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TrailGroove Blog

A Blog by the TrailGroove Team

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Entries in this blog

Trips

The Alpine Lakes Wilderness: A Cascades Backpacking Trip

One can easily say that Washington State holds some of the most beautiful, untouched, and rugged terrain in all of North America. At breakfast one could wake up on a driftwood littered beach on the coastline of a temperate rainforest, and by dinner be jumping into a glacial lake of the high Cascade peaks. With some of the most amazing wildlife covered landscapes and best backpacking in Washington and even in the United States, one can spend the rest of their lives trying to explore and conquer a
J. Parascandola

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Trips

Backpacking the Tetons: Grand Teton National Park & More

Memories can be painful and happy. As I drove through the darkness past the national park boundary near Moran Junction, I reflected a bit on my last trip to the Tetons. In June 2001, my Boy Scout troop took a trip to Grand Teton and Yellowstone, and during that trip we backpacked one night up Granite Canyon. I know it was my first backpacking trip outside of Colorado and maybe my second or third backpacking trip ever. Two distinct memories pop out from that trip. I remember how beautiful the mou
tmountainnut

tmountainnut in Trips

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Trips

Spooky and Peekaboo Gulch: A Slot Canyon Loop Hike

Southern Utah, the Colorado Plateau Desert; of all the world this place is unique. Here the desert is a maze. Canyons and gulches dissect the plateau into a great network, a labyrinth of lost alcoves and secret glens which one could spend a lifetime exploring without even scratching the surface. This is a land of colorful sandstone sculpture, carved by water as the artist. Water can do incredible things when sandstone is its canvas. Given time, a tiny river here carves a grand canyon.
michaelswanbeck

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Trips

Empty Spaces: Hiking Carrizo and Picture Canyons

“Half of Colorado is beautiful and half of it is ugly, and the same is true for Oklahoma. But people only talk about the beautiful half of Colorado and the ugly half of Oklahoma.” Our friend, Steve, said this as we dined together in downtown Aspen, and he is a man who knows, as a fellow native of Oklahoma and longtime resident of Aspen, Colorado. While I think calling any of it ugly is harsh (although, understandably, if you live in Aspen everything pales by comparison), Steve has a point a
Susan Dragoo

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Trips

Hiking the Vermilion Cliffs & Exploring Grand Staircase

Vermilion Cliffs National Monument is a vast plateau in north central Arizona and adjoining southern Utah. The 280,000-acre (roughly 20 miles east-west by 20 miles north-south) monument includes the rugged and beautiful Paria Plateau and Coyote Buttes North and South. The plateau is also known as the Sand Hills. Many hikers and photographers visit The Wave, Paw Hole, Cottonwood Cove, and White Pocket. All those are worthy destinations, but going beyond yields even more impressive hikes, views, a
Steve Ancik

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Trips

Back in the Day Backpacking at the Grand Canyon, 1980

In May of 1980, my dad decided to hike across the Grand Canyon. And I of course wanted to go with him – for each of us, the chance to hike across the largest canyon in the country was too good to pass up. My dad was going to turn 60 later that summer, and I was almost 27 at the time. Even though my wife and I had an 11-month-old son, we chose May of 1980 to make the trip. We acquired the required permits, which were easy to get at the time. As it turned out, we couldn’t hike all the way across t
Steve Ancik

Steve Ancik in Trips

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Trips

Backpacking to Russell Pond in Baxter State Park, Maine

Less than a mile up the trail and the space between my shoulder blades already aches. I’m regretting the overpriced mini tube of sunblock, which the dense trees and clouds have rendered unnecessary, the extra layer I threw in at the last minute, and my insistence on healthful foods that caused me to pack two pounds of green beans and carrots fresh from the garden, a jar of sunflower seed butter, and three loaves of German bread the size, shape, and weight of bricks. My last backpackin
AndreaL

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Trips

An Empty Sky Island: Backpacking the Guadalupe Mountains

The badlands of West Texas are among the most thinly settled lands in the country. Sparse and desolate, this region west of the Pecos is nearly uninhabited. Only 5000 people occupy the 8000 square miles that stretch between the Guadalupe Mountains on the Texas-New Mexico border and the Rio Grande. It is a land unsuited for agriculture or even grazing, with little grass or fertile land. What water there is can be salty and unpalatable, as likely to cause digestive distress as to quench thirst. Fe
HappyHour

