ajtestbed For many Americans, the more than 1 million acres of rugged land in southeastern Utah known as the Bears Ears National Monument registers as a political flashpoint. Former President Barack Obama protected the land as a monument in 2016, recognizing the land’s spiritual and natural importance to American Indian tribes. Less than a year later, … Read more
We’re starting to dust off backpacks and tents this first week of spring, and somehow we’ve already packed too much gear even though we haven’t even gone anywhere yet. Made us think of this classic. – Ed. We must call him Jeffrey. Not Jeff. Not Jay. And certainly not “Turd Head,” which was the nickname … Read more
This week, we’re remembering some incredible tales of survival in brutal conditions. There’s just something about these stories that draw us back again and again. We’ve updated the original piece we published back in 2013 with links to books for further reading. -Ed. Got cold outside this winter, didn’t it? Had to turn the heat … Read more
Don’t know about you, but I’m getting a lot of reading done these days. I just finished To Kill a Mockingbird, which I still can’t believe I made it through school without reading. On my nightstand are The Overstory by Richard Powers and Edge of the Map by Johanna Garton. Coventry by Rachel Cusk calls … Read more
In the West, we’re turning the corner from winter to spring, which means a building excitement for alpine adventures, but also a growing wariness of the wildfires summer heat bring. That wariness inspired the construction of fire lookouts across the West, little time capsules erected at the peaks of mountains, that once housed hermitic lookouts … Read more
With vaccination numbers rising and coronavirus case numbers falling and spring around the corner, there are whispers heard at outdoor coffee shops and beer gardens: Will this summer be something close to normal? Camping and traveling with friends, that sounds good. Pulling into a new town, siding up to a counter for breakfast. Maybe it’s … Read more
“A helluva place to lose a cow,” Mormon pioneer Ebenezer Bryce allegedly quipped about the southern Utah scarp of hoodoos that still bears his name. And not just cattle, but even smart people with maps and survival gear have vanished into the folds of the Colorado Plateau’s convoluted topography. Dreamers and adventurers have long been … Read more
For an over a decade, conservationists of the Antarctic Heritage Trust–a Christchurch, New Zealand-based historical preservation organization–endured year-round harsh conditions to preserve three iconic Antarctic explorers’ huts and their possessions. The effort proved to be the world’s most isolated, cold-climate heritage salvation project in history. By 1914, early explorers had tagged the North and South … Read more
Last week we published a short blurb about bikepacking/rafting guru Steve Fassbinder’s forthcoming new bikerafting guide book with Liz Scully. It got us pumped. So pumped we went through and re-read as many bikepacking and rafting articles as we could find from our voluminous archives, especially if Fassbinder was involved. This one is, as the … Read more
Editor’s note: In Adventure Journal 17, summer 2020, we published a story called “The Ghost in the Tent,” by journalist Jason Nark, who had been trying to decipher the mystery of a man known only by his trail name, Mostly Harmless, whose emaciated body was found in a tent by day hikers in Florida. Harmless … Read more