North America
Archive
First I heard seals. Then coyotes. Then I opened my eyes to a full-frontal view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Such is life at Cavallo Point, a 46-building resort on a renovated army base in the Golden Gate National Parks that opened last July. The first hotel to start up…
Ah, Mexico. Land of hot sand, cheap beer, and a foolproof cure for seasonal affective disorder: endless adventure.
Out on the far edge of the Alaska frontier, a man can hide his sins. Robert Allen Hale—a.k.a. Papa Pilgrim—bought a homestead outside the remote town of McCarthy where he imprisoned his family and conned the world with tales of a simpler life. But for the 15 children living the nightmare, the only choice was escape.
They may not have solved the mystery of his disappearance. They may not have been there when the wreckage was finally found. But goshdarnit, these Canadian adventure racers might just have invented a new sport in the process: extreme jogging for good.
Everest is shrinking—in status, at least. In the past few years, companies like Nepal Helicopter have been ferrying passengers to Base Camp, allowing well-heeled "climbers" to skip the slog up to 17,600 feet. Cheating? Perhaps. But there are times when a shortcut is worth a little shame. Consider these La-Z-Boy adventures.
Meet JosĂ©, emblem of New York City's wildlife renaissance—and the Big Apple's newest Casanova
A peek under the living roof of San Francisco's newly rebuilt, half–billion–dollar monument to nature
It's about time: Look sharp—and get the job done—with a watch for any occasion
Summer in northern Vermont: long days, long trails, and not a single leaf peeper. Here's how to do it right.
Your town got you down? We’ve got your escape plan. These 20 stars of America’s 21st-century Renaissance are riding a wave of civic reinvention and fresh ideas.
Presenting our foolproof recipes for the perfect long, hot weekend: six classic road-trip itineraries, the country's best pit stops, and a lot of Willie Nelson. Just pick your route and roll.
The polls are closed and we’re off to the All Good festival this weekend to test our gear (and maybe have a little fun while we’re at it). The winners of the gear poll are:TENT: Big Agnes Pine Island 4SLEEPING BAG: REI Travel Sack…
The craziest way to spread the gospel about North Dakota's enormous, untapped wind power? Kite-ski the bastard.
Leave San Francisco behind on a three-day, 30-mile trek that starts just beyond the Golden Gate Bridge
Their fathers were titans. Their family defined conservation in the West. Now, with two Senate seats up for grabs, cousins Mark and Tom Udall have the chance to bring green leadership to Washington when it's needed most. Can the boys man up the way their dads did a generation ago?
The Super Bowl is without fail the most anticlimactic sporting event of the year. If you have tickets to the 2008 game, this February 3 in Glendale, Arizona, raise the stakes by arriving a week or two early. Park yourself 15 miles from the University of Phoenix Stadium at Sanctuary…
On January 17, Hollywood hotshots and thousands of movie fans will invade the Wasatch Front for 11 days of movies and partying at the Sundance Film Festival. Get your cinematic thrills, then ditch the glitz and experience the real star: Park City’s adventure playground.
On a cosmic night of baseball Randy Wayne White joins the armada in San Francisco's McCovey Cove to fish for Barry Bond's record-breaking home-run ball
Escape from New York (and nine other big cities) with these 40 fast adventures
Resort towns no more—move here before the masses do.
Try summiting one of Southeast Alaska’s 16,000-foot peaks and you’ll run into a few potholes—literally. Thousands of pits (or moulins), up to 300 feet deep, scar 3.2 million glaciated acres of Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve, and more and more visitors are trading in a summit bid to rappel…
Colorado River guide Michael Ghiglieri publishes irresistible books about the weird, wicked things that kill people in national parks. With a bestselling Grand Canyon necrology behind him and a new one on Yosemite coming out this spring, he talks to KEVIN FEDARKO about accidents, suicides, and murders—and why forensic gawking can actually
Are you in love with your home? We’re scouring the country to find the best places to live, work, and play for our annual Best Towns issue, and we want you to contribute. Tell us why we should pack up and move to your place by emailing us at…
ThereÂ’s something sublime about a dip in a natural swimming hole, be it a lazy oxbow in a cool river, a hillside nook fed by a subterranean hot-spring, or a limestone bowl bored out by a 40-foot waterfall. “The swimming hole is the perfect outdoor experience,” says Pancho Doll, author…
It’s not like we needed another reason to love Moab. But we’ve got one: Utah’s red-rock mecca for adventure sports is pursuing one of the most ambitious green-energy policies of any town in the West. The movement is led by mayor and 35-year resident Dave Sakrison, 61, who was elected…
Forget après ski. Three January film festivals are redefining post-powder entertainment. Head to Park City, Utah, or Nevada City, California, for the winter’s coolest mountain town film festivals, where you can play outside by day and catch top film premieres by night.
A California forest ranger meets his fate in the forest.
The Bermuda Triangle isn't the only place you might witness the unexplained.
When he landed a rare permit to hunt bison deep in the Alaskan wilderness, our fearless forager thought he'd be living out a childhood dream. Wild buffalo, hungry grizzlies, nearly fatal hypothermia—what more could a grown man ask for?
