A recent budget crisis in Alabama could force as many as 15 state parks to close their gates to the public. According to Alabama State Parks Director Greg Lein, those parks include Bladon Springs, Chickasaw, Bucks Pocket, Paul Grist, Florala, Blue Springs, Roland Cooper, Rickwood Caverns, Cheaha Park, Lake Lurleen, DeSoto, Lakepoint, Guntersville, Joe Wheeler, and Frank...
Learn MoreTrade winds snap at the bamboo and coconut palms. Two-hundred-and-fifty-year-old stone churches crumble into the hillsides. As you approach the shabby hot-springs mecca of Bath Fountain, a shirtless Rasta on horseback rides slowly down the center of the road, as if time still moves at an ancient, unmotorized pace. Up ahead, the gnarled, near-vertical peaks of the Blue...
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The nation is buzzing about National Park Week, America’s largest celebration of national heritage, April 18–26, 2015. It’s about making great connections, exploring amazing places, discovering open spaces, enjoying affordable vacations and enhancing America’s best idea—the national parks. It’s all happening in your national parks. The National Park...
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The Cradle of Forestry along Scenic Forest Byway 276 in Pisgah Ranger District is the birthplace of forest conservation in America. Spanning over 100 years of forest conservation history, the Cradle offers a snapshot of life at America’s first School of Forestry along the Biltmore Campus Trail. German forester Dr. Carl A. Schenck accepted George Vanderbilt’s offer to...
Learn MoreThe desert of Saturday morning cartoons may be a barren and lifeless place. But hike the high desert above the Coachella Valley, near Palm Springs, and you’ll discover a landscape teeming with wildlife and dramatic geologic displays of monzogranite, exposed monoliths and fantastical twisted rock forms. Discovered flower-clad yucca and wildflowers, and discover a...
Learn MoreWhat comes to mind when you think of Portugal? Cathedrals? Historic sites? Sixteenth Century explorers? Former colonies in Asia? Lethal jellyfish? How about some of the best hiking in the world. Think about hiking a week in the Algarve, Costa Vicentina and Alentejo regions in SW Portugal. For the first four days you hike along the Atlantic coast, including two days on...
Learn MoreRepublican senators and congressmen want to sell your National Forests, Wildernesses and Wildlife Refuges. But they can’t sell your National Parks, Monuments or Preserves. Here’s how all the different types of public land are different, and why you should care. As a recap, nearly the entire GOP senate just made a symbolic vote in order to demonstrate its...
Learn MoreThere’s nowhere in Utah quite like Frary Peak. When you reach the top of this hike, you’re rewarded with the unique-to-Utah feeling of being completely surrounded by water. The 7-mile roundtrip hike will take the better part of a day, but the views of the Great Salt Lake, bison and the unique territory of Antelope Island are worth the trek. At 6,596 feet, Frary Peak is...
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Great Smoky Mountains National Park is powered by people and passion. About 2,560 volunteers worked 150,679 hours in the Park during fiscal year 2014. “We really rely on our volunteers in many aspects of our operations,” said Park spokeswoman Molly Schroer. “We really appreciate our volunteers, and we enjoy working with them. They typically have a passion about the work...
Learn MoreDeath by acid was the fate of the sea monsters that perished in Earth’s biggest mass extinction, some 251 million years ago, a new study finds. Nearly every form of ocean life disappeared during this “Great Dying” at the end of the Permian period, when more than 90 percent of all marine species vanished, from the scorpionlike predators called...
Learn MoreMuir Woods National Monument, just north of the Marin Headlands portion of Golden Gate National Recreation Area in California, was set aside in 1908 by President Theodore Roosevelt via the Antiquities Act. The landscape had been preserved by William Kent and his wife, who had purchased it three years earlier to prevent the old growth forest from being turned into a...
Learn MoreIt’s strange to remember how bitterly divisive the 2008 Democratic presidential primary battle was. Hillary Clinton’s and Barack Obama’s platforms and ideological positioning were awfully similar. And on the chief difference between them — Obama’s less hawkish foreign policy — the victor wiped away that distinction by appointing Clinton as secretary of state. Now Clinton...
Learn MoreThe new documentary film Merchants of Doubt—which lays bare the tactics used by the professional climate deniers paid to spread doubt and confusion about the reality of global warming—is essential viewing for everyone who cares about the fight for climate action. It’s even more essential for anyone who still isn’t sure whether climate change is really happening or...
Learn MoreOn Easter Sunday, six hikers tumble out of cars and gather at the East Trailhead of Turtle Rock, East of Laramie. Chuck Adams, the hike’s organizer, gathers them in a circle. He says, “This is the fourth High Society hike that’s been in the works. The other three have occurred in Oregon, so this is the first in Wyoming so congratulations. You should feel special.” They...
