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Stalker posted:I was just in Grayson Highlands park about two weeks ago, did the Pine mountain loop on an overnight trip. Only meet a pair of guys on the AT before veering off towards Scales. The whole park is so quiet this time of year, its very peaceful and if you haven't yet I would really recommend seeing the wild ponies off that trail. They are incredibly tame and a lot of fun to see. All the balds there are incredibly gorgeous too. I'm keeping an eye on the weather so I can head back and do a day hike up Mnt Rogers. Also go to Grayson around the 2nd week of June (though this past winter was so warm, it was more like the last week of May) to see the rhododendrons bloom. Incidentally, this is also around the same time that the ponies will be having even-smaller baby ponies following them around. If you're in the vague area of Grayson, one place that doesn't get a whole lot of traffic is Buffalo Mountain, in Floyd County. Once you get off the main road, it's like 2 miles of barely-maintained dirt road to get to the parking area (so I wouldn't recommend it if it's snowy/icy or rained in the past couple days). The hike itself is short and not very interesting, but there's no vegetation tall enough to obstruct your vision on the summit, so you get a great view in all directions. Plus, you go into town (all 2 blocks of it) and have some delicious, overpriced food made by hippies. e: I'm good at writing single-mode fiber fucked around with this message at 11:23 on Jan 6, 2013 |
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Jan 6, 2013 01:21
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Stalker posted:There is no view from the top though so I took this one right before the spur trail off the AT. Yeah, that's the one disappointing thing about Mt. Rogers. My favorite views always came from parts of Rhododendron Gap, Wilburn Ridge, and the Twin Pinnacles near Massie Gap. I only had a cell phone camera at the time, unfortunately, but I took these last summer and fall.  
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Jan 11, 2013 18:50
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I'm going to be going up to Glacier National Park for a week in the middle of July. Since the park has a ridiculous amount of trails, what are some of the most "can't-miss" ones to hike in the park? This would all be done via day hiking.
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May 12, 2013 16:49
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Mercury Ballistic posted:I am currently in Damascus va for trail days. Some hikers in the parade were hit by a car. There is a helo on the ground now and another overhead. Hope this not too terrible. The local news is saying 50-60 people were "hit" by it. Maybe it was a good thing the weather sucked this weekend, and I decided to skip Trail Days this year.
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May 19, 2013 04:03
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I, too, went up to Glacier National Park recently. I, too, am still afraid of bears.
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Jul 21, 2013 18:44
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Aliass posted:black bears dont really look all that scary. The ones in Appalachia are practically scared of their own shadow; they'll run up a tree at the first sign of pretty much anything.
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Jul 23, 2013 17:05
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Avalanche Lake was pretty cool 
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Sep 4, 2013 01:31
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Mercury Ballistic posted:I would think a tall tree, well grounded and full of water is a better lightning target than a 5-6 foot tall person in rubber soled shoes. 100,000 amps of current doesn't jump a few miles out of the sky to give a poo poo about a little bit of rubber. The height differential is the big thing in reducing the likelihood of direct strikes, you get balled up with minimal contact with the ground to try to mitigate the likelihood that you die from the charge flowing through the ground from a nearby strike.
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Oct 10, 2013 00:19
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Fuzzy Pipe Wrench posted:The Grayson's seem great but VA is pushing how far we can go for this and would require eliminating a city from our visit list. Grayson is indeed straight dope, but if you can't make it up there, the Roan Highlands are in Tennessee. Those have several Appalachian balds, which typically lend themselves to sick views without trees to occlude your range of vision.
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Oct 11, 2013 00:43
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Stalker posted:Rogers is an easy hike but not a very scenic one. Grayson Highlands is pretty great overall though and I would recommend heading into Damascus for diner afterward if you have the time. Yeah Rogers is mostly only cool for the evergreens and ferns, if you want to actually see stuff, just head over to Whitetop right next to it, since it's more of an Appalachian bald. The lack of light pollution coupled with the overall elevation (the overnight parking lot in Grayson Highlands State Park is like 4k feet) make it a pretty solid place for viewing the stars, too.
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Feb 18, 2014 00:14
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Terrifying Effigies posted:They may not be as big as the mountains out west, but the Appalachians get awful pretty in the fall (Mount Rogers VA last weekend): The highlands in Grayson County usually hit their peak foliage beginning October 20th; I took these last year on the 25th     Based on the pictures you took, it might be a little earlier this year, maybe beginning the 17th or 18th.
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Oct 10, 2014 03:47
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I am currently in the park and I haven't had any trouble parking at the visitor center and riding the shuttle up the canyon (prior to 830a). You can park wherever along 9, though, only when it splits off at Canyon Junction is where you need the shuttle. It's pretty deserted any other area of the park, parking not an issue.
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May 9, 2017 22:01
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nate fisher posted:Currently I'm camping fancy at a RV Park in Hurricane, Utah. We are starting our two days roaming Zion tomorrow. Question the Narrows are still closed, any alternatives that offer similar experiences? I'm currently thinking about doing Kanarraville Slot Canyon which is not in Zion but nearby. Anyone done this? I did the Kanarra Creek hike about a month ago and it was pretty enjoyable. The first half or more of the trail is pretty unremarkable, mostly following a dirt road. The actual slot part of the canyon is maybe 100 meters from the first falls. The ladder was in fine shape so you could easily advance if you wanted to. Along I-15, the exit for Kanarra is 42, but the Kolob Canyon part of Zion is 40, so you can easily merge the 2 in the same day. The afternoon/evening sun is behind you when looking at the peaks from pullouts/the lookout, so it's more scenic towards the end of the day anyway. Got torn up really bad by flies, though.
