• Categories

  • Ask Me
  • Backpacking
  • Climbing
  • Family Adventures
  • Gear Reviews
  • Hiking
  • Hut Treks
  • International Adventures
  • National Park Adventures
  • Paddling
  • Skiing
  • Skills
  • Trail Running
  • Uncategorized

• Book

  

• Subscribe

  Enter your email address to subscribe and receive notifications of new posts by email.

• Top Posts & Pages

  • Pro Tips: Staying Warm in a Sleeping Bag
  • 10 Tips For Raising Outdoors-Loving Kids
  • Featured Video: Dayhiking to Yosemite Valley Waterfalls
  • Tent Flap With A View: 25 Favorite Backcountry Campsites
  • Ask Me: Advice on Lighter Gear

• Tag Cloud

  air mattress reviews backpacking apparel reviews backpacking boots reviews backpacking clothing reviews backpacking gear reviews backpack reviews camping gear reviews Capitol Reef National Park children daypack reviews Everglades National Park Glacier Bay National Park Glacier National Park Grand Canyon National Park Grand Teton National Park Granite Park Gunsight Lake Gunsight Pass Trail headlamp reviews headlamps hiking apparel reviews hiking gear reviews hiking shoes reviews Idaho John Muir Trail kids outdoor gear reviews Kolob Canyons nature New Zealand Olympic National Park outdoor apparel reviews puffy jacket reviews sleeping bag reviews sleeping bags Spring Canyon trail-running apparel reviews trail-running gear reviews trail-running shoes reviews ultralight backpacking ultralight backpacking gear reviews Utah West Rim Trail Yellowstone National Park Yosemite National Park Zion National Park

• Archives

  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010

Tag Archives: Toleak Point

May 9, 2013

Tent Flap With A View: 25 Favorite Backcountry Campsites

In Backpacking, Family Adventures, International Adventures, National Park Adventures   |   Tagged Camp Schurman, Capitol Reef National Park, Coyote Gulch, Coyote Natural Bridge, Death Canyon Shelf, Dientes Circuit, Dog Lake, Dome Glacier, Doubtful Sound, Eagle Cap Wilderness, East Fork Owyhee River, Emmons Glacier, Everglades National Park, Fiordlands National Park, Glacier Bay National Park, Glacier National Park, Glacier Peak Wilderness, Grand Canyon National Park, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Grand Teton National Park, Granite Park, Great Sand Dunes National Park, Gunsight Pass Trail, John Muir Wilderness, Johns Hopkins Inlet, Lake Ellen Wilson, Little Frazier Lake, Mt. Baker, Mt. Rainier National Park, North Cascades, North Cascades National Park, North Fork Cascade Canyon, Olympic coast, Olympic National Park, Patagonia, Ptarmigan Traverse, Rock Slide Lake, Sahale Glacier Camp, Sawtooth National Recreation Area, Seven Devils Mountains, Spring Canyon, Ten Thousand Islands, Tiger Key, Toleak Point, Tonto Trail, Wallowa Mountains, Waterpocket Fold, White Rock Lakes, Wind River Range   |   14 Comments

An unforgettable campsite can define a backcountry trip. Sometimes that perfect spot where you spent a night forges the memory that remains the most vivid long after you’ve gone home. A photo of that camp can send recollections of the entire adventure rushing back to you.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have enjoyed many, many great backcountry campsites over the past couple decades of backpacking and trekking all over the U.S. and the world. I’ve boiled the list of my favorite spots down to 25. Continue reading →

December 19, 2012

Inspiration For 2013: My Top 10 Family Adventures

In Backpacking, Family Adventures, Hiking, National Park Adventures, Paddling, Skiing   |   Tagged Boise National Forest, Canyonlands National Park, Capitol Reef National Park, Everglades National Park, Glacier National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, Grandview Point, Green River, Gunsight Lake, Gunsight Pass Trail, Idaho City yurts, John Muir Trail, Kolob Canyons, Mammoth Hot Springs, Mist Trail, Nevada Fall, Old Faithful, Olympic National Park, South Kaibab Trail, Southern Olympic Coast, Spring Canyon, Stillwater Canyon, Strawberry Point, Ten Thousand Islands, Toleak Point, Upper Geyser Basin, Upper Yosemite Falls, Vernal Fall, West Rim Trail, Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park, Yosemite Valley, Zion National Park   |   3 Comments

At this time of year, I start pulling out maps and guidebooks and poring over my lengthy—and always growing—list of outdoor trips I want to take. (My document slugged “Trip Ideas” is now 11,855 words long.) There are two reasons: First, to make those big dream trips happen, you have to think, plan, and dream months in advance. Plus, the planning is almost as much fun as taking the trip.

Here are my 10 favorite family adventures at The Big Outside (another list that will keep growing and evolving), to help give you some ideas and inspiration for 2013. Continue reading →

April 16, 2012

The Wildest Shore: Backpacking the Southern Olympic Coast

In Backpacking, Family Adventures, National Park Adventures   |   Tagged Hoh Head, Hoh River, Jackman Creek, Mosquito Creek, Olympic National Park, sea stacks, Southern Olympic Coast, Strawberry Point, Third Beach Trailhead, Toleak Point, Washington   |   6 Comments

On a remote, sandy beach on Washington’s Olympic coast, we stop in our tracks and gaze up. A wall of muddy earth rises some 300 feet into jungle-like rainforest. A thick strand of hemp rope dangles down this steep, eroding embankment. A ladder of wooden steps built into the muddy ground rises in tandem with the rope.

We’re going up it. Continue reading →