Davis Mountains State Park
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Davis Mountains State Park – Gateway to the Cosmos

Life slows down when you head west. You start to pay attention to things that you may have long forgotten about or just never bothered to admire. You notice the beauty in the rugged terrain; a personal connection to the dry, arid desert brings a smile to your face. The hues, colors, scents, and textures of the…

Hiking the South Fork Eagle River & Cantata Peak
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Hiking the South Fork Eagle River & Cantata Peak

The colors were amazing, brilliant oranges and yellows, worthy of a painting but instead only captured by cameras. It was with that brilliant light that I fell in love with the wilderness. This was my first time truly outside. Not just in the woods, or a few miles from a road. I’d been backpacking in West Virginia and North Carolina before this, but never had I stepped foot in true wilderness.

exit glacier alaska
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Hiking the Exit Glacier and the Harding Ice Field

When we saw a few small shelters and signs, we knew we had reached the end of the trail. This was the observation point for the Ice Field. The view from this area was… other-worldly. The way the pure ice and snow stretched out before us. Three hundred square miles of ice. That’s about a quarter of the size of Rhode Island, and we stood there in awe of this. Formations like this once covered much of North America.

Mt Baldy Trail
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The Five Most Awesome Ways to Summit Mt Baldy

Are you ready to climb a mountain? How about the tallest 10,000-foot mountain overlooking Los Angeles? Just a forty-five-minute drive from that concrete jungle, the city of angels, you can find many different trails ascending to the top of Mt Baldy, the local’s name for Mt San Antonio. So lace up your favorite Keen hiking boots, fill up your Nalgene with H20 and ask yourself “Which is the best route to summit Mt Baldy?”

Horseshoe Lake Denali National Park, Alaska
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Hiking Horseshoe Lake, Denali Alaska

The rain was falling lightly, enough to ensure that I had the entire trail to myself. About half a mile in, the trail seemed to fall away at a bluff. I stood there in silence, looking out over a medium-sized lake framed by mountains, with a few tiny cabins in the distance. Join me on my journey as I Hike Horseshoe Lake of Denali National Park get lost in its quiet beauty.

North Rim Big Bend National Park
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Big Bend The Place Of Unforgettable Memories

This New Year’s instead of staying in the bustle of Austin, waiting for the fireworks and drinking to my heart’s content, I thought I would do something different. I would backpack into Big Bend National Park and enjoy my New Year’s hiking up ridges and enjoying the views that nature has to offer. Big Bend…

hiking in bosnia
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Hiking in Herzegovina – the North Hills

It’s worth spending extra time in the area so you can appreciate the incredible natural beauty surrounding Sarajevo. My dad and I love the outdoors, and we did not plan to miss out on hiking in Bosnia. We wanted to get far outside the city and find the best views without getting totally lost. Plus, there are still some landmines in Bosnia, relics of the Bosnian War in the 1990s. You won’t run into any as long as you stick to well-marked trails and roads, but that’s just the thing: we wanted to get off the beaten path. For us, hiring a knowledgeable local guide made the most sense.

Nevado de Toluca
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Mexico’s Volcano, Nevado de Toluca 15k’er

I’m lying in snow, 14,000 feet above sea level on a volcano known as Nevado de Toluca, when I feel warm breath against my hand. Exhale, groan, roll over. It’s a dog, come to investigate my motionless form. “Good dog,” I slur and raise a hand to pat her head. Her name is Maya, I think, and she’s been tagging along with our hiking group since this morning.