Let’s explore around Tacoma, Mount Rainier, Sumner, Puyallup, and University Place in Washington’s Pierce County…

With a blast of autumnal colors…

A tree-lover’s heaven! Good thing I am a tree lover…

One of — if not the very —best waterfalls in Mount Rainier National Park…

Even on a windy day you are guaranteed a lovely spectacle…

An oasis at the base of the mountain…

An easy walk past tall trees and beaver ponds in the shadow of Mount Rainier…

Visiting Narada Falls, Longmire, Paradise, Alder Lake, and more…

A funky little mining town along state highway 60, easy to ignore as you drive into the beautiful Superstition Mountains and Tonto National Forest. But it’s worth a stop, particularly for the Boyce Thompson Arboretum…

Walking (or snowboarding or snowshoeing or skiing) on an ice field at 9,000+ feet is not something you probably do every day in summertime…

A subdued and compact delight, tucked into the folds of towering, rolling mountains; and behind them rest enormous glaciers, reminding one just how insignificant we really are, like ants on the earth…

Along the Taku, you feel the essence of frontier here, thrilling you with its freedom and its dangers…

Built in the 1937 as part of the Federal Works Progress Administration, Timberline Lodge is a spectacular example of…

Head up the Taku River in your flat boat, east of Juneau along the Alaska-Canada border, you might find yourself at a place known affectionately as Animal House...

The tomb was built over two thousand years ago. Our guide said the site was chosen by King Antiochus so that his grave could be the first thing in the kingdom that caught the rays of sunlight in the morning, and the last thing to catch them at sunset...

Any list of the must-see spots of northeastern Turkey in my mind has to include the ruins of the city of Ani, which you will find in the Kars region, right along the border with Armenia. There are two parts actually, the former city overlooking a river valley, and a countless cave dwellings below along the river...

During my 2014 Come See Turkey experience, after visiting Sümela, we traveled from Trabzon to Kars, and we stopped for a bit in the town of Uzungöl, a lovely mountain retreat in the Çaykara district that would be at home in Switzerland...

Leaving Trabzon after our adventures there, we in the Come See Turkey group made our way through the Pontic and Kaçkar mountain ranges toward Kars. It was amazing to see the changes in environment, topography, and culture as we traveled through river valleys, snowy alpine passes, and down into steppes... 

In June 2017 I briefly visited gorgeous Tahoma, aka Mount Rainier, on a day of adventuring with Travel Tacoma. 

In January 2015 I explored Opal Creek and the quasi-ghost town of Jawbone Flats (population 5) in the central Cascade Mountains in Oregon. The area is thick with gorgeous fir trees, and the water in the creeks and rivers is crystal clear.  It's so clear in fact that when it pools, it looks insanely, surreally blue...  

In December 2014 I went up the Wahclella Falls trail, one of the best little hikes in the Columbia River Gorge. To get there, you...

After a tough week with a very, very tough photoshoot at a hospital, I took a day off to just grab my swimming trunks and head off to some of the fabulous lakes south of Mount Hood in Oregon. By the time I arrived, a lovely morning fog had burned off and bright sunshine warmed the air. I hit Trillium Lake, Little Crater Lake, and Timothy Lake in Clackamas County, and briefly Clear Lake in Wasco County...