Lathrop Trail, Island in the Sky, Canyonlands National Park

Located on the east side of the Island in the Sky District, Lathrop Canyon drops off the mesa to the White Rim, then dives all the way to the Colorado River. The Lathrop Trail enables a short, medium or long hike, depending on the level of the canyon you wish to tackle. The first couple miles are a sandy straight and level shot through prairie-like grassland. As you...

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Dwight McCarter: The Tracker

During his thirty years tracking lost souls through the Smokies and beyond McCarter rescued twenty-six people, many of them children. These days he’s still in the mountains, often thinking about those he found—and the few he didn’t. The last lost boy he found was named Phillip Roman. Phillip, who was ten years old, had wandered away from his family while they...

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Master plan to be prepared for NC’s Mountains-to-Sea State Trail

Ideas to be gathered from partners, stakeholders and the public will be a major component of a master planning process underway to guide completion of the Mountains-to-Sea State Trail, according to the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation. The 1,000-mile trail corridor will ultimately link Clingman’s Dome in the Great Smoky Mountains to Jockey’s Ridge State Park on the...

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House Republicans Voted Against the Environment More Than 500 Times in the Past Four Years

The House of Representatives will end its legislative session this week having recorded at least 234 votes against the environment in two years. According to a December 1, 2014 count by the minority staff on the Energy and Commerce committee, the House floor held 551 anti-environment votes over the four years since Republicans took control—including votes on bills and...

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We have the technology to make invisible pollution visible

Out of sight, out of mind. This certainly applies to methane emissions from the oil and gas sector. That’s because methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas and the primary constituent of natural gas, is invisible to the naked eye. And it’s one reason methane emissions, while a significant threat to our environment, don’t get the attention they should from policymakers or...

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NC’s ongoing coal ash regulatory disaster shows urgency of EPA action

It’s been 10 months since a pipe broke beneath a coal ash waste pit at a shuttered Duke Energy power plant in North Carolina, sending 39,000 tons of toxic waste into the Dan River, a drinking water source for downstream communities in Virginia and North Carolina. One might think that 10 months would have been enough time for the company and North Carolina state...

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Favorite Trails for Winter Hiking in Georgia

Explore these waterfalls and mountain summits in Georgia’s mild climate. From the chilly altitudes of Georgia’s southern Appalachian mountains to its more temperate southern coastline, all are beautiful year-round, but they’re arguably better in wintery landscapes and cooler temperatures. Don’t ditch your hiking boots when temperatures plummet and leaves fall: you’ll...

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Land near Appalachian Trail conserved

As the popular Appalachian Trail continues to morph and grow and attract more users and admirers, protecting the land that hugs the footpath and winds into its view is more important than ever, conservationists say. And now one of the more popular access points to the trail in Mitchell County, North Carolina has a little more elbow room in permanent preservation. The...

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Smokies Plans Alum Cave Trail Restoration

Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials announced that the next full-scale, Trails Forever restoration will begin on Alum Cave Trail in 2015. The Trails Forever crew will focus restoration efforts on several targeted locations along the 5-mile trail to improve visitor safety and stabilize eroding trail sections. The restoration work will require temporary trail...

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Elephant Canyon, Needles District, Canyonlands National Park

The Needles District forms the southeast corner of Canyonlands National Park and was named for the colorful spires of Cedar Mesa Sandstone that dominate the area. The district’s extensive trail system provides many opportunities for overnight trips or long day hikes including this one around, over and through Elephant Canyon. This 10-mile loop will take you up...

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Key Milestones in Hiking

Over the last several decades the sport of hiking has become increasingly more popular. According to the latest Outdoor Recreation Participation Report, 11.4% of all adults in the United States participated in hiking in 2013. But the burning question to a modern-day trekker is when did people take to the trail for pleasure? Ever since our predecessors began walking on...

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Losing place in Wyoming’s Red Desert

The Red Desert in Wyoming is huge. It encompasses 9,320 square miles and is the largest unfenced area in the continental U.S. I-80 cuts across its southern quarter. Highway 287 runs up its eastern side and then angles across its northern edge, following the route of the historic Oregon Trail whose 350,000 travelers between the 1840s and 1860s wanted no part of the arid...

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The most romantic proposal ever?

There aren’t many marriage proposals that can be seen from space, but for this traveller, an epic journey through Japan was also a unique marriage proposal. Japanese artist Yasushi Takahashi left his job to travel through Japan, covering more than 4,349 miles in six months, mostly on foot and sometimes by car, ferry or bicycle. GPS technology tracked his every step...

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Miles Of Public Trails On Long Island’s East End Now Marked For Hiking

Hikers take note: miles and miles of new trails on Long Island’s East End are now open. It’s all part of an effort to get people to enjoy the natural treasures in their own backyard. Every week members of the Southampton Trails Preservation Society walk the public trails dotting the landscape from Southampton to Bridgehampton, but until now, you had to know the way. “If...

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Maptia 2.0: Expand Your World

Writers, photographers, storytellers — gather your lenses, unsheathe your pens — today Maptia 2.0 is launching. Come and join this global community of creative individuals who love to explore new cultures and new places, who care about the environment, and who believe that thoughtful storytelling can make a tangible, positive impact in the world. Maptia is a place to...