Learn MoreMount Rainier National Park officials are no longer taking reservations for hiking the Wonderland Trail for this summer because of an “overwhelming and unprecedented demand.” This year, the park received about 2,600 reservation requests as of March 31, the majority are for hiking the Wonderland Trail. That’s far more than can be reserved at backcountry camps along the...
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Leigh Girvin’s brand of local environmentalism is inseparable from her strong ties to the land. Other conservation advocates focus on wildlife or water quality from an abstract sense of right and wrong. Girvin, who moved to Breckenridge, Colorado as a kid 43 years ago, points to land protection, especially in her beloved Summit County, as the foundation that encompasses...
Learn MoreAmeriCorps Project Conserve is now accepting applications for 2015-2016. AmeriCorps Project Conserve seeks dedicated individuals to fill 32 full-time positions serving critical conservation needs of western North Carolina. The application deadline is May 22, 2015. The program places members in service with one of 17 host site organizations working to protect the unique...
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Rue Mapp kept finding herself the only African-American on organized hikes. Tired of being “the only one,” she started Outdoor Afro and found out she wasn’t. “I realized that when you identify all the only ones, and people did identify themselves as such, we were actually quite numerous,” she says. Now there are Outdoor Afro chapters across the country. Volunteers like...
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The Cradle of Forestry in America historic site will kick off its 2015 season, April 11th with a living history event titled, “Old Time Plowing and Folkways.” Visitors to the event will encounter living history volunteers demonstrating their crafts, including wood carving, rope making and crafting corn husk dolls. Haywood County’s David and Diane...
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Few things inspire bitter disagreement among green groups and climate advocates quite like the question of how to deal with fracking. It’s one of the more important debates within environmentalism today. To break it down very roughly: The pro-fracking side points out that the US natural-gas boom, driven by hydraulic fracturing, has been one of the big environmental...
Learn MoreA little-known trail in northwest Nebraska has burst into the national spotlight. The Bison Trail, a three-mile hike between the Hudson-Meng Education and Research Center and Toadstool National Geologic Park, has been named one of the top 10 trails for a memorable spring hike by USA Today. It’s listed among such well-known spots as the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park...
Learn MoreWhen was the last time you were hiking and looked up only to realize that your real and perceived locations no longer matched? It’s a common and unsettling experience to say the least. In these moments, humans tend to use a combination of observational, logical and investigative techniques to reorient themselves and get back on track. However, any combination of factors...
Learn MoreYes, the less vertically inclined, too, can find a suitable adventure at Smith Rock. Although Smith Rock State Park is mostly known as a mecca for rock climbers, the hiking opportunities within the park should not be ignored. And often, the park’s trails can put a hiker in a spot to watch climbers scale some of the most difficult routes in the West. It is a...
Learn MoreGreat Smoky Mountains National Park will hold its 11th annual “Music of the Mountains” celebration April 17-19 with a mix of music that harkens to the “Old-Time” music that long has reverberated through the mountains. Spread across a handful of venues, the event tells the story of music in the Southern Appalachians through its diverse history by letting...
Learn MoreUsing the assessment tool ForWarn, U.S. Forest Service researchers can monitor the growth and development of vegetation that signals winter’s end and the awakening of a new growing season. Now these researchers have devised a way to more precisely characterize the beginning of seasonal greening, or “greenup,” and compare its timing with that of the 14 previous years....
Learn MoreOne of the world’s most dangerous hiking trails is open for business after being closed for 15 years. The El Caminito del Rey trail, also known as King’s Little Pathway, is a 5-mile-long path in Spain that takes four to five hours to complete. The trek was as beautiful as it was dangerous until officials closed it in 2000 after too many travelers began...
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It’s the time of year when millions of visitors are eagerly anticipating their next adventure on the Blue Ridge Parkway. As they plan their drive, hike, or camping trip, the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation is preparing to meet their expectations by funding $600,000 in projects critical to the preservation and betterment of this treasured route. Each year, the Blue Ridge...
Learn MoreThe Maine coast ranges more than 230 miles from Kittery to Lubec as the crow flies, but an incredible 3,500 miles when every nook and cranny, and some 3,000 islands are accounted for on the undulating margin along the Gulf of Maine between New Hampshire and Canada. The topography of the coast is as varied as could be, a natural museum of sandy beaches and rocky...
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I am Jeff Clark, founder of Internet Brothers, producer of this blog, and passionate about hiking. I live in Western NC near the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains. Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests are just out my door, so the content will focus on these areas, but let me know what you would like to see on the site. 
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