For thousands of miles America’s hiking trails wander across ranges and rivers, reaching basically every corner of the country. The 11 National Scenic Trails alone offer almost 20,000 miles of hiking opportunities. So how exactly does one successfully navigate these long trails? Anyone who has set foot on the famous Appalachian Trail has undoubtedly seen several of the infamous “white blazes”. The blazes are, at their simplest, trail “markers” to keep hikers on the right path. A traditional blaze is 2” wide by 6” tall and is painted on trees,...
read moreArches National Park is 4 miles outside the small town of Moab, Utah. The park has over 2,000 natural stone arches and offers a variety of things to see, do and photograph. With walks, hikes and drives ranging from 30 mins to a few hours, there is something to suit everybody. The main scenic drive is a total of 43 miles and includes all spurs. Plan 2 to 3 hours to complete the drive. Add more time if you want to do any long hikes or serious photography. Most arches and landmarks can be seen from the parking lots and pullouts or a short walk....
read moreThe very name of Glacier National Park, a 1-million-acre expanse in northwest Montana on the Canadian border, comes from ice. But the name may need to change by 2030: Experts predict the formations could disappear by then. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the glaciers in Glacier National Park have shrunk by an average of 39 percent since 1966; some lost up to 85 percent of their ice. A 2014 study in Science attributes global loss in glacier mass to both anthropogenic (or human caused) and natural climate changes. The study blames...
read moreThere is something magical and sobering about exploring slot canyons in Southern Utah. Hiking, swimming and sometimes squeezing through high sandstone walls carved by the elements over thousands of hundreds of thousands of years makes you keenly aware of how powerful the natural world around us is. Don’t worry though, if the thought of squeezing through a 10-inch crevice 100 miles from civilization inspires panic like that time your brother zipped you into your sleeping bag while he watched Saturday morning cartoons, there are plenty of...
read moreIt doesn’t matter if it’s a burly rattler or a tiny garter snake. A deadly fungal disease that’s infecting snakes in the eastern and midwestern United States doesn’t appear to discriminate by species, size or habitat, researchers report. The infection, caused by the fungal pathogen Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola, can cover snakes’ bodies with lesions that make it hard for the reptiles to do normal snake things like slither and eat. Many eventually die from the infection. Fungal spores hang around in the soil and can spread to snakes...
read moreA new hiking trail climbs the eastern edge of Prentice Cooper State Forest, ascending more than 1,000 feet with two main water crossings and several smaller ones sprinkled throughout. The climax of the rocky hike comes in the final mile: a 30-foot waterfall that rains down before the trail connects to the Cumberland Trail System’s Pot Point Loop. The “moderately strenuous” 2.5-mile Ritchie Hollow Trail connects the Tennessee River to the top of Suck Creek Mountain. It opens with an 11 a.m. ceremony and hike...
read moreAre you au fait with Ordnance Survey? Know how to read a six figure grid reference? If you were left on a moor with just a compass and a map would you find your way home safely or wander aimlessly, eventually getting eaten by wolves? The Royal Institute of Navigation are concerned about the nation’s cartographical know-how and have suggested schools start teaching basic navigation to address the issue. They believe we’re all too reliant on technology, expecting smartphones and satellite navigation systems to do the hard work for...
read moreThe Vietnamese Mekong Delta is one of Earth’s most agriculturally productive regions and is of global importance for its exports of rice, shrimp and fruit. The 18 million inhabitants of this low-lying river delta are also some of the world’s most vulnerable to climate change. Over the last 10 years around 1.7 million people have migrated out of its vast expanse of fields, rivers and canals, while only 700,000 have arrived. The high net rate of migration away from Mekong Delta provinces is more than double the national average, and even higher...
read moreSeen from above, Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula is a dun-colored triangle of desert, a vast wedge that splits Asia from Africa. Move in closer, and the desert resolves into a landscape of high peaks and sandy valleys, dunes and rocky peaks. Tracing a route across that terrain is the Sinai Trail, Egypt’s first long-distance hiking path, which was established in 2015 and winds roughly 143 miles from the Gulf of Aqaba into the mountainous interior. This past November, 17 men and women undertook a 14-day thru-hike of the Sinai Trail, the...
read moreSome of the best photographic opportunities happen when you least expect them. In this video see valuable tips on how to always be prepared for the surprise wildlife photo of a lifetime. The first step for capturing any split second rare image is to have your camera out of the bag and turned on. Perhaps you’ve been guilty of coming upon wildlife in perfect light on a hike but your camera was stored away in your bag. When this situation occurs it’s even more difficult to get set up because you have to move very slowly in order to not...
