More and more Americans are getting outdoors. Since 2000, attendance rates to national parks have steadily continued an “up and to the right” growth trend. Between 2000 and 2013, year-over-year attendance bobbed between 260-280 million visitors. While that 13-year span could be considered healthy growth, what the…

The western half of the United States—and specifically the Pacific Northwest—is currently burning away to nothing, no thanks to California’s policy of, uhh, diverting water into the ocean or something. Major fires are right now burning in Northern California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and western Montana. One…

Christian McCaffrey and some friends went for a hike this past weekend outside of Denver, and their pleasant afternoon out nearly turned tragic after they witnessed 72-year-old Dan Smoker Sr. fall roughly 20 feet onto a rock. “I had never seen anything quite like that in my life as far as the trauma and the sound. We…

Just because the mercury has dropped below freezing and appears stuck there until spring, it’s no reason not to explore the outdoors. Let’s talk about how you, the fearful and apartment-bound city dweller, can get outside and embrace the cold.

This July, Rachel Nguyen and Joseph Orbeso went missing in Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California. The couple entered the park around 6:45 a.m. on July 27 and authorities realized something was amiss when they missed their check-out date the next day. Their car was found near the trailhead of the Maze Loop,…

Stacey Kozel is a boundary-shattering athlete, a hero to many who has hiked some of the most famous and arduous trails in the United States. She’s completed the 2,189-mile Appalachian Trail as well as the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail, and she’s done it all as a functioning paraplegic with lupus. A flareup of her…

The Pacific Crest Trail is a 2,659-mile long trail passing through the Cascade and Sierra mountains in California, Oregon and Washington. It’s a National Scenic Trail, and part of the Triple Crown of Hiking. It looks beautiful. Plus, per Wikipedia: “The chances of meeting your spouse on a backpacking trip seem very…

Mt. Baldy is the highest peak in the San Gabriel Mountains, looming 10,064 feet above Los Angeles. If you hiked Baldy over the past few years, chances are you probably ran into Seuk Doo “Sam” Kim.

As non-lethal injuries to your child go, having them break a limb while hiking would have to be one of the more stressful; no matter how much you may want to get them to a doctor immediately, there’s simply nothing to do but carry them back the way you came and hope you don’t make anything worse along the way. Happily…

This is a barren time in the sports calendar. We are in a desolate trough between the international intrigue of the Olympics and the drama and nonsense of football season. I’m goddamn bored. Coincidentally, the National Parks Service turns 100 years old today. Unlike late August, the National Parks are good, and as…

In 1924, when the New York Times asked George Mallory why he was going to make his third attempt to scale Everest, he infamously, if apocryphally, answered, “Because it’s there.” It’s a fantastic reason to climb a mountain, pithy and cavalier, the kind of thing every man wishes would be inscribed on his tombstone.

I am unable to take a vacation. I go on vacations, but the idea of just sitting around doing nothing is pure torture. On our honeymoon, I made my new bride go on a canoe trip, which ended poorly when I paddled her directly into a scraggly bush overhanging the riverbank. Our first fight as a married couple! Some years…