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Hiking Nepal In Edmund Hillary’s Footsteps

In 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay were the first people to summit Mt. Everest. Their expedition started in Kathmandu, and led them to the village of Jiri; from there they trekked across 100 miles of mountains and jungle Each year, tens of thousands of people journey into Nepal’s Sagarmāthā National Park to witness Everest Base Camp firsthand....

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Hiking in Maine: Whiskeag Trail is 5 miles of ‘signature achievement’

One of the longest hiking routes along the coast of Maine can be found within the densely populated boundaries of Bath. There the Whiskeag Trail traverses three conservation preserves and several municipally owned properties on its five-mile journey through the wooded outskirts of town, much of it along Whiskeag Creek. The trail is a project of Bath Trails, itself a...

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Little Ruin Trail, Hovenweep National Monument, Utah

The canyon and mesa country north of the San Juan River in the four corners region holds many archaelogical sites where ancestors of today’s Pueblo Indian tribes lived. Round, square, and D-shaped towers grouped at canyon heads most vividly mark once thriving communities. Many dwellings stood right on the canyon rim, and some structures were built atop isolated or...

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Leaving LeConte: Couple end 12 years as managers of mountaintop lodge in Smokies

The crew at LeConte Lodge are connoisseurs of sky gazing. Whether it’s an orange sunset blazing across the horizon, an August meteor shower, or the International Space Station orbiting at night, they’ve seen it all. Two weeks ago, the crew and lodge guests were treated to a rare occurrence when a dense layer of clouds settled over the valley at sunset, leaving the skies...

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Little Wild Horse Canyon, San Rafael Swell, Utah

The San Rafael Swell consists of a giant dome-shaped anticline of sandstone, shale, and limestone that houses many of the classic slot canyons that Southern Utah is known for. Included among them is Little Wild Horse Canyon, where the walls are so close you may have to turn sideways to get through. Spring and Fall are ideal times to hike here. The weather is usually dry,...

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12 Awesome Hikes near 12 Major U.S. Cities

Throw a few supplies in a day pack, rendezvous with your nature-loving friends and get yourself to a trailhead for an outdoor adventure everyone will enjoy. Here are 12 hikes a short distance from 12 major cities that offer excellent trail conditions, diverse landscapes and spectacular views....

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Proposed New Trails Would Lead to Great Hollywood Sign Views

Griffith Park, Los Angeles’s largest and most-visited green space, has 53 miles of trails snaking through it, but a proposed new project would increase that number considerably. The plan is to take about 180 acres of untouched, LADWP-owned land near Universal City (known as the Upper Hollywood Reservoir) and open it up to the public with hiking trails on about 11...

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Hiking once saved this Cambodian refugee’s life — and now it’s his therapy

“We were hiking over mountain ranges to get away from all the war,” Pol says. “We were running over mountain ranges while we were being shot at. Landmines were everywhere. We were hiking for our lives, pretty much.” His family had managed to survive the late 1970s under the Khmer Rouge, the brutal Communist regime that killed more than a quarter of...

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Trekking the mighty one – Salher fort

One of the highest forts in the Maharashtra region of India is Salher. As per the common lore, Kalsubai boasts to be the highest peak in the Sahyadri mountains while Salher has the distinction of being the highest fort in the Sahyadris and the second highest peak. About 5,141 feet high, the trek is arduous and takes about three to five hours from the base to the top. As...

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The Toughest Hiking Pants on the Planet

Fjällräven, a Swedish company (the name means “Arctic Fox” in Swedish) started in 1960, was the first to make and distribute the original external frame backpack, along with revolutionizing expedition tent and sleeping bag design in the late 60s and 70s. By applying the now-famous Swedish combination of functionality with elegantly simple and beautiful design...

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Hike with CMLC at Buffalo Creek Park on Weed Patch Mountain – Saturday, December 13th

Join Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy on Saturday, December 13th at Weed Patch Mountain to hike the new trails at Town of Lake Lure’s Buffalo Creek Park. This hike is open to both members and non-members and is located just north of Lake Lure. More than 1,500 acres of Weed Patch Mountain were saved from development when CMLC acquired the tract in 2009. The Town...

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El Mirador’s Maya marvels await discovery in the Guatemalan jungle

After a daylong slog through the suffocating Guatemalan jungle, you emerge before a soaring pyramid in the ghostly ruins of El Tintal, the first stop in the forested realm of the Serpent King. A slight breeze stirs the air, offering a respite from the heat. You climb the pyramid and watch the forest swallow the sun. Earthen mounds entombing cities lost to time lay...

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Upper Muley Twist Canyon, Capitol Reef National Park

Perhaps the best hike in all of Capitol Reef National Park, Upper Muley Twist Canyon is a full-featured Utah adventure that includes narrow canyons, expanses of slickrock, large arches, and dramatic vistas from the top of the incomparable Waterpocket Fold. There are opportunities for side trips to slot canyons and other exciting off-trail experiences, as well as perilous...

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