The hike was hot and brutal. My wife and I started on the edge of Sabana de la Mar, a village in the Dominican Republic, after breakfast and drove our rental car until the road ended. Then we navigated patchwork farms until dipping into the jungle and heading toward the coast. Liz and I were young and unprepared, so we ran out of food and water almost immediately, eating mangoes from trees and trying to crack coconuts in our thirst.

Our goal was an isolated beach with a two-stool, open-air bar that you could only reach by boat or hike. We were tired of crowded resorts and wanted something serene. We didn’t find a boat so we hiked. And hiked. And hiked. The bar was closed when we got there, but we had the beach to ourselves: a quarter-moon sliver of sand flanked by tall palms, the Samana Bay stretched out before us.

Sometimes I want to stand on a beach or outcropping or mountaintop and know that the nearest McDonald’s is days away. But just because a destination is far-flung doesn’t mean you actually want to go there.

For example, the farthest-away spot in the United States is Saint Matthew Island, which is technically part of Alaska, but located in the Bering Sea more than 180 miles from the nearest human settlement, halfway to Siberia. You have to take a 24-hour ship ride to reach the island, which is battered by storms and shrouded in fog. Oh, and it’s cold. I’m sure Saint Matthew has its charms, but I can think of more pleasant remote places to vacation.

So, I started looking into destinations across the globe that occupy that sweet spot of “remote” and “attractive.” There’s a variety of landscapes on this list, from dunes to hot springs, so it’s not just tropical atolls,��although they’re in here, too.

Here are 11 far-flung places worth the endeavor to see them. These spots are just the beginning. It’s a great big world out there. While this is bucket-list stuff, damn, it’s fun to dream.

1. Remote Tropical Island

Lord Howe Island, Australia

Traveling to a remote island doesn’t always mean you have to enter survival mode. is a volcanic remnant in the Tasman Sea, roughly 320 miles east of New South Wales, Australia. It’s remote, sure, but it also has some pretty plush digs, and a small population (roughly 350 people) living on the northern tip of the island opens apartments and small lodges to travelers.

The south end of the island is comprised of primeval forest, isolated beaches, volcanic crags, and towering peaks. The island is only seven miles long and 1.25 miles wide, but roughly 70 percent of that mass is protected as a Permanent Park Preserve. Moreover, locals limit the number of tourists, not allowing more than 400 on the island on any given day.

While you’re on-island, spend your time snorkeling in the crystal-clear waters of Ned’s Beach, where sand leads to a coral reef teeming with mullet and kingfish. Arrange with your lodge host for a guide to take you on the three-mile trek to the top of Mount Gower. It’s an all-day adventure that has you scrambling up volcanic rock and hiking through the lush interior forest. The summit rises 2,870 feet above sea level, punctuating the south end of the island.

Or, book a to Ball’s Pyramid, the largest sea stack in the world, rising 1,807 feet from the ocean roughly 14 miles south of Lord Howe. There, you’ll see turtles, wahoo, and the rare Ballina Angelfish. Trips and rates are determined once you’re on island, but you can book single-dive excursions to other sites for $160 per person.

How to Get There: A limited number of commercial flights reach Lord Howe from Sydney. It’s a two-hour flight. Accommodations are scarce on the island (there are only 400 beds in total), so book your lodging at the same time as your flight. has relatively affordable rates (from $300 a night). If you’re looking to splurge, stay at the , which has nine suites with views of both the Pacific Ocean and Mount Gower (starting at $1,900).

2. Remote Hike

Hornstrandir Nature Reserve, Iceland

The is one of the most isolated areas in Iceland, enveloping a 220-square-mile chunk of the Westfjords, a peninsula on the northern tip of the country where towering cliffs meet deep fjords. Uninhabited since the 1950s, the reserve is blossoming from an environmental perspective; since the last residents left, and with a hunting ban now in place, local species like the Arctic Fox thrive, while seals flock to the rocks against the water.

The beaches are a mix of sand and smooth stones, while ferns and wildflowers dominate the slopes up to the cliffs, with icefields above and waterfalls that drop straight into the sea. Hornbjarg, a massive buttress that rises 534 meters from the Arctic Ocean, looking like a cresting wave, is the biggest draw for hikers. The starts on the gray-sand beach on Hornvik Bay where most people are dropped off (see below) and climbs 3,500 feet up the side of the cliffs.

How to Get There: It’s a four-hour drive from Reykjavik to Isafjordur, the capital of the Westfjords, from which you charter a boat across the Bay of Hornvik, or arrange for a guide service to take you across. Arriving at the reserve, you’re on foot, as there are no roads or infrastructure. offers daily boat rides across the bay, guided hiking trips, and multi-day camping excursions into Hornstrandir (from $375 per person).