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Trips

Oasis in the Desert: Hiking & Exploring Coyote Gulch

The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is a huge and spectacular park in southern Utah, and while many hikes in the area have become quite popular and are often well documented, this doesn’t mean these hikes don’t come without a set of – sometimes unexpected – challenges. As we drove down the dusty back roads of Utah towards a remote trailhead to begin our backpacking trip of Coyote Gulch in April 2014, I was blissfully unaware that I’d soon find out firsthand some of the challenges tha
Steve Ancik

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Trips

Distant Corners: Hiking the Oklahoma & Texas Panhandles

Lines drawn on a map are peculiar. Sometimes they follow terrain features and make complete sense. Oklahoma and Texas, for instance, are divided both politically and geographically by the Red River, a natural enough line of separation although its shifting, serpentine course has made boundary disputes a regular thing. Other lines are more confusing, and seemingly arbitrary. One example is the region containing the “panhandles” of these two states. Oklahoma’s panhandle is a strip of la
Susan Dragoo

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Trips

Hiking the Hoodoos & Badlands of Northwestern New Mexico

In the San Juan Basin of northwestern New Mexico, there are several incredible badlands and hoodoo areas, such as the Lybrook and Burnham Badlands, the Fossil Forest, and the Bisti/De-Na-Zin, Ojito, and Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah wilderness areas along with several others. I have had the pleasure to visit, hike, and photograph the first four listed above. These badlands, mostly managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), feature many bizarre and wonderful hoodoos and rock formations, from tiny mushroom
Steve Ancik

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Trips

Backpacking the Henrys Lake Mountains of Idaho & Montana

A few drops of rain and an empty parking lot greeted us at the trailhead where we paused for a few moments of contemplation. I’m not sure if I was more nervous about the responsibility of backpacking with a dog for the first time or if my girlfriend was more nervous about Lolo and I spending the weekend in grizzly country without her there to supervise. Lolo just seemed excited and happy, which were contagious emotions and aside from occasional hunger and tiredness proved to be the definitive fe
Mark Wetherington

Mark Wetherington in Trips

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Trips

Towering Beauty: The Wahweap Hoodoos of Southern Utah

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is a huge 1.9 million acre park in south central Utah, full of scenic wonders and surprises. One of my favorite subjects to photograph is the scattering of hoodoo formations that are found here and there on cliff edges and slopes. Hoodoos are formed when a harder, more resistant layer of rock protects a softer layer underneath. As erosion from water, freezing, thawing, and wind all work their magic, the rock layers are exposed and form into towers of r
Steve Ancik

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Trips

Backpacking & Hiking into the Richland Creek Wilderness

Arkansas: The Natural State. Nothing is more natural than this remote wilderness deep in the Ozark National Forest in the northern part of the state. This wonderful wild place is known as Richland Creek Wilderness, where waterfalls, not-so-secret caves, thick forests, swimming holes, bluffs, colorful fall foliage, wildflowers, and more are to be found. There are a multitude of boulder-dotted creeks in the Wilderness, the main ones being Big Devils Fork, Long Devils Fork, and Richland Creek. Rich
Steve Ancik

Steve Ancik in Trips

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Trips

Hiking Goshen Prong in the Great Smoky Mountains

In this article, I’ll describe a beautiful hike that traverses both natural diversity and historical significance. This is a great candidate for a shuttle hike for a somewhat leisurely decent into a beautiful creek-side trek. The perfect day for me would be to camp with your hiking buddy at the Elkmont Campground. Get your coffee brewing good and early, leave one vehicle at the Little River Trailhead about a mile from your campsite, then head up 441 to catch the sunrise from Clingmans Dome. At 6
SparbaniePhoto

SparbaniePhoto in Trips

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Trips

Hiking Wolverine Canyon in the Grand Staircase-Escalante

As I approach a place as remote as Grand Staircase-Escalante in the middle of a hot summer I know I'm not going to find something tangible that I require to continue existing. I will, however, encounter some things that I want. Beauty, solitude, adventure. Maybe I'll find inspiration. Challenge. Do I need any of those things? Perhaps not, but what a dull existence it would be without all of them. My use of the word remote is not an exaggeration. This is a remote place, in a remote section of a s
SparbaniePhoto

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Trips

Backpacking the Grandview Loop in the Grand Canyon

With age comes wisdom, or so goes the old adage. But, as any observer of the world can plainly see, that’s not always true. With age certainly comes knowledge, but whether that knowledge is converted to the making of wise decisions is, so to speak, a crap shoot. Hiking in the Grand Canyon offers an excellent example. First of all, it’s challenging business. For us to successfully descend to the bottom and return to the rim in good health, we would have to gain adequate knowledge but we'd al
Susan Dragoo

