Little Susie Homemaker

Category: Hiking

  • Away from Home: North Cascades NP

    The North Cascades National Park is one of the least visited national park in the lower 48! And thankfully, it’s only a couple hours from home!

    This is one of the favorite places that my husband and I love to spend time. We will take day trips, but we’ll also take the travel trailer up and stay the week.

    Here are some of our favorites:

    Maple Pass Loop

    One of the most popular hikes in the North Cascades is Maple Pass loop. It is technically outside of the North Cascades National Park, but at the top of the pass, you will step back into the park. It’s about a 6.5 mile (my personal Strava records say it is over 7.5 miles) and over 2,100 ft of elevation gain, but the views make every single step worth it!

    It is a loop that heads up, has amazing vistas all the way up. The views at the top are amazing in all directions. As you head back down, you’re going through the woods for the last bit.

    Blue Lake

    Blue Lake is another gorgeous lake that is technically outside of the North Cascades National Park, but well worth the drive out Highway 20 through the park.

    As you walk up the trail, you can see the Liberty Bell spire to your left. Often, there are climbers working their way up. When you get close to the lake, there are the remains of an old cabin. When you arrive at the lake, the name fits it perfectly! It is an incredible shade of blue. Take your time, sit and eat lunch as you soak up the magnificent views.

    Cascade Pass

    I have to stop myself from gushing about Cascade Pass. There is nothing at all not to love about it. Even the trailhead parking lot has amazing views. This area is called the American Alps, and this trail definitely makes that nickname make sense. My husband and I eloped at the top of the pass. (Now you know why I gush about Cascade Pass.)

    This has easy switchbacks up the mountain and then the trail opens up. When the trees open up, you can look down at your car in the parking lot. Once you reach the top of the pass, there is a gravel area with large stones set up to sit and enjoy the view overlooking the valley below. It truly is a magical place!

    You can hike down the valley in the picture to a town called Stehekin which is only accessible on foot or by ferry.

    Big Beaver campground

    The Big Beaver campground is on Ross Lake. You can either boat in from the resort or hike in. We hiked in and backpacked in the area and loved how gorgeous it was. We backpacked in 13 miles our first day to a small campground called 39 mile, but we had stopped just around the inlet from the Big Beaver campground. The second night, we headed back to Big Beaver stock camp, but we walked up to the main campground to check things out.

    It had boat docks for easy access from the lake. Or, it was about a 7.5 mile hike in from the Ross Lake Dam parking lot on Highway 20. It had many camp sites near the lakeshore and the bathrooms were quite nice for backcountry toilets. If you’ve never backpacked, then trust me, vault toilets that are clean and stocked with toilet paper are a luxury!

    We will definitely be heading back to that area for future backpacking trips.

    Ross Lake Resort

    The Ross Lake Resort is a bucket list item. My husband & I were able to get in to stay for a couple of nights due to a cancellation.

    The Ross Lake Resort is 15 floating cabins on Ross Lake National Recreational Area. It is the type of place that you can’t just make a reservation to get into. You fill out the waitlist for each year and/or watch their website for cancellation availability. But it is worth any amount of effort to get in.

    The cabin we stayed in was one of the two duplexes. It had a full kitchen, running water, flush toilets – not what you expect when floating on a lake. It also had a small wood stove for heat if needed and a pile of firewood outside the front door. Or, if the weather is warm, take a dive off the dock out your front door to cool off!

    We will continue to try getting in this resort as it is a quiet, relaxing trip with the most amazing views.

    While the North Cascades is an easy to drive through National Park, there is a lot there! It is well worth your time to come this far north and check it out.

  • Away from Home: Arches NP

    Here is chapter 3 from our trip to Southern Utah last month. If you missed the other chapters, read them here and here.

    Arches National Park is located just outside Moab, UT. It has become a ‘timed entry permit required’ park. Like so many national parks, it became overrun and extremely busy and they implemented timed-entry. I will say it made it for an extremely pleasant visit.

