Wilderness Experienced

By Michael Lipsky For many years I had wanted to return to the Elysian Fields, an off-trail backcountry area of trackless meadows in the Mount Rainier Wilderness within Mount Rainier National Park. The opportunity arose when I joined my son, Josh, and three of his friends on a backpacking trip a few years after they…

By Frank Keim We’re camped on the Hulahula River,and after dinneron a balmy nightfive of us marched like caribousingle fileupriveralong a narrow animal trail to a tall pingosculpted long ago from ancient ice melt,and there we saton its blunt rim,peering into a black clearwater pondbelow. The mirror of the little lake shimmered in the slanting raysof the…

By Brett Haverstick Marty met us at the Bear Creek Trailhead at 9 a.m. We left my car in the lot, and she shuttled us over to Blodgett. Tim and I unloaded our packs, and went over our itinerary one last time. We expected to be back at Bear Creek in 5-6 days and then…

By Brett Haverstick I arrived at the Corn Creek trailhead about 4 p.m. in the afternoon. The sun was still hot, and the river canyon felt like an oven, particularly for May. After a few hours of hiking along the trail, I reached Horse Creek, a small tributary of the Salmon River. The creek was…

by Harriet Greene Wind River Range, Bridger Wilderness, Pinedale, Wyoming:  The West was drier than it had been in years. Two nearby fires were almost under control. Elkhart Park was closed as well as the south entrance to Yellowstone, nowhere near our direction. After thirteen hours on the road we arrived at our friend’s home…

by Suez Jacobson A long wait – almost 50 years – to learnHow deeply and completelyThe wild magic of the Boundary WatersCould burrow. A self-identified mountain girlLost to still, flat black waterContained by granite outcroppingsLayered in midnight green pinesTopped with iridescent spring birches. In a place of pure stillness. A quiet a city dweller doesn’t…

by Howie Wolke In late October, Marilyn and I headed south for a 226 mile 21-day float trip down the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River. There were four of us, in two rafts. For most of the 20,000 or so folks who annually float the Colorado, the scenery and numerous challenging rapids are big…

By Paul Willis There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up.  —René Daumal, Mount Analogue Sitting here, high on the shoulder of a peak in the Ansel Adams Wilderness, I am looking down at a grassy swale where I startled a herd of eleven…

By Ned Vasquez For many years, dating back even to my childhood, I have dreamed of spending time in the Alaskan wilderness. In August, 2019 this dream became a reality when my middle daughter and I spent 9 days rafting the Kongakut River in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Our trip was organized through a…

By Frank Keim Old days drift slowly into new daysand the white eye of the Arctic sun rollsbright across the night,as we treksouthup the Hulahula River,named more than a century agoby Hawaiian whalers strandedon an ocean cold and frozenbefore its time. We stop at vestigesof ancient Eskimo campswhere the only traces areoil lamps made of…