hikespeak

San Antonio is a 75-foot tall multi-tier year-round waterfall carrying water off Mount Baldy. The waterfall swells in late winter and early spring when snow melt increases the flow. The toughest thing about getting to San Antonio Falls isn't the hike, it's the long drive to the base of Mount Baldy. The hike to San Antonio Falls is easy. Simply march 0.6 miles up a paved road to a dirt... Read more.

If you are itching to hike through a forest that is a postcard of the northwest, Silver Falls Loop Trail is for you. To make things even better, the 3-mile circuit (with 300 feet of elevation gain) also visits a thundering 70-foot waterfall on Ohanapecosh River. This is a premier woodland hike in the southeast corner of Mount Rainier National Park. Depart from Ohanapecosh Visitor Center... Read more.

You know you're hiking in a special place when the trail to a waterfall-filled lake in the shadow of America's most famous volcano is not the area's must-do hike. With so many exceptional trails in Washington's Cascade Mountains, June Lake Trail could easily be overlooked. This 2.6-mile hike visits a shallow subalpine lake on the southern slopes of Mount Saint Helens. There is 450 feet of... Read more.

If you were designing a landscape just for waterfalls, you would end up with something not unlike the Columbia River Gorge. Dozens of waterfalls spill from the basalt cliffs in this region. The abundance of water creates mossy natural retreats that could barely be matched even if you were designing a landscape from scratch. Multnomah Falls is the tallest waterfall in the area, and while... Read more.

Multnomah Falls is the tallest waterfall in Oregon and one of the tallest year-round waterfalls in the United States. The 620-foot waterfall is grand, beautiful, and easy to reach, making it one of the most popular outdoor attractions in the Pacific Northwest. Located in the Columbia River Gorge on the Washington - Oregon border, 30 miles east of Portland, Multnomah Falls offers something... Read more.

From a less heralded summit in the Santa Lucia Foothills northeast of San Luis Obispo, you will find triumphant views of the peaks and valleys surrounding this gem on the Central Coast. The hike from Reservoir Canyon to this 1,715-foot crown is not for the meek. The 5.35-mile round trip hike ascends 1,350 feet, and over 800 of those feet come in the final grueling mile. The effort is... Read more.

In the northwest corner of Yosemite National Park is a valley that John Muir described as “a wonderfully exact counterpart of the great Yosemite.” Since Muir's time, Hetch Hetchy Valley has changed. It was dammed in 1923 and a large blue reservoir now covers the valley. Muir opposed the dam, and fellow conservationists lost a long battle to preserve the valley. An effort... Read more.

It might be half a dome, but it's a full day's hike - 16 miles round trip from Yosemite Valley with 4,800 feet of elevation gain. Is Yosemite's much heralded bucket-list hike worth all the hoopla? You bet it is. Half Dome is an iconic element of the Yosemite landscape and the trail to its summit is a one of a kind. The hike up Half Dome is a major challenge (and a major reward). ... Read more.

On the path to Half Dome, Yosemite's most imposing bucket list hike, are two impressive waterfalls coursing down the Merced River. The Mist Trail provides the steepest most intimate experience of Vernal Fall and Nevada Fall. John Muir Trail takes a more gradual route to the top of Nevada Fall and is the most practical route for those continuing to Half Dome. Day hikes on the Mist Trail... Read more.

A pair of paved paths lead to a viewing bridge below Lower Yosemite Fall, creating a 1.2-mile loop to the foot of the tallest waterfall in North America, and the fifth tallest in the world. The western side of the loop is laid out in a line with Yosemite Falls to provide absolutely eye-popping, jaw-dropping, imagination-defying, awe-inspiring views of the 2,425-foot waterfall. This is a... Read more.