    We had 7AM permits and drove in about 7:50am. (You have an hour to enter with your permit – if your permit is 2PM, you will have from 2-2:59PM to enter the park.) We were able to enter quickly, stop at the visitor center and fill up with water and use bathrooms.

    We then headed into the park and stopped at:

    Windows Arch

    We headed into the first stop having by-passed a couple of turnoffs. The Windows Arch is actually several arches all in a small area and you can do about a mile walk if you want to do it. (North Window, South Window and Turret Arch.)

    North Window Arch

    Some of our friends saw a snake, so there are definitely rattlesnakes in the area, but I (thankfully) didn’t see or hear any!

    We walked around the corner to see South Window Arch and then over to Turret Arch. All of these are within the same parking lot. Enjoy the beauty!

    Double Arch

    Across the parking lot, down a short trail past the toilets, is another short trail to see Double Arch.

    We climbed up in there and explored around. The rocks look steep but are easy to climb if you have decent traction on your shoes.

    We then drove down the road to Delicate Arch!

    Delicate Arch

    This is a tough 3ish mile hike up to see this arch. There are viewpoints down below that you can drive to, but we didn’t go to those. As tough as it was to get to, it was worth the effort. I struggled because it was day 8 of a hiking trip and my stamina was waning by that point.

    You may recognize this arch if you’ve ever seen a UT license plate. This is the arch featured for the state. It’s pretty iconic!!

    Most of the trail up was on slickrock (which isn’t slick when dry!!) and easy to walk around. If you’re afraid of heights, this may be a decent test of your resolve.

    This trail is very exposed, so make sure you have water with you and are wearing proper sun gear.

    Final stop on this day was at the end of the road. The group went out to Landscape Arch, but I stayed in the car and snoozed. I was exhausted by this point. Mr. LSH & I plan to go back to this area in the future, so I know I’ll get to see Landscape Arch another time.

    Fiery Furnace

    The next day, we went back to the Fiery Furnace. Permits are required. Permits are available at 8AM MT the week prior to going. If you intend to go on Wednesday, then log into the recreation.gov site early the Wednesday prior to get permits.

    We picked up the permits the day before at the visitor center and watched the required video. We spoke with the ranger before heading who had some really great information. They allow 75 people total per day which makes it a wonderful experience to be able to explore without constantly running into masses of people.

    View coming out of the Fiery Furnace

    The Fiery Furnace is a rock playground. You’re allowed to explore anywhere in this area as long as you stay in a sandy wash or on rock. There are delicate areas that you aren’t allowed to step, but there is plenty of ways around these areas to explore.

    Again, the slickrock is easy to walk around and maneuver on with decent traction on your shoes.

    The park has small signs with arrows posted pointing to the loop that help to keep you moving in the right direction. There are plenty of side trails (or ‘routes’ as trails are a relative term when you’re on sand or rocks) to explore. We found the Kissing Turtle Arch and Surprise Arch, crawled into a cave, found a huge hole in a rock formation that was similar to the Golden Cathedral and saw plenty of lizards.

    After many days of direct sun, I relished the shade that these rock formations created. In spite of its name, it was cool and shady and comfortable to be able to spend hours exploring.

    Stay tuned for the last installment of this Southern Utah “Away From Home” series which will feature Canyonlands National Park.

  • Away from home: Capital Reef NP

    Growing up, my parents took my younger brother & I on some long road trips to national parks! (Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.) I loved getting to see these places to different from the flat farmland of IL. As an adult living in WA, those amazing terrains in these national parks are amazing to explore even more.

    The next stop in our southern Utah hiking vacation was to Capital Reef National Park near Torrey, UT.

    A national park pass (America the Beautiful pass) is required for these. Unlike other parks, this one didn’t have a station you drive through that checks these passes, but make sure you have it displayed at viewpoints and trailheads. Highway 12 runs through the park which I would assume is why they don’t have a pass check point.

