Grand Wash / Frying Pan trail

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A short video featuring the Grand Wash / Frying Pan “loop” in Capitol Reef National Park. I’ve hiked this trail a couple of times on various Utah trips, most recently one in very late November / early December 2023. That late in the season the park was deserted, but so were the small nearby towns (checking in at one of the few hotels that was still open, the receptionist asked presciently “how do you plan to eat?!”). Food desert aside, it was a fun trip, and we lucked out in avoiding a substantial snow storm that would have frustrated our hiking plans.

(Video shot on a Canon R6 Mk2 with my 24-105 f/4L “travel lens”, rather than the GoPro / iPhone I’ve used for several other videos of late. It’s probably better footage, though handheld it needs more stabilization in post.)

Franconia Ridge hike

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Hiking the Franconia Ridge trail in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. This is a nine mile loop with roughly 4,000 feet of elevation gain, that’s sometimes described as one of the best day hikes on the East Coast. My brother and I hiked it clockwise – going up the Old Bridal Path and Greenleaf trail to Mt Lafayette, along the ridge, and then down the Falling Waters trail – and it was definitely a stiff workout!

A day hike to the Cirque of the Towers

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After a long pandemic / baby / toddler hiatus, my brother and I took a short trip out West this summer. Our original plan was to visit Idaho’s Sawtooth mountains, but we made a last-minute switch to the Wind Rivers when (as is now all too common, alas), a fire broke out close to where we’d planned to hike. The highlight of the trip was a day hike to Lonesome Lake and the Cirque of the Towers, a destination I’ve long wanted to visit that is often listed as one of the most amazing locations in the Rockies. And that’s right! The Cirque is genuinely incredible, and the 18.5 mile / 3,600 feet of climbing out-and-back is challenging enough to make for a fun day out. One piece of advice: take it easy on the final ten miles of dirt road to the Big Sandy trailhead. It’s true that you can drive there in a regular car – we spotted a small Hyundai EV parked up – but it’s legitimately rough going and it would be easy to damage your vehicle in a pretty remote spot.

Day hiking to Lonesome Lake and the Cirque of the Towers in Wyoming’s Wind River Range

Hiking in the Yukon

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Yukon’s Kluane National Park

The static pages on my website have remained, well, pretty static in recent years! Over the winter, though, I went back and reprocessed images from my hiking trip to Kluane and the Tombstones in 2010, which I’ve now put together into a brief Yukon hiking page.

Long Island’s Pine Barrens

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I’ve been enjoying the quiet trails in Rocky Point Pine Barrens State Forest, about a 30 minute drive from home. Wildlife here seems to be pretty elusive, and it’s by no means a spectacular landscape, but it’s peaceful and a good escape from the general built-up environment on Long Island.

Yellowstone 2011

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Old Faithful geyser basin, Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone bison
Old burn area near Old Faithful
Coyote at twilight, Yellowstone National Park

Looking back at images from a winter trip to Yellowstone ten years ago. These were all taken with a Canon 5D Mk2, which was not known for its weather resistance. In fact, mine gave up the ghost in wet conditions on the Berg Lake trail later that same year! But it did fine in the cold and snow.

Mount Fuji

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Climbers at sunrise, Mount Fuji

An image from way way back! I spent part of summer 1996 working in Tokyo, and toward the end of my stay joined a group for an ascent of Mount Fuji. We climbed overnight with the goal of making it to the top for sunrise, though that turned out to be a bit optimistic and the sun rose a bit before we reached the top. It was a holiday weekend in Japan and the crowds making the climb were more extraordinary than any of the scenery! (Though, just before dawn, there was quite an impressive fireball.)

Snow, sand, sunset

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Wednesday brought the first snowstorm of the Long Island winter. Compared to other places on the East coast it wasn’t too bad – about 6-8 inches – and by Thursday afternoon the skies had cleared and I went down to West Meadow beach to see how the sand, snow and sea looked. (“Sand” here is a bit of an optimistic description, but there is some and it’s always a good spot for a walk or run.) It was deserted! Sunset was quite special.

After the storm, West Meadow beach
West Meadow beach, sunset
West Meadow beach, Stony Brook, Long Island