Essays
How hiking with my canine companion gave me a new perspective on adventures.
The Army veteran found a way to give back in retirement, through his love of dogs
Even a familiar place can deliver a dose of the unexpected
Sometimes a quick brush with danger can feel almost transcendent
In the grueling wake of a natural disaster, an aid worker finds the energy to keep going
During his first wilderness job, a chance encounter with a bear left the wildlife biologist with a profound respect for nature that has endured ever since
After an alarming encounter on a trail, getting a dog helped me enjoy running again
The massive cleanup clears tons of garbage from Oregon’s public lands
Three decades after her father died, the theater director healed her relationship with him through his favorite hobby: gardening
The environmentalist drag queen found the community they craved as a queer teenager at a YMCA summer camp. Now they’re determined to share that experience with as many LGBTQ+ kids as possible.
A Black southerner who grew up during the dying years of Jim Crow journeyed north as a young man to pursue life as a writer and scholar. Fate brought him back, and he fell in love with a troubled part of the state known around the world as the birthplace of the blues.
At the end of my mother’s struggle with Alzheimer’s disease, I realized I needed to handle my sorrow the same way I approached athletic training
These odd scraps of property tell us more about ourselves than we realize.
When the mixed media artist feels alone, there’s one place that always offers her the comfort and support she needs: the wilderness
You don’t have to be an astrology buff to believe that the moon and stars have a special kind of power in our lives
The outdoor-recreation professional thought he could get through cancer on his own. A week of surfing and climbing with new friends showed him otherwise.
I only recently learned that hitting the trails solo makes me feel more alive.
Peter Kaestner has traveled the world on an adventure-filled quest to become the first birder to hit 10,000. Ornithologist Jessie Williamson hitched a ride on a rollicking South American mission that involved land, sea, and (you guessed it) air.
This age-old camp tradition has a higher purpose. Plus, two campfire skit ideas to stoke your creative side.
Americans live in one of the most individualistic nations on earth—and it can be one of the most isolating, too. Could hiking be a way for us to find our way back to community?
The artist was lost in her own life until a walk in the forest spurred her to take charge of her journey
I spent a year researching fifty women—one from each state in the country—who are taking action for climate justice.
In an excerpt from her new book 'Love Your Mother: 50 States, 50 Stories, and 50 Women United for Climate Justice,' Mallory McDuff profiles climate activist Colette Pichon Battle.
To manage her anxiety, the journalist takes a simple approach: she laces up her running shoes and heads out the door to see what comes next
When her son was jailed for a crime he didn’t commit, the former legislator dealt with her pain in isolation. A powerful experience in nature spurred her to turn to her community for support.
After I spent a decade in the grind of working motherhood, seals welcomed me to the wild
After losing her father, she first turned to the outdoors for relief. Then she funneled her grief into creativity.
Sure, maybe you get a leg cramp. But you could also get struck by an asteroid.
After a frightening accident, the veteran journalist reset her approach to work and life. The result was a surge in creativity.
Meet YouTube’s quiet superstar: Martijn Doolaard, a semi-hermit Dutchman who has turned the slow, steady process of Alpine-cabin restoration into a masterpiece of performance art
Therapy on the hiking trail couldn’t fix the new normal of Oregon wildfire season, but could it help me grapple with it?
In a time when people are more attached to their devices than ever, getting outside has never been more vital to our happiness and wellbeing.
After the ocean took away her partner, the marine biologist found a way to live with loss
The journalist was was about to quit his reporting trip down a remote river in Colombia when a group of kids reminded him that finding great stories demands that you participate in normal existence
When the adventurer began studying shipwrecks carrying enslaved people, she was scared to uncover the pain of their sad history. Then she realized the beauty of connecting with our ancestors.
Being incarcerated at a young age taught the gear designer that we can move past our biggest mistakes—as long as we keep going
After dreaming about performing the works of the acclaimed author for decades, Nick Offerman finally got his shot—and realized he wasn’t worthy
A run-in with law enforcement when he was a college student spurred the Native activist to build an organization around the idea that we have to show up for each other
Outside’s ethics guru weighs in on taxation without representation
Great news: you can now explore our entire network, taste-test everything, and easily share stories you love
Photographer Olivia Bee spent last winter with mushing teams in western Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, and Alaska
Despite the frontier trope of the rugged individualist, getting help from strangers is actually the more common experience
In Utah, Christmas-tree lights are a very big deal. Meet the itinerant crew of climbers, river guides, ski bums, trekkers, and thru-hikers who work like super-elves to get ready for the year’s most beautiful holiday.
A century of agriculture is threatening ancient aquifers in Oregon’s high desert. And the Indigenous farming practices that might heal the earth are being squeezed out.
