Looking for a super secluded holiday with your sweetheart, besties, or favorite family members? Off the Map Travel offers a dream package for those who want to get really far away from civilization. Spend two nights at a floating safari camp at Sweden’s Lake Degerselet, just south of the Arctic Circle, then transfer by canoe for a final night at the land-based Aurora Safari Camp.
Despite the remote location, you won’t be roughing it at the floating safari camp. You’ll have two glamping tents, a double room, a toilet, and a shower. The kitchen has a two-burner stove, refrigerator, and a dining area. Act fast, or book for next year. The floating camp operates June through September and can sleep up to six people. Here are some of the adventures you can go on while you’re there.
On Sunday, August 27, swimmers can join Ohio-based nonprofit Adventure Crew for a fundraising event on the Ohio River. Proceeds from the 2023 Bill Keating, Jr. Great Ohio River Swim will help Adventure Crew connect city teens to nature and each other through outdoor adventures.
Interested in joining this open-water swim across the Ohio River? Pre-registration is open until Saturday, August 26, at noon. Participants will start their swim at Serpentine Wall in downtown Cincinnati. From there, swimmers will make their way to the Kentucky side of the river before tracing the same route back. During the approximately 900-meter race, the river will be closed to motorized traffic. Onsite safety paddlers will help provide support when needed.
Photos via Adventure Crew
“The Great Ohio River Swim has become a ‘bucket list’ event for many local swimmers,” Miriam Wise, Adventure Crew’s director of support and engagement, said. “We’re excited to host both competitive and recreational swimmers in support of Adventure Crew’s Swim Training Program, which provides city teens with access to swim lessons, water safety instruction and lifeguard certification.”
Swimmers seeking an extra challenge can apply for one of the few “Double Dipper” spots. Double Dipper will go for a 2.5-mile swim down the Ohio shoreline before joining participants in the 900-meter course. These swimmers will commit to raising at least $200 for Adventure Crew.
The fundraiser gets its name from Bill Keating Jr., one of the first swimmers to sign up for the first swim in 2007. While Keating passed away from brain cancer in 2017, his family remains involved with the Great Ohio River Swim.
“I’m thrilled to continue being part of this event and to honor my dad’s legacy,” Caroline Keating, Bill Keating Jr.’s daughter and Adventure Crew board member, said. “Adventure Crew broadens access to swim instruction and provides city teens with a critical life-saving skill, thanks in part to the proceeds from this fun morning on the river.”
Pre-register for the event online here. On-site registration will open at 7 a.m. on the day of the swim. In the event of unsafe water conditions, the swim will be rescheduled for Sunday, September 10.
There’s something so evocative about lighthouses and the lonely yet romantic lives of lighthouse keepers. They were available to work 24/7 and had the responsibility of keeping a tower’s lamp lit every night from sundown to sunrise. Many travelers can’t get enough of these historic beacons, whether they’re taking photos from the base or climbing to the top to check out the views.
According to the United States Lighthouse Society, 779 lighthouses are currently standing in the country. Here are some of the best-looking lighthouses to visit while traveling around the U.S. this summer — just in time for National Lighthouse Day on August 7.
Two thousand paddlers of all skill levels will converge on the Ohio River in Cincinnati during the first weekend in August. It’s the 22nd annual Ohio River Paddlefest, and if you have a SUP, kayak, or canoe, you can join in.
The Ohio River Paddlefest is the biggest paddling event in the United States. It kicks off on the evening of Friday, August 4, with the Outdoors For All Expo. Then, on Saturday, August 5, participants will choose between paddling a 9- or 4.5-mile course. Paddlefest is a fundraiser for the nonprofit Adventure Crew, which connects city teens in Cincinnati and northern Kentucky with nature and each other via outdoor adventures.
Paddlers enjoying the festival. / Photo courtesy of Adventure Crew
“Between Ohio River Paddlefest and the Outdoors for All Expo, Paddlefest weekend has become a can’t-miss event for outdoor enthusiasts,” Miriam Wise, director of support and engagement for Adventure Crew, said in a statement. “Mark your calendars and invite your friends and family to join us the first weekend in August for this much-loved annual tradition.”
