Let’s start this guide with a lukewarm take: the Maple Pass trail is our favorite hike in the state (and potentially the entire Pacific Northwest). We’re here to bring our experiences on the trail to help you plan an incredible day out in the wilderness of the North Cascades. We love this hike, and have…
While we live in Portland now, Matt grew up in the Seattle area (in Issaquah, which is where a few of the closer-in hikes below are located) and we regularly come up to Seattle to visit friends and family, oftentimes including a hike or two during our visit. There are very few big cities with…
This hike, which traverses a barren volcanic landscape in Tongariro National Park on New Zealand’s north island, is on countless “best day hikes in the world” lists. When we got back from our New Zealand North Island road trip, most of our friends and family asked some version of “what was your favorite part of…
Is there a better way to spend a morning than hiking past a gorgeous waterfall and climbing through the brush with views of not one, but two active volcanoes? The Tama Lakes track takes you through a beautiful, desolate landscape where you’ll have simultaneous views of Mount Ngāuruhoe, the inspiration for Mount Doom in the…
When most hikers in the Seattle area think about hiking near North Bend, the first trail that inevitably comes to mind is the epic hike up to Mount Si. However, that trail is really only accessible to a small percentage of would-be hikers thanks to the steep climb and relatively long mileage that puts it…
There are quite a few things we like about the Helen Lake Trail in Banff National Park, but we’ll give you two here at the beginning of this guide. First, bursting forth from the treeline into the meadows that sit at 7,000 feet above sea level is one of our single favorite moments on the…