Like everyone else, I spent the past week closely watching the progress of the Creek Fire, along with so many other fires. There was too much smoke to do any hiking and while hiding inside from that smoke, it seemed like a good time to tell you about Fannie the Corgi’s hiking wardrobe. She recently joined my hiking team and ...

Camping with the dogs for four days in the Tioga Pass area was a great getaway from the smoke. Sally, Fannie and I did a little hiking, a little wandering, a little relaxing, some wading, and we all took a few good naps. Where: Harvey Monroe Hall Research Natural Area, Hoover Wilderness, Inyo National ForestDistance: 5.94 MilesDifficulty: Moderate to StrenuousElevation ...

It had been a few years since I had climbed to the top of Mount Dana and I was hearing reports that those beautiful sky pilots were blooming so now was the time to make it happen! It seemed like there were about one million switchbacks to reach the top of the second highest mountain in Yosemite (after Mount Lyell), ...

If you want to see an explosion of wildflower colors, this is the hike for you! Some wildflowers were taller than me and some were teeny tiny. Some were quite showy and I had to look closely at some to see their amazing detail. Some even had bugs on them. Wildflowers are putting on a tremendous show right now in ...

Long before YARTS existed, daily automobile shuttles ran from Madera to Wawona on the road we call Miami Mountain Road today. Before that, it was an old stage route and I had been walking up parts of it the past few months. This time I visited the locations where some of the people that I had written about died and ...

I loaded up my dogs, Sally and Fannie, and drove across Tioga Road the very minute it reopened this year. Like visiting old friends, I made several stops along the way to admire the views, then we all were rewarded with a hike from Saddlebag Lake to Greenstone Lake with incredible views of snow streaked high mountains surrounding the lakes. ...

I told my puppy Fannie the Corgi all about a special place called Nelder Grove and how it wouldn’t be a long drive or hike. I tried to explain to her just how huge the Giant Sequoias were. I don’t think she totally grasped the concept but she said let’s do it!Where: Sierra National Forest, Nelder GroveDistance: 2.31 miles, but ...

Walking up historic wagon roads near my house on a cool day after a rain was a party for my senses, full of fresh smells of the forest and flowers. Dogwoods were blooming like crazy and those animal tracks were easy to spot while the gnats and skeeters slept in. Distance: 10.62 Miles (but you can go shorter or longer)Difficulty: ...

Adventuring close to home, I walked the same dirt roads, followed different spur roads, giving me a looped walk along a historic stage route that carried Yosemite tourists to Wawona starting in the 1880s. Distance: About 11 Miles (but you can go shorter or longer)Difficulty: Easy to ModerateElevation Range: 3,418′ to 4,994′Date: May 13, 2020Maps: Ben Hur and Daulton Topographic ...

Same dirt road close to home but a different spur road off of it gave me a looped adventure back to O’Neals Meadow, searching for flowers and history. Men weren’t the only homesteaders in this neck of the wood. Cora Ives lived here, ranched here and was quite the adventurer. She also wrote articles for Fresno newspapers about wildflowers, Native ...