Stories

Consider trying to spot a red-cockaded wood-pecker in Florida's Big Cypress Preserve a form of treasure hunting.

Have your camera ready near dusk, when sunlight warms the landscape with intense color.

Combine a full harvest moon with a remote island trail for the greatest show on Earth.

Montana: The Pryor Mountains harbor the nation's last free-roaming wild mustangs, not to mention wilderness that is as wild as the horses.

In winter, the glasslike menagerie of icicles in the Cumberland Plateau will send a chill down your spine.

At a campsite along the Snake River, the bugling goes on night and day.

North Dakota: America's own Serengeti.

Life in the high desert in autumn is sweeter and more irresistible than any place on Earth.

Pine Mountain and Wilson Ridge command high-country vistas stretching across rock-strewn meadows.

In Whites Creek Cave you can explore in nature's own cooling system, and observe its grateful inhabitants.

The lunarlike landscape and dark skies of this preserve make White Sands one of the best places for star watching.

The typical Delaware River float trip offers the opportunity to spy more bald eagles than people.

"October is the month for painted leaves," Thoreau mused. He could have been talking about Kentucky's Red River Gorge.

As autumn closes in on the larches, the green bleeds out of their needles, leaving a towering spire of gold.

Figure on 9 days to do the entire 100-mile hike—unless you're slowed drastically by all the blueberries.

The Purple Trail through Chase Prairie or the Green or Red Trails through Floyd's Prairie are good routes for viewing Sandhill cranes.

Eyeball to beak with impressively taloned hawks in West Virginia's Monongahela National Forest.

Arkansas Buffalo National River features challenging trails and a river-laced wilderness.

The ungodly wailing that sometimes drifts through the dark woods is only an animal.

hen it comes to sheer ability to alter a landscape and shock the human senses, you can't beat the May blooms of a mountain laurel thicket.

Even if you don't see a moose, you'll hear the bulls' low grunts echoing off the hillside.

The blaze of fall color in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is unequaled.

Enjoy Vermont's autumn colors while you can -- they disappear all too quickly, and the Green Mountains recover their namesake hue in the spring.

More than 200 preserves, parks, and other protected wildlands lie within 40 miles of San Francisco, exceeding Yosemite National Park in size, biodiversity, and visitation.

Okay, so the weather stinks and so does the hiking. Change both by heading down the road to where the sun shines and the trail beckons.

Besides being home to a mythical reptile, Colorado's Lizard Head Wilderness is the site of some great hiking.

The little-known Cheaha Wilderness Area is the gateway to Alabama's largest trail system.

If you think west Texas is nothing but tumbleweeds and cattle, you haven't walked 62 miles across one of the world's most famous geological formations.

When the footpath is named the Backpack Trail, you know what to do.

Steens looks like your average mountain, but hike up high and you'll find a hidden paradise.

Trail goers can experience a whole new world by hiking Virginia's newly renovated Lion's Tale Trail.

Protester celebrates victory in a two-year battle to save a giant redwood by coming back to earth.

Let the masses shop till they drop: On Arkansas's Ouachita River the pace is slow and easy.

Like shimmering rainbows in the night, the northern lights electrify the sky with color.

When hiking California's Fish Valley, don't forget to pack your Richter scale.

In a park full of natural wonder, the route to Maddron Bald hits the high points.

Everyone's heard of the Cascades, but no one seems to know about Tillamook State Forest.

Twelve trails that'll chew you up, spit you out, and have you begging for more.

If you think autumn is simply a time to rake leaves, then you need to read our guide to the best of the fall season.

Gain a raptor's-eye view of the world in Colorado's Eagles Nest Wilderness.

Relax and sniff the azaleas among Missouri's Whispering Pines.

What they've lost in height, the Penokee Mountains make up for in big views and solitude.

Don't expect the red-carpet treatment in Arizona's Galiuro Mountains, just wilderness on its own terms.

For almost half a century, California's rugged Ishi Wilderness hid "the last wild Indian." Even today, it is a place that can keep a secret.

Once a bumpy stagecoache route, Arkansas's Butterfield Trail now jostles hikers.

As ice-cream makers in Los Angeles once knew, the Cucamonga Wilderness is the essence of cool.

Where artists once found inspiration, the Catskills' Escarpment Trail now challenges hikers.

The William O. Douglas Wilderness is a monument worthy of a great man.

Way up in Nevada's East Humboldt Wilderness, finding solitude and water are sure bets.

Play out your Lawrence of Suburbia fantasies at Indiana Dunes.

Where 100 unknown Sierra miles wait.

Why choose between breezy peaks and cool streams when you can have both at Big Frog Wilderness?

If you look beyond the occasional cow, you'll find the BLM has lots of ruggedly beautiful land to offer. No mining, no oil rigs, just lots of solitude.

The ambling Wisconsin River has only one speed: full-out relaxed.

Leave the book in the tent and make a date to chat with some owls and sing with the frogs.

A Thoreauvian classic hike in New Hampshire.

What have you done lately for the trails and backcountry you use? Join a Volunteer Vacation and save the trails you love.

While Sawtooth Lake grabs the limelight, behind the scenes lie crowd-free peace and splendor.

Texas' Lost Maples has beautiful desert vistas -- and mountain lions.

The Marietta Unit provides some of the greatest river trails in Ohio.

Find a new kind of California beach on the undeveloped shores of Santa Catalina Island.

Walk among giants in Redwood National Park.

An Ozark oasis loaded with wildlife and fall colors.

Here's how to find the best of Wyoming's expansive Bighorn range.

Dark, volcanic mountains soaring along the Pacific Crest make for a forbidding wilderness perfect for U.S. Marines in training -- or solitude-seeking hikers.

Visit Arkansas' Buffalo National River Trail, where the huckleberries are plentiful and the views are wondrous.

Oklahoma's own Tennessee awaits intrepid hikers.

While the wolf reintroduction debate rages across the country, in Wisconsin the animals are simply reclaiming their rightful place.

Waterfalls and wonder: Both are plentiful in Oregon's Columbia River Gorge.

Get away from the Ozarks crowd on the Berryman Trail.

Hikers often overlook the the quiet meadows, wildflowers, and mountaintops of New Mexico's Latir Wilderness. Their loss is your gain.

Like to start your hikes up high? Then Arkansas Huckleberry Trail is for you.

Boy Scouts paved an excellent trail in this Ozark gem.

Kentucky's Cumberland Falls provide spectacular waterworks, day or night.

Secret scrambles and lakes abound in this northern California wilderness.

A hidden spot in Washington's popular Alpine Lakes Wilderness.

The most old-growth forest in the east resides in North Carolina's Joyce Kilmer Wilderness.

The bare rocks of Oklahoma's Charons Gardens will haunt and delight hikers.

Hiking through wetlands in Pennsylvania? Believe it.

The best way to see all Olympic has to offer is on the grand Valley Loop.