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May 26, 2017 15:18
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Vivian Darkbloom posted:In Glacier, I was hiking with a party of about 10 when we came upon a moose ambling into a pond and swimming away, about 100 ft from us. Then she (??) cut in front of us and stopped about 20 ft from the trail, very unconcerned with the humans. Was this over around Fishercap Lake? I seem to see moose like clockwork there.
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Jul 23, 2017 01:22
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BaseballPCHiker posted:Well my Glacier NP trip is in serious jeopardy now. I dont trust the wildfires to not spread and cause more trail closures and evacuations, and even if they didnt close the area near the fire that I had permits for I'm not sure inahling all of that smoke and the hazy views would be worth the trip. So with that said, I'm trying to come up with some alternatives within a reasonable drive of Spokane. I just got back from there, and it really depends on what direction the wind's blowing. When the Sprague Creek fire blew up from a strong wind out of the east, everything from Walton to the North Fork was really smoky, anywhere from 0.5 to 2 miles visibility, maybe. But, pretty much everything on the east side of the park was OK. It wasn't picture-perfect, but there's so many other fires in the Pacific Northwest that it never was going to be.  I took that on I think Monday or Tuesday last week.
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Sep 13, 2017 01:15
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Vivian Darkbloom posted:It's sad that the Sperry Chalet there in Glacier burned down a couple weeks ago. Yeah, but that terrain is so rugged out there, you can't get heavy equipment in there to cut out fire breaks and light backfires, which basically means you've got no realistic chance of containing the fire. Even though the park's very large, it won't be many more years before everything has been hit by a fire within the last 30 years or so.
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Sep 13, 2017 05:24
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Gatlinburg is fun but not for the reasons you probably think. If you do go out to SWVA/TN/NC, Devil's Bathtub is neat, as is the Creeper Trail over by Abingdon.
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Oct 22, 2017 21:04
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Cheesemaster200 posted:Do tell. Aside from being a place to get a civilized hotel room near GSMNP, I don't know what the purpose of that town is... It's fun in the sense that it's incredibly kitschy, tacky, an incredibly successful town of low-rent tourist trap attraction, all juxtaposed against a quite beautiful park in the Smokies. Whenever I've gone to the Smokies, I always stay in Cherokee but marveling at the spectacle of Gatlinburg. Also, https://youtu.be/F6SiPbbU318
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Oct 24, 2017 15:20
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marsisol posted:A couple friends and myself are planning a 8-9 day trip to Banff/Jasper in mid-late July and need some advice. The plan is to set up camp for 3-4 nights in each park and hike each day. After doing some preliminary reading, I'm worried that Banff is going to be too crowded and crazy. Can someone compare the two parks and recommend some good hikes in each one? Long hikes are fine as we're all experienced in the back country. I didn't spend a ton of time in Jasper except to go up and see the Icefields, but also consider Yoho and Kootenay since they're right there too. Yoho: Takkakaw Falls, Emerald Basin/Lake, Iceline if you're adventurous Kootenay: Stanley Glacier, Kindersley Pass, Floe Lake Banff: Plain of the Six Glaciers, Bow Glacier Falls, Eiffel Lake, Wenkchemna Pass The busy areas like Lake Louise, Moraine Lake, yeah it'll be busy down at lake level, but as soon as you start doing more than like 200 feet of elevation gain it drops off like crazy. I went around the same time of year and I think there were at least afternoon storms (sometimes all day light rain) 80% of the time, if not more.
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Feb 8, 2018 05:27
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Tsyni posted:Ok, you convinced me. My only reservation is that it's probably really busy when I can go in August, right? Yeah it's not going to be bad. I mean, it's like 12 miles long, and you'll definitely be running across other people, but it's not like the density of people who are all trying to go out on the ledge of Angel's Landing or anything.
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Mar 11, 2018 20:46
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The last time I was in the Grayson area, I was trying to get to Rhododendron Gap from Elk Garden in a relative hurry, and at a narrow point on the trail a couple ponies blocked my path and began licking all the sweat off my arms and legs, I guess for the salt. They have generally not messed with my tent, but I don't know how many times I've woken up because they were grazing nearby at 2 AM.
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Jul 20, 2018 21:19
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Splinter posted:Just a heads up, it's possible Angel's Landing may still be closed when you go. It sounded like the damage was significant, and there was no date set for it to reopen. Depending on where the damage is, if you're feeling saucy, you could take the West Rim Trail from the Lava Point terminus and get to it from there. But, they say Observation Point is still open, and that's honestly a better view I think, just doesn't carry the same I-did-it cachet
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Aug 23, 2018 02:02
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knox_harrington posted:I got the MSR equivalent recently and it was insanely expensive and doesn't have an igniter built in.. wtf? That part is silly but the the added resilience against wind is nice
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Sep 15, 2018 15:45
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| # ¿ May 3, 2024 22:28 |
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Kawalimus posted:What's a pair of boots or shoes or what have you that will keep my feet dry if I walk through wet grass or step in a small puddle? That's all I want. I don't care about whatever else and can deal with some drawbacks as long as those are fulfilled. But doing boot shopping is pulling teeth to me. I use a pair of Salomon Quest 4D from 1 or 2 update cycles ago and I've been happy with them in that regard. It takes a pretty prolonged exposure to water, either standing in a body of water for several seconds, or brushing through wet plants for a few miles before I notice any dampness getting in.
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Aug 23, 2020 20:14
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