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This was my favorite new find on our latest trip to the Colorado Plateau, last September. It's right next to Bryce, also has great scenery but seems t get about 1% of the traffic. Lower Calf Creek Falls was also fun, even though we didn't swim.

The Taconic Crest and South Taconic Trails (the latter closer to you) are both pleasant ridge walks that would fit your bill. From the latest AMC Mass. Hiking Guide, however, I was led to expect a series of spectacular summit/ledge vistas that were merely pleasant, because largely grown in...

This is how the Equinox summit hotel looked on a misty weekday morning in July 2007, when I had the mountain to myself. Note the dining room place settings, even though the hotel had already been closed for a couple of years. I thought I saw faint movement among the tables and wondered if the...

Central Mass. is packed with excellent hiking trails, as long as you can take. The Midstate Trail, which crosses Wachusett, will take you from the NH border, a little north of Mt. Watatic, to the RI border in a state park near Wallum Lake. It connects with the RI North-South Trail which takes...

If you have a broader interest in Massachusetts hiking trails, you should spring for the excellent AMC Mass. Trail Guide (10th Ed.). The fold-out maps include a fine one of the Wachusett trails.

If you find yourself near St. George around mealtime, I recommend Painted Pony, tucked away on a second floor in the Ancestor Square mall downtown. It's worth tracking down for lunch or dinner for its wonderful, tree-shaded porch and excellent food and drink.

The Utah parks we've been to, including Monuments such as Escalante/Grand Staircase and State Parks such as Kodachrome, have all been wonderful. If you had a week or two, a great clockwise circuit from Vegas would be Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Arches/Canyonlands, Monument Valley/Navajo Nation...

We've had better and worse Columbus weekends at BSP, so I'd call this average, perhaps a bit below, since at Bear Brook we had heavy showers Saturday night and again nearby for several hours Sunday, as we trudged to Lake Katahdin and back. The weather was good the rest of the time and foliage...

I had the opposite reaction. The Arm is one of those relentlessly steep and eroded trails I'd always rather ascend and I pitied the SOBOs we saw sliding down. I didn't think King Ravine was that bad, but I was ascending. Of the others mentioned, I think Huntington Ravine stands by itself. I...

I've been bitten twice over the last decade after zero for decades. The worse was on the SRKG stretch just to the west of the Mt. Sunapee ski trails. A very clear sign at the bottom said "No pets" but a well-dressed trio of humans didn't even leash an Airedale as they descended, and rounding a...

Cambridge MA is gone already, alas. It was the only store with hiking stuff that I could walk to.

This is Stair Falls on the East Branch - a set of rapids that are remarkably uniform and evenly spaced. I think that's either Billfish or Horse Mtn. in the background, to the north: This is the view from the shore by the hut just above Haskell Rock Pitch, which is on the International...

I spent my Columbus weekend in Baxter too, as I usually do with the same group of hiking pals. We were in the North section, however, at Trout Brook Farm campground, which isn't far from the Matagamon Gate. Our highlight was my second Travelers Loop, on Saturday, 10 years to the day after my...

The map in the AMC MA Guide - 10th Ed. - published this summer - is excellent.

The Eastman summit, which was open and glorious 10 years ago, has grown in somewhat since then. Still good, but less essential. Bicknell Ridge Tr. easily tops the parallel segment of the Baldface Circle Trail, so you chose well.

I answer your original question with a question: Who are the self-important jackasses who have seen fit to vandalize/steal the registers? I started with the trail-free but listed peaks around 1980, with some older, venerated peakbaggers of a generation past, the majority of whom at least...

There are regular ledges higher up, but nothing as challenging as those couple of narrow ledges on the Huntington Ravine Trail. I love Baxter and try to go at least once every year, with this year's trip still to look forward to.

I didn't find Cathedral too difficult when I hiked it with friends on Columbus Day weekend 2008. Slow, however, and I was glad we were going up it, not down (although we met a number descending). I would rank it a little tougher than Caps Ridge and Castle, however, as the scrambling has fewer...

An article in today's Boston Globe suggested that this 40-year old erred in choosing to descend the Flume Slide Trail, which the AMC Guide recommends not doing. The Guide (at least the older 27th Ed. that I have at hand) also says that the slippery ledges are nearly always wet, due to many seep...

"The point of descending without headlamps verses someone who stashed batteries and always had light points that out in spades." That's an absurd comparison. Either of these competitors could have stashed a few extra batteries in their pack and never have felt it.