3. Remote Ruins

Rio Bec, Mexico

The , in the state of Campeche at the base of the Yucatan, Mexico, is known for its Maya archaeological sites. Here, the great ancient city of Calakmul has more than 6,000 documented structures, some towering over the surrounding jungle. You can take organized tours of these and other ruins along with thousands of other tourists every year.

Rio Bec, however, is a lesser-known Maya city tucked more deeply into the jungle of the same reserve that gets a fraction of the visitors. The ruins are so remote, and the jungle so dense, that an entire section of the structures was lost for more than 60 years after the original site discovery in 1912. Put in the extra effort (see below) to come here and you’ll likely have the site to yourself as you climb the steps of stone pyramids stretching 50 feet high, built around 700 A.D.

Some of the buildings have crumbled, while others still boast the skyward-reaching twin towers indicative of the Rio Bec architectural style, unusual in that it serves no practical purpose other than to make a building look more grand. Faux steps going nowhere are even carved into the tower walls. The jungle surrounding the stone structures is full of howler monkeys, jaguars, and wild pigs, and reaching the site is half the adventure.

How to Get There: Fly into the city of Campeche (there’s an international airport) and drive 300 kilometers to Xpujil, the largest town near the Biosphere Reserve. That’s the easy part. No roads lead to Rio Bec, and most tour operators eschew expeditions to the site, as it requires an approach of 15 kilometers (about ten miles) on narrow, difficult trails. Your best option is meeting up with the local guide , who takes small groups into the jungle on ATVs and motorcycles ($450 for two people, in cash).

4. Remote Hot Springs

Uunartoq Hot Springs, Greenland

The Inuit word “Uunartoq” translates to “the hot place,” appropriate for this natural spring on an uninhabited island in the middle of a fjord in southern Greenland. While the island has never been permanently settled, legend says that Vikings visited this steaming pool more than 1,000 years ago.

Aside from the addition of a small wooden structure built as a changing room, the springs are the same primitive, rock-dammed pool they have been for centuries. Unlike most hot springs in Greenland (most of which are actually too hot to soak in), the water of Uunartoq is heated not by volcanic activity but by friction, as layers of the earth’s crust rub against each other, warming the water and sending it up to the surface.

The springs are usually between 98 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit, or about the temperature of a welcoming hot tub. Soak in the pool and savor the views of the iceberg-choked bay and the rocky peaks that define southern Greenland. There is no lodging on the island, but you’re welcome to camp. Keep an eye out for the resplendent northern lights.

How to Get There: Fly into the international airport at Narsarsuaq, then catch either a flight or boat to the town of Qaqortoq, the gateway to Uunartoq. A number of operators in town offer boats and tours to the springs. It’s a 1.5-hour ride across the Qaqortoq Fjord, which is full of icebergs and where you may see the occasional humpback whale. offers a half-day trip from June to September ($375 per person). The company also guides trips to the nearby Greenland Ice Cap and multi-day hikes through South Greenland that have you spending nights on local sheep farms (starting at $140 per person).

5. Remote Lookout Tower

Three Fingers Lookout, Washington

Lookout towers are by definition remote, but Three Fingers takes the concept up a notch, sitting on the summit of in the heart of Boulder River Wilderness. It requires technical climbing to approach, so you need the equipment and know-how. Built in 1933 using dynamite to blast off a section of the rocky peak, the structure is so significant that it’s on the National Register of Historic Places.

The journey to the tower is awesome but to be taken seriously. Hike for six miles through a dense forest and amid subalpine meadows to Tin Pan Gap, where the technical climbing begins. You’ll need ice axes, crampons, rope, harnesses, and route-finding capabilities to negotiate snowfields and a glacier, scramble up rocky pitches, and finally climb a series of vertical ladders to the lookout on the south peak of Three Fingers Mountain.

The lookout tower sits at 6,854 feet and sleeps three or four people—first come, first served. The views extend deep into Boulder River wilderness, and you’ll be able to spot the 6,865-foot Whitehorse Mountain to the north and 5,437-foot Liberty Mountain to the south. Goat Flat, five miles from the trailhead, is a ridge-top meadow that makes an excellent campsite if you can’t score a night in the lookout.

How to Get There: Granite Falls, Washington, is the closest town. The shortest route to the tower is from the trailhead for Trail 641, the , at the end of Tupso Pass Road (FS41). It’s a 15-mile out-and-back trek into Boulder River Wilderness, with almost 4,200 feet of elevation gain. If you want a longer trip, check the Washington Trail Association website for the status of Tupso Pass Road, which was washed out at the time of publication and would add eight miles of gravel road walking. You can also take this .

