Where: Inyo National Forest, John Muir Wilderness Distance: About 16 Miles Difficulty: Moderate Elevation Range: 7,800’ – 11,160’ Date: July 16, 2015 Highlights: I put my cowboy boots on for this adventure on a horse, riding the trail through a variety of colorful wildflowers and watching the white puffy clouds float by. Mom and I headed east over Tioga Rd., ...

By Monica McClanahan OAKHURST – The Oakhurst Library will host a presentation by Jack and Kay Good along with local author, Marcia Freedman, on Saturday, July 25, from 10:30am to noon. Jack and Kay Good will be talking about the Coarsegold Historical Society and Historic Museum. Coarsegold is located at the southern end of the Gold Chain where the town ...

We decided to hike off trail where the colorful mountains in the Tioga Pass Area raise above 12,000′ elevation. We were ready for an adventure in an area that revealed beautiful pink heather lined tarns, small lakes where the creeks were wide, high country lakes, many with no names. We explored when we were inspired to check out an area ...

We couldn’t wait to get up to higher country to see if the lakes were still frozen over. We discovered the answer to that question, saw some beautiful country, some critters and very cool clouds.

We headed down the trail, following the beautiful Tuolumne River, full of reflections in some areas and waterfalls in some other spots. We also had white puffy clouds and critters accompany us on our adventure.

We headed through Potter Pass at 8,980′ elevation to the Twin Lakes, then on to George Lake for a nice spring hike. Beautiful lakes reflecting white puffy clouds, with wildflowers along the trail and a geology lesson from our resident geology buff made for a wonderful adventure in the Kaiser Wilderness in Sierra National Forest.

Our footprints were the first ones on the fresh snow for most of our hike and I just love it when that happens! We also had very blue skies and white puffy clouds to walk along the ice covered lakes up to the old mining town of Dana City.

Hiking from the Yosemite Valley floor up to Glacier Point is a tough hike, gaining over 3,200′ elevation. Why in the heck would someone want to do that? I think it is well worth that climb and switchbacks to see views of Yosemite Falls that you can see from no other location. Viewing Half Dome, Nevada and Vernal Falls, Tenaya ...

Tioga Road opened up on May 3, fairly early as far as the history of openings go. [It has temporarily closed in the meantime, but should reopen soon]. I sure appreciate the hard work that the crews have done to open up the road and make the needed repairs to get us in to the high country this early. Although ...

Not every hike has to be a long hike and you sure don’t need to drive very far to get some exercise and enjoy the beautiful Giant Sequoias and dogwood blooms. My mom was visiting and we didn’t have a full day to drive for our adventure, so we headed up for a hike nearby. Our timing on this hike ...