Nature & Wildlife
The largest wild cat in North America, the mountain lion—also known as a catamount, cougar, panther and puma—has powerful limbs and can leap as high as 15 feet and as far as 40 feet. That makes it an expert at attacking prey from behind. It also tends to make hikers in mountain lion territory wary.
Travel Tales
Say the words “American West” and right away you imagine vast, open plains, deep canyons and starting over. What is it about going West that has always meant hope in the American psyche, as if a new beginning could be had just by heading in a certain compass direction?
Conservation
It’s been 44 years since Wisconsin’s—as this Wisconsinite is proud to say—Senator Gaylord Nelson inspired the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. Modeled on the antiwar protests of the late 1960s, the original Earth Day began on university campuses as a national teach-in on environmental issues.
Conservation
Each spring, the National Park Service and the National Park Foundation sponsor National Park Week, this year designated as April 19–27. To kick off the celebration, Saturday, April 19, and Sunday, April 20, are fee-free entrance days.
Nature & Wildlife
I’d like to tell you that I just returned from a totally off-the-grid vacation. Somehow, I feel more adventurous when I say that to you. I’d like to tell you that, but it wouldn’t exactly be true.
Conservation
America’s national parks give us the rare opportunity to see a star-filled night sky, a window on nature that most of us who live anywhere near a town or developed area have probably never truly witnessed.
Conservation
Saving paper is probably one of your highest tenets, as someone who considers himself or herself a “conservationist,” as most Natural Habitat Adventures travelers are. You avoid unnecessarily wasting our precious natural resources.
News & More
It’s National Park Week in the USA. At a moment when the federal budget is as strained as it’s ever been, our parks are nonetheless open free of charge to all comers from April 16-24. It’s a perfect opportunity to discover a new destination or get reacquainted with an old favorite.
Nature & Wildlife
There are many Native American stories regarding the stunning red, orange and white hoodoos in Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park. The Paiute Indians call the park Unka-timpe-wa-wince-pockich—which means “red rocks standing like men in a bowl-shaped canyon.”
Travel Tales
The long waits now common at airports do have one advantage: they give us a chance to catch up on our reading while getting to and coming back from our travel destinations.
Travel Tales
The “Recommended Packing List” in my Pre-Departure Briefing booklet for the Grand Canyon, Bryce and Zion trip suggested I bring the usual gear: everything from a wool sweater and polypropylene long underwear to a pair of shorts and Teva-style sandals.
