I live in the Spokane/CDA area and am looking to visit some place beautiful and warm in January or February, preferably a national park where I can run outside in just a T-shirt or even shirtless. Even though places like Yellowstone are beautiful in the winter, that's not what I'm looking for. I was thinking of Big Bend, Zion, potentially even the Grand Canyon (will be cold at the top but was thinking of visiting the Havasu Falls). What are your recommendations?
Just what you are looking for ... no snow in any of the pictures on their website.
Zion is gorgeous this time of year. Temperatures will be mid 60s though
Zion is great this time of year, but it's still plenty crowded. You probably won't be able to reserve a campsite at the Watchman Campsite ahead of time because they will be all booked out. You could arrive at like 5 am and hope to snag a first come first served campsite at the South Campground.
Don't forget, much of Zion is a desert. If you plan to head out on a run, bring water and hydrate frequently.
Come to the Sunny Southeast. Low cost of living, and plenty of Winter Tourism.
Alabama: Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, Talledega National Forest, Grand Hotel in Fairhope
Arkansas: Hot Springs
Florida: Destin is great, and Orlando (outside of Disney) is very cool and runner friendly
Georgia: North Atlanta, Villa Rica, Stone Mountain, and the Golden Isles
Mississippi: Natchez Trace has some of the best running within a thousand miles. Great trails up north around Oxford and in North Jackson/Madison/Gluckstadt
Tennessee: Excellent Trail Running and other fun stuff outside of Chattanooga, Nashville, and Knoxville
Our lows have gotten into the 20s the last week or two; that is exceptionally cold for us. Usually we have winter lows around 40ºF and highs near 60ºF.
Death MF Valley
Disneyland
needing nice weather wrote:
I live in the Spokane/CDA area and am looking to visit some place beautiful and warm in January or February, preferably a national park where I can run outside in just a T-shirt or even shirtless. Even though places like Yellowstone are beautiful in the winter, that's not what I'm looking for. I was thinking of Big Bend, Zion, potentially even the Grand Canyon (will be cold at the top but was thinking of visiting the Havasu Falls). What are your recommendations?
Odd that you mention Big Bend. It is not one of the most visited parks ever, but it fits the bill for what you want. You won't have big crowds either. If you go there, see if you can figure out where Trump's wall will go.
Joshua Tree.
Two Southern California options to consider
1) Santa Monica Mountains. Tons of trails. I would stick with the North/West end. You can stay at a hotel or camp at somewhere like Sycamore Canyon and have trails outside your tent and have a drive along the coast to plenty of good places to eat. If it is rainy and the trails are muddy, there are good options to run along the beach on the sand or on asphalt.
http://www.venturacountytrails.org/TrailMaps/LaJollaValley/PhotoRayMiller5761.jpg
2) Channel Islands -
https://www.nps.gov/chis/planyourvisit/hiking.htm
- Plenty of cool places to explore and not see many people if you choose. The downside is if it rainy and the trails are muddy it would kind of suck. You can go to Avalon on Catalina so you have trails and places to eat and a grocery store and restaurants close by and some roads to run if it is too muddy on the trails. The downside is you have to go up a good size hill to get if you go on any of the trails.
Everglades National Park
Cumberland Island National Park.
CI is a large barrier island off the coast of southern Georgia. You can rent kayaks on the mainland and make a half-day or so paddle through the intercoastal seaway to a backcountry camping spot on the west side of the island. Plenty of porpoises along the way.
From the campsite you can hike flat, densely vegetated trails across island to massive sand beach on the Atlantic side. Island has thousands of armadillos and lots of wild horses. Weather should be mild this time of year.
If you kayak out, be sure to time your trips with ebb and flow tides. Also, don't trespass on the Navy's nuclear sub testing area next door.
Although pretty beat up from this seasons hurricanes, St. John, USVI and hop over to st. Croix and visit buck island (national monument).
From the Seattle area I would elect for Hawaii as opposed to USVI since the flight is much shorter. The channel islands off LA are nice as well, but you have to go to LA first. Volcanoes national park is nice, but more scenic runs on the big island can be had by exploring some of the remote valleys and hiking trails on the north side of the big island (Waipi'o, Muliwai and Waimanu valleys). They are steep but amazing. Just make sure to bring lots of water and shoes you can get wet.
cano wrote:
Joshua Tree.
Great call. Aside from the warm weather, Joshua Tree also covers some areas where the altitude could be of a training benefit (4000ft+ in most areas of the Mojave).
theJeff wrote:
Come to the Sunny Southeast. Low cost of living, and plenty of Winter Tourism.
Alabama: Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, Talledega National Forest, Grand Hotel in Fairhope
Arkansas: Hot Springs
Florida: Destin is great, and Orlando (outside of Disney) is very cool and runner friendly
Georgia: North Atlanta, Villa Rica, Stone Mountain, and the Golden Isles
Mississippi: Natchez Trace has some of the best running within a thousand miles. Great trails up north around Oxford and in North Jackson/Madison/Gluckstadt
Tennessee: Excellent Trail Running and other fun stuff outside of Chattanooga, Nashville, and Knoxville
Our lows have gotten into the 20s the last week or two; that is exceptionally cold for us. Usually we have winter lows around 40ºF and highs near 60ºF.
Way to list a bunch of crappy places that aren't national parks.
Big Bend is one of my favorite places. It's best in February when the wildflowers and cactus bloom. Temp should be in the 70s in the daytime, but chilly at night. Getting there can be a pain. It's a very long drive from El Paso, San Antonio, or Dallas. You'll probably have to camp because it's too late to get reservations at one of the cabins. It's 80 miles to Alpine, but you might find a place in Terlingua.
If you come in from Dallas, you can stop at Monahans Sandhills State Park to see the sand dunes or Marfa to hopefully see the unexplained Marfa lights phenomenon.
Pinnacles NP in California. As an extra bonus, it's about an hour drive from Monterey.
Like Big Bend, it's probably nicer in Feb/Mar, but the trails there are superb for hiking as the place is geographically really unique (ancient volcano that got ripped in half by the San Andreas Fault).
There is camping available on the east side of the park, but you'll be much further from Monterey should you want to head over there. Wife and I stayed at an awesome B and B near the west entrance a couple of years ago.
http://www.innatthepinnacles.com/
If you are looking to spend a little cash, I highly recommend it.
Come visit the Everglades National Park. One visit here and you'll be happy to be from anywhere else other than here. Sucks trying to train down here...
this is not a National Park, but it looks a pretty cool run. a mere 650km, so you might have to break it up into stages.
