Day Hiking America’s Best Trails in the Fall
By David Lukas
Posted October 31, 2007, at 1 p.m.
With winter around the corner, there is no better time than fall to sneak in a few more day hikes on some of America’s best hiking trails. There is an undeniable charm to this overlooked season – expect to see still-colorful fall leaves carpeting the forest floor and a world reawakened by newly fallen rain. One thing you won’t see, though, are crowds. At this time of year you’re likely to have these delightful trails to yourself.
Hiking the Point Reyes National Seashore trail.
© John Elk III. Lonely Planet Images.
Oregon's Eagle Creek Trail
No better example exists than the Eagle Creek Trail in the Columbia River Gorge, an hour’s drive east of Portland, Ore. Winding lazily up a sheer basalt canyon, this stunning trail leads you past half-a-dozen major waterfalls through a wonderland of brilliant green mosses and ferns that burst with color after a few weeks of rain. Most hikers aim for the 4.2-mile round-trip hike to Punchbowl Falls – without a doubt the most picturesque waterfall in the Pacific Northwest – while others venture onward to the cavernous overlook at High Bridge, a 6.6-mile round-trip hike. No matter how far you walk, you will be accompanied by dripping moss and countless trailside rivulets from the moment you leave the parking lot.
California's Point Reyes National Seashore
Further south along the Pacific Coast, the sprawling grasslands of Point Reyes National Seashore offer welcome respite within a two hour’s drive of downtown San Francisco. For sheer solitude and wide open space you can’t beat Pierce Point peninsula, a towering spine of land paralleling the spectacular San Andreas Fault. With the slender sliver of Tomales Bay on the east side and soaring cliffs dropping into the Pacific Ocean on the west, you’ll feel on top of the world – your only companions being soaring hawks and herds of grazing elk. It’s a gentle 9.4-mile round-trip hike to the tip of Pierce Point, but most people spend so much time soaking in the views that they’re completely happy to wander out partway and turn back at their leisure.
Massachusetts' Cape Cod National Seashore
Although the beaches of Point Reyes are lovely, few beach hikes in North America compare to the long stretch of Massachusetts’s Cape Cod National Seashore made famous by Henry David Thoreau in his 1865 book “Cape Cod.” Here, only two hour’s drive from Boston, a remarkable stretch of wild lonely coastline has been preserved virtually unchanged since Thoreau’s time. One popular option is to trace part of Thoreau’s original route by walking the 25 miles of beach from Coast Guard Beach to Provincetown, overnighting at inns along the way, but a more reasonable option is to walk north from Coast Guard Beach and turn back after a couple miles. Some hikers venture as far as the village of Wellfleet, a 6-mile hike and a lovely place to spend the night.
River at Cape Cod - Maine
© Angus Oborn. Lonely Planet Images.
Virginia's Shenandoah National Park
Located just two hours from Washington, D.C., Shenandoah National Park offers easy access to 500 miles of trail along the scenic Skyline Drive. With so many options to choose from, it might be best to begin by heading to the observation platform on Hawksbill Mountain, a great place to take in the entire landscape from the highest viewpoint in the park. You might plan on this 1.7-mile round-trip hike being a warm-up walk, but in November you can easily get distracted by the spectacle of migrating hawks and end up staying all day. Expect to see upwards of 1,000 hawks if you hang around for the day, or set aside time for a hike to one of the park’s many delightful waterfalls and secret hollows.
Bio: David Lukas writes about travel, the environment and the outdoors for Lonely Planet titles including "USA," "Yosemite National Park" and "Yellowstone & Grand Tetons National Park."
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