A fateful trek into nature's tangled labyrinth
There's only one best ski town for nighttime fun, and it's Aspen
Red-hot lava, scary pelagics, and heavenly creatures all come out after dark on Hawaii's Big Island
Chasing tall legends for his new book, Blood and Thunder, Hampton Sides takes a wild ride deep into one of the most sacred spots on earth—Arizona's Canyon de Chelly
Getting There: Canyon de Chelly is located in Chinle, Arizona, a four drive from Albuquerque or six hours from Phoenix. Canyon de Chelly National Monument is open year-round, though the winters are cold and tours run less often. Where to Stay: Campsites within the monument are free and…
Outside editor at large Hampton Sides has a gift for homing in on some of the most intense and violent moments in history. Winner of the 2002 PEN USA Award for non-fiction, he wrote about Bataan Death March survivors in his first book, the bestselling Ghost Soldiers (adapted into the…
Ten go-now getaways that are short on hassle but long on adventure—no passport required
Wanna live where the action is? The goal: Trails out the back door, a serious Saturday-morning peloton, whitewater just up the road, and neighbors eager to join in. Our source: The best adventure athletes in America, who tell us where they live and why. The result: 20 places where locals work, train, and play hard. Start packing now.
![The Boulder Flatirons at sunrise.
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Think life in America's favorite outdoor mecca would be dreamy? Careful what you wish for.
To air is human. To go big is divine. To huck for dollars at the hard rock cafe... a cry for help. Why are action-sports athletes suddenly channeling Evel Knievel?
Hook up with Carmichael Training Systems and Santa Fe Mountain Adventures for one of the most comprehensive adventure racing camp in the country.
IN JANUARY, ARIZONA’S Hualapai tribe, whose 2,000-person reservation covers 1,500 square miles along the Grand Canyon’s south rim, is opening a glass-bottomed, horseshoe-shaped walkway that will jut 70 feet from the edge, 4,000 feet above the canyon floor. Located 200 miles west of the crowded lookouts of Grand Canyon National…
Think Utopia doesn't exist? Maybe not yet—but these ten towns are making a play for perfection with adventure-friendly innovation and cool ideas for building smart communities. Plus the hottest concepts in urban revival, combating sprawl, and better hometown living.
What does a naive environmentalist discover when he buys his own forest? He's got to log it to save it.
Our two-week pleasure tour samples the best of Canada's most bountiful province
Don't just hike—follow in the footsteps of famous explorers and naturalists
If your big-day fantasies include a crescent beach or a mountain vista, you're part of the hottest trend in nuptial bliss: destination weddings
Ten tempting all-American lodges with style and ambience to spare
From the red-rock vistas of Abiquiu to the dunes of White Sands—with a few shots of tequila mixed in—New Mexico is another world. Try these 12 perfect days in the Land of Enchantment. Horseback Riding into the Sunset Cerrillos Twenty miles south of Santa Fe, where the southern Rockies peter…
A new breed of luxury camping mixes fresh air and fireside fun with crisp linens and five-star dining
Thirty-three years after the passage of the Clean Water Act, New York’s 315-mile Hudson River, long an icon of industrial and municipal pollution, is running clean enough that native fish species like the striped bass are boosting their numbers even in the waters off Manhattan. And they’re not alone. About…
Little Palm Island Resort & Spa, Fl Little Palm Island FLY IN, BOAT OUT: Little Palm from your taxi window This 28-bungalow retreat is as off the grid as it gets—120 watery miles south of Miami, accessible only by boat or floatplane. Snorkel and kayak off white beaches, or…
Climb aboard for the ultimate ride with the ultimate boat buddy: Martin Litton, the Colorado River legend and conservation warrior who, as much as any other single person, shaped the Grand Canyon float trip into an American classic
Think outside the cubicle. Ditch your desk and soak up the sun courtesy of the nation's best alfresco Wi-Fi unplug-ins.
No one denies that our 50th state is Paradise, USA. But anyone who's ever been to this lush chain knows a simple truth: Not all the islands are created equal. So which is best? Welcome to the Great Hawaiian Island-Off. Read on, and pick your perfection.
An 812-mile effort to revive the spirit, if not the tactics, of the West's most notorious monkey-wrencher
An ANWR defeat would deal a major blow to the entire concept of wilderness protection. In this exclusive essay, Senator JOHN KERRY vows to take the fight to the GOP leadership.
Does President Bush have the votes to drill Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge? The world is about to find out.
WHEN OLYMPIC ORGANIZERS reintroduced the old-school sport of skeleton at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, after a 54-year hiatus, they had a hit. Skeleton, which sends competitors headfirst down icy tracks at up to 80 miles per hour, is the “moonshine of winter thrills,” as American gold-medal winner Jim…
In the February 2005 issue of Outside, Senator John Kerry argues that oil development in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would bring irreparable harm to a uniquely American treasure. His essay is the latest in a series of Outside reports exploring the pros and cons of drilling in ANWR. Here,…
An ANWR defeat would deliver a major blow to the concept of wilderness protection – and environmental leaders know it. Backs against the wall, green lobbyists are planning to fight, and one group at the forefront will be the D.C.-based League of Conservation Voters. Long feared by legislators for its…
Forget hiking the Kalalau Trail on Kauai’s famed NA PALI COAST. You’ll get a much better view of these fluted green cliffs by boat—and winter is prime time to see humpback whales that have migrated here from Alaska. This season, Na Pali Explorer, a Kauai-based outfitter, is offering morning whale-watching…
The wedding's a wrap, the guests are gone, and now the real fun begins. these eight perfect honeymoons will launch your new life together.
This fall, workers are finishing construction on the world’s largest tree house, set among 16 lime trees in the Alnwick Garden, a 40-acre public space 30 miles north of Newcastle, England. Hardly a glorified kiddie clubhouse, the three-story, 10,000-square-foot turreted spread will contain a 120-seat restaurant, private dining rooms, a…