Tomorrow we’ll head down to the Trinity Alps in Northern California for a 2 night backpack. I really love this wilderness area, which is spectacular, sublime, and always uncrowded. This will be our third trip to the Canyon Creek Lakes part of the Trinity Alps and we’ll camp about 4 miles in, hopefully at the spot above the little waterfall.

Another 4 miles in the next day without heavy packs will take us up into the heart of the region, three lakes in a valley surrounded by granite peaks of up to 9000 feet. The last trip here was 3 years ago and we’d just spent a week in Yosemite but I kept thinking how great the Trinities are as a place to really immerse yourself in the splendor of California mountains and woods.

Although the Trinity Alps are not as spectacular as Yosemite (I’m not sure any place on earth can compete with the many unique vistas in Yosemite Valley), they offer a lot more solitude, similar beautiful scenery, and the kind of insight into the workings of the world you just can’t get unless you surround yourself in a cathedral of granite, mountains, and forest that has remained largely unchanged for thousands and thousands of years.