Most symbolic gestures on the part of Congress are pretty silly, but the National Bison Legacy Act, sponsored by Wyoming Republican Mike Enzi, is an act pretty much everyone can get behind. And everyone is, from Democrats to environmentalists. If passed, los bisons would join eagles, oak trees, and roses as national symbols. And while [ more... ]

The crowds, danger, and sense of entitlement among clients have gotten so out of control, Pemba Janbu Sherpa is considering changing professions. This season, Pemba abandoned his only summit attempt to rescue an American climber, gave away batteries, oxygen, and water to help others, and tried to save a Nepali-Canadian woman who died. Slow climbers [ more... ]

Etnies released a rather troubling video featuring Tom Dugan, one of their riders who took a bad fall and suffered a head injury in Munich during competition last March. He spent two days in a medically induced coma and two more sleeping. Dugan is still suffering from the effects of the injury, and he spends most of his time organizing hats, vacuuming, finger painting, collecting stamps, and reenacting commercials.  Dugan plans to get back on his bike soon and hopes to compete in this year’s X-Games. Hopefully he looks back fondly on this strange time after making a full recovery.

Well, they’re not technically for AARP members, but increasingly that’s who’s going to national parks. Just 16 years ago, 33 percent of the peeps hitting Death Valley National Park were in their 20s. But that’s plummeting: In Yosemite, 20-somethings are just 11 percent (almost all of whom are in Camp 4) and Yellowstone a miniscule [ more... ]

It might be made for the military but the U.S. military and the outdoor industry have a long history together. The radar backpack kit weighs 20 pounds (so bring some friends to carry it), and once setup it will alert you if anything moves within 150 acres. Guess what? Something will probably be moving within [ more... ]

The synchronous fireflies of Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee fooled park biologists and disappointed the scores of people who reserved the right to watch their nightly light show, arriving two weeks earlier than expected. The reason? No one’s uttered “climate change,” but it’s because “this year the unusually warm spring has caused the [ more... ]

If you can see this, then you might need a Flash Player upgrade or you need to install Flash Player if it’s missing. Get Flash Player from Adobe. This error may appear if the URL path to the embedded object is broken or you have connectivity issue to the embedded object. Powered BY XVE Various [ more... ]

South Dakota could have the nation’s first privately operated national park. The lower half of Badlands National Park may come under the management of the Oglala Sioux tribe later this year. The national park wants to sign away 133,000 acres back to the the tribe. Back, because this portion of the Badlands was actually taken [ more... ]

The Denali National Park wolf population has just 70 individuals, and two are dead after a trapper shot a horse just outside the park to use as a lure for los lobos, snaring the two. Both were breeding females, one of which was the only known wolf to have raised a litter last year. “This [ more... ]

Sequoia National Park in California is home to the towering Sequoia redwoods that people drive from all over the country to see. The problem is all the driving. And all the other energy we use that creates air pollution. Sequoia has the worst air of any national park, comparable to urban areas like L.A. Experts [ more... ]