The Washington State Hiking Podcast
Sep 17, 2026 · 15 min · 7 segments
Text us your questions to answer on a future episode Jennie shares her best fall hiking recommendations for 2026. **Craig’s hiking guidebooks** **Get on Jennie’s email list for weekly seasonal…
And this is a topic, fall hiking in general and large hikes in particular, because I love the large hikes, is something that we've talked about each fall that we've had this podcast.
But today I wanted to record some ideas specifically for this year because some of our trails are still being impacted by fires.
And also there are some places where we don't completely know how places have been impacted by fires.
that as of now, when I'm recording this in mid-September, have not or are currently open and not impacted by fires, as far as I know.
And I know you already know from hearing me say that this is my favorite hiking time of the year.
Both Craig and I hike all year, but fall is really and truly my favorite.
So the way I wanted to divide this is into a few different sections kind of by time, because depending on how you count.
Fall goes for anywhere from early September when berry bushes start changing in the high alpine all the way to like Thanksgiving or whenever the first snow flies.
And so I want to divide these up a little bit that way as far as earlier what What are some good fall hikes for earlier and later? Of course, whatever the weather is doing can impact us.
So, for example, especially with large hikes that are traditionally the very tail end of September.
in early October when the prime alpine larch season is, sometimes the snow comes and makes those hikes pretty challenging.
So with fall hiking, you really have to be aware of the earlier darkness.
Um, make sure you have a headlamp, make sure you're calibrating your turnaround time for when it actually gets dark now.
Um, And then in addition to that, making sure you have more warmer layers and more food and water than you might need during the summer.
And this is a topic, fall hiking in general and large hikes in particular, because I love the large hikes, is something that we've talked about each fall that we've had this podcast.
But today I wanted to record some ideas specifically for this year because some of our trails are still being impacted by fires.
And also there are some places where we don't completely know how places have been impacted by fires.
that as of now, when I'm recording this in mid-September, have not or are currently open and not impacted by fires, as far as I know.
And I know you already know from hearing me say that this is my favorite hiking time of the year.
Both Craig and I hike all year, but fall is really and truly my favorite.
So the way I wanted to divide this is into a few different sections kind of by time, because depending on how you count.
Fall goes for anywhere from early September when berry bushes start changing in the high alpine all the way to like Thanksgiving or whenever the first snow flies.
And so I want to divide these up a little bit that way as far as earlier what What are some good fall hikes for earlier and later? Of course, whatever the weather is doing can impact us.
So, for example, especially with large hikes that are traditionally the very tail end of September.
in early October when the prime alpine larch season is, sometimes the snow comes and makes those hikes pretty challenging.
So with fall hiking, you really have to be aware of the earlier darkness.
Um, make sure you have a headlamp, make sure you're calibrating your turnaround time for when it actually gets dark now.
Um, And then in addition to that, making sure you have more warmer layers and more food and water than you might need during the summer.
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