The Outdoors for All Expo is free and open to the public. It features 50 exhibitors, including outdoor outfitters, local parks, and environmental organizations. You can listen to live music, enter a raffle, and buy dinner from a food truck. Paddlefest costs $50 for adults and $25 for youth joining the 9-mile paddle. The 4.5-mile paddle is five bucks less. It’s best to bring your own kayak, SUP, or canoe, but a limited number of boats are available for rent.
This year, organizers have added a new event: a kayak bass fishing tournament that runs both Friday and Saturday. Anglers can try their luck in any of three Ohio River tributaries: Great Miami River, Little Miami River, or Licking River.
Adventure Crew was founded in 2013. It serves all Cincinnati Public Schools high schools, seventh and eighth graders in certain Cincinnati elementary schools, and six schools in northern Kentucky. Annually, the organization helps nearly a thousand students step beyond their comfort zone and seek a deep connection to nature.
“Every dollar we raise through Paddlefest supports that mission,” Wise said. “So by signing up to paddle on Saturday or buying raffle tickets and a beer on Friday, you’re helping us get city teens who might not otherwise have access to nature out on adventures like hiking, biking and of course, paddling. It’s a great way to share your love of the outdoors while having a great time in the process.”
In the words of Nicki Minaj, let’s go to the beach. Specifically, Pismo Beach. Located in sunny Southern California, Pismo Beach offers some of the most gorgeous coastal views you’ll ever see. Here’s a sneak peek of the incredible sights that make Pismo Beach deserving of all this praise.
Outdoors Wire has covered severallovelybeachdestinations, but Pismo Beach stands out for its uniquely entrancing scenery. Dramatic cliffs frame the sandy shores and heighten the coast’s natural beauty. The cool blue of the ocean bounces off the stark gray rocks and mixes with the bright sand and surrounding greenery to create views you’ll never want to look away from. Find out where to catch the best of these charming vistas with this list of exciting things to do in Pismo Beach.
If you go out in the woods today, you’re in for a big surprise. At Oregon’s Willamette National Forest, that surprise is absolutely stunning scenery. Here’s what you should know about this special destination and its beloved landmark, Tamolitch Falls.
Tamolitch Falls, aka Blue Pool, hides within Willamette National Forest. Despite being tucked away just east of Smith Reservoir, these shimmering blue waters still manage to attract tons of visitors. Described as a “cliff-rimmed basin” by the United States Forest Service, Tamolitch Falls has been a popular tourist destination since the 1930s. Explore what makes this spot so magical in this curated photo gallery.
Imagine lounging under an ornate temple overlooking a calm, blue pool while the scent of fresh lavender wafts through the air. Nearby, precisely manicured trees cast blissful spots of shade on lush green grass. Such an idyllic experience may seem too perfect to exist, but it can be a reality for people who visit Pulgas Water Temple in Redwood City, California.
What is Pulgas Water Temple? As the name suggests, the site features an intricately-carved stone temple near a reflecting pool flanked by tall trees. This outdoor oasis was built in the 1930s and remains free and open to visitors today. Here’s what you should know before spending a day at the water temple.
An eight-ton motorized raft chugged down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. Inside, I sat with two new Australian friends. Our seats were called “the bathtub” — and it’s obvious why. Every minute or two, we entered another set of giant, heaving rapids. We shivered in puddles of water, even though the air temperature was about 100 degrees Fahrenheit. We were also shrieking, laughing our heads off, and getting sillier by the minute as we tried kicking the rapids away from us with our soaked shoes.
This is what a typical summer day rafting through the Grand Canyon with Wilderness River Adventures (WRA) is like. Our seven-day trip started at Lees Ferry and covered 188 miles of sometimes roiling, sometimes calm river. We had the best imaginable view of the Grand Canyon — from the bottom up. We listened to the river all day and night as we stargazed, marveled at waterfalls, and spotted cute lizards doing pushups.
