Trevor Huxham

The Wave As I sized up a formidable switchback, my gut told me, “don’t even think about it!” That morning, my hiking buddies and I had trekked across a field of sagebrush, junipers, and yuccas into a small valley, gradually making our way up a gentle canyon wall in search of natural arches as a warm-up before continuing onto The Wave, a dazzling orange-and-white-striped rock formation on the Arizona–Utah border made famous by a Windows 7 wallpaper . After successfully finding the stiletto-shaped High Heel Arch and cetacean Moby Dick Arch, we were inspired to continue hiking further up in search of Dicks Arch, discovered just one month before. Moby Dick Arch Brian and Steve had already made it up, and I was next in line. I felt stuck—how was I supposed to make it up this sandy rock face with hardly anything to grab a hold of? I alternated between freezing in place and attempting to f...

Wild open spaces have been important to me ever since I was a little kid. During recess or Field Day in middle school, my classmates and I would often hang out in the creek behind the school building on former farmland in the exurbs north of Dallas . We built little shelters out of dried brush plants, blazed trails, and even explored the riparian ecosystem on a greenbelt north of the property. All this unstructured time was a formative experience for me because it gave me freedom to play, imagine, and breathe. Experiences like this are why I keep going back to the wilderness as an adult and why I did a day-hike in the fantastic landscapes northwest of Lake Powell over last Veterans Day weekend. The Wahweap Hoodoos Five reasons why wilderness is important It’s undeveloped and untouched by industry.  In contrast to National Parks, state parks, or even city parks, federal wilderness areas by their very nature lack developed facilities and remain off-limits to extractive ...

An impromptu weekend roadtrip last fall took me from Phoenix north to the Arizona-Utah border, where I split my time between Kanab, Utah, and Page, Arizona. U.S. Highway 89 runs between Kanab and Page—two of the most isolated towns in the country—passing through some of the most desolate, stunning scenery on the way. U.S. 89 also skirts the southern edge of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, a national park that basically acts as a preserve of all the federally-owned land between Bryce Canyon National Park and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. A roadside pull-off led me right inside the park boundaries to the Toadstool Hoodoos, otherworldly formations eroded from the rock by wind, rain, and snow. The hoodoo Because the park spans so much of far-southern Utah, it’s difficult to grasp what exactly it contains. Most folks typically split it up into wedge-shaped thirds. The western section encompasses the Grand Staircase, a vast domain of successive plateaus that a...

Old stone bridge I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the countless parks and green spaces that surround Santiago de Compostela make the city such a great place to call home. From the Alameda , where you can see and be seen (or just go jogging), to Belvís , where you can lay out on the hillside and have a picnic, Santiago is truly blessed with pleasant public spaces where you can escape the noise and demands of the city and breathe in some fresh air. Spring flowers No part of town gives you a better connection to the natural world than the footpaths that follow the course of the Sarela River. Trailblazed several years ago, the Paseo Fluvial do Río Sarela  traces a tranquil creek as it trickles down the western edge of Santiago from the north to the southwest.

One of my favorite things about the U.S. is our country’s rich heritage of natural monuments, from Arizona’s Grand Canyon to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. I grew up taking family road trips out west to see the national parks and always hopped at the opportunity to go camping in The Natural State with my college’s Outdoor Rec program. Dusk in the Cares River Gorge Apart from Galicia’s Cíes Islands and the Praia das Catedrais beach , my travels in Spain have been mostly limited to cultural treasures like cathedrals, castles, and cooking; natural wonders have been sorely lacking in my itineraries. I made sure to fix this problem during the road trip my housemates and I took across Spain’s northern coast back in November: after getting coffee in cozy Cangas de Onís and appreciating la España profunda  (“deep Spain”) at Covadonga , we drove deeper into the heart of the Picos de Europa National Park. Literally the “Peaks of Europe,” this compact collection of mountains sit...

Hiking through the forest One of the things I love most about getting to live in Santiago de Compostela is having so many great hiking opportunities available within an hour of my doorstep. I talked about the various hikes you can take from Santiago on the blog a couple months ago, but I thought one of them merited a post in its own right. While the most popular place to get an amazing, panoramic view of Santiago is from the summit of Monte Pedroso to the northwest of the old town, there’s another mountain to the southeast that offers similar vistas but with zero crowds: Monte do Viso. Almost at the summit Snuggled in between the futuristic Cidade da Cultura complex and the pilgrim checkpoint of Monte do Gozo, the barren, rocky summit of Monte do Viso looms over the heavily-trafficked Autopista do Atlántico below. The “ viso ” part of the name is a Spanish and Galician word that means “height or elevation, high point or place, which you can see and describe a lo...

