The short answer is yes. The longer answer is…good luck with that. Let’s start by suggesting you avoid the Enchantments. Hey, it’s just a suggestion. Also, consider the impact of your visitation on places you love or want to go. And think about Aldo Leopold’s call for a new land ethic in terms of recreation. Haven’t read Sand County Almanac yet? There are lots of affordable used copies available for purchase online.
Frequent contributor Krista Langlois recently moved from Colorado to a small town in coastal British Columbia. She has never been to the Enchantments, and probably never will. kristaleelanglois.com, @cestmoilanglois, @krista_lee_langlois
Paper and pencils out, please. Ready? Add this to your life goals list: hike Sweden’s Kungsleden, or King’s Trail. This mostly singletrack trail stretches two hundred ninety miles between Hemavan in the south and Abisko in the north. Its roots date to 1885, when a bunch of adventurous scientists wanted to make access easier to the country’s northern mountains. Today, there are huts located a day’s hike from each other, but lots of people backpack and tent-camp, including participants in the Fjällräven Classic. The event is a fantastic introduction to Arctic Sweden: for about $400, you get food, fuel, maps, seminars, and support along the one hundred ten kilometers of the route. In 2026, there are seven Classics — in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, the UK, Korea, Chile, and Colorado.
Stephen Casimiro is the founder and editor of Adventure Journal. experience.fjallraven.com/classic
The Etch A Sketch was invented by a Frenchman named Andrés Cassagnes, who sold the rights to Ohio Art Company for (inflated adjusted) two hundred seventy-two thousand dollars. It made its debut in 1960, costing three dollars (the equivalent today of more than thirty bucks), and went on to sell six hundred thousand units that first year. Static electricity holds aluminum powder to the plastic screen, which you remove, or draw, by turning the dials. Most people create simple one-line drawings, but advanced Etch a Sketchers can use two-tone shading and make separate lines by shaking and manipulating the powder.
When not drawing lines, Phil Powers is climbing them. He’s the president and co-owner of Jackson Hole Mountain Guides, was the CEO of the American Alpine Club, and also served as chief mountaineering instructor with the National Outdoor Leadership School. themountainguides.com
Mitchell Scott is a writer, editor, and storyteller living in Queen’s Bay, British Columbia, where singletrack leads out the back door and comes in the front.
In 1941, the National Park Service commissioned photographer Ansel Adams to create a photo mural for the Department of the Interior headquarters in Washington, DC. The theme was to be nature as exemplified and protected in national parks. The mural effort was halted because of World War II and never resumed. These photos are drawn from the two hundred twenty-six images he created for the project.
Philosopher and mountain guide Jack Turner was the president of Exum Mountain Guides for many years. He’s the veteran of forty expeditions and treks in Pakistan, Peru, Nepal, China, Tibet, and India, as well as the author of The Abstract Wild (from which this story was excerpted), Teewinot, A Year in the Tetons, and Travels in the Greater Yellowstone. He lives in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming.
The insect apocalypse is real. Between 2005 and 2025, butterfly abundance fell by twenty-two percent in the United States. In Germany, seventy-six percent of flying insects have been lost since the turn of the century. But you can make it better: if you have a yard, or even a balcony, do a quick web search for the plants pollinators in your area need. Then, you know, plant them. And feel free to make and throw seed bombs — just be sure to use the seeds of native plants. Photographer Thorben Danke’s insect portrait book, Face to Face, is available on his website, but for now only in German.
Thorben Danke lives in Besigheim, Germany. sagaoptics.de, @sagaoptics
Despite being out of print for decades, you can find copies of Albert Saijo’s The Backpacker on eBay for as little as nine dollars.
Brad Rassler is a long-form journalist whose work transects landscape, history, and place. His reporting has been nominated for National Magazine Awards and examines how place shapes belief, ethics, and cultural expression. bradrassler.com
Tanglebloom Cabin’s design was adapted from plans created by architect Bob Swinburne — $300 is the cost if you’d like to tackle this simple shelter for yourself. Even if you don’t, Swinburne’s website is full of really cool information about building, renovation, and his philosophy of slow living. At last check, Tanglebloom was renting for about $90 a night.
vermontcabin.co, bluetimecollaborative.com, @tanglebloom_cabin
In case you haven’t noticed, the recipes we feature in Three Square are always based on plants. There are two reasons for this: one, for lots of recipes, it’s easier to add animal products than remove them. Two, eating more plants and fewer animal products is one of the best ways you can fight climate change. The recipes in this issue are excerpted and adapted from Dirty Gourmet: Plant Power, Mountaineers Books, 2023. Dirty Gourmet’s first cookbook, Dirty Gourmet, was published by Mountaineers Books in 2018.
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