What's That Old Saying About No Bad Weather?
Hiking when the weather looks bad, plus crowded trails, critters that glow, the return of El Niño, a new live event, water hikes and more
howdy
Here in the Northwest, we’ve had a nice warm taste of spring and early summer, but the weekend forecast was cold. Low to mid 50s. And “moderate to heavy” rain for several days. One local forecaster predicted a “drought-buster” weekend, which in the grand scheme of things is great but maybe not quite so great when you’re planning a big hike to check out some waterfalls.
So I made it through Saturday and was able to enjoy a Rubik’s Cube-themed Pedalpalooza ride in Portland before I needed to break out my winter jacket again (for those who don’t know the joy of this, Pedalpalooza is a summer-long open bike festival, where volunteers organize themed rides every day from June through the end of August. It’s honestly one of my favorite things ever). My trailhead permits were for the following day, and the rain kicked in early.
A few weeks prior, when temperatures were hot enough to inspire people to start jumping into the rivers, I had picked out a trail along the Lewis River in Washington with a series of massive waterfalls. It’s a popular enough area that the Forest Service issues limited day-use permits ahead of time, and I was hoping to get in before the big summer onslaught. As we drove through the Columbia River Gorge in sheets of rain that dropped visibility to white-knuckle-on-the-freeway levels, I had two thoughts: “Should I just wait for better weather?” and “Well, we’ll probably have the trail all to ourselves.
I’ve mentioned this before, but as someone who learned how to hike in the Southwest, where you generally just stay inside on the few days that it rains, overcoming this hydrophobia has been a bit of a challenge now that I live in the Northwest, where it rains all the freaking time. That Angeleno mindset has prevented me from really digging into my new local trails, and this year I decided to make more of a conscious effort to fight those old mental habits to get outside even when my brain classified the weather conditions as “lousy.” I also used it to justify some waterproof gear purchases to gas that engine, too.
So we drove out, deep into the Gifford Pinchot National Forest with zero cell phone reception for almost the entire way. And by the time we arrived, the downpours shifted to drizzle shifted to broken clouds, with rays of sun pulling small whisps of evaporated water vapor out of the spongy pine duff. Rainwater trickled through volcanic rock cliffs, creating wall-hugging forests of moss and maidenhair ferns. And even with a few rain showers that moved through, we didn’t need to pull out our jackets because the tree canopy did most of the water deflection work for us.
Oh, and the waterfalls were incredible and we only saw a handful of other people on this very popular trail. And I spotted a native northwest monkeyflower, too. Maybe I’ll get used to this kind of hiking after all.
The Big Story
Something to talk about
The Most Popular National Park Hikes
We all love a good list, right? Especially when you can source that list from Google Trends for a quick and easy lineup. A few outlets ran this story this week, but something was in the air recently that inspired people to check Trends data on hikes from 2004 to 2023 to find the most searched-for national parks.
Zion leads the pack, followed by Rocky Mountain, Glacier, Shenandoah, and Yosemite. Nothing shocking in that mix, but this piece in Conde Nast Traveler also looks at some of the most searched-for hikes in each park. Zion gets Angel’s Landing, the Subway, and Observation Point and Yosemite highlights Half Dome and Glacier Point.
In May 2023, Google also tracked down some other popular hikes throughout the country, which included Griffith Observatory in Griffith Park! That’s probably surprising to a lot of people, but Griffith Park does see more than 12 million visitors a year, which dwarfs almost all of those other National Parks.
Whether you’re looking for hiking inspiration or hiking trails to avoid because of crowds, this is good info to keep tabs on. Maybe I’ll have to get into the habit of checking Google Trends more often …
RELATED:
Get your signed copy of Discovering Griffith Park—the first and only in-depth guidebook to Griffith Park
Modern Hiking
Good stuff from the Modern Hiker site
We’ve got two decidedly epic hikes this week that focus on water—one in the southwest and one in the northwest.
Go Gila Wild
First up, we’ve got an incredible 3-day backpacking trip on a wide and wonderful loop in New Mexico’s Gila Wilderness, courtesy of Andrew Shults. Andrew took his film camera on nearly 42 miles of truly spectacular western scenery—and through over 130 river crossings—for an in-depth trail guide, including how to deal with permits and travel.
Three for the Price of One
As I mentioned up at the top of the newsletter, I went out into the Gifford Pinchot National Forest during some fun summer rain to explore the Lewis River Trail, which in addition to being a really lovely temperate rain forest hike also spotlights three enormous and picturesque waterfalls along the way. Navigating the permit and reservation process might be a pain in the butt in the warmer summer months, but the scenery is worth it.
New Live Event!
I’m very excited to announce that I’ll be giving an online presentation about the best hikes in the Los Angeles area, courtesy of the Torrance Library. The Torrance Library was kind enough to host me for these events before, and I’ll be doing my jam-packed slideshow and hanging out afterward for Q&A. The event is free, and I’d love to see you there!
The presentation is on Monday, July 10th at 6PM. Get your Zoom link by emailing the library by July 7th. You can also call 310-781-7599 for more info.
Tell Your Friends!
If you get this newsletter in your inbox, you got an announcement about this yesterday, but JUST IN CASE—Substack is now letting me give some perks away to people who refer their friends to sign up for the Modern Hiker Newsletter, so if you get a few of your favorite folks to subscribe (free or paid), you can get access to the paid-subscriber tier here. And hey, wouldn’t you know it, I just added some new perks to the paid level, including rotating discount codes for books and t-shirts, a subscriber-only chat, shout-outs and more.
Refer your friends and check the leaderboard here!
Your Parks
Your Places
More People in Parks
I kind of feel like every year I’ve been writing about the outdoors, this happens: federal agencies release attendance numbers for the previous year. People see those numbers increase, often to a record number. Then, pundits scramble to find a single reason for that increase, whether it’s an increase or decrease in gas prices, inflation, entry fees about to rise, or global pandemic. But I think it’s just time to admit that outdoor recreation is a thing that more and more people are getting into and it’s time we started building out our national and local park infrastructure AND making sure these places get the funding they need and the crowd control to keep them in good condition.
If you’re looking to get a good grasp on this complicated issue, The Conversation has a great primer piece on some of the different ways jurisdictions are managing crowds, users who may want to enjoy these lands in different ways, and budget shortfalls. Although most people tend to get very defensive and prickly at the notion or additional permits or shuttles, it’s usually good to have an idea of what’s in the toolbox to use to make sure those places we love don’t get loved to death. (And believe me, I get it—the trail I wrote up for the site this week has a not-insignificant number of hoops to jump through to get there.)
Wildlife Crossing
Wildlife and the Outdoors
Nature’s Glow Up
Warmer weather means warmer nights, too, which is the best time to go for some nocturnal nature exploration to see what’s going on when you might otherwise be in bed. Case in point: bioluminescence, which is the science word for “living things that glow.” Southern California’s coastline can get a glowing surf every once in a while if the conditions are right, but if you’re looking for something a bit more reliable, Atlas Obscura has compiled a list of 14 places around the globe where you can see nature’s light show. The list includes Sequoia National Park and lots of other trip-worthy destinations.
One More Thing
Oh yeah, before I go …
As someone who is learning how to ski, I found a subscription to the mobile app OpenSnow super useful. You get tons of historical data on snowfall for different ski areas and mountain ranges, and in the summer months you get access to OpenSummit, which tracks wind gusts, wildfire smoke, and lots of other weather conditions (no affiliate links there, I just really dig these apps!). But they also send out in-depth emails about weather conditions, and their recent message announces the official onset of El Niño conditions for the first time since 2019.
Now obviously you can’t predict specific weather events this far in advance, but their post does go into lots of detail about what is more likely in the coming months: namely, a wetter and warmer summer (especially for the Northwest), a slightly cooler mid-summer for Southern California, the Great Basin, and Four Corners, and a hotter and drier late summer across the West.
Also, OK FINE. Here:
Until next time, Happy Trails.
I liked the voice over. Gives my eyes a break after staring at phone and computer screens all day.