A calm stretch of water. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
Could a Grand Canyon rafting trip be for you? Read on to find out.
Commercial vs. private
Potential guests must choose between joining a commercial group or getting a private permit and bringing their own raft. For most people, a commercial tour is the better option. The Colorado River rapids are huge. Unless you’re an experienced rafter and a wiz at reading currents, don’t even think about leading your own trip. Plus, permits are hard to get. If you enter the private rafting lottery system, you might wait years for your chance.
If you opt for commercial, there are a few options. I went with the cushiest choice — a seven-night trip on a motor-driven raft. The 35-foot-long raft included two inflatable pontoons to help keep it afloat. WRA also offers oar-powered boats, either rowed by the guide or by all the participants. The company’s trips last from three and a half days to two weeks. The shortest trips entail a grueling 10-mile hike into the canyon to meet the rafts.
The Wilderness River Adventure rafts, parked for a lunch break. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
“It has been voted one of the number one outdoor recreation vacations in the world for multiple years running,” Richard Adkins, our trip leader, told me. “It’s crazy because it’s a very small number of people who can actually do this. We only let 18-23,000 people come through here a year.”
Adkins is in his 29th year as a raft guide, so he has shared canyon views with thousands of people. “The way to see the Grand Canyon is definitely from the bottom up, instead of from the top down. People want to experience the whitewater but they also want to see the Grand Canyon. And a lot of people just want to say that they did it.”
A typical day on the Colorado River
Our two-raft party could accommodate up to 24 guests and four guides. My group had only 17 guests, so there was lots of space to spread out. We ranged in age from 10 to early 70s and included four Australians, two Canadians, and 11 Americans.
On the first day, a bus took us from the rafting company office in Page, Arizona, to our put-in spot at Lees Ferry. There, we had the first of several orientations, focusing on how to get on and off the raft and where and where not to sit. We learned about the wettest places on the boat (the bathtub and the shower, the spot on the front side where water shoots up between the raft and pontoon and comes down on your head) and the driest (elevated seats in the back called the chicken coop).
Nonstop scenery in the Grand Canyon. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
Our days on the river started early — coffee call was at 5:30 a.m., and we were on the raft every day by 7:30 a.m. The days began cool and shaded by the canyon’s enormous rock walls. Many of us wore rain gear to protect us from the cold rapids until the day heated up.
We’d cruise along for a couple of hours, alternating between rapids and flat water, gazing at the canyon’s incredible rock formations. Each day included pit stops (where we’d look for discreet places to pee in the river) and a lunch stop where the staff expertly set up a table with elaborate sandwich fixings, chips, and cookies. Some days featured optional side hikes to waterfalls, our guides offered bite-sized bits of geology and history info here and there. Sometime in the afternoon, Adkins would choose our camp for the night. Since campsites are on a first-come, first-served basis, we never knew where we’d end up.
Getting drenched in a waterfall. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
Camp life
Once we arrived at camp, everybody staked out the best campsites. Some campgrounds had areas where a couple or family could have a bit of privacy. At others, people were lined up in a row or otherwise close to their neighbors.
After choosing a site, we made fire lines off the raft for a massive unloading. We passed the cots, camp chairs, dry bags, and kitchen gear from person to person until it was all on the shore. At our campsites, we set up rickety blue cots and made our beds with a sheet and a sleeping bag. We had some free time to read, write, socialize, and huddle under bushes and tiny rock ledges for shade.
As we descended into the canyon, it got hotter and hotter. Adkins’s advice on climate control was: “If you get too hot, get in the river. If you get too cold in the river, get out.” There was a lot of getting in and out of the river. We also experienced a lot of sand, as frequent sandstorms blew it into every crevice.
Home sweet campsite. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
At mealtimes, the crew cooked amazing dishes. These are some hardworking people. I don’t know how they run the rafts all day, keep guests safe, and then whip up elaborate meals in the camp kitchen, from fish tacos to Dutch oven brownies. And they accommodated many diets. Our trip had a vegan, a vegetarian, a pescatarian, a couple of lactose-intolerant people, and a diabetic. Nobody went hungry.
