Stories

In the Wind Rivers range, you can hike for days without seeing another soul, which is why it brings a pair of brothers back again and again.

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

Maine's seal pups are usually born in May, making early summer an ideal time to witness the youngsters learning to swim and fish.

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

Pennsylvania: You'll get wet and you may even stand in line behind a black bear or two.

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

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

When hiking on Virginia's high, exposed heath balds in late summer, leave gorp and other snacks at home.

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

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.

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

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

North Dakota: America's own Serengeti.

No color in nature comes close to matching the heart-stirring golden aspen found in the Rockies in autumn.

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

The majestic San Juan Mountain range is often called America's Switzerland. -- and the wildflowers match.

Observe the uncanny resemblance between the good doctor's famous Truffula Trees and a field of fuzz-topped flowers 5 miles up Long Canyon.

A chaotic chorus of loon calls penetrate the darkness, the warbling sounds echoing off the wooded hills around the New Hampshire lake.

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

California: Journey through a desert to bear witness to some of the loveliest wildflowers you'll ever see.

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

Arizona: Every year millions of ladybugs head to Arizona and coat trees, rocks, and brush like a layer of living paint.

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

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

Wisconsin: Explore 21 islands and 12 miles of mainland shoreline where strings of cliffs and caves are bejeweled in ice.

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

You can spend days exploring the Dry River Valley forest without seeing another soul, even if it sounds like you're being chased by a well-armed militia.

You'll emerge from a forested hallway into a wilderness playroom, and there before you will be skidmarks in the snow.

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

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.

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

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

Encountering a rattlesnake is a splendid moment in time, a cherished wilderness event--at least that's the view of Arizona researchers trying to change public perception of all things fanged.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Play out your Lawrence of Suburbia fantasies at Indiana Dunes.

Where 100 unknown Sierra miles wait.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

A Thoreauvian classic hike in New Hampshire.

Lake Superior's best coast lies on Wisconsin's Apostle Islands.

Get away from the Ozarks crowd on the Berryman Trail.

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

An Ozark oasis loaded with wildlife and fall colors.

Great Basin's Mt. Moriah is a big mountain of solitude.

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

Wilderness worthy enough to inspire any classical landscape painter.

Get spectacular Appalachian Trail mountain views without much effort on the Riga Plateau.