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I mean, this largely depends on what you consider to be a short drive, what you consider to be a city, and how much you like snow. Overall, though, I think it comes down to Seattle or Denver. For Seattle, virtually every place you could want to visit in the state is within a 2-3 or so hour drive, and there are a LOT of places worth visiting. Washington in general is also great in terms of most major wilderness areas and parks having some great hikes you can do in just a half-day, with easily accessible trailheads. The only real downside is the weather. And it's not just "oh boo hoo its raining", there are many days where you can't expect to see more than 10 feet in front of you in the mountains. Shoulder season's also tend to be short in the mountains, but there are at least some good places you can hike year round. Denver is a close 2nd place in my opinion. Denver also has loads of stuff within a short drive. Not quite as many as Seattle imo, but it's closer to the (or at least some) mountains with plenty of excellent hiking only around an hour away. The weather is in general more manegable than Washington, but its also a lot less green and with less water. Personally I live in San Jose, and routinely drive 4-6 hours (usually closer to 6) to go hiking on the weekends. This is too far to drive, hike, and drive home in a single day, but most of the time I want to spend more than 1 day anyway, and it's easy to find a campground or someplace to crash on Friday/Saturday and drive home Sunday (usually easier to do this than get a last minute permit even if I want to backpack). If I really wanted to do a single day contained trip, though, there is no way any "city" in California could compete with Seattle or Denver in terms of the abundance and quality of trails accessible in a single-day trip. And this is pretty much the case for most places. One thing I think CA has going for it, though, is that either because the wilderness is further from cities, or because Yosemite serves as a giant tourist magnet, a lot of the most spectacular places in the Sierra Nevada are total ghost towns, and you can go all day without seeing another person. I love Washington and sometimes thing about moving to Seattle, but at the end of the day I may actually end up with fewer days of good hiking over there due to weather, and despite things being several hours closer the logistics of a weekend trip wouldn't be dramatically different. So from my point of view the "best" cities for day hiking might not necessarily be the ones closest to day-hiking destinatons.
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Oct 29, 2016 23:53
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 19:56 |
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