The author and her 14-year-old daughter made a dramatic move into a 110-year-old cabin in Steamboat Springs, Colorado
The shredders, climbers, policy-makers, barrier breakers, and scientists who forever changed the way we view the world
He was born to a herd of wild horses on an island off Virginia and found his way into the heart of a little girl on the dusty trails of the Southwest.
In a post-pandemic world, workers are demanding remote flexibility, more time off, and generous health benefits. These are the companies meeting that bar and more, while encouraging their employees to live an active lifestyle and allowing them to achieve a healthy work-life balance.
Some of you are thinking, Ewww, no way. But open your hearts to the truth: spiders are among the most fascinating creatures on earth, and great neighbors to boot (goodbye, mosquitos!). With climate change putting them in danger, they could use a few new friends.
How my mom, infant son, and I accidentally crashed a wedding at the local ski hill
Farmers aren’t supposed to get emotionally attached to their livestock. But when you suddenly find yourself caring for two newborn sheep, these things happen.
A good cry can be therapeutic and can even better connect you with others. Let’s stop shaming it.
Born on an island off the coast of Virginia, home to a wild herd that inspired the classic children’s novel ‘Misty of Chincoteague,’ this gentle, blue-eyed gelding enjoyed an adventurous life with a family in New Mexico. After his death, a mother and daughter went on a mission: to lay him to rest amid the sand and the waves.
“I really did spend 16-plus hours covering fewer than three miles”
A writer in Bozeman, Montana, grapples with the wealthy wave of newcomers gentrifying the town she moved to ten years ago—as a dirtbag pursuing the western dream
People say farmers aren’t supposed to get emotionally attached to livestock. Uh-huh. When fate sent our writer two newborn sheep with life-threatening birth defects, that kind of thinking was banished from the barn.
Dirtbags were wearing Tevas long before Miuccia Prada, but high fashion's fascination with the outdoors is nothing new
While many sports are tightening restrictions on transgender athletes, these leagues went in the opposite direction
If you want workers to come back to the office, here's a thought: let them wear shorts
Eric and Pam Bealer were living in a cabin in rugged coastal Alaska when they made a dramatic decision: they would exit the world together
The family of Lauren Davis desperately sought answers after she was fatally struck by a driver while biking to work in New York City in 2016. At every step, the criminal-justice system let them down, raising the question of what justice should look like for victims of traffic violence.
In 2015, billionaire entrepreneur Johnny Morris opened a hunting-and-fishing store that doubles as a theme park, with multiple bars and restaurants, a luxury lodge, and an entire swampland forest decorated with taxidermy—all shoved inside a replica Egyptian monument. We sent one writer on a 24-hour mission to explore this exotic modern wilderness.
I’m a Denver Broncos fan. I’m also an environmentalist, outdoorsman, and bike rider who lives in a world that seems increasingly choked with oversized adventure vehicles. Can I really be both?
The Wigudun Galu Association celebrates the ancestral gender diversity of their Indigenous territory
In the summer of 2020, an anonymous artist who goes by the name of Roadside Senryu started installing road signs inscribed with poems, a joy for those driving past them and for communities nearby
After a lifetime of prudishness, our writer tries to become one of those people who bares it all in the great outdoors
We asked a bunch of great writers to bear down, focus, and tell us what makes them giddiest in the outdoors. Join them as they celebrate everything from diving off rocks to adventure flirting to … shivering in a bed between cold sheets? (Hey, don’t judge.) Plus: five scientifically proven ways to up the fun and improve your health.
Last summer, Tiffany Thiele, a young rock climber from Reno, Nevada, took her life after posting a Facebook message claiming she’d been raped by a ski patroller. She left behind an unsolvable mystery about what really happened, along with urgent questions about whether more could have been done to heal her feelings of pain and distrust.
Yolanda Davis-Overstreet is fighting for safer streets and mobility justice in the marginalized communities of Los Angeles
Last year, Annette McGivney lost her beloved yellow Lab, Sunny, and was overwhelmed by sadness. Since then she’s built a new life with a challenging rescue dog, and she’s learned a lot about the healing power of human and animal bonds.
The phone feature can be a convenient safety tool. But for one writer, it served as a crutch for anxiety.
How boredom and booze created an outlaw sport best left alone
Earth-loving New Yorkers are drawing from an unlikely arsenal of activism, hip-hop, marathon city-council Zoom meetings, and one sassy pug to hold the city to its zero-waste commitments. If they succeed, the environmental benefits could be huge.
Some runners swear by their pump playlists, but I’d rather listen to a great book
Fitness comes and goes. Allow Glen Plake to make a case for prioritizing style—that elusive athletic skill that endures.
Earlier this year, journalist Amelia Arvesen participated in a ride for bicycling safety that ended in tragedy. Months later, she’s still figuring out how to process what she saw.
Fifty years after its release, it’s time to unwrap the messages embedded in the game