A teenage girl hiking through the Cares Gorge in Spain's Picos de Europa National Park.

Trekking Spain’s Picos de Europa

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By Michael Lanza

As my family hiked up the Cares Gorge in northern Spain’s Picos de Europa National Park, which looks like an impressionist painting with its soaring, white and gray limestone cliffs dappled with greenery, I was struck by one curious fact about this mountain range: how it has retained a surprising degree of anonymity.

Until just months before this trip, in fact, I had never heard of the Picos de Europa—which also bear a striking resemblance to Italy’s world-class Dolomite Mountains and lie just two flights from major U.S. airports and obviously a much shorter distance from numerous European cities—and I’ve made a living for years seeking out the world’s best hiking trails.

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A backpacker on the Teton Crest Trail.

The 5 Best Backpacking Trips in Grand Teton National Park

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By Michael Lanza

Here’s a truth I’ve learned from at least two dozen visits to the Tetons since my first backpacking trip on the Teton Crest Trail over 30 years ago: That incomparable, jagged skyline of peaks never fails to ignite a sense of awe and joy. Walking for days through these mountains, with their endless fields of wildflowers, long alpine vistas, and hypnotic mountain lakes, creeks, and waterfalls never grows old. I’m pretty sure I could backpack through Grand Teton National Park 20 more times without the experience ever growing ordinary.

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A backpacker on the Teton Crest Trail, North Fork Cascade Canyon, Grand Teton National Park.

Backpacking the Teton Crest Trail—A Photo Gallery

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By Michael Lanza

As we backpacked up the North Fork of Cascade Canyon on the Teton Crest Trail in Grand Teton National Park, moments after the path emerged from the forest into a meadow strewn with boulders and still dappled with blooming wildflowers in late August, my friend David turned to look over his shoulder and blurted out, “Oh, wow, look at that view!” Behind us, the sheer north faces of the Grand Teton and Mount Owen towered a vertical mile above us, shooting straight up over the canyon like fireworks (photo above).

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Review: Black Diamond Solution 2.0 Hoody

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Hooded Insulated Jacket
Black Diamond Solution 2.0 Hoody
$299, 13.8 oz./390g (men’s medium) 
Sizes: men’s S-XL, women’s XS-XL
Men’s: blackdiamondequipment.com
Women’s: blackdiamondequipment.com

The Black Diamond Solution 2.0 immediately struck me as a unique layer: at first glance, it’s a puffy, but upon deeper inspection, it’s lighter (in weight and insulation) than many synthetic puffies, and also features windproofness and high water-resistance, giving it features found in shells and insulation layers.

I’ve tested the Solution 2.0 as a midlayer and outer layer resort skiing on windy and wet days of moderate snowfall in spring and as my outer layer in chilly campsites while backpacking in the Wind River Range and elsewhere over the summer with the goal of resolving this dichotomy, and I found myself impressed by its performance—the Solution repels wind and water well and provides good warmth for a synthetic puffy of its weight.

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A backpacker hiking down the South Kaibab Trail in the Grand Canyon.

10 Epic Grand Canyon Backpacking Trips You Must Do

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By Michael Lanza

This is, in a way, a story about obsession. Or a love affair. Or both. Those metaphors best describe how the Grand Canyon constantly lures me back when I’m thinking about spring and fall hiking and backpacking trips.

It is that rare kind of natural environment that exists on a scale of its own, like Alaska or the Himalaya. There’s something soul-stirring and hypnotic about its infinite vistas, the deceptive immensity of the canyon walls and stone towers, and the way the foreground and background continually expand and shrink as you ascend and descend elevation gradients of a vertical mile or more—all of which validates enduring the wilting heat and trails that sometimes seem better suited to rattlesnakes and scorpions than bipedal primates.

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