This loop offers the best views you can get of the Bay Area, from the ocean to the Bay to San Francisco itself.

Mt Tamalpais from Stinson Beach:

View from Mt Tamalpais:

We shuttled cars to hike one-way from the southern tip of Pt Reyes to the popular Coastal Camp all along the coast. There are several five-star attractions along the way: Alamere Falls (waterfalls on the beach), several lakes just above the coast, fields of wildflowers, and Sculptured Beach, that on a day of low tide is a micro-cosmos in itself.

Bass Lake:

Pelican Lake:

Alamere Falls:

Alamere Falls:

Arch Rock:

Sea Tunnel:

Sculptured Beach:

Sculptured Beach:

Tidepools:

Tidepools:

View of Drake's Estero:

The Ventana Wilderness has the highest density of mountain lions. We crossed it one-way from east to west, starting in the middle of nowhere and ending at the popular trailhead by the beach, passing by the vastly over-rated Sykes hot springs. This wilderness is really wild. The best attraction were the yuccas.

Yucca:

Wildflower:

We thought there should be a way to hike from the Peninsula to the ocean and we found it. Friends came to pick us up at the beach.

Golden Cascades:

In a creek:

Berry Falls:

Waddell Beach:

An over-rated hike, and totally worthless after may (because the waterfalls dry up considerably if not totally), but it does offer a good view (although inferior to Glacier Point and Clouds Rest) and some thrills (for those who rock climb in gymns).

Mist Trail:

Nevada Falls:

Little Yosemite Valley:

Half Dome:

The cables:

View from the top:

I rarely hike in the snow because the snow/ice covers most of the attractions, but this was one pretty view.

We made a colossal loop of the sierras in Kings Canyon Park. We had to cross a deep creek and a big lake. Then hike cross-country to the summit of Mt Brewer (a respectable 4.000 meter mountain). Then down the steep sandy chute to Sphinx Pass. On the other side lies the basin of the Sphinx Lakes, possibly the prettiest lakes of California. Alas, not reached by any trail. Down the seven lakes we eventually returned to the trailhead at Roads End, Kings Canyon Park. This was the longest hike of the year and one of the two most adventurous.

Mt Brewer:

North Guard:

View from the top of Mt Brewer:

This hike at the eastern border of Yosemite was totally cross-country. Its highlight were the wildflowers. I now rank this area as the best one to see mountain flowers.

Wildflowers:

Fantail lake, one of the many lakes along the way:

View of the basin:

A crazy friend and myself started from two very distant trailheads: one near Fresno and one near Bishop, exactly the opposite sides of California (east and west). We had figured out a way to hike from one trailhead to the other one crossing the sierras horizontally in one day and using only official trails. Each of us met hikers who were doing epic hikes in the sierras and none of those hikers believed what we were doing. We met (and exchanged car keys) almost exactly where we had planned to meet (half way). Needless to say, the middle part of this hike was really in the middle of nowhere.

Piute Pass:

In the middle of the sierras:

Lake Florence

The hike itself to this mountain (one of the ten highest in California) is demanding but getting to the trailhead is even more adventurous because the road is not maintained. The first time we failed because it took too long to get to the trailhead. The second time i used a combination of car and mountain bike to reach the trailhead. Split Mt has one of the best views of the Sierras, because it is almost exactly half way between the Palisades and Mt Whitney/Williamson. Nobody else hiking there.

Owens Valley:

Split Mt:

This much feared hike turned out to be a surgical strike. The regular trail is over-crowded and requires permits that are annoying to obtain (Mt Whitney is the highest mountain in the contiguous USA and one of the few that has a trail all the way to the top). This cross-country route instead does not require "red tape" and it is used by very few hikers. Both the regular trail and this cross-country route to the summit of Mt Whitney are among the best in California. This one adds the thrill of "the trail you make is the trail you take". We left the regular trail after just 15 minutes. The route is not obvious, but i had done it before and this time i managed to really optimize it. You have to cross waterfalls (in fact, a triple one), creeks, a little jungle. You have to climb rocks and even a tree. You have to walk along the edge of a colossal gorge. Finally you have to climb a steep sandy chute and, when you think it can't get any worse, you have to use your hands up the last narrow chimney.

Mt Whitney:

Iceberg Lake:

The chute to the top:

View from the summit:

This is one of the legendary peaks of the Palisades. The trail to Bishop Pass passes several pretty lakes. Bishop Pass is the entry to Dusy Basin, which is worth the hike by itself. Then i left the trail to go east and coasted giant mountains to Thunderbolt Pass, from which there is another spectacular view on the region south of the Palisades. Then i climbed the peak until i reached the notch on top of the Palisades Glacier. I had been before in the Palisades Glacier, but never seen it from above.

Long Lake at sunrise (one of the 12 lakes on the north side of Bishop Pass):

Dusy Basin (the other side of Bishop Pass):

The chute to the top:

The Palisades Glacier and the "Seven Lakes" area from the summit:

Starlight Peak and North Palisade from the summit:

This was pure scouting and exploration. I left the trail after the third major lake and continued east, having Mt Darwin and Mt Haeckel as reference points, via an endless series of lakes. I found a way to cross over into the Evolution Region, a region that very few people reach on a day hike because it is so remote from any trail.

Lake Sabrina:

Hungry Packer Lake:

Mt Haeckel:

Mt Darwin and Mt Mendel:

Midnight Lake and countless others:

My friends had been hiking for 20+ days on the John Muir trail from Yosemite to Mt Whitney, and i had promised to pick them up on Mt Langley, one of California's top-10 mountains (the mountain after Whitney, just to make it more epic). We met as planned just before the summit. Langley is just above the basin of the Cottonwood Lakes, one of the prettiest basins in the sierras.

Mt Langley from Cottonwood Lake 2:

Cottonwood Lake 3:

Cottonwood Lake 4 and Old Army Pass:

Cottonwood Lake 4 and 5:

The Cottonwood Basin from Mt Langley:

Mt Whitney from Mt Langley:

We had failed Mt Sill (California's fifth highest mountain) from the east, so we decided to try from the south. This implied a very long detour to climb Scimitar Pass (which is really a peak in its own at 4.000 meters). We were on trail only for about 1.5 hour. The rest was all cross-country, using a simple topo-map. Amazingly, we made no mistakes. Alas, after a long exhausting hike we realized that there is a huge gap between Scimitar Pass and Mt Sill that was not obvious from the map. Nonetheless, the views on both sides of Scimitar Pass were worth the cross-country struggle. I am still amazed that we did what we did in just one day.

The mountains around Mt Sill:

The Palisade Crest and Scimitar Pass:

The view from Scimitar Pass:

Mt Sill from Scimitar Pass:

This was the last epic hike of the season. We left the trail four hours into the hike to climb the many peaks of Mt Keith, looking for the real one. It took a while, and there were moments of sheer panic. But the reward was the best view of the Sierras ever: Mt Williamson, Mt Whitney, Mt Langley, Mt Tyndall all in the same picture. To add to the epic feeling, we were proud to see in the summit register that we were the only people who made it there in a month or so (and before us the last visitors had been professional rangers).

The endless climb:

Circle Basin from the summit

The view south from Mt Keith, best view in California: