"Hikers should be ready to consider low-elevation hikes as an alternative," Barb Maynes, a park spokeswoman, wrote in an e-mail message.
5. Clouds Rest at Yosemite National Park: Yosemite's Half Dome may be the most famous high-elevation hike in Yosemite (and is also highly monitored with permits) but nearby Clouds Rest has arguably the better views.
ON a recent trip to Boulder, Colo., a friend and I were encouraged by a fresh snowfall to get up into the higher elevations and hike.
When he was in graduate school, he would often leave Berkeley after work, drive to a 10,000-foot-elevation trailhead, hike 16 miles to a research site carrying 80 pounds of equipment and set up camp before calling it a day.
The tour, which heads into Italy on Day 2, lists 8 to 15 miles a day of hiking with elevation gains of 2,000 to 3,500 feet a day.
But on Wednesday, as Sarah Palin was reportedly hiking Mount McKinley (elevation: 20,320 feet), Levi Johnston, 20, and Bristol Palin, 19, took to the cover of Us Weekly with their toddler son and a giddy announcement: "We're Getting Married!" The headline was clearly intended to shock the celebrity-gossip and political worlds, whose inhabitants wondered what it all meant.
The John Muir Trail, CA Distance: 211 miles thru hike | Elevation gain: 46,700 ft | Learn more.
Photo: Jessica Dales. 5. Roan Highlands, NC Distance: 14 miles thru hike | Elevation gain: 2,800 ft | Learn more.
I am in Colorado standing on top of Hope Pass, elevation 12,600 feet having hiked and ran up 3,400 feet of vertical gain since the morning as part of the TransRockies 58-mile staged trail race.
Try hiking or elevation training.
Hiking at elevation has a unique effect on the cardiovascular system.
