Colorado Family Outdoor Adventure is the definitive guide for families of all ages to experiencing the natural splendors of Colorado. Whether you are planning your first family adventure or you are an experienced outdoors family, Heather Mundt provides everything parents, grandparents, children, and teenagers need to know to enjoy activities throughout the state. As an experienced outdoors writer, adventurer, and family traveler, Mundt shares more than sixty destinations across Colorado, outlining family adventures in hiking, biking, paddling, horseback riding, whitewater rafting, camping, skiing, sledding, rockhounding, wildlife watching, fishing, climbing, experiencing outdoor cultural activities, and more in this go-to guide. Every one of these outdoor activities is graded in terms of difficulty and age-appropriateness, so every reader will know exactly which activities are right for their young kids, teens, and older relatives. Organized geographically with easy-to-use maps alongside detailed descriptions and beautiful photography, Colorado Family Outdoor Adventure explores every corner of the state with memory-making activities for every family.

In his enthusiastic explorations and fervent writing, Michael J. Yochim "was to Yellowstone what Muir was to Yosemite. . . . Other times, his writing is like that of Edward Abbey, full of passion for the natural world and anger at those who are abusing it," writes foreword contributor William R. Lowry. In 2013 Yochim was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). While fighting the disease, he wrote Requiem for America's Best Idea. The book establishes a unique parallel between Yochim's personal struggle with a terminal illness and the impact climate change is having on the national parks--the treasured wilderness that he loved and to which he dedicated his life. Yochim explains how climate change is already impacting the vegetation, wildlife, and the natural conditions in Olympic, Grand Canyon, Glacier, Yellowstone, and Yosemite National Parks. A poignant and thought-provoking work, Requiem for America's Best Idea investigates the interactions between people and nature and the world that can inspire and destroy them.

Historian Wallace Stegner characterized America's National Park system as "the best idea we ever had." One can quibble with that, but, indeed, it was a pretty good idea! This book specifically is a guide and a celebration of 30 of those national parks, national historical parks, and national monuments that, each in its own way, reveals the histories and cultures of America's first inhabitants, the Native Americans. Its pages will take you to: great mounds in Ohio where the dead were laid to rest in sumptuous splendor 2,000 years ago a place in Iowa where 1,000 years ago, Native Americans sculpted earth into the forms of giant bears and birds a quarry in Minnesota where Native People have, for hundreds of years, extracted blood-red stone for their ceremonial pipes the remains of a village in North Dakota visited by Lewis and Clark in the early 1800s and the home of their guide Sacagewea truly breathtaking, more than 700-year-old cliff dwellings in Arizona and Colorado, that will astonish you in their ethereal beauty and architectural ingenuity phantasmagorical images of 7-foot-tall, wide-eyed spirit beings in Utah painted more than 1,000 years ago And many more. All of these sites have in common the fact that, at the insistence of Native and non-Native people, men and women, the federal government of the United States set them aside as places to preserve, study, and revere as part of the American story no matter where your ancestors came from, how they got here, or how long ago. Read this book and visit the historically sacred sites enshrined in our national parks, national historical parks, and national monuments, places that reveal the creativity and genius of the Native People of North America. With 180 color photographs and complete visitor information, this is a wonderful guide to Native American archaeology in our national parks and monuments.

One of the great pleasures of camping is cooking in the out-of-doors within beautiful surroundings. Whatever your mode of travel, whether it be backpacking in the high altitude, camping in a tent, pop-up trailer, camper, travel trailer, motor home or boating the closeness to nature is rewarding. The wonderful aroma of campfire smoke, the vista of a lake, stream and mountains, the animals and birds close at hand, and the smell of evergreens enhance the experience. The dry desert camping among smoke trees with lizards scurrying around is satisfying also.

There has never been a better time to explore the Blue Ridge Parkway! This updated edition of Hiking the Blue Ridge Parkway is ideal for anyone who uses the Parkway as a portal to the Southern Appalachian experience. It includes the best trails in the national forests, state parks, and private preserves that line the 469-mile roadway-from the southern end of Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina-making it a single-volume solution for the serious explorer, whether on foot or by car. Look inside to find: Hikes suited to every ability, from 0.1-mile nature walks to 13-mile backpacks, with options for longer treks Accurate directions to both popular and less-traveled trails Up-to-date trail descriptions and detailed trail maps Difficulty ratings and elevation gain for each hike Mileage log for the entire Parkway and a guide to wildflowers Tips for zero-impact hiking, trail etiquette, and hiking with kids

This travelogue/biography will be useful to other motorhomers planning a similar tour of Scotland and Ireland, especially when it comes to the difficulties of driving a large vehicle along roads that were originally designed for horses and carts! Written in a light-hearted and sometimes self-deprecating style, it includes ideas for stop-overs, snippets of history, personal observations and lots of photographs. It follows the original blog format (dates), and each section gives the mileage covered that day. It differs from standard travel books in that it's about touring popular tourist destinations but keeping away from the hotspots and finding other lovely places to go. There is lots written about all the famous places in Scotland and Ireland. Bessie, Mike and Me is unique in that it offers a more offbeat type of tour.