Also landete die Tour ganz oben auf unserer Liste. Früh morgens fuhren wir mit dem Auto zum großen Wolverton Parkplatz. Um die Uhrzeit waren wir quasi...

For some peaks you need several trials in order to make it to the top. For me, Needle Peak falls into this category, it was on my goals as "plan for the day" 4 times. The 3 failures were never due to technical difficulties on the mountain. On this day, I finally made it. The first time Needle Peak was on the goal list was here,...

Mount Tamalpais (or Mount Tam how the locals call it) is a very popular mountain north of San Francisco. I climbed it once already in a rather long hike, all the way from Stinson Beach. Some friends who live in the Bay Area know that I like to hike and asked me to "guide" a tour up there. Due to the various hiking experience...

During my outing to Reynolds Peak, I had originally planned to also climb Raymond Peak. Due to some early fall snow, the north sides of the mountains were still covered in snow and I had to give up my trial then. Today I wanted to make up leeway for this missed peak but use a different approach from northwest instead. I park...

Even though I've visited Black Butte already (see here), I had the urge to go up there again. Since I didn't have all day for my hike on this day, but I still wanted to do some fishing at Caples Lake, I thought that I could try a different approach for this interesting little gem. My goal was to try to climb the peak from north or...

Der Mount Tamalpais State Park ist ein Naherholungsgebiet San Franciscos, dort gibt es einige Wanderrouten und unter der Woche herrscht wenig Andrang. Unser Freund macht den Guide, das gefällt ihm heute besser als für diese legendäre Obstfirma zu programmieren.An der Belvedere, einer Seitenstraßedirekt gegenüber vom Strand...