    We arrived in Torrey, UT and stayed at a tiny 1800’s pioneer cabin that had recently been renovated and turned into a vacation rental. It was ‘tiny house living’ for sure, but done VERY well!

    Like most national parks, there is so much to explore, we couldn’t do it all in the time we had. We managed to fit in:

    • Cassidy Arch
    • Rim Overlook
    • Hickman Bridge

    Cassidy Arch

    We started our day with a stop at the Capital Reef Visitor Center and then headed up the Scenic Road to the Grand Wash road. We stopped at the end of the road and hiked up to the Cassidy Arch.

    This isn’t too long of a trail (I think about 3ish miles and less than 1000 ft elevation gain). There is an incredible viewpoint of the arch about halfway that if you wanted to stop for the picture, that would be the spot. (the picture above is taken from there)

    We continued along to the end of the trail which ends just above the arch looking down through it!! We stopped on top for lunch and then as we headed back down, we ventured out over the top of the arch! It’s so wide across the top, you wouldn’t know you’re walking on an arch, if you didn’t already know it.

    We did see someone rappelling down through it and saw a couple of anchor points where people rope in.

    Once we got back down to the Wash, we did walk up the Grand Wash for a bit, we were hot and have walked up washes before, so turned back after about a 1/2 mile or so. You can walk the whole wash back up to the main road.

    Rim Overlook

    Our next day in Capital Reef took us up the Navajo Knobs trail to the Rim Overlook. This day was partially cloudy and we loved the occasional reprieve from the sun when a cloud blew in.

    The views from the overlook are spectacular! You can see for miles! The perspective from above shows even more beauty that you see from below. It was well worth the trip up!

    We ran into two different couples up there that we chatted with a bit. We always enjoy hearing where other people have been and what they recommend!

    Next up, as we headed back down from the Rim Overlook, we veered over to the

    Hickman Bridge

    This bridge is a short walk from the same trailhead as the Rim Overlook. We got to the side trail and headed to the bridge. This is one that you can easily walk around and underneath allowing for a ton of different angles to view it from.

    This must be a very popular trail in the busy times as they have made the end of this trail a loop. (Herding cats….)

    We stopped here and ate the rest of our lunch that we hadn’t finished up at the Overlook. It was beautiful (and a bit shady) to stop and enjoy this gorgeous arch.

    When we got back to the car, we headed back to Torrey and stopped for ice cream at the Color Ridge Creamery in town. We both decided to get a flight of their ice cream. The lavendar honey was to die for!!!

    We loved Capital Reef and plan to include it on future trips to Southern Utah.

    For more from our Southern Utah trip, read here.

  • Away from home: Grand Staircase – Escalante

    *some links in this post contain affiliate links which means I will make a portion of any sales directed thru my links

    Ahh, southern Utah – you are so beautiful!!!

    We recently went on vacation to Southern Utah and visited Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Capital Reef, Arches and Canyonlands national parks.

    I’ll start with the first bit of our trip in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

    Upon flying into Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC), we rented a Toyota 4Runner and drove to our VRBO in Boulder, UT.

    The Toyota 4Runner was needed for the high ground clearance. It was comfortable, had 4×4 options if we needed it (used once) and the ground clearance was fantastic.

    We stayed in the upstairs of a barn on a working ranch in Boulder, UT. It was beautiful, quiet and dark (amazing skies at night)! The unit was large, well equipped with a super comfortable bed and bedding. The kitchen was large which made making dinners easy.

    The hiking is beautiful in this area. We will be returning! We hiked

    Golden Cathedral

    The Golden Cathedral trailhead is in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. About a 1/2 mile down into the canyon, you will see a sign where you cross over into the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

    Golden Cathedral is worth the effort to get there!!! Strava clocked this hike at 10.46 miles with 1561 elevation gain. My husband found a map ahead of time that made this hike a loop rather than an out-and-back.

