Buying gifts for photographers and photo enthusiasts can be a real challenge, especially if you’re not familiar with the world of photography. Many shoppers will start looking at camera bodies and lenses, but almost every photographer will already have these items in their kit. For this guide, I’m going to provide a list of useful accessories and add-ons that every photographer is sure to find useful.
A hike of Little Lakes Valley via Mosquito Flat makes for a quintessential Eastern Sierra outdoor experience. This 8.5-mile out-and-back hike passes by six alpine lakes and provides side trail options to quite a few more. Hikers will pass under the 13,000+ ft mountain peaks of Bear Creek Spire, Mt. Dade, Mt. Abbot, and Mt. Mills.
Patriarch Grove rests at an elevation above 11,000ft, and requires 13 miles of driving on an unpaved dirt road. There are two .5 mile hikes at Patriarch Grove, the Timberland Ancients Trail and the Cottonwood Basin Overlook Trail. In this guide, I’ll provide directions, photos, maps, and instructions on combining these two hikes for a 1-mile figure eight loop.
The Discovery Trail is a short 1-mile loop hike that gains a mere 276 ft of elevation within the Ancient Bristlecone Forest. Although this hike is short, it can still be a challenge since it begins at an elevation above 10,000ft. The trailhead for the Discovery Trail is located at Schulman Grove, right outside the Ancient Bristlecone Forest visitor center. In this guide, you’ll find driving directions, maps, instructions, and photos.
Julia, Owen, and I weren’t quite ready to stop walking after completing the Camino Portuguese, but didn’t have the time to spend three more days on the trail. We decided to take a day trip to Finisterre and Muxia instead. This turned out to be a phenomenal day trip and the perfect ending to our Camino Portuguese adventure.
On our tenth and final day of the Camino Portuguese, we hiked 16 miles from Padrón to Santiago de Compostela. It was a day filled with excitement and intense emotion as our Camino adventure came to a close. The pilgrimage experience is truly unlike any other, and it was a lot of fun to be able to share it with my wife and son this time around.
On our ninth day of the Camino Portuguese we walked 12 miles from Caldas de Reis to Padron. The day started out with a very pleasant stretch of walking on a dirt path before veering off to a few side roads on the way into Padrón. This would be our final night on the Camino Portuguese before The Way would take us to Santiago de Compostela.
Leaving the city of Pontevedra behind, we hiked 14 miles on our eighth day of the Camino Portuguese. Most of this stage takes place on asphalt and cobblestone, but there were a few natural pathways mixed in to keep our legs from feeling too beat up. As we approached Caldas de Reis, we walked alongside a little farm where Owen got to befriend a horse and a few sheep.
On the seventh day of our Camino Portuguese pilgrimage, we covered 13 miles between Redondela and Pontevedra. This day started out along the Ría Vigo with some amazing views of the Rande Bridge off in the foggy distance. We then completed two seperate climbs totaling more than 1400 ft, with a stop in the beautiful city of Arcade in between. Our day finished at an albergue on the outskirts of Pontevedra, where we got to watch Spain take on Portugal in the group stages of the World Cup!
The fifth stage of the Camino Portuguese takes pilgrims from Rubiãs to Tui. This is a very special day, as it includes the border crossing from Portugal into Spain over the Río Miño. Leaving Rubiãs, the first half of this stage is on natural pathways and dirt roads surrounded by woodlands and farms. The second half covers sidewalks and asphalt as pilgrims approach the large cities of Valença and Tui.