r/hiking

The Narrows, Zion National Park, Utah, USA

I took them out to the wall street segment and then turned back. A lot of crowds into the mid morning, be sure to do this one in the early morning!

I've been working on my photography skills by visiting places around my area that are drivable so I can learn what a good photo is and is not.

Feeling solid about this photo, the morning was cold, but well worth it.

What would you change in the edit?

I know tigers kill far more people every year than grizzly bears, but I wonder if population demographics play a role. Tigers are native mostly to South / SouthEast Asia where nearly 3 billion people live. This high population density means far more encounters as opposed to grizzlies who live in very sparsely populated regions. So my question is if tigers are actually a danger to hikers, or if they are actually like grizzlies where you just need something like bear spray and you’re safe to hike in their territory?

It’s a short and steep hike- it gains over 2,600 feet in elevation in less than two and a half miles. The pass is at about 12,100 feet. It is near Twin Lakes. Once at the pass - you can see over to the Twin Lakes and the reservoir. That side of the pass was holding a lot more snow.

I’ve hiked this in early June before and had to navigate multiple large snow field. But this year - I only had to deal with 3 small patches of snow on the trail from Sheep’s Gulch Trailhead up to Hope Pass.

It is a gorgeous hike- with stunning views.

I could only take 3 weeks off from work, ive never really hiked before so took a few days to get into the swing of it and learn to rest. Camped moat nights and stayed in a few hotels along the way. Awesome experience & super lucky with the weather :)

I hiked around Monument Rocks south of Oakley, Kansas for sunset. It is serene and I had the trails all to myself. It is worth a detour from I-70! It would be great for any skill level. There are a lot of informal trails and a short formal trail as well.

The hike is short and guided at Antelope Canyons. But efforts to get the camera aligned to create an illusion of a sea horse was a pain. Happy with the result.

A senior group that hikes in rarely trafficked nature paths in Montgomery County MD,

This is one of my favorite short hikes on Oregon's North Coast. I was the only one on the trail and on the beach.

I am relatively experienced for many years here and know the east and west bluffs thoroughly as well as climbing the face of the south bluff all the way up closer to the boat launch. I have never been to the far right of the south bluff or the basin. Can the basin be a route up? Is there a standard route to devils nose?

The Tongariro Alpine Crossing doesn’t really have a summit, and it feels less like a hike and more like accidentally wandering onto another planet. I’ve done it twice, and I remember the Emerald Lakes: impossibly bright pools of green-blue water glowing against the barren volcanic terrain. I remember the ruthless New Zealand sun beating down on our backs as my boyfriend and I trudged across black lava fields, loose scree slopes, and the knee-busting alpine scrub trail toward the end. I remember all of that, but I also remember all the characters I met along the way.

In my experience, hikers can be unusually friendly. I think it’s because everyone is bonding over mutual knee pain and collective suffering lol.

The first time I did the Crossing, my boyfriend and I met these two young German guys on the trail asking us for water. I genuinely don’t know how they survived. They had met in a hostel, decided to do the hike on a whim, and brought a litre of water to last them the entire day. Not a litre each. One litre total. As if that wasn’t unhinged enough, these two lunatics also climbed Mt. Ngauruhoe, which isn’t part of the marked trail. The mountain doesn’t have a proper path, and they later told us they basically descended by throwing themselves down the scree slopes. Thank god both of them wore underwear, because the seats of their pants were completely shredded from the friction.

Along the way, my boyfriend and I had also been chatting on and off with this lovely older couple. At the end of the trail, we realised our shuttle bus had left without us, which is a terrible feeling after 19 kilometres. The older couple offered to drive us back to our lodge even though it was 30 kilometres out of their way. During the drive, we learned they were newly retired, had just completed a cross-country motorcycle trip with their son, and were slowly working through a giant post-retirement adventure bucket list.

The second time I did the Crossing, I went with a big group of friends. At the start of the hike, my boyfriend and I promised each other that we’d cross the finish line together. Somewhere between the never-ending zigzag descent into the forest and my rapidly deteriorating will to live, my boyfriend forgot our romantic pact and disappeared ahead with the others. I wasn’t angry, but I was mentally drafting a strongly worded relationship review. It must have shown on my face because this kind Japanese man essentially adopted me for the final stretch, walking beside me and offering gentle encouragement every so often. “We’re almost there.” “You can do this.” To this day, I still think about that random Japanese uncle every time I’m mildly inconvenienced on a walk. Funny how these things work out.