read moreMountainous Kumano is the holy ground of Japan and pilgrims have been trekking there for centuries. Shrines, mist, forests and waterfalls combine to create an entrancing hike. Kumano is the traditional name for the southern part of Japan’s Kii peninsula. It contains pilgrimage routes dating back more than a millennium. The first pilgrims were adherents of Shinto who traveled to worship beside the natural wonders of the sacred Kii mountains. Later pilgrims followed an amalgam of Shinto and Buddhism. The Kumano Kodo has a low profile outside...
read morePresident Donald Trump and his administration have censored or stifled science — particularly climate science — almost 100 times since the election. This adds up to a reckless and unprecedented war on science, according to the Silencing Science Tracker, which tallies up all of the budget cuts to science, the record low number of science positions filled by Trump, the deletion of science data from websites, the censorship of the words “climate change” from federal reports, and so on. The tracker is a new initiative from the Climate Science...
read moreScientists say snow seasons like the U.S. West is experiencing now will become more common as global temperatures rise, and economic costs will go up, as well. Months of exceptionally warm weather and an early winter snow drought across big swaths of the West have left the snowpack at record-low levels in parts of the Central and Southern Rockies, raising concerns about water shortages and economic damage. Drought spread across large parts of the Western United States this month, and storms that moved across the region in early January made...
read moreAcross central Appalachia, once-thriving mining communities have been ravaged by the collapse of the coal industry and the flight of jobs from the region. For a region that remains rich in natural resources, Appalachia’s local governments continue to struggle to fund basic services such as housing, education and roads. One significant factor in the region’s decline is the land. Since the coal industry began its decline, and even beforehand, millions of acres have essentially been removed from the region’s economic production and tax rolls,...
read moreNorthwest Montana is famous for its unmatchable beauty in the summer, but winter offers its own kind of magic. Mother Nature starts with a bare canvas by throwing down a snow blanket to hide the melancholy of landscapes drained of color and strewn with shriveled gardens and fallen leaves. She then constantly rearranges and redecorates, refreshing the landscape with each snowfall, like a newly painted room. Intricate ice trinkets dangle from logs and rocks, while glistening sheets of ice cover lakes. Hoarfrost’s delicate petals and feathers...
read moreThe Appalachian Trail (A.T.) will remain accessible to the public across the approximately 700 miles managed by the National Park Service (NPS) and over 800 miles managed by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). A.T. visitors will be able to access and hike on the Trail itself, but no visitor services, maintenance or other management activities will be conducted, and emergency and rescue services will be limited. Any entry onto NPS and USFS property during this period of a federal government shutdown is at the visitor’s sole risk. All NPS and USFS...
read moreOver the last two weeks, the maritime world has watched with horror as a tragedy has unfolded in the East China Sea. A massive Iranian tanker, the Sanchi, collided with a Chinese freighter carrying grain. Damaged and adrift, the tanker caught on fire, burned for more than a week, and sank. All 32 crew members are presumed dead. Meanwhile, Chinese authorities and environmental groups have been trying to understand the environmental threat posed by the million barrels of hydrocarbons that the tanker was carrying. Because the Sanchi was not...
read moreDuring the 21-day government shutdown of 1995-1996, an enormous blizzard left up to three feet of snow in Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park—and no one was there to shovel the parking lots. But that was the least of Bill Wade’s problems. The park’s superintendent at the time, Wade knew that several campers had entered the Shenandoah backcountry before the shutdown. “They were caught back there, and we couldn’t get to them because we had limited staff,” he recalled. “Fortunately we didn’t have any injuries or fatalities, but it could have...
read moreAfter years of whispers and reported sightings, wildlife officials have confirmed at least two wolves caught on trail cameras earlier this month roaming the Mount Hood National Forest in Oregon’s northern Cascade Mountains. It is the first time multiple wolves were detected in the area since the species returned to Oregon in the late 1990s. Conservationists cheered the news Wednesday, while local ranchers anticipated further conflict with their livestock. Because they are located west of highways 395, 78 and 95, management of the wolves falls...
read moreFor the first time, a major city may run out of water this year. South Africa’s city of Cape Town has been grappling with water shortages that are the result of what the Weather Channel calls the worst drought to hit the country in 100 years. The situation may result in Cape Town officials shutting off all of the city’s water taps this April. Irregularly dry winters have created exceedingly low dam levels within the country, leading city representatives to set a “Day Zero” date, which is when they believe the country will see dam levels...
read moreBritish Prime Minister Theresa May’s new environment plan sets ambitious goals for plastic waste reduction. But there’s lots of room for slippage. One goal is to eradicate all “avoidable” plastic waste, though it’s not clear how “avoidable” will be defined. A few concrete measures are now in place, such as the 5p plastic bag charge being extended to cover all businesses in England. And, in order to tackle the spread of tiny plastic particles, the government recently announced a ban on microbeads in personal care products. But such measures,...
