Really wish I was back in Hawaii right now snorkeling with some sea turtles.
Treasures can be found just off the road. Here you’ll spot @SamtheSubie parked alongside the Apache Trail just outside of Phoenix. I had pulled over to investigate what seemed like an old mining operation in a small canyon and was pleasantly surprised with what I found after exploring the area a bit. The lesson: always take the time to explore and investigate.
Marble Canyon. The left cliff is BLM land, the right cliff is Navajoland. The inner gorge is Grand Canyon National Park, and an area originally protected as a National Monument under the Antiquities Act.
I’m sure you’ve heard of Trump’s executive order reviewing national monument designations from the last 21 years. If you heard his comments during the signing ceremony, you know that this is a sham “review” and the White House wants to remove protections from some of our most treasured and cherished #publiclands.
DON’T LET HIM.
Please, call Secretary Zinke, your Congressperson, and your Senators. Call today. Call again tomorrow. Call again next week. The way to fight this is to overwhelm them with public support. Do it for the places you love to recreate in. After all, an attack on our national monuments is an attack on all of our public lands.
In the West, seemingly random dirt roads often lead to amazing views.
“Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.”
–John Lubbock
Bill Williams Mountain is one of those mountains you drive by on your way to someplace else. That’s a shame—there are some really lovely views up here.
I had passed the dirt road to this lovely little Sonoran Desert vista for years and years. so glad I finally turned left and followed it for a few hours.
Mojave National Preserve doesn’t seem like the place you’d find a lava river tube, but that’s exactly where this one is.
My favorite kayaking trip in Arizona is down the Colorado River beneath Hoover Dam to Arizona (Ringbolt) Hot Springs. Great overnight trip with scenic views and slot canyon hot springs.
Hello, Colorado. I miss you.
It doesn’t matter where the road goes—there will be adventure to be had. Embrace the exploration, no matter where it takes you.
Just up the Beeline Highway from the Four Peaks turnoff—spitting distance from metro Phoenix really—lies the Ballantine Trail. Yet for a great little trail just outside a metro area and right off a major highway, it remains a refuge from the crowds.
The Toadstools in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument feature some crazy rock formations—and it’s one of the most easily accessible hikes in one of our nation’s most impressive national monuments.
If you ever make it to Puerto Rico, be sure to visit El Yunque National Forest—our nation’s only tropical rainforest. Trust me, you’ll enjoy the time you spend there.
Sunset in the desert is often a special thing—the calming silhouette of buttes and spires before a brightening sky is always a pleasure to behold.
My take on the obligatory Devils Bridge photo in Sedona.
Petrified Forest is one of those seemingly barren landscapes you have to spend some time inspecting and exploring to really appreciate. You’ll definitely be rewarded if you do.
Ever wonder what it would have been like to visit Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite before the dam turned it into a reservoir for San Francisco? Yeah…me too.
Mt Ord, maybe 45 minutes northeast of Phoenix just off the Beeline Highway, provides the quickest destination for pine trees and great 360° views. This is looking south towards Four Peaks.
Roaring River Falls is one of the most accessible in Kings Canyon National Park, and it doesn’t exactly disappoint. It’s hard to go there and not wonder how it’d be to slide down that canyon like you might in a water park.