Guides Shyanne Yazzie and Jared Castro cooking a delicious meal. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
Elimination was also a big topic of discussion around the camp. All solid waste must be packed out, so we had mini toilets that had to be packed on and off the boat at every campsite. Also, we weren’t allowed to pee anywhere except directly into the river or in a bucket at camp. This was to prevent the campsites from smelling like giant litter boxes.
Camp toilets with a view. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
In the evenings, we all pulled our camp chairs into a circle. Our group included a family of seven — three siblings, a spouse, two kids, and a teenage cousin — with a long family history of rafting the Grand Canyon. This was the first time for the kids but the second to fourth time for the four adults.
Fellow traveler Megan Dukes first came as a child and fondly remembers having a family adventure together. “My favorite part was the evenings when we sat around, and I got to hang out with my cousins that I don’t get to see that often,” she said. “And being on the boat with my family.”
Photo by Teresa Bergen
After a few days, everybody felt like family. Spurred on by our youngest members, the evenings were soon full of fun. We faced off in a cutthroat card game called Egyptian rat screw and a roleplaying game called Ultimate Werewolf.
Highlights of a Grand Canyon rafting trip
Rafting through the Grand Canyon is an incredible experience. For me, the scenic highlight was a side trip to the Little Colorado River, which is a milky aqua color. We parked the rafts and walked a short distance to where the Colorado meets the Little Colorado. You can see where they connect when the aqua stops and turns dark green. We put our life jackets on like diapers (very inelegant) so they’d cushion our bums as we floated down the Little Colorado. It was some of the most beautiful water I’ve ever seen.
The amazing aqua water of the Little Colorado River. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
My guides were another highlight. I stayed on the raft piloted by Shyanne Yazzie, who is part of the Diné (aka Navajo) tribe. Her swamper, or assistant, was Kim Bighorse, who is Apache. Eleven tribes once lived in the Grand Canyon, Yazzie told me, though only the Havasupai remain. She and Bighorse greatly enriched the trip by sharing family stories and the traditional interp. Today, most of the rapids that bear people’s names commemorate white guys, so obviously, some stories are missing. I felt lucky to be guided through the Grand Canyon by Yazzie and Bighorse.
Then there were the stars. I slept better than I expected on my cot, but it still wasn’t super comfortable. So, I’d often wake up in the middle of the night. For a moment, I’d forget where I was. Then, I’d open my eyes and be blown away by the stars, moonlight, and enormous canyon walls.
As Yazzie told me, “I feel like everybody should come down and raft the Grand Canyon at least once in your life. Because it will change your life and it will also open your eyes to new possibilities and adventure. Take a pause in your busy life and just come down and enjoy this grand beauty that not a lot of people get to see.”
Shyanne Yazzie, guide extraordinaire, in her beloved Grand Canyon. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
Whether you prefer swimming in mountain lakes, surfing in the ocean, or lounging by the pool, summer is the time when most folks think about upgrading their swimwear. Of course, in today’s body-obsessed society, choosing swimwear can be a fraught experience. How can we look our best while exposing so much? Instead, let’s focus on enjoying the activities we’re doing in our swimwear. Which suit is going to be comfortable, cover what we want to cover, stay in place, and last for several seasons? Here are some top picks for both form and function — that also happen to look good.
Cool water is a great relief as summer heats up. So, many people take to the rivers, lakes, and oceans on all sorts of vessels. While this usually results in a fun day out, never underestimate the power of water. Accidents happen. Fortunately, a little preparation and education can minimize risks for you, your friends, your family, and your water-loving pets. Here’s what you need to know, with tips and accident stats from the U.S. Coast Guard and other venerable bodies. Whether you’re piloting a motorboat, pontoon boat, canoe, or kayak, reduce your chances of collision, drowning, and other water-related hazards with these tips.
