Conservation Confidential: A Wild Path to a Less Polarizing and More Effective Activism                                                                       By Mitch Friedman. Latah Books (2025) I’ve known Mitch Friedman since the early …

Table Mountain The trail that climbs to the top of Table Mountain from the bustling parking lot at Artist Point is a dream come true for hikers who have only a few hours to commune with the Mountain Gods. The climb—zig-zagging up the cliff—is steep and somewhat exposed in places, but it’s only a half mile  (600’ of elevation gain), …

Point Whitehorn   The hike to Point Whitehorn is a delight in any season, a leisurely stroll through luscious rainforest to a rocky beach that invites extended exploration. But it’s especially sublime in spring when the forest comes alive after a long northern winter. Three-quarters of a mile of walking through the effervescent greenery will bring you to the captivating …

Marymere Falls Located near Lake Crescent in Olympic National Park, the short hike to Marymere Falls offers a delightful walk through a verdant rainforest. Along the way, the trail passes through a botanist’s dream: a garden of mosses and ferns beneath a majestic canopy of ancient trees. Viewpoints afford views of the rambunctious falls from above and below. Choose both. …

The wind is blowing like nobody’s business when we arrive at Wai’anapanapa in the late morning, which is not unusual on the northern tip of west Maui.  Located on this sumptuously beautiful coast a few miles north of Hana Town, Wai’anapanapa State Park is a small but exquisite park, offering quite a radical variation of the dreamy white sand travel …

Gregory® Alpaca Duffel 60L I loved my last duffel bag. It lasted close to 30 years. It had everything I wanted: lots of pockets, shoulder strap handles, water resistance, and just enough space for medium-sized camping trips and other excursions where a suitcase was not appropriate. It was hard to give up when it finally wore out.  But the Gregory® …

The rain falls for two days and nights, drifting through the trees, chilled by the breath of oncoming winter. Here at the Klipchuck Campground in the Methow Valley at the tail end of September, Jesse, Al, and I are waiting for the weather to turn so we can head up into the mountains. The rain falling here is likely falling …

Gnara Go There Pants Guest review by Barbara Hansen Gnara’s Go There ™ Pants are an idea whose time has come. Need to pee discretely in the great outdoors? Just unzip and go. It’s as easy as that—no need to squat. I was able to stand up, which allowed me to keep my backpack on while performing this ritual. I …

When I heard about Jasper burning, I wept. This little town, long a venerable outpost in the Canadian Rockies, is (was) one of my favorite places in the world. Located way up at the northern terminus of the world-renowned Icefields Parkway, Jasper was a special place, a throwback to the days of old-fashioned mountain civility, embodying elegant beauty and inspiring …

The North Cascades offer some of North America’s most spectacular mountain scenery, with more peaks that rise 3,000 feet in the last horizontal mile to their summits than any other range on Earth. But these mountains—in addition to their dramatic topography—also offer sublime intimacies: incandescent moss gardens, snow-melt pools reflecting the sky, twisted Krumholtz trees clinging to the fractured rock, …