Backpacker Magazine – May 2011

Going to Extremes

Can you ever really have too much of a good thing? Once you've seen the biggest tree, largest glacier, and deepest canyon, nothing else compares.

by: Ted Alvarez

Tags:
• Destinations
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• Mt. Rainier National Park
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• Washington
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• Hells Canyon Wilderness
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• Idaho
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• Great Sand Dunes National Park
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• Colorado
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• High Sierra Trail
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• Sequoia National Park
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• California
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• Mt. Washington
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• New Hampshire
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• Death Valley National Park
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• 100-Mile Wilderness
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• Maine
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• Weminuche Wilderness
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• San Juan Mountains
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• Crater Lake National Park
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• Oregon
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• Alaska
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• Black Canyon
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• Yellowstone National Park
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• Montana
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• Wyoming
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• Utah
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• North Cascades National Park
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• Great Smoky Mountains
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• Tennessee
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• North Carolina
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Alaska
It’s all extreme
• Highest Peak Mt. McKinley 20,320 feet
• Coldest Temp Prospect Creek Camp -80°F
• Largest National Park Wrangell-St. Elias 3.2 million acres
• Largest National Forest Tongass 17 million acres
• Rainiest Place Yakutat 160 inches a year
• Most Remote Spot St. Matthew Island 209 miles from nearest inhabited island
• Largest Glacier Bering Glacier 2,250 square miles
• Most Earthquakes 5,000+ per year A 5.2 quake was recorded in Denali NP on Jan. 23, 2011.
• Most Bald Eagles 40,000—half the world’s population hot spot: southeast coast and islands
• Highest Tides Cook Inlet up to 40 feet
• Most Volcanoes 130+ most active: Akutan, with 33 eruptions
• Most Lakes Over 3 million larger than 20 acres biggest: 1,012-square-mile Iliamna Lake

→ Biggest backcountry lake: Lake Shoshone in Yellowstone NP

→ Buggiest wet: Isolated Isle Royale NP hosts biting insects in pre-1900s sizes and densities. Pack deet.


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