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Hikers turn their minds to backpacking season in summer, and thousands of them covet a journey along the magnificent John Muir Trail, the 210-mile trek from Yosemite to Mount Whitney….

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Setting out under heavy packs near the gateway town of Lee Vining, we knew the day ahead would test our strength. Sixteen miles separated us from our first destination, the…

Grand as they are, it’s easy to overlook giant sequoias, even for those who visit the Sierra Nevada range often. Tahoe skiers and Yosemite climbers don’t even pass close to…

Summit day started with a 1 a.m. wakeup call, a quick bite and final equipment check before setting out into a dark and freezing night. A line of climbers’ headlamps…

For a middling fisherman like me, a nibble in a backcountry lake is a big deal, especially the first one after eight days on the trail. I eagerly reeled in…

Though hundreds of hikers per year attempt the 2,600-mile Pacific Crest Trail, my cousin Zach Padlo and I hit the wall around mile 26. We weren’t rookies but the first…

When my wife and I carried our bags down the red carpet into a plush lobby, I could still hardly believe it. In all the years we had visited Yosemite,…

After the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco took the nickname “The City That Knows How” as it rebuilt itself from the rubble. Today one might call it The City…

Those who climb the Kor-Ingalls Route of Castleton Tower, a classic adventure on a coveted desert tower, face a choice on the third pitch. There are two ways to scale…

Dawn arrived on a clear and chilly day, revealing a gentle stream, wooded hills and a dirt road that extends beyond the horizon. From this spot beside Bower Cave in…

My turn to lead on Yosemite’s Washington Column arrived about halfway up the 1,100 foot rock face. The climb’s sixth pitch was a suitable choice because it’s the easiest segment…

As we headed towards a raging Clavey Falls, I took a deep breath and gripped my paddle with white knuckles. During the biggest runoff in a decade on the Tuolumne,…

Though we’ve climbed our share of mountains, we’d never ascended one like this. Instead of trudging uphill for days in boots and backpacks, my brother Dan and I didn’t even…

A great attraction of touring the mountains is their sense of timeless beauty, offering visitors a window into the land’s distant past. California’s peaks and valleys have changed little since…

Zion National Park boasts awesome scenery, like Yosemite Valley painted cherry red. But for climbers, sandstone doesn’t compare to Sierra Nevada granite, and the desert sun burns hot enough to…

Exploring Yosemite’s snowbound high country, quiet and deserted, richly rewards hardy trekkers who labor to reach it in winter. Though there’s also much to like about the easy access mountain…

Even before the party started, our Bavarian trek was proving worthwhile. Few mountain ascents feature hot sausages and cold beer in a comfortable cabin, but my brother and I ordered…

Two gray reef sharks glided effortlessly across our path, their razor-sharp teeth gleaming in the beams of our flashlights. In that moment, nothing else was visible in our pitch-black underwater…

Four days into a 50-mile winter trek, our team reached a steep and formidable ice slope. We quickly recognized that this grade was our most hazardous obstacle so far, because…