Elizabeth Wenk

Elizabeth Wenk is an author and plant ecologist known for her definitive hiking and nature guidebooks to the John Muir Trail and the Sierra Nevada. Combining her scientific background with a lifelong passion for the outdoors, she has hiked thousands of miles and climbed hundreds of peaks throughout the Sierra. Her books include John Muir Trail: The Essential Guide to Hiking America’s Most Famous Trail, now in its fifth edition; One Best Hike: Mount Whitney; 50 Best Short Hikes:  Yosemite National Park and Vicinity; Wildflowers of the High Sierra and John Muir Trail, and others. Lizzy spends the hiking season on the John Muir Trail in California, then returns to her role as a Senior Research Associate at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.

Elizabeth holds a Ph.D. in Sierran Alpine Plant Ecology from the University of California, Berkeley, and undergraduate degrees in Geology and Evolution and Ecology from the University of California, Davis.