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Trips

Wild and Alone: Backpacking the Ventana Wilderness

The Ventana is a designated wilderness just inland from the resort area of Big Sur on the central coast of California. The Ventana Wilderness covers a total area of 375 square miles. For comparison, it is about the size of New York City or one of the smaller Hawaiian Islands. The wild, rugged terrain is in stark contrast with the surroundings, which include nearby major highways and several medium sized cities. And the Ventana becomes wilder every year. I’m sure the Native Americans w
George Graybill

George Graybill in Trips

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Trips

Hiking Marble Canyon in Death Valley National Park

I once saw a postcard in an Eastern California gas station showcasing a photo of an impressive blue slot canyon. The earth in the photo looked barren, bleak, and chalky. The rock looked smooth as if carved by water long ago. Clearly no water remained in this place so dry and desolate, and the landscape looked distinctly like it belonged to the unique ranges within Death Valley National Park. The mysterious blue rock was known as Marble Canyon, and I decided the weekend after I had bought a new c
michaelswanbeck

michaelswanbeck in Trips

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Trips

Backpacking & Hiking Grand Canyon's East Tonto Trail

A cheerful pumpkin sun peeks over the Coconino Plateau at dawn. It’s Thanksgiving weekend, and the air is frosty as dad and I join a gaggle of backpackers, clad in billowy down jackets evincing a cornucopia of startling colors, lining up outside Grand Canyon Village’s backcountry information center. It turns out the park’s Phantom Ranch and Indian Garden campgrounds are as jam-packed as pilgrims on the Mayflower which renders my hoped-for rim to rim route unfeasible. A bearded ranger suggests we
Daniel Anderson Jr

Daniel Anderson Jr in Trips

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Trips

Backpacking the Noble Canyon Trail, Southern California

Distance mode. Proximity mode. Red light night vision mode. At 90 lumens, my new Black Diamond Spot headlamp is the newest addition to my backpacking kit in ages. For the second or third time on today’s maiden voyage hike, I unsheathe the Spot from my Gregory Z65’s brain pouch, cradle it in my fingers, and imagine how its endless wonderful qualities will make every trip better. The blood red bezel’s sharp lines attach to a diagonally-shaded retro headband conjuring the aura of Optimus Prime.
Daniel Anderson Jr

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Trips

Desert Bliss: Hiking Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

I sit alone along a flat gravel ridgeline somewhere in the Sonoran Desert’s Ajo Mountains. There are no winter clouds, no moon, and a spellbinding cacophony of tinsel stars is visible above the din of chirping, cheeping crickets. Suddenly, the distinctive roar of fighter jet engines joins the caroling chorus, aircraft whose red blinking LEDs trace somersault motions in the sky like a berserk Rudolph piloting Santa’s sleigh. A string of yellow puffs, bright as Christmas lights, trail the planes b
Daniel Anderson Jr

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Trips

Hiking & Backpacking the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness

For backpackers seeking an immersive wilderness experience in uncrowded and ruggedly beautiful country, the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness is a perfect destination. Located along the Montana and Idaho border, this 1.3 million acre wilderness is one of the original wilderness areas designated in the 1964 Wilderness Act and is the third-largest wilderness area in the Lower 48. Hundreds of miles of trails provide access to lakes, peaks, lookouts, enchanting forests, and wild rivers and streams.
Mark Wetherington

Mark Wetherington in Trips

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Trips

Hiking the CDT in the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness

We had a nagging feeling over 500 miles into what we called our “open ended section hike” of the CDT – a non-commitment to hike as much of the trail as we wanted to. Rachel and I both wanted to push our boundaries and hike more off-trail routes and if you were lucky vaguely described on Jonathan Ley’s unofficial Continental Divide Trail (CDT) maps. Almost all of our experience was on trail but we wanted more of an adventure off the beaten path so to speak. On our first attempt at the southern ed
HikerBox

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Trips

Hiking the Beaten Path: Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness

The drive into the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness is one of many layers. Like the layers of the range itself, you must first go through the first layer: in this case the grasslands and rolling hills of Interstate 90, then continue chipping your way up the foothills and hope you make the correct turn. Unraveling further, you pass through farmland where finally, you bounce down a dirt road dodging potholes and prairie dogs while beginning to see the landscape change from rolling hills to forested s
jansenjournals

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