read moreThree-quarters of the members of a federally chartered board advising the National Park Service abruptly quit January 14, 2018 out of frustration that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke had refused to meet with them or convene a single meeting last year. The resignation of nine out of 12 National Park System Advisory Board members leaves the federal government without a functioning body to designate national historic or natural landmarks. It also underscores the extent to which federal advisory bodies have become marginalized under the Trump...
read moreIn March 2015, Joe MacLaren, a state oil and gas inspector in Colorado, drove out to the Taylor 3 oil well near the tiny town of Hesperus, in the southwestern corner of the state. He found an entire checklist of violations. Atom Petroleum, a Texas-based company, had bought out more than 50 oil and gas wells after the company that drilled them went bankrupt. Now, Atom was pumping oil from those wells, but Taylor 3 was leaking crude, and it was missing required signage as well as screens on infrastructure to keep birds away from toxic gunk....
read moreAs a means of attracting attention, staging accidents on various mountain ranges is not overly common. But that is likely to be of little consolation to the crews who have raced to the aid of Michael Cuminskey, a serial mountain rescue faker with a penchant for taking a selfie as he is winched to safety. Mr. Cuminskey’s antics have cost tens of thousands of pounds, with unnecessary rescues from mountains in Snowdonia, the Lake District and the Scottish borders, a court heard. The 23-year-old, from Darlington, UK pleaded guilty to causing a...
read moreOn his first day as Secretary of the Interior, last March, Ryan Zinke rode through downtown Washington, D.C., on a roan named Tonto. When the Secretary is working at the department’s main office, on C Street, a staff member climbs up to the roof of the building and hoists a special flag, which comes down when Zinke goes home for the day. The department, which comprises agencies ranging from the National Park Service to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, oversees some five hundred million acres of federal land, and more than one and a half...
read moreAs avid outdoorsy people, we are always looking for hidden-away spaces to explore that aren’t teeming with other people. During visits to Cape Cod, you will find an array of natural areas. The secret is talking to the locals, who are always willing to let you in on the local gems, those places still undiscovered by your average visitor. For example, Allens Pond Wildlife Sanctuary is a nature area that spans hundreds of acres. In addition to being a protected area for wildlife, is a wonderland for hikers. With its system of 7-miles of trails,...
read moreA group opposed to seeing a reservation system instituted for Arches National Park is pushing a somewhat novel solution: park your car outside the park. Not only would the plan solve the congestion problem at Arches but, its proponents believe, it will create “the first fully sustainable, noise free, and zero emissions national park by 2030.” That’s quite a pitch, one that envisions a massive parking lot on a former uranium tailings dump transformed into “Basecamp Moab,” and self-driving electric...
read moreThere are no photographs of bison spilling by the thousands across the Great Plains. By the time cameras came along, most of the bison were gone. John Wright of Fairbanks believes he has an Alaska version of what that photo might have been. His image, 12 slide frames stitched together to show the Brooks Range rising from northern tundra, is papered on a wall of the University of Alaska Museum of the North. It takes 10 steps to walk past the panorama, a vinyl print mounted at eye level just across the hall from Otto, a preserved brown bear...
read moreIn the Australian countryside, it is not unusual to stumble across the relics of a vast abandoned rail network that once connected the nation before cars and trucks replaced trains as the preferred mode of transport. These remnants of a forgotten past can range from rail tracks hidden in farm paddocks to majestic stations overlooking silent platforms that have not been used in decades. This ghost rail network spans thousands of kilometres – a reminder of the population’s shift over the past century from rural townships to bustling...
read moreIf you’re among the thousands who will attempt to conquer a long-distance hiking trail in its entirety within the 2018 hiking season, then you’re probably already busy training, saving, planning, and steeling yourself for some serious communing with nature. In the United States, the term “thru-hiking” is most commonly associated with the Appalachian Trail (AT), the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), and Continental Divide Trail (CDT)—although there are plenty of other satisfying end-to-end hikes to tackle. Hikers hitting America’s most...
read moreFour students in the Texas A&M Aggie Corps of Cadets raised thousands of dollars for charity after hiking more than 1,000 miles in two weeks. Four cadets from Company H-1 decided to spend 13 days of their holiday break hiking from El Paso to Death Valley, California. Sophomore Hunter Birt, sophomore Jordan Rogers, junior Sebastian Brown and sophomore Ian Morrow decided to use this hike to raise money for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, which provides financial aid, tutoring and counseling to the dependents of veterans who died...
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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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