For many people, Christmas conjures up images of home, family, and traditions like gathering in front of a cozy fireplace hung with stockings. However, lots of folks don’t have a big family they want to spend time with or a house with a fireplace. Instead of feeling like you’re missing out on a perfect holiday, you can start a new tradition this holiday season. Consider spending time in one of America’s beautiful national parks. Stunning parks across the United States invite visitors to go for a hike, enjoy fresh air, and appreciate scenic beauty. This winter, stay at one of these three properties offering festive activities near national parks.
Grand Hotel at the Grand Canyon. / Photo courtesy of Xanterra Travel Collection
If there’s a hiker on your holiday shopping list, have you taken a look at their favorite daypack lately? Hikers can become notoriously attached to a backpack — no matter how scruffy, smelly, and generally unsightly it may become over years on the trails. It might be time to stage an intervention in the form of gifting your hiking loved one with a fresh new daypack. Here are some of the hiking packs that rate the highest with happy customers. Once your giftee gets used to the idea, we’re sure they’ll appreciate well-functioning zippers, grit-free pockets, and that new backpack smell.
In 1872, the United States became the first country to create a national park: Yellowstone. Over the next four decades, various government entities oversaw the country’s parks, monuments, and reserves, including the Departments of Agriculture, War, and the Interior. Then, in 1916, the National Park Service was born. It’s grown to be America’s favorite public agency. Now, the National Park System has 423 sites, 63 of which are full-fledged parks. The rest fall into categories like national monuments, seashores, trails, recreation areas, and historic sites.
Do you have a park lover on your holiday shopping list? These gift ideas will keep fond memories of hikes and views top of mind year-round.
“The Idaho Sled Dog Challenge showcases the remarkable partnership that’s possible between humans and canines and has become one of the West Central Mountains’ most iconic winter events,” race founder and organizer Jerry Wortley said in a statement.
Events kick off with Meet the Mushers on January 20 at the Ponderosa Center in McCall, Idaho, where the public can get up close to the people who drive the dogs. The 52-mile Warm Lake Stage Race runs January 24-25, starting and finishing at North Shore Lodge & Resort. Then come the main events, 100- and 300-mile races starting on January 29.
Photo by Melissa Shelby, courtesy of Idaho Sled Dog Challenge
“Mushers will tell you this is a very, very atypical race,” Idaho Sled Dog Challenge co-founder and trail coordinator Dave Looney said. “Our elevation change is 36,000 feet, which is greater than the Iditarod. They call it a 500-mile race packed into 300 miles. So the dog care and the pacing and the attention they have to pay to the terrain is really important, because there’s a lot of up and down. One musher said the Idaho Sled Dog Challenge is like climbing Mt. Everest — twice.”
Photo by Melissa Shelby, courtesy of Idaho Sled Dog Challenge
The Idaho Sled Dog Challenge is the only 300-mile Yukon Quest qualifier in the lower 48 and one of only three such events for the Iditarod in the contiguous continental U.S. So you can expect to see some of the world’s top mushers in action.
Photo by Melissa Shelby, courtesy of Idaho Sled Dog Challenge
How long does it take to finish such a long and grueling race? Well, that’s a bit unpredictable. Organizers expect the 100-mile race to end January 30, while the 300-milers will cross their finish line somewhere between January 31 and February 1.
Photo by Melissa Shelby, courtesy of Idaho Sled Dog Challenge
If you are feeling the call of the Idaho wild, consider volunteering. The race needs more than 200 volunteers to help with handling dogs, managing parking, setting up and staffing checkpoints, providing food, operating ham radios, and assisting at the start and finish lines.
How do you balance road-tripping with the comforts of home? More and more Americans are doing so with RVs. Approximately 20 million will go RVing this holiday season, a 30% increase over 2022, according to the RV Industry Association Holiday Travel Intentions Survey. Not only will you feel more at home, but so will your pets. About 60% of RVers will bring their pets on holiday this season. Fido will thank you for not leaving him behind in a kennel.
Don’t have your own RV? No problem. With RV rental platform RVezy, you can book an array of experiences. Get some travel inspiration with this list of 10 rentals you can book at beautiful and outdoorsy RV camping destinations across the country.
A clownfish pokes its head out of a fluttering anemone, then darts back in. I’m snorkeling through the Nemo Garden, an area rich in the predatory marine invertebrates known as anemones and the fish who love them. When I pop back to the surface, marine biologist Caitlin Rentell of Sun Siyam Iru Fushi explains their symbiotic relationship.
“The anemones have stinging cells in them so other organisms will get stung by the anemones,” Rentell told me. “But clownfish have this special mucous that basically coats their skin. And they’ve evolved so they can go in the anemones without getting stung.” The movement of the clownfish brings fresh water and nutrients to anemones, which are attached to coral reefs or rocks on the sea floor. In return, clownfish hide out in anemones to evade predators.
I spent nine days at three different Sun Siyam resorts in the Maldives. Since the South Asian country is 1% land and 99% ocean, it’s heaven if you like a water-focused vacation. Activities range from quiet and educational to loud and motorized.
Clownfish staying close to their anemone. / Photo by Caitlin Rentell
Do you have cyclists on your holiday shopping list? Maybe they’re serious racers or people who bike commute daily, rain or shine. Whether your biking loved one likes to careen down mountain trails, crunch the gravel, or glide down paved roads, there’s always an accessory or two to make the ride more fun. Which makes them blessedly easy to shop for. Or maybe if they’ve been really, really nice, Santa will buy them a brand-new bike.
Here are this year’s top picks for holiday gifts for bike lovers. From affordable add-ons to top-end bicycles, this gift guide full of cycling gear has you covered.
As much as we might wish for it, most of us can’t be on vacation every day. For the majority of the year, we have to settle for making the most of our weekends. This presents a unique challenge for outdoorsy types. When you crave adventure, it can be difficult to fit all your activities into a day or two. This is where one-day adventures come in clutch.
If you want to maximize your free time, keep a bucket list of one-day outdoor excursions. Are you curious to try a new hiking trail? Add it to the list. Want to see a new side to your state’s scenery? Plan a day trip. And if you can’t decide which activity to try next, peruse this list of one-day outdoor adventures to keep your weekends fun and active.
Walking down the street of Rhyolite, Nevada, facades of empty buildings loom over me. Nobody is here but my husband and me — and some wild burros giving me the stink eye. A creepy feeling comes over me as I stand in this empty town that was once full of thousands of gold miners with dollar signs in their eyes. Now, the lights and power have been off for over a century.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a ghost town as “a once-flourishing town wholly or nearly deserted usually as a result of the exhaustion of some natural resource.” Lots of people like me feel the lure of these empty places, which are most common in the spacious western United States. Make the most of Halloween season by exploring these 11 ghost towns in all their spooky glory.
It’s hard to sleep in when you’re staying in a hotel overlooking one of Japan’s most beautiful lakes. Especially in summer, when the sun rises around 4:30 a.m. and brings shifting colors, jumping fish, and diving osprey.
Lake Shikaribetsu is the highest-altitude lake in Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido. Tucked up in the Daisetsuzan mountain range, it was formed by a volcanic eruption damming the Yanbetsu River approximately 30,000 years ago.
In addition to being a prime recreational area within Daisetsuzan National Park, the lake also attracts fans of “Spirited Away.” Its lake-bottom railroad tracks resemble those from the wildly popular 2001 anime movie. There was never actually a railroad going into the lake, though. Instead, the tracks help bring sightseeing boats ashore before the winter freeze.
