Crypt Lake Trail: Waterton Lakes National Park, Canada

The hike to Crypt Lake along the Crypt Lake Trail is without question one of the most popular day hikes in Waterton Lakes National Park. You start with a boat ride across Upper Waterton Lake, then hike by four gorgeous waterfalls, climb a steel ladder, crawl through a narrow tunnel for nearly 100 feet, and walk directly above a harrowing cliff as you hold on to a steel...

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20 Years of Modern Recreational Trails in Western Australia

This started 60,000 years ago… Aboriginal people across Western Australia have long used trails to connect to iconic landscapes, food sources, social gatherings and deeply spiritual places. Their mode of transport by foot and watercraft; they connected to country and were in touch with nature. Today Western Australians and visitors are able to enjoy “trails” for...

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As the seas rise, a slow-motion disaster gnaws at America’s shores

A Reuters analysis finds that flooding is increasing along much of the nation’s coastline, forcing many communities into costly, controversial struggles with a relentless foe. WALLOPS ISLAND, Virginia – Missions flown from the NASA base here have documented some of the most dramatic evidence of a warming planet over the past 20 years: the melting of polar ice, a force...

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Endangered Bighorn Sheep Moved to Yosemite, Sequoia Parks

For the first time in a century, endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep are back on their ancestral range and headed toward recovery, wildlife officials said. During an ongoing relocation effort, hundreds of bighorn have been captured with nets dropped from helicopters then moved to Yosemite and Sequoia national parks. “We’ve got the sheep where we want them...

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Women’s History Month: An Interview with 93-Year-Old National Park Service Ranger Betty Reid Soskin

With Women’s History Month upon us, the Department of the Interior interviewed Betty Reid Soskin, who at 93 is the oldest active ranger in the National Park Service. Great-granddaughter of a slave and a file clerk in a Jim Crow union hall during World War II, Reid-Soskin began her career with NPS at the age of 85 at Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical...

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National Parks Call on Americans to ‘Find Your Park’

After nearly 100 years, the National Park Service holds some of the most beautiful and historic places in the country, though there’s also an $11 billion backlog of unfunded maintenance and a visitor base that’s aging and mostly white. With its centennial approaching in 2016, the park service will launch a major campaign this week in New York City to raise...

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A Passionate Volunteer Offers Free Hiking Tours Through Oakland’s Redwoods

For those who live in the Oakland flatlands, there’s little respite from the constant grind of city life. Many residents, especially those who rely on public transit, lack the resources to escape urbanity and enjoy Northern California’s wilderness — or so they think. What many people don’t realize is that Dimond Park, located only about two and a half miles away from...

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How to Prepare Physically (and Mentally) for a Long-Distance Hike

For most people, hiking means hitting a local trail on a weekend afternoon to enjoy a couple hours of scenic cardio, fresh air and perhaps solitude. But others crave a more all-consuming experience: a physically and mentally demanding – yet immensely rewarding – long-distance hike that takes them hundreds or thousands of miles through untamed wilderness and arduous...

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Trekking Nepal a family adventure

Dawn’s golden light caught the tops of the snowcapped Himalayas and gradually crept downward as the rising sun lit up a sweeping arc of soaring peaks, at once forbidding and starkly beautiful. The stunning vista from the top of Poon Hill — at 10,475 feet, the highest point of this family’s six-day trek in Nepal — was among many highlights of a “Lord of the Rings”-like...

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Short Stretch Of Blue Ridge Parkway In North Carolina To Close For Bridge Repairs

Bridge repairs will require a roughly nine-mile-long stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina to close for about two months beginning April 1, 2015. Parkway officials say the closure is necessary to to make critical repairs to Deep Gap Bridge at US 421. A detour will be signed in the area from Milepost 269.8, at Phillips Gap north of the bridge to Milepost...

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Strengthening the Connections Between African Americans and National Parks

Since President Ulysses S. Grant signed the first national park, Yellowstone, into law in 1872, the national parks have provided American citizens and visitors from all over the world unique experiences with nature. The arches of Yellowstone National Park at the park entrance displays the Theodore Roosevelt quote, “for the benefit and enjoyment of the...

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Hiking Snake Hill and the historic sites of Newburgh along the Hudson

There is no better vantage point of historic Newburgh and the northern entrance to the Hudson River’s highlands than Snake Hill – maintained through a partnership of Scenic Hudson and the Orange County Land Trust. Ascending the only route up Snake Hill – a closed asphalt road – a rosary of erratic rocks line its right shoulder, the largest being a yacht-sized boulder and...

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16 Hiking Spots In Virginia That Will Leave You In Awe

After the longest winter in the history of mankind, Spring is finally here. And that means it’s time to get out the hiking boots, fill up the water bottles and hit the trails. It may seem impossible to see all of the incredible hikes, treks and trails available in Virginia’s great outdoors, but there’s no time like the present to start trying and no better place to start...

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Prescribed Burn Planned for Appalachian Ranger District, Pisgah National Forest

The U.S. Forest Service plans to conduct a prescribed burn during the week of March 29, 2015 on 450 acres of the Appalachian Ranger District, Pisgah National Forest. The prescribed burn will take place off of Max Patch Road in Madison County approximately 25 miles northwest of Asheville. The prescribed burn will reduce the amount of dead grasses and woody debris on the...

