A lovely mix of waterfalls, hiking, camping, and swimming makes this New York state park the ideal summer getaway.

Park Pass, Amy Beth & Derek Wright.

The program connects the fishing tradition across generations while teaching children skills they can apply in the future, either at a clinic or while earning their badge.

Spotlights, By Courtney Johnson

This year (2024) we’ll be pausing the series for one year. We look forward to reading your poems in early 2025!

Cool down in the summer heat or soak your tired muscles at these twelve gorgeous swimming holes in the US National Parks and National Forests.

Spotlights, Courtney Johnson

A unique North Georgia state park and home to one of the most spectacular waterfalls east of the Mississippi.

Park Pass, Derek & Amy Beth Wright

You can experience all five national parks in one visit to Utah!

Spotlights, Derek & Amy Beth Wright

With White Sands and New River Gorge in as National Parks #62 and #63 respectively, we’re taking a look at the contenders for #64. Here’s a brief rundown on how they stack up. We’re giving you a bit of each site’s story, and a score as to their chances, on a scale of John Muir beards!

By Derek Wright

“Like the redwoods, spaces that are designated for women have been dwindling. Some rot from the inside. Some simply age out of existence. But new saplings, spaces, and ideas are always being planted.” Lia Seth writes about why outdoor spaces for adult women, like The Compact, are vital.

Essays, Lia Seth

The greatest, best, and most beautiful place I've ever car camped was on top of a cliff in the Buffalo Gap National Grassland. Here's what you need to know.

Spotlights, Robbie DeGraff

Four majestic, historic, and scenic parks on the Outer Banks of North Carolina are a quick journey from one other, and can easily be combined into long holiday weekend exploration or enjoyed over several summers.

Spotlights, Amy Beth & Derek Wright

Explore some of the best national parks and monuments for dinosaur and fossil lovers! These eight amazing sites preserve and interpret the stories of the animals, plants, aquatic life, and insects that once called Earth their home.

Spotlights, Courtney Johnson

Anne Wallentine heads to Hampstead Heath Kenwood Ladies’ Pond bathing pond in London. The experience helps her to reclaim her own body. "For the first time I feel safe exposing my skin and my scars."

Essays, Anne Wallentine

Spotlights, Courtney Johnson

To make the most of your trip, use this guide to help you decide how to maximize your adventure to Yellowstone according to your interests.

Spotlights, Courtney Johnson

Find the best activities, lodging, dining, tours, and hiking for Mesa Verde National Park. With this guide, there are also many fantastic side trips listed, with rugged trails, long stretches of highway, vast canyons, history and more within public lands in the Four Corners region.

Spotlights, Courtney Johnson

Travel with Lauren Smith as she finds a sense of home on the road, much like the migrating birds she studies. "The month after I moved to Montana I went to an environmental conference in Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta. There, I heard a Blackfeet elder say this: “We are bound by breath to honor and take care of this place.” The elder was speaking about conservation, and how it is important to care for all parts of an ecosystem—the watershed, the soil, the plants, the animals. To care, the elder said, you need to settle in a place and let it settle in you. Once this happens, you are bound by breath to honor and care for that place."

Essays, Lauren Smith

Though many of the parks units have little to no entry fee, roughly one-third do charge an entry fee. Some can be a bit hefty; Grand Canyon and Yosemite run $35 per car. The best deal going is the America the Beautiful Pass, as for $80 you purchase one year of unlimited entry into national parks and national wildlife refuges as well as standard amenity fees (day use fees) at national forests and grasslands, as well as lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Tips and Tricks, Derek Wright

For our first installment focusing on National Park Service units in Hawaii, we’ll be exploring the islands of O’ahu, Maui, and Moloka’i.

Spotlights, Parks & Points

We are delighted to share our seventh annual poetry series!

Winter is an opportune time for national parks adventures. Fewer visitors mean less traffic jams, quicker entry to the parks, and plenty of parking at trailheads and pullouts. Find 32 great ways to explore national parks in winter with this guide.

Spotlights, Courtney Johnson

Discover the 2023 dates when entry to all national parks will be FREE!

Tips & Tricks

The International Dark-Sky Association was created in 1988 to help minimize light pollution and to protect the night skies. There are 103 Dark-Sky sites worldwide, including Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado, Staunton River State Park in Virginia, Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, and Enchanted Rock State Natural Area in Texas. The two entities often work alongside each other to preserve what natural night sky still exists. For example, Bob Meadows, a physical scientist and night skies specialist in the NPS Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division took his expertise and equipment to Goblin Valley State Park to help with the park's Dark-Sky designation—at Goblin Valley, one is under one of the darkest skies in the world.

