National Parks and Camping (advice for me + general discussion)

[CORed]

Don't just limit yourself to National Parks. They are beautiful, but they tend to be crowded, and have pretty restrictive regulations. There are a lot of beautiful places on Forest Service and BLM land where you can pretty much do what you want as long as you don't set the forest on fire or excessively disturb the cows.

[cbloom]

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Don't just limit yourself to National Parks. They are beautiful, but they tend to be crowded, and have pretty restrictive regulations. There are a lot of beautiful places on Forest Service and BLM land where you can pretty much do what you want as long as you don't set the forest on fire or excessively disturb the cows.

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Yep, this is true. I think it varies from state to state but one of my favorite camping trips was in some forest in Washington where you can just pull over anywhere and trek into the woods and set up camp, have a fire, etc. It's nice to get away from all the RV's and developed campground scene.

[bwana devil]

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P.S. If you ever saw "The Shinning", the mini series on tv, you need to visit the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park.

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how you say, "fyp"?

[CORed]

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just wanted to second Suzzer's endorsement of Utah's amazing National Parks.

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I love the southern Utah canyon and slickrock country, but summer is really not the best time to visit. It gets really hot (Bryce Canyon is an exception as it is at 8,000-9,000 feet above sea level). Also, July to mid-September is "monsoon season", which means the possibility of thunderstorms and flash floods. You do not want to get caught in a narrow canyon in a flash flood. It was always a sobering experience to be walking through a narrow canyon, look up and see a piece of driftwood wedged 20 feet above my head.

Spring (mid-April through may) and fall (October especially) are the best times to visit that area. Fall colors can be quite nice in late October, though days are getting short by then and snow is not impossible.

[Boris]

Replace Yellowstone with Glacier NP. You can still enjoy Yellowstone from a car when you are old and fat.

[jeffnc]

Yosemite is a little strange because of how crowded it can be. You get tickets through Ticketron for crissakes.

But if you're in Yellowstone, you might seriously want to include flyfishing on your agenda. Even if you get a guide, it's something you might really enjoy. Just tell the guide exactly what you want - easier fishing for someone with little experience (don't worry, you don't have to do all that crazy casting to catch trout), out-of-the-way place where you'll probably not see anyone else, more small fish, fewer big fish, etc. I've found nothing like flyfishing to get me in touch with nature and the workings of an ecosystem. Being *in* the water is much different than drifting in a boat.

[CORed]

Pretty much all of the western states have lots of public land. Some of this is boring desert (not all desert is boring -- see Utah canyon country), prairie or sagebrush country, but there is a lot of beautiful mountain country. There are lots of wilderness areas (roadless, access by hiking/horses only), as well as areas accessible by back roads (often gravel). The public lands close to cities gets used pretty heavily, but there are many places you will see few other people. In general, the road-accessible public lands are not as pristine as the parks -- sheep and cattle grazing, logging, mining and oil and gas drilling are allowed, and the sheep and cattle are almost everywhere, including in some of the wildernesses, but much of this country is quite beautiful, nonetheless.

[Badger]

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Clarification: I'm looking to stay on foot and generally stay away from busy campsites. I probably want to avoid any heavy climbing for safety reasons.

Thanks for the great replies so far.

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If you really want to get away maybe you want to consider something other than National Parks. I see you've already decided on RMNP and Yosemite. I realize these are both fantastic places, but you might want to do a little more research. For the record I'm not saying that because they are not remote enough. You just might find something that interests you in a particular way. UT/AZ will have some more crazy scenery you won't see other places (Examples- note slideshow is mislabelled as Bryce and Zion), CO/WY will have a lot of the impressive sweeping mountainous landscapes.

Whatever you choose you won't go wrong.

Here are two of awesome hikes I did in the Rockies.
Wind Rivier Range, Wyoming
San Juan Mountains, CO

Torres Del Paine, Chile Yeah, this is out of the question, but it was awesome.

I wish I could take credit for that site. Something Dreamed, but it's my hiking buddy's.

I'm going to try and dig up a post I did a while ago about gearlists. Gearwhoring is fun and expensive. You could could probably get by with just a few things, but I wouldn't have 3 tents, 2 sleeping bags and 3 sleeping pads if camping gear wasn't so great.

Don't worry about being a novice in most of the areas that have been mentioned. You'll be on well marked trails with at least moderate (for hiking) traffic.

[slickpoppa]

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Clarification: I'm looking to stay on foot and generally stay away from busy campsites. I probably want to avoid any heavy climbing for safety reasons.

Thanks for the great replies so far.

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If you really want to get away maybe you want to consider something other than National Parks. I see you've already decided on RMNP and Yosemite. I realize these are both fantastic places, but you might want to do a little more research. For the record I'm not saying that because they are not remote enough. You just might find something that interests you in a particular way. UT/AZ will have some more crazy scenery you won't see other places (Examples- note slideshow is mislabelled as Bryce and Zion), CO/WY will have a lot of the impressive sweeping mountainous landscapes.

Whatever you choose you won't go wrong.

Here are two of awesome hikes I did in the Rockies.
Wind Rivier Range, Wyoming
San Juan Mountains, CO

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Wow, both of those slideshows are awesome. What kind of camera did you use for those pics? I would definitely consider doing either of those hikes. RMNP and Yellowstone aren't set in stone, but I picked them because they are more of a known quantity and easier to find information about. I've been so busy with weddings, studying for the bar exam, and trying to plan a trip to South Africa in September, that I'm worried about having enough time to map out my routes and such. How long were the San Juan and Wind River hikes that you did? I'd definitely be interested in finding out more info about them and seeing if I can fit them into schedule.

[Badger]

As I mentioned I wish I could take credit for the site, and likewise I wish I could take credit for the pictures. Although I have some equally impressive ones from those areas with my point and shoot 6MP Fuji. It's hard to come out of there with bad photos. My friend uses a Digital SLR, I'm not sure which one. I can check with him tomorrow.

You can follow my exact footsteps in Wyoming at another friend's website. (Elevation profile lower right). We had a GPS with us that tracked it. Unfortunately the pictures attached to the journal entries were removed. You could click on each campsite and there'd be a picture of it. So that's another cool site to poke around.

Both hikes were easy doable for my new-to-hiking girlfriend, but not too simple. Right now I'm actually keeping her awake and she needs to get up fow work in 5 hours so I'm gonna check out. I'll try to write more about these two hikes tomorrow.

These are all Wyoming: