hikespeak

Want to learn about the native plants growing in Tryon Creek State Natural Area and elsewhere in the forests around Portland? Take an easy stroll (or roll a wheelchair) around Trillium Trail. This pair of paved loops is located next to Tryon Creek Nature Center and totals just 0.37 miles in length. Markers identify the green things growing along the trail and viewing decks peer into... Read more.

Get to know the plants, animals, and natural history of Southern California at Heaps Peak Arboretum. Located near Lake Arrowhead, the arboretum is a developed piece of San Bernardino National Forest. Sequoia Trail is the main trail through Heaps Peak Arboretum, covering 3/4 of a mile with 90 feet of elevation change. The star of the trail is a planted grove of sequoiadendron giganteum, or... Read more.

You'll be grateful to find pavement and not melting hot lava on Trail of the Molten Land. This impressive trail is built atop a barren landscape of dark volcanic rock, the Lava Butte Lava Flow in Newberry National Volcanic Monument, which is part of Deschutes National Forest. Panels along the trail provide information about how the lava flow began at Lava Butte, a cinder cone above the... Read more.

Trail of the Whispering Pines is an interpretive botanical trail highlighting high desert plants in Newberry National Volcanic Monument. This short and level paved path covers just a quarter mile. Trail of the Whispering Pines can easily be explored as a 0.4-mile walk beginning and ending at Lava Lands Visitor Center. This short hike can be connected to Trail of the Molten Land, which is... Read more.

To explore an area of lake-filled basins below the Continental Divide, follow Bear Lake Road into the center of Rocky Mountain National Park. Several trails leave from Bear Lake Trailhead, including a three-lake trek to Nymph Lake, Dream Lake, and Emerald Lake. For something shorter, the 2/3 of a mile long stroll around Bear Lake has lots of appeal. Bear Lake Nature Trail passes numerous... Read more.

How significant is water in the desert? Head to Read Spring to find out, where a 0.55-mile boardwalk circles an out-of-place meadow fed by a small spring. Red Spring spills from the base of the Calico Hills beneath a ridge of wildly shaped sandstone. While most of the trails in Red Rock Canyon NCA begin along the Scenic Drive, Red Spring Boardwalk sets out from a picnic area off Calico... Read more.

Rankin Ridge forms part of the southeast edge of the Black Hills and at 5,013 feet in elevation, it is the highest point in Wind Cave National Park. A lookout tower rises above the ridge top, which can be reached via a 250-foot ascent on a 0.55-mile long single track. Take a wide dirt trail back down the ridge to form a one-mile loop. Although this hike is short, it is not short on rewards.... Read more.

Waimangu Volcanic Valley is an incredible hydrothermal area near Rotorua in the Bay of Plenty Region of New Zealand. Walk down the valley to get close to Frying Pan Lake, a mesmerizing blue pool that is the largest hot spring in the world. Cross a landscape shaped by a volcanic eruption in 1886, passing hydrothermal features and the site of what had been world's tallest geyser. An easy... Read more.

What is a thermal wonderland? It's exactly that – an exceptional landscape of geothermal features like large colorful hot springs, steaming fumaroles, spouting geysers, bubbling mud pots, sinter terraces, and even waterfalls. Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland is incredible, and outside of Yellowstone National Park, there's almost nowhere else like it on Earth. Wai-O-Tapu is located 30... Read more.

With scenery that is more verdant than the volcanic landscapes at the center of Tongariro National Park, Lake Rotopounamu Track provides a peaceful walk to a small, forest-cradled lake with inviting beaches. Lake Rotopounamu, which is also know as Greenstone Lake, covers one square kilometer. Lake Rotopounamu Loop Track circles the lake for a hike that's 6.4 kilometers (4 miles) round trip... Read more.