If the region of Galicia has a counterpart state in the U.S., it would have to be Arkansas, if only for the latter’s state moniker, “The Natural State.” Like Arkansas, Galicia is rugged, forested, and a little hilly, and, in my opinion, it has the most beautiful countryside in Spain. Not only does the region have gorgeous coasts and beaches , it also has simply wonderful interior landscapes. Living in Santiago de Compostela has given me a chance to get a taste of Galicia’s natural beauty by means of various hiking trails and mountain summits. You can see most of Santiago’s old town in around a day, so if you’re ever passing through here, definitely take some time to leave the city life for the outdoors! 1) Monte Pedroso View of Santiago from Monte Pedroso, Pico Sacro in the distance The “Stony Mountain” rears up directly northwest of the old town and is even visible from the central Praza do Obradoiro, just past the Parador hotel. If you’re short on time but looking for that...

Castro ruins If you chase the western coast of Galicia all the way south to the Portuguese border, you’ll end up at the mouth of the Miño River and the compact fishing village of A Guarda, too. I took a daytrip to this remote corner of northwest Spain while exploring Vigo back in January and really enjoyed this quiet—and historical—taste of coastal Galicia. Castro ruins After a glorious seaside lunch of croquetas  and steamed mussels, I left the city center of A Guarda and began hiking up Mt. Santa Trega. The footpath passed through eucalyptus and pine woods, and even a rainshower. But after a brief, 45-minute climb, I emerged at the summit, the site of some pre-Roman ruins. Called a castro,  these walled, Celtic-era settlements consisted of circular stone huts capped with thatched roofs, and they endured throughout the Roman period. The castro de Santa Trega  is one of the most famous in all Galicia, simply because the archaeological work done over the cen...

View of Santiago de Compostela Many Spanish cities are relatively flat and easy to walk around, from Barcelona  to Sevilla to Córdoba . Santiago de Compostela, in the country’s northwest corner, was built on a series of hills and bluffs on the high ground between the Sarela and Sar rivers, so you tend to get a good workout going to work and getting the groceries here. Sunset The surrounding area is hilly as well, with the distinctive, pointy  Pico Sacro rising up to the southeast and  Monte Pedroso  looming right outside of town to the west. You can enjoy the best views of the city from the summit of this mountain just an hour-long hike from the Praza do Obradoiro in front of the cathedral. Trail Crowded neighborhoods give way to rural mansions and farmland, which in turn surrender to the fragrant forests of pine and eucalyptus trees that cover the foothills. Trees While Santiago is by no means a huge city, it’s always nice to go up ...

Galicia is (in)famous for being rainy; upon explaining to my Andalusian friends and teachers that I would be moving up north last year, they would almost instantly exclaim how much it rains here. However, I’ve been keeping track of the weather, and so far, it really hasn’t been all that bad. In fact, for five whole weeks in November and December, we had, at most, a single day of rain. Looking out towards Santiago During this welcome dry spell, a few American friends in town and I took advantage of the nice weather and made a little daytrip from Santiago de Compostela to hike up a mountain called Pico Sacro.  The name means “Sacred Peak,” but I’ll explain the mystical origins of the title below. Only half an hour outside of town, Pico Sacro rears up and gives a grand panorama of the surrounding areas from its summit. An easy, rewarding hike (Source: José Camba ) Hiking up the mountain wasn’t a walk in the park, but it wasn’t extremely strenuous, either. Just an ...

After walking 115km (72 miles) along Spain’s Camino de Santiago  pilgrimage route in June, I finally arrived at the end point to the Way of St. James: the city of Santiago de Compostela. Hooray! It was an amazing feeling to look up at the Baroque façade of the cathedral in the Praza do Obradoiro on that gray Sunday morning, but my journey was not finished yet— there were three more days left! Fisterra, at last Although my Camino across northwestern Spain formally ended at the cathedral of Compostela, I decided to take the plunge and continue walking 89 more kilometers west, all the way to the ocean. Three long, hard days later, the Atlantic was in my sights. What the Camino to Fisterra is View this post on Instagram 89km (54 miles) and a nasty blister later, I made it to Fisterra, or Spain's version of Lands End. I just...don't want to walk for a month now >.< // #fisterra #galicia #spain #travel #hiki...

Between June 5th and 9th of this year, I completed a major life goal by walking the Camino de Santiago,  the ancient pilgrimage route that runs across northern Spain and ends at the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela where the remains of St. James, son of Zebedee (a.k.a.,  Santiago ), are reportedly buried. Me having finished the Camino Although ostensibly a religious route, the Camino is as much adventure and traveling as spiritual exercise. I only hiked 115km of it, but trekking 25km or more each day was a pleasant challenge and introduced me to the beautiful countryside of Galicia, the northwest region of Spain. I’m sure most of you have a lot of questions about this pilgrimage, so in this post I’ve tried to answer most of the basic questions you may be asking. I’m sure to have missed some, so ask anything not in here in the comments below! So, what is this Camino ? An hórreo  or granary, a very common sight in Galicia The legend goes that in the 1s...