    At the bottom, we crossed the Escalante River to head into the canyon to the Golden Cathedral. We changed out of long pants and jackets (Avery leggings and Ryann hoodie) into shorts (Dani bike shorts) and water shoes. The water was ‘refreshing’ and not too deep at this crossing.

    It’s then an easy walk to the end of the canyon to the Golden Cathedral! What a spectacular site! The overall hike was a typical desert BLM hike in southern Utah, but the destination was worth it!!

    This hike is on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land, so the trails can be fairly primitive compared to National Parks or what we’re used to in WA. We veered off on cattle paths multiple times and then bushwacked back to the main trail. If you have AllTrails, be sure to download the map.

    Hikes that are backloaded with elevation are not what we are used to being from WA. The hike out got harder once we started to walk out of the river valley. We crossed the river about 5 times and the deepest came to my knees. Back at the trailhead, the wind was still blowing and was a bit chilly, but after the effort up the side of the canyon, it felt fantastic!

    Escalante Natural Bridge and Cliff House Arch

    Day 2 took us to another river valley after we changed our plans to allow for adjusting to elevation, dry desert air and sun. We decided for a shorter, flatter hike than the day before and went to see the Escalante Natural Bridge and Cliff House Arch.

    This was a lovely short hike that is fairly flat. We walked through a river valley with multiple water crossings. (Wear or bring along water shoes).

    Upon getting to the Escalante Natural Bridge, make sure you cross the river and climb around in the area underneath and behind the bridge. It is spectacular and a great place to stop and grab a snack while you’re taking in the beauty.

    Head down the trail another ~1/4 mile to the Cliff House Arch. You’ll easily see the ‘cave’ in the rock and then you’ll see the arch. But make sure you look into the ‘cave’ to see the Cliff House!! (Zoom into the middle of the picture above to see it.) Incredible to see the structure still in place and it makes you wonder how anyone got up there to build it and use it. Ladders rule!

    Being the spring, watch out for poison ivy! Unfortunately, I found some. I didn’t even think to watch out for it thinking it wasn’t something in the area, but it is, so keep an eye out to be able to avoid it!

    Devil’s Garden

    After we hiked to the bridge and arch, we headed into the town of Escalante for some lunch, groceries, gas and a mocha!

    Once all of the above was accomplished, we headed back out the Hole in the Wall road for a quick, short walk around Devil’s Garden.

    This was a great, short little wander around some rock formations and hoodoos. The trailhead has a pit toilet which is pretty rare on BLM land (from what we saw). There are a couple of picnic spots too with picnic tables and grills.

    AllTrails said this was about a 1-mile loop, but it is really more of a rock playground that you can wander and climb around in. This is a great fill-in hike when you aren’t quite done for the day, but don’t have all that much more in you for a longer hike. (My feet were done after wearing water sandals that allowed too much debris in, so they were overly exfoliated from all the sand)

    Lower Calf Creek Falls

    On our third day, we got a late morning start to Lower Calf Creek Falls. This hike is pretty exposed as far as sun with little shade until you get to the falls, so be prepared with sun cover and sunscreen and plenty of water (I use this water bladder in my backpack).

    The Lower Calf Creek Falls hike begins in the campground. Grab a brochure at the start to get more information at the number posts along this hike.

    This runs along the Calf Creek and has areas with water that spread over the valley where beavers have dammed it up. There are petroglyphs across the valley (zoom in on the shadow on the wall where it curves down in the picture below)

    The falls were beautiful with a cool pool underneath. It is a great spot to plan to stay for a bit and have lunch or a snack.

    This was a fairly easy hike with some rolling spots as you navigate up and around the creek.

    When we walked out of this hike, we headed up the hill on Highway 12 to Kiva Koffeehouse! I highly recommend grabbing a drink and snack up there. The views of the valley below are breathtaking.

    Stay tuned for the next stop on our Southern Utah vacation!

