awesome hiking camping in NW US, West Canada?

[ViviTheMage]

Thinking of doing a 2 week road trip out west for some camping/hiking...any places I should see? I've been to banff/jasper area already, but would love to hit up some more good stuff over there.

Idears?! I love pitching my tent next to some water/mountains.

 

[Thebobo]

Glacier National Park?

Or if you want some serous back country the Wind River range just south of Yellowstone.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Don't need any serious back country, but some day hikes up a mountain are good.

Also want to know about THE SPOTS that are cool to actually pitch the tent at.

 

[deadlyapp]

just about everywhere in Washington is pretty awesome if you can handle some moisture. Mt. St Helens is on the border of washington and oregon and is a fun hike and camping trip. If you're coming a bit south the redwoods in northern california and the sierras/yosemite are all great trips.

 

[Dr. Detroit]

Spend 2-3 days getting to know the Redwood Forests in The Del Norte Coastal Redwoods Park as well as the Jedediah Smith National Park.

On the border of California & Oregon on the Pacific Ocean -

Tallest trees in the world, un-damned natural rivers, Roosevelt Elk, a magnificent area!

 

[silverpig]

If you have the time, check out the west coast trail. If you don't want to spend that much time on a trail, check out the juan de fuca trail.

Elfin lakes are good, and so is black tusk.

 

[ViviTheMage]

If you have the time, check out the west coast trail. If you don't want to spend that much time on a trail, check out the juan de fuca trail.

Elfin lakes are good, and so is black tusk.

Any specific reasons? Good views, good country?

 

[deadlyapp]

Juan de fuca is a beautiful area, you can often catch whales and/or submarines in the strait. I used to do a weeklong camping trip in that area every year.

 

[RossMAN]

Find this guy and let me know if he's the real deal?

 

[silverpig]

Any specific reasons? Good views, good country?

West coast and juan de fuca are trails through hilly / beachy / foresty land right along the ocean. It's pretty typical west coast rain forest with tall trees, streams, waterfalls, etc.

The elfin lakes are a series of lakes up high in the mountains. It's kind of like those swiss alps pictures you see of grass and flowers and lakes and mountains.

The black tusk is the dead core of a volcano in the cascades. You can hike up to it and back in a day, and if you're adventurous and a good climber, you can scramble up the tusk itself to the summit.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Juan de fuca is a beautiful area, you can often catch whales and/or submarines in the strait. I used to do a weeklong camping trip in that area every year.

This was one place we wanted to go for sure, any specificly awesome camping places to try and get?

 

[deadlyapp]

This was one place we wanted to go for sure, any specificly awesome camping places to try and get?

I only know of one on the Washington side that isn't very good camping - has a lot of beachfront small cabin/cottages though. I think the trail is on the vancouver side.

 

[Gooberlx2]

I'd love to do some serious multi-day hiking along the Pacific Crest Trail. Maybe some dispersed camping around Crater Lake or something.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Yeah, we're thinking of doing some back country now ... just realized round trip this'll be about $950 in gas alone coming from Minnesota in our xterra ... might just fly out to seattle with our gear and rent a car...will save us 2-3 days of driving too.

 

[Thebobo]

I would see Glacier
I know you wanted some more information so here goes. I have driven out there twice from DC to go back packing and we did some small day hikes as well. For day hikes there are tons of circuits trips in Glacier. it has over 700 miles of trails. Whats nice is there is the Going to the Sun road, which in itself is a must see. The road intersects the park across the continental divide. The park has free buss services all along the road so as a hiker you can get off and on wherever you want. That opens lot of day hikes and longer if you wish. Shuttle time use to be 30 minutes.

For hikes I would do the Garden Wall hike from Logan Pass to Granite Park Chalet. and then down to the loop. Take shuttle back to Logan pass. The Challet is one of 3 back county, "hotels" you can stay at, but booked for a year or two lol. Hope you don't mind heights.

Up from the Campground at Two Medicine to Dawson pass and hike the continental divide to Cut bank pass and then back down to Medicine.

Those are just the two day hikes we did lots more to do. Check out the map.

BTW ever thought of taking the train? You can hop on the Amtrak Nation Builder in Minneapolis and g right to Glacier, 3 stops and continue on to the west coast if you want and fly back. YOu can rent a car at the East and west glacier Driving back sucks .

 

[JManInPhoenix]

:thumbsup: Olympic National Park

 

[skyking]

When?
I have camped in several areas of the Washington Cascades. Where I would suggest would depend on the time of year.
If you are planning on earlier in the year, work the weather difference across the range.
Often it can be raining west of the crest and sunny just a few miles away to the east.
There are great places west, but I'm not too keen on wet tent camping so I keep the east as a backup plan.

 

[JumBie]

Waterton Lakes National Park

South West Alberta, near Montana. Just watch out for bears!

 

[WhipperSnapper]

After Banff/Jasper, it's going to be all downhill. Glacier would be a good one to go to. I'm also partial to Rocky Mountain National Park.

 

[Colt45]

The provincial parks never seem as nice as the national ones, esp campgrounds. (unless you get stuck in the ugly 6000 site ones geared to big RVs...)

 

[ViviTheMage]

When?
I have camped in several areas of the Washington Cascades. Where I would suggest would depend on the time of year.
If you are planning on earlier in the year, work the weather difference across the range.
Often it can be raining west of the crest and sunny just a few miles away to the east.
There are great places west, but I'm not too keen on wet tent camping so I keep the east as a backup plan.

end of June, about 2 weeks.

Thanks Thebobo, but man amtrak wants $442 one way for two people, it'd be cheaper, and faster to drive, and not have to rent a car.