My wife, Amy, and I love to backpack at least once a year. Most recently, we hiked the Nordhouse Dunes area on Lake Michigan. The place was secluded, relatively unused, and offered beautiful lakeshore camping. Very relaxing for a simple weekend destination. Not much exertion required at this place- flat, short hikes are the norm. Another review of Nordhouse is available here.

In June 1997, we went south to the Tennessee and Kentucky region. We backpacked in the Big South Fork Recreation Area. This was a relatively disappointing trip when compared to Glacier National Park. The campsites in this area were dirty and littered. Also, the surrounding area had dilapidated homes typical of some backcountry areas of the region. Very depressing to see people live in squalor.... especially when the surrounding country is so beautiful.

On the other hand, our Glacier National Park backpacking expedition served as a great honeymoon in June, 1996. We hiked throughout the Belly River region of the park, entering just south of the Canadian border. The following picture is a map of our trip route. We stayed at camps 50, 53, and 52. Since we were early in the season many trees had fallen on the trail and one suspension bridge was not even up yet! We had to make a long loop to get around that obstacle. Believe it or not, it actually snowed in June! This area of the park is highly recommended by us.

To view picture in more detail, click on it. For the complete hiking guide at Glacier, click here.

We recommend the Elizabeth Lake (#50) and Glenns Lake (#53) campgrounds. Both offer spectacular views of the mountain scenary. Neither campsite had an inordinate number of bugs. However, we would advise anyone to steer clear of the Two Medicine base camp during the June timeframe. We stayed there one night and were bombarded by mosquitos and black flies!