Tips and Tricks, Courtney Johnson

Where to Climb, Trek, Wander, Hike, Eat, and Relax along the Front Range of the Rockies in Southern Colorado.

Spotlights, Parks & Points

If your explorer is looking to earn additional junior ranger badges and learn more about dinosaurs, the night sky or even the underground railroad, there are many options to do so online without having to visit a national park.

Tips & Tricks, Courtney Johnson

Plan a perfect three-day road trip to the southern Black Hills region of South Dakota, seeing national and state parks, and the world famous Buffalo Gap National Grassland.

Spotlights, Courtney Johnson

In many parts of the country, the first signs of fall come with cooler temperatures and changing leaves. But for some areas, fall also brings the rut—a time when elk bulls fight to keep their bloodline alive.

Essays, Courtney Johnson

Part I of our D.C. guide is focused on National Park Service units in the Washington D.C. jurisdiction area; a few sites in Virginia and Maryland are included. You can visit these sites without a car, either by walking, using public transportation, or taking a quick taxi ride. The parks are in alphabetical order, which the NPS categorizes by the first letter of the park. At the end, we’ll share a great tip to make sure you find all the stamps for your Eastern National Parks Passport. You can also continue to Part II of the guide here.

Spotlights, Parks & Points

While often visitors head directly to the heart of Yosemite National Park, the former gold mining town of Mariposa, just outside park borders, is well worth exploring.

Spotlights, Melissa Curtin

Some of the Heritage Area wonders are natural, some manmade, and some, like the Old Railroad Bridge—the oldest river bridge in Alabama,—are a unique combination of both. The bridge now serves as a 1,560-foot walking trail over the Tennessee River at the TVA’s Muscle Shoals Trail Complex, where one can access 17 miles of foot trails.

Spotlights, Amy Beth Wright,

Join us on Tuesday, May 9th at 7:30pm EDT for an evening poetry.

Here are some of the best national parks and monuments to visit if you enjoy caves.

This year, The Pursuit of History is pleased to feature the perfect holiday gift for history and art enthusiasts.

We are delighted to share our sixth annual poetry series! Every spring, we are fortunate to read so many beautifully written poems that evoke the natural landscapes and cultural histories and legacies associated with public lands.

Author Robert McHugh recalls his service in Japan after World War II and his enduring personal connection to that moment in history, and returns to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Japan, years later.

Essays, Robert McHugh

We are thrilled to announce the publication of Wayfinding, a poetry anthology that we have curated and edited together, by the venerable Finishing Line Press.

Join us this Wednesday, May 4th at 8pm EDT for a live poetry reading featuring many of the 2022 Parks & Points & Poetry series poets!

Register for this event here! ->>>

When you approach the tallest sand dunes in North America at Great Sand Dunes National Park, you almost feel like you are on the set of Star Wars. From a distance, they appear much smaller than they are—the tallest point on the dunes is approximately 13,604 feet (4,146m) above sea level. When we got our closeup look from the visitor center in July, my four-year-old daughter Emma's mouth dropped open.

Spotlights, Courtney Johnson

Andrea Ross writes about a heroic experience high in the Arizona mountains at Mount Humphreys that changes her life forever.

Essays, Andrea Ross

Pin Ups inspired us to want to chat with Yi Shun about how notions of belonging in the outdoors form and take root, what we can do to further prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion in wilderness culture, and how we can work against the implicit biases that accompany us into those outdoor spaces, when they arise.

Hot Springs National Park marks its 100th birthday on March 4, 2021. Eight historic bathhouses are in use by the park service or have been re-imagined, with many original design and architectural elements intact. Discover the history and plan your trip to Hot Springs!

In April of 2021, we will again host our annual online poetry series in honor of National Poetry Month. We invite poetry submissions that reflect upon nature, outdoor exploration, and accompanying moments of adventurousness or self-reflection. Enter your poem today!

The Department of the Interior has released the 2021 dates when entry to 108 fee-based National Parks Service units will be FREE!

Use these apps to explore the national parks, forests, and other public lands!

Tips & Tricks, Courtney Johnson,

Channel Islands National Park, comprised of five islands along the southern California coast, is only accessible by boat (a sixty-minute journey from the Ventura marina) or by helicopter. In 2015, the park logged 324,816 recreation visits, compared with more than four million visits each to parks like Yellowstone, Rocky Mountain, and Yosemite National Parks. Like the Galapagos Islands, the seclusion and protection in the Channel Islands allows for species that exist in no other part of the world to thrive and become interdependent. Magnificent kelp forests shelter more than 1,000 species of animals and plants. Rocky reefs are prolific for eelgrass beds, and shelter small invertebrates, fish, and sharks. The park provides nesting and breeding grounds for 99% of California’s shorebirds and seabirds, and half of the world's population of ashy storm petrels and western gulls.

Spotlights, Parks & Points

There's plenty to say about Glacier National Park, one of the most popular and scenic national parks — it is defined by glacial lakes, alpine valleys, vast green meadows and striking mountain tableaus. It is an idyll, with landscapes that might more often be found in a storybook. The vast park stretches over one million acres of northern Montana, and is home to multiple habitats and potential experiences for visitors. Based on our experiences with Glacier National Park thus far, we’ve synthesized our ideas, thoughts and suggestions to get you started in planning a Glacier adventure. Consider it a primer, as there is an abundance of information out there.

Spotlights, Parks & Points

The holidays are a perfect time to explore a national park, national recreation area or national monument. Beyond winter hiking, snowshoeing and skiing, many offer unique ways to celebrate the season. Here are a few:

Tips & Tricks, Courtney Johnson

After losing his mother, Andy Fogle finds meaning and solace during a series of mountain hikes throughout New York state.

Essays, Andy Fogle

The National Park Service, we know, protects and preserves important historical landmarks and expansive, undeveloped natural landscapes. However, many NPS units also have ties to the creative arts, and are dedicated to honoring and preserving an artistic legacy. We've taken a closer look at parks that focus upon artists, writers, and important creative and cultural pursuits that uniquely reflect and reexamine American culture.

Essays, Derek Wright

Essayist Molly Pascal explores some of the smallest though most important animals. “The French Creek watershed boasts rich biodiversity, including 27 varieties of fresh water mussels. This quiet form of wildlife actually falls under a very special category.”

Essays, Molly Pascal

My family and I are standing at the top of Ding Darling’s wooden observation tower admiring the refuge’s long stretch of water, undisturbed landscape, colorful birds and all-around beauty when we hear a jarring and unmistakable sound.

CRUNCH! We look out to the water. “What is it,” my daughter asks.
Near the shore, an eight-foot American alligator devours a Frisbee-sized horseshoe crab. The gator’s jaws are deceptively closed, but after a few minutes its mouth opens, and the doomed crab flops inside the gator’s mouth.

Spotlights, Chris Umpierre with additional reporting by Amy Beth Wright

Our beloved poetry series returns, with 21 original poems about nature and parks.

John Brown Farm State Historic Site, nestled in the Adirondacks at North Elba New York, protects and interprets the famed abolitionist’s family farm and final resting place.

Spotlights, Parks & Points

As we come to the close of the 2010s, we’re counting down with some of the biggest stories from public lands from this decade, the 2010s.

We are delighted to host our third annual poetry series.

Read the winners of our 2019 nonfiction contest.

Our weeklong tour covers 1,000 miles of stunning landscapes -- desert canyons, ancient ruins, and petrified forests. You can pick up the tour in the middle if not traveling through Phoenix. You also might choose to stay on longer than we have indicated in a few places, or to adjoin this with our tour of southern Arizona. For both tours, we advise making a daily habit of packing plenty of water and checking your fuel, as at times the next gas station is 50-100 miles away. The optimal time for a visit to northern Arizona, weather-wise, is between May and October.

Spotlight, Parks & Points

More than fifty types of birds nest in the refuge, and another two hundred species dwell there permanently, or stop off during migration. I bought a laminated guide, Birds of Southeast Florida, in the gift shop, and we set out, weaving in and out of the wetlands, slowly, slowly riding our bikes on the hard-panned, grassy ridges....But then, dark thoughts of alligators crept in.

Spotlights, Laura Power

A free epic virtual road trip offering unprecedented behind-the-scenes access to twelve extraordinary historic sites with expert tour guides leading the way.

Tips and Tricks, Amy Beth Wright and Derek Wright

Before its association with cutting edge technological innovation, the Santa Clara Valley was known as the “Valley of Heart’s Delight.”

Spotlights, Amy Beth Wright

With five national parks and over forty state parks to visit in Utah, the Cedar Mesa region in the southeast part of the state—where President Obama designated Bears Ears monument—has been most renowned for being a point of controversy. I journeyed to Bears Ears to better acquaint myself with the landscape as an outdoor enthusiast, and to better understand why so many people have fought so hard to protect it, for so many decades. I also wanted to be able to make a case for this particular body of land that is based on my own experience.

Essays, Courtney Johnson

Our annual fall essay contest invites nonfiction submissions of up to 1,500 words in the form of autobiographical essay, reportage, profile, memoir, or narrative nonfiction. Winners will be selected by contest judge, Pippa Biddle.

Contests, Parks & Points