Backpacker November - December 2021

I’ve chased snowy summits for years. Between us, though, I still prefer hiking in shorts with a light pack, and it always takes some eff ort to transition to cold-weather hiking. For most of the country, winter is the least-forgiving season. However, when you prepare well, winter can also be the most rewarding time of year, especially for backpackers. Solitude is easier to attain, backcountry camping permits are more flexible, and there’s joy in learning ways to thrive in the cold. Here’s my advice for moving comfortably into winter: Find (and maintain) a good puffy. When you’re on the move, your body makes its own heat. When you take a rest break or hang out in camp, however, you need a quality insulator to preserve warmth and stay comfortable (find our…

After decades of conservation work, gray wolves were taken off the federal Endangered Species list in October 2020. It was heralded as a great victory—the gray wolf had all but vanished from most of its historic range across the American west when the Endangered Species Act went into effect. Their howls could be heard again from the Cascades of Washington to Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park. Then the hunts started. Montana’s wolf population has been delisted for a decade, and after the drop of federal protections, they’ve loosened their rules even more: In April of this year, snares became legal, which also put several other species at risk. In Idaho it’s more dire. May saw the passage of a law that would allow 90% of the state’s wolf population to be exterminated,…

The deciduous forests of Arkansas’ and Oklahoma’s Ouachita Mountains aren’t a typical dream destination, especially in late fall. Clouds hang low and gray over the hills, and even without leaves, the branches create a dense dome overhead, obscuring almost all views. But in November, as we laid down our maps in our living room to plan out a new route, the 223-mile Ouachita Trail seemed like the best option for a spur-of-the-moment thru-hike for my girlfriend Maggie and me. For the past several years, I’ve explored new regions outside my home state of Montana by thru-hiking them. I crisscrossed Alabama by hiking the Pinhoti Trail, climbed rocky northern Vermont on the Long Trail, and traversed jungles of Costa Rica via the summit of 12,536-foot Mount Chirripo, the tallest peak in the…

I was just over a mile in on the Romero Canyon Trail when my friend and I found it: the perfect stretch of singletrack for a photo. I had just left the flatlands behind and begun climbing into the canyon itself, meandering between carsize granite boulders and cacti. The slopes around us were startlingly lush, filled with sprawling prickly pear and skycraping saguaro; beyond them, the views into the Sonoran Desert and Santa Catalina Mountains stretched for miles through the clear, still air. There was no sound but the stream tumbling through the bottom of the canyon far below and the occasional gust of wind through the saguaro forest, whistling past the cacti’s iconic bent arms. I raised my camera to my eye at every turn in the trail, but…

1 Grotto Falls Gallatin National Forest, MT Info fs.usda.gov/main/custergallatin Trailhead 45.4475, -110.9623 When the temperature drops below freezing—and in this part of Montana, that's usually in late October—this waterfall and the shallow cave behind it turns into a natural ice sculpture. Hike 1.3 miles from the trailhead to snap some photos of the 15-foot cascade and the icicles lining the cliffs around it. 2 Fish Creek Falls Steamboat Springs, CO Info bit.do/fishcreekfalls Trailhead 40.4817, -106.7768 This 5-mile out-and-back gives you two cataracts for the price of one. Upper and Lower Fish Creek Falls are both as spectacular when frozen in winter as they are when gushing in spring. The 284-foot lower falls are the second-tallest in the state. 3 Falls Creek Falls Gifford Pinchot National Forest, WA Info fs.usda.gov/giffordpinchot Trailhead 45.9062, -121.9395 Washington's side of the Columbia River Gorge has some truly impressive snowshoe…

I’m halfway down Shi Shi Beach when I see it: A perfect semicircle cut from solid stone, opening onto the Pacific Ocean beyond. Clutching my camera in excitement, I scramble over boulders and tidepools towards the point, already dreaming of a perfectly framed shot. I don’t stop to question why—I just know it will be compelling, and easy to compose, and perhaps most importantly, really, really cool. Because for whatever reason, humans like looking at nature through other bits of nature. It isn’t just modern hikers that are drawn to natural windows on the world. Throughout human history, these structures have been used as sacred sites and gathering places. One of the best examples is in our national parks: The Hopi, Ute, and Paiute Tribes of Utah consider the namesake formations…