May 15, 2012: Welcome to the official web site of Tom Stienstra, award winning columnist and two-time National Outdoor Writer of the Year.

The epic trek you can do in a week - E-book, all formats BRAND NEW

Guide to More Than 1,400 Tent and RV Campgrounds -- 2012 best-seller

1,000 hikes from every region of CA, the only complete hiking guide BRAND NEW

The Complete Guide to Fishing on Lakes, Streams, Rivers, and the Coast

Sunday Drive Getaways - Kindle edition

Pacific Northwest Camping

Yosemite and Mammoth Lakes Camping and Hiking

Tahoe Camping and Hiking

Shasta and Lassen Camping and Hiking

Sequoia and Kings Canyon Camping and Hiking

California Deserts Camping and Hiking

Northern California Camping

Sierra Crossing Show, 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 9

by February 2, 2012

   Click here to buy Sierra Crossing at the Apple iBookstore.   Click here to buy Sierra Crossing at Amazon.com.   Sierra Crossing is the story and photographs that describe and capture the epic 70-mile crossing of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range from east to west, as the first pioneers and trailblazers would have seen [...]

Read the full article →

TS: Two free shows, January & February

by January 2, 2012

Just signed to present two seminars coming up in January and February, a fishing show and a hiking/camping show that features an epic adventure you can do in a week. January 21, Sacramento : “How To Triple Your Catch Instantly,” at the International Sportsmen’s Exposition in Sacramento. The show is at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, January 21, [...]

Read the full article →

Salmon flood hatcheries, great 2012 predicted

by December 14, 2011

Salmon have flooded into state and federal fish hatcheries in the past month. The key indicator, the arrival of two-year-old salmon, also predicts the ocean off the Bay Area coast will be full of fish next summer. Trips to Nimbus Hatchery last week on the American River near Sacramento and to the Coleman National Fish [...]

Read the full article →

Yosemite reopens Tioga Pass

by November 28, 2011

Rangers at Yosemite National Park reopened Tioga Pass/Highway 120 as warm days with bright sun melted off snow that had covered the road. Tioga Road is the popular east-west crossing of the Sierra Nevada in the northern portion of the park that connects the Tuolumne Meadows area eastward to U.S. 395, Lee Vining and Mono [...]

Read the full article →

Lakes in unbelievable shape

by November 23, 2011

It seems just yesterday when the giant San Luis Reservoir along Highway 152 was so empty on the Thanksgiving holiday week that it looked like a giant dust bowl. Shasta Lake was 27 percent full, Lake Oroville less than 25 percent and giant Folsom and Camanche looked something like puddles. This year, heading into winter, the [...]

Read the full article →

A how-to guide in revamping woeful DFG

by November 18, 2011

In response to recent outrageous gaffes by the Department of Fish and Game, several readers have asked me to re-post my column on how to solve the DFG’s perpetual foray into the  abyss. By Tom Stienstra Excerpted in part from San Francisco Chronicle, December 8, 2002, Copyright © 2011 Hearst Communications Inc. Used by permission. [...]

Read the full article →