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British explorer is dubbed ‘the Lonely Snow Leopard’ after becoming first person to walk across Mongolia solo

A recording-breaking adventurer from North Wales has claimed the title of National Adventurer of the Year following his epic journey across landlocked Mongolia. Ash Dykes, 24, who is nicknamed the ‘lonely snow leopard’, last year impressively spent 78 days alone, crossing 1,500 miles of the unforgiving Gobi Desert and the vast Mongolian steppe. The...

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Five best hikes on Washington side of Columbia River Gorge

Which side of the Columbia River Gorge do you like best for hiking? Flip a coin, hem and haw, pick one and change your mind . . . they are both great. Typically the Washington side better in spring, because it faces south and gets more sun. That gives it more openings in the forest and more room for dense concentrations of wildflowers to grow, though you could say that...

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Teaming Up to Engage the Next Generation of Stewards

The Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation and Conservation Trust for North Carolina are bringing youth crews to the Highlands District for trail and campground rehab. Imagine working with newfound friends to rehabilitate and build trails by day and bond over a common goal under the stars at night. Sounds pretty great, right? That’s what a crew of teenagers and young adults...

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There Are Really Only Two Big Patches of Intact Forest Left on Earth

Can a forest that exists only in the spaces between roads and patches cleared for human settlement and agricultural development truly be called a forest? Not so much, say researchers studying the growing, global problem of forest fragmentation. The new study found that fragmented habitats lose an average of half of their plant and animal species within twenty years, and...

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National Park maintenance backlog totals $11.49 billion

Like road-trippers with balding tires, Americans are loving their national parks into disrepair. The National Park Service released a list of maintenance projects that have been postponed and put off for years. The backlog of 2014 projects nationwide totals $11.49 billion — up nearly $200 million since 2013. Dave Nimkin, southwest senior regional director for the...

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Work starts on first Bartram Trail addition since the 1990s

It’s been nearly 20 years since Burt Kornegay first started looking into land along Hickory Knoll Road in Macon County, NC, but dirt is finally moving on the Bartram Trail Society’s vision of routing a piece of the long-distance trail away from the road and over the Pinnacle and George Gray Mountain instead. “This had been years in the making,” said Kornegay, who was in...

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Park officials call wild hogs a huge problem in the Smokies

If you love to hike in the Smokies, chances are you’ve seen many wild animals. But, there’s one animal that park officials are calling an unwelcome guest. Bill Stiver knows how to read the land like most people know how to read a book. On Wednesday, he was following the tracks of wild hogs. Wild hogs can get up to 300 pounds and while Stiver says he...

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There’s a bit of urban renewal on the Freedom Trail

The Freedom Trail is a 2.5-mile walking trail extending from Boston Common through the heart of downtown and across the Charles River to the monument atop Bunker Hill in Charlestown. Marked by a red-brick line weaving through the streets, the famous trail leads past 16 colonial, Revolutionary and federal sites. Together these tell the story of the important people,...

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Bark beetles are killing forests — but they might be saving them, too

Mountain pine, spruce, piñon ips, and other kinds of bark beetles have chomped 46 million of the country’s 850 million acres of forested land, from the Yukon down the spine of the Rocky Mountains all the way to Mexico. Yellowstone’s grizzly bears have run out of pinecones to eat because of the beetles. Skiers and backpackers have watched their brushy green...

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Cleo’s Nature Trail a “vibrant faith adventure”

It’s one of those places you probably pass by all the time and don’t even realize it’s there. There are no road signs marking it. It’s a cheerful trail hidden and tucked away from sight. They call it a vibrant faith adventure, and that it is. Happy words of encouragement surround you along Cleo’s Nature Trail. It’s a whimsical spot on...

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Forest Service Closing Graveyard Fields to Overnight Camping due to Recent Bear Encounter

PISGAH FOREST, N.C., Mar. 20, 2015 – The U.S. Forest Service is temporarily closing the Graveyard Fields Area at milepost 418 on the Blue Ridge Parkway to overnight camping. This closure, issued in consultation with the N.C. Wildlife Commission, has been implemented due to human safety concerns after a bear entered a tent and removed a hiker’s backpack. No...

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National Park Service Transportation Funding – Roads and Bridges

The National Park Service currently receives $240 million through the Federal Lands Transportation Program within the federal surface transportation law. The NPS has estimated that it needs more than four times that amount per year through 2024 to restore its transportation systems into good condition and to meet growing visitor access needs. It is estimated to take $244...

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Man pursues 1,700-mile trail, with section through SD

Denizens of the wide-open stretches of western South Dakota and Nebraska and others parts of the High Plains should not be surprised if one of these days they see a Toyota Tacoma with Colorado plates parked on the side of a gravel road. It’ll stick out, not unlike a fanny pack at a rodeo. But a closer inspection will show that while the driver may be an interloper, he is...

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Trekking to the top of Junipero Serra Peak in California’s Ventana Wilderness

Along the trail to Junipero Serra Peak in the Ventana Wilderness of South Monterey County, there is some stuff to see. Like goldfields flowering, hummingbird sage blooming and sharp cacti appropriately called Spanish sword cutting a sharp profile against the increasingly steep grade. And the massive pine needles, bird tracks and rock formations that enjoy supernatural...

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