Spring is coming to a close in the Northern Hemisphere and to show my appreciation for the season, I thought I'd do a quick post on my favorite place to go backpacking for spring break! Because I love big open views, freezing and clear alpine lakes, and large wildlife, my favorite places to backpack are generally in the high Sierras of California (Yosemite and Kings Canyon) and on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. Yellowstone isn't bad either!
But in the spring, these places are typically still buried under several feet of snow, making backpacking, wildlife viewing, and swimming a little difficult! (In another future post, I'll write about backpacking in snowshoes!)
So, where is the best place to go backpacking for Spring Break (in the United States at least)? The desert! And my favorite is Big Bend National Park in the far southwestern corner of Texas. Deserts make so much sense in the spring since they are way too hot in the summer, often cold in the winter, but just right and also full of life in the spring!
Big Bend has insanely sheer and tall canyons carved by the Rio Grande, amazing open views looking off 3,000 ft. cliffs, incredible stars at night, blooming cacti, polished rocky tinajas & wild javelina that have been known to raid the campsites of the unwary.
Check out these photos from my backpacking trips to Big Bend and let me know if you think you'd ever go! Where do you like to backpack in spring? If you do go to Big Bend, be sure to check out White Sands National Monument and Guadalupe Mountains National Park just a bit to the north.
