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10 Tips For Getting a Hard-to-Get National Park Backcountry Permit
By Michael Lanza The first time I backpacked in Yosemite National Park, more than 20 years ago, I applied months in advance for a permit to start at the park’s most popular trailhead, Happy Isles in...
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10 Favorite National Park Adventures With Kids
By Michael Lanza The crowning achievement of our National Park System is that we have preserved such uniquely beautiful and significant pieces of nature in perpetuity. But the payoff for America’s...
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My 25 Most Scenic Days of Hiking Ever
By Michael Lanza You’ve had days like this. Maybe it was a dayhike, or a single, exceptional day on a backpacking trip or hut trek—one so gorgeous and inspirational that it forges a lasting memory as...
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The 10 Best Dayhikes in Yosemite
By Michael Lanza I’ll say it up front: The U.S. National Park System is without equal. The natural beauty, variety, pristine character, and scale of it have no parallel in the world. And everyone...
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The 20 Best National Park Dayhikes
By Michael Lanza America’s most stunning landscapes are protected within our 59 national parks, and some of the finest corners of our national heritage can be reached on dayhikes. Many can be done by...
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Extreme Hiking: America’s Best Hard Dayhikes
By Michael Lanza Imagine this: You’re heading out on a long, beautiful hike deep in the backcountry, but instead of a full backpack, you carry a light daypack. You’ve avoided hassles with getting a...
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Ask Me: Is Early June Too Early For Hiking Mount Whitney and in Yosemite?
Michael, My wife and I, mid-30s, are planning a getaway week (from our kids 3 and 5) for the first week of June. We’ve booked cheap round-trip flights from Cleveland (900’ above sea level) to Las...
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Backpacking 150 Miles Through Wildest Yosemite
By Michael Lanza In early evening on a bluebird September day, deep in northern Yosemite National Park, my friend Todd Arndt and I—with legs a little weary—reached our fourth pass on a 23-mile day,...
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Ask Me: Where to Backpack First Time in Yosemite
Hi Michael, Going to Yosemite this year, 4-day trek. The Valley and hopefully Half Dome. Never been. Any suggestions? Jody Cibolo, TX [Originally sent as a message to facebook.com/TheBigOutside] Hi...
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The 5 Best Backpacking Trips in Yosemite
By Michael Lanza After years of exploring all over Yosemite on numerous backpacking trips, I’ve learned two lessons about it: Few places possess Yosemite’s breadth and variety of scenery and inspire...
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5 Perfect National Park Backpacking Trips for Beginners
By Michael Lanza So you’re a novice backpacker, or you’re backpacking in a big, Western national park for the first time, or you have kids you want to take on a relatively easy backpacking trip—and you...
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The 10 Best National Park Backpacking Trips
By Michael Lanza Olympic, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Glacier, Zion, Grand Teton, Mount Rainier, Canyonlands, Sequoia, Great Smoky Mountains. To backpackers, these names read like a list of America’s...
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12 Expert Tips for Finding Solitude When Backpacking
By Michael Lanza Solitude has always reigned as one of the holy grails of backpacking: We all dream of finding that lonely campsite deep in the wilderness with an amazing vista, or hiking for miles or...
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Hiking Half Dome: How to Do It Right and Get a Permit
By Michael Lanza No hike in the country really compares with Yosemite’s Half Dome. The long, very strenuous, challenging, and incredibly scenic day trip to one of the most iconic and sought-after...
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Yosemite’s Best-Kept Secret Backpacking Trip
By Michael Lanza A bit over a mile into our first day backpacking in Yosemite, as we round a bend in the trail, Half Dome suddenly rears up in front of us, looming over the horizon like an asteroid...
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How to Get a Yosemite or High Sierra Wilderness Permit
By Michael Lanza Ah, the High Sierra. Yosemite. Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks. The John Muir Wilderness and Ansel Adams Wilderness. The John Muir Trail (lead photo, above) and Pacific Crest...
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Backpacking Yosemite: What You Need to Know
The first major Western national park I backpacked in was Yosemite. I wanted to begin exploring America’s big, iconic wilderness parks—and like a lot of backpackers, I thought: Where else would I...
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10 Great John Muir Trail Section Hikes
By Michael Lanza Like moths to a flame—or perhaps pikas to talus—at some point, many serious backpackers will decide they must thru-hike the John Muir Trail. But some will wonder whether they’re ready...
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10 Adventures to Put on Your Bucket List Now
By Michael Lanza Are you looking for great trip ideas for your bucket list? Well, you’ve clicked to the right place. This freshly updated story spotlights seven of the best wildlands in the U.S.,...
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