“Joshua Tree National Park is synonymous with the desert. Yet record numbers of guests threaten to overwhelm its beauty, wildlife, and small staff.”
National Parks
Posted inFeature
‘That Girl is Going to Get Herself Killed’
Krista Diamond | Longreads | November 2022 | 16 minutes (4,342 words) In 2012, I was working at a hotel in Glacier National Park when a man I’d just met invited me for a day of tubing and drinking beer on the river. Little did I know, I would nearly drown in the rapids. But […]
Posted inCulture, Highlight, Quote Posts, Quotes
‘I Saw It on Instagram, I Had to Come’: The Desire to Document Ourselves in Nature
Are Instagrammers and selfie culture destroying the outdoors? At Outside, Lisa Chase sets off to find out.
Posted inEditor's Pick
What I Learned at the Most Instagrammed Outdoor Places
Visiting tourist hotspots like the Grand Canyon and Horseshoe Bend, Lisa Chase explores “the human desire to lose ourselves in the wild and also to extract, despoil, and package it.”
Posted inQuotes
Risking Your Life For a Selfie
“With the right hashtag, anyone can view thousands of potential destinations — and choose which to visit based on aesthetics alone.”
Posted inNonfiction
Tramp Like Us
Can an American family learn to become outdoorsy in New Zealand, where the natural world is part of the national DNA? Sort of.
Posted inReading List
National Parks: A Reading List
Jacqueline Alnes considers the wealth, privilege, racism, and violence inherent in our relationships with U.S. National Parks.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Feature, Nonfiction, Story
Vacation Memories Marred by the Indelible Stain of Racism
Shanna B. Tiayon recalls an interaction with a National Parks Service bus driver that cast a pall on a family trip to the Grand Canyon.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Women of Color Are Blazing New Paths on Old Trails
Amanda Machado adds her voice to the growing chorus of women of color claiming their place in the rugged outdoors.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Strange Alienation of Being a Latina Who Loves Hiking
A personal essay about loving hiking as a Latinx — in both Ecuador, where author Amanda Machado’s family members see it as un-classy and unladylike, and the United States, where hiking has largely been the domain of upper-class whites.