  • Reducing food waste – Freeze Drying

    *some links below may be affiliate links which means if the item is purchased through the link, I may make a small commission

    Have you ever seen those foods/meals you can buy that are supposed to last up to 25 years? Those are freeze dried meals!

    Why would you want a freeze dried (FD) meal? Do they even taste good?

    Well, let me tell you!

    First the why – preppers prep, gardeners preserve (tired of canning or ran out of freezer space) or backpackers want to eat in the back country without needing a mule to carry the cooler.

    My husband & I fit into the 3rd option above (although I fit into a bit of all three). Ultra-light backpacking. WITH water, my pack is usually about 25 lbs. My husband’s pack is a bit more at around 28 lbs. (We have friends who do this with 45 lb. packs – no thank you!!)

    One way our packs stay light, making backpacking more enjoyable, is bringing along freeze-dried food. Freeze drying taking the water out making the food feather light.

    Two weeks after we got married is the first time I went backpacking and I fell in love with being out in the back country. Wanting to control the ingredients consumed, I knew I didn’t want to eat the store-bought FD’ed meals.

    The investigation into freeze-drying began! Buying a machine is expensive! Then I did the math. Based on what we were paying for meals at REI (breakfasts – $9-$13 each, dinners – $13-$16 each), it would take 40 nights for the 2 of us (80 nights total) for a machine to pay for itself.

    That math made sense to both of us that buying a machine was worth it. A medium Harvest Right Medium Freeze Dryer was purchased during the Christmas sale at the end of 2022. Harvest Right changed the configuration shortly after I bought ours and the medium now has 4 trays, not 3 like what I have.

    ***Harvest Right will be having their May Mega Sale May 1-21st, 2024 and machines will be up to $500 off!!! If you’re in the market, take advantage. Black Friday is their only other sale of the year!!

    After the first season of having the machine, it is half paid off by backpacking a total 35 nights between the two of us. In addition to full meals, there are individual ingredients and snacks available not include in that total. I consider this a big win!!

    FD’ing our leftovers allows for extremely lightweight food to pack. We take a Jetboil to boil water which we then pour into either a mylar bag or a titanium cup to rehydrate the meal.

    By making and taking own meals, we know what to expect and we know exactly what went into these meals. There is also a much bigger variety of meals than what are sold in the stores.

    To answer the second question, YES, they taste good!!! There have been a couple of things that we didn’t care for (Asian flavors – I think it’s the soy sauce that I don’t like). The most surprisingly delicious meal was fish tacos. We tried it on a whim and were VERY surprised at how delicious it was when rehydrated!!!

    The other two reasons listed above (prepping and gardening) have been a side benefit of having a freeze dryer. Having grown up out in the country, my desire to be prepared has not left me in spite of city and suburban living. (umm, multi-day power outage???) And now that I’ve started a garden, I like having the option of FD’ing some of the harvest! (FD’ed blueberries anyone!?!?!)

    There was more than one evening this past winter that I didn’t want to go to the store. Instead, I shopped the pantry and used FD’ed ingredients (carrots, celery, onion, chicken and chicken broth) into a delicious soup.

    You’ll notice in the picture above that most of my FD’ed stuff is stored in mason jars. I like being able to quickly see what and how much I have. And we’re also not wasting other materials if we have to repack something to fit better before we head out backpacking.

    I use the “accessory” button on our Foodsaver machine along with these mason jar vacuum sealer tops to seal the jars. The thing with FD food is to keep moisture away until time to use it. It slowly rehydrates from the humidity in the air and get soft and squishy and will eventually go bad.

    How does this reduce food waste you ask? It gives another option of what to do with leftovers to ensure they get eaten and not thrown out. It also is a wonderful tool to have when finding amazing deals on food (like the apple grower in Wenatchee that sells their Honeycrisp apples in the off season for $1/lb or less!!)

    It was an investment worth making for us. Freeze drying for the win!!!! 🙂 Hooray for HarvestRight!

    For more ideas on how to reduce food waste, you can read more in my previous post about Cleaning out the Fridge.