Best camping/hiking with dogs resources (books, reviews, website, etc)

[zd262]

Hi everyone!

As Bubba gets older, we're starting to take him more and more places, particularly hiking and camping. However in California dogs aren't allowed a lot of places, like on a lot of trails in State parks. Planning a trip becomes pretty tedious with the amount of research it involves to find out what aspects of an area are dog friendly. For example, first you find a dog friendly campsite, then you look on yelp reviews and it says it really is dog friendly, they you check the website and it lists out individual trails a dog can go on, then you pull up the trail map to find out that those particularly trails are actually just paved roads under a mile long. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Has anyone had luck in finding particularly good resources for planning trips with your dog in the great outdoors? I'm thinking books and websites mostly. Also, always love pet-centric gear reviews!

[ChoppersDad]

I use Bringfido.com. Hit the link for dog friendly trails, parks, beaches, etc. for each city.

Pet Friendly Hotels in San Francisco, CA, US

[Maxx&Emma]

Mighty Thor's mom would be a great person to get info from!

[MightyThor]

In California, look for non State Park and non National Park lands. There are TONS of National Forest areas and BLM areas where dogs are plenty welcome! Thor's first backpacking trip was in Emigrant Wildernss just north of Yosemite. Last weekend we hiked around the east side of the Sierra where the national parks don't quite reach (Inyo National Forest areas). Let me know if there are any specific areas you want more info on, I could go on for days.

[zd262]

Thanks MightyThor! I know I've PM'ed you with a few questions before too Thanks for the tip on National Forests. We were hoping to do Joshua Tree in November, but I think will save that for another time since it doesn't seem super dog friendly. After checking a few things out we'll probably do Sequoia instead.

[MightyThor]

If you want to see the desert, mojave national preserve is much more dog friendly than Joshua Tree. I think we'll be spending Thanksgiving week down there this year. We did last year, it was Thor's first big hiking outing and he did great. Booties are necessary for the cactus pokies, though!

[Indigo]

What kind of booties do you find protect against the cactus? Hubby wants to go camping in desert areas and the dogs need protection. We visited the Moab area a year ago and it drove me crazy trying to keep the dogs away from cactus. Beautiful area and so different.

[MightyThor]

Thor's first trip to the desert was when he was about 10 months old and I had no idea what to get. I looked at reviews and ended up with the Muttluks All Weather booties as kind of a shot in the dark. They have worked out fine. I've only used them on him in the desert. They have an nice thick leather sole and toe wrap that seems to do well at not picking up too many pokies.

Keeping him away from cactus and bushes wasn't a problem, the biggest problem was all the little pieces fallen all over the ground. If we didn't put the booties on we had to regularly check his paws for little stickies that would get in between his toes.

We're planning our next desert trip with him again and now that he's a year older and has a lot more hiking and outdoor activity under his belt, his paws have toughened up. I'm still bringing those booties, though!