6. Remote Whitewater

Middle Fork of the Salmon River, Idaho

You want the middle of nowhere? The , in Idaho, is that and then some. The wilderness comprises 2.3 million acres, making it one of the largest roadless areas in the lower 48 (only Death Valley Wilderness is bigger). With two major whitewater rivers—the Salmon and the Middle Fork of the Salmon—flowing through the Frank Church, the best way to explore this vastness is by raft.

Let’s focus on the Middle Fork, which slices through the heart of the roadless area for 104 miles, from its source at the confluence of Bear Valley and Marsh Creeks to its convergence with the Salmon. Many consider this to be the best river trip in the country, thanks to the scenery (the waterway rolls through a landscape full of 10,000-foot peaks, vertical cliffs, and thick Douglas fir) and the adrenaline rush (100 rapids, from class III to class IV, in 100 miles).

Thousands of people paddle the Middle Fork every summer. Fortunately, the river is managed for its wilderness quality, with only seven group launches allowed per day during the summer and a 30-person max for commercial trips. During the week-long trip, you’ll camp on the beaches, see Native American artifacts like petroglyphs and pottery left by the Nez Perce and Shoshone-Bannock tribes, and soak in hot springs.

The most out-there you’ll feel is 80 miles into the trip, paddling into Impassable Canyon, a narrow, steep-walled gorge packed with big rapids. Shortly after entering the canyon, eddy out and take a quick side hike to Veil Falls, a waterfall that drops into a cave-like amphitheater.

How to Get There: Most boaters and commercial trips put in at Indian Creek and take out at Cache Bar, after the rivers converge. offers six-day trips on the whole river ($3,599 per person) with catered meals. If you want to lead your own group, apply for a , to be assigned via a random lottery ($6 reservation fee and $4 per person per day recreation fee). Applications for lottery permits to raft between May 28 and September 3 are accepted from December 1 to January 31, with results announced on February 14.

7. Remote Hike

100-Mile Wilderness, Maine

The 2,000-mile Appalachian Trail is legendary, but it’s not exactly remote, considering that it crosses roads and dips into towns along the Appalachian chain up the East Coast. The section, in Maine, is an entirely different story, however, offering a stretch of trail interrupted only by the occasional forest road and fishing camp/hiker lodge.

Hike this piece of the A.T. from highway 15 to Abol Bridge in Baxter State Park if you want a bit of solitude, but be prepared to work for it. The route typically takes 10 days and features more than 20,000 feet of elevation gain up and over the Barren-Chairback and Whitecap Mountain Ranges. You’ll ford rivers and traverse ankle-turning scree. You can filter water along the way, but will need to carry your food, so count on a heavy pack, too.

Cranberry bogs and isolated ponds punctuate the landscape of dense pine and hardwood forest, and you can see Lake Onawa from the rocky peak of Barren Mountain. As for fauna, you may well spot moose as you hike. You can add another 14 miles to the hike to tack on Katahdin (5,268 feet), Maine’s highest peak and the official end of the A.T.

How to Get There: It’s easy to reach the southern end of the 100-Mile Wilderness; it’s located off highway 15 in Monson. But traversing the truly remote stretches of the A.T. through this stretch of wilderness is up to your legs and lungs. July is the best month, as the black flies have mostly disappeared and the north-bound thru-hikers haven’t showed up yet. in Monson offers shuttles and can arrange for food drops to lighten your load. The 100-Mile Wilderness isn’t completely devoid of civilization; the Appalachian Mountain Club operates a few lodges in the area, but you won’t see them from the trail.

8. Remote Surf Break

Santa Rosa Island, Channel Islands National Park, California

Channel Islands National Park protects five islands off the coast of Southern California, and all offer the kind of remote setting many of us crave after spending time in a generally populous region. While coming here is an effort, the 53,000-acre Santa Rosa Island promises secluded backcountry beach campsites on soft patches of sand tucked into coves and surrounded by cliffs and sea caves, with wilderness-style surfing where you’ll never have to wait in a lineup for a wave.

The only access is via boat. If you take the ferry operated by Island Packers (see below), you’ll be dropped off at a pier in Becher’s Bay. Just 1.5 miles from the pier is the 15-site Water Canyon Campground, with drinking water and shelter from the sun. There are even flush toilets. You could feasibly base out of here and day-hike to various beaches on the southern coast of Santa Rosa, where the surfing is the most consistent in summer. Water Canyon also has its own beach that extends from the pier to East Point for several miles during low tide.

But the best surfing is further south, as the coast picks up south-southwestern swells during the summer. There are breaks along the beaches starting at East Point and moving south down the coast. After a drop-off at the pier (see below), follow Coastal Road south from the pier for several miles through grassland and Torrey Pines until it wraps around East Point. This means carrying your surfboard and camping gear. You’ll see small beaches along the rugged coast that are open for camping between August 15 and December 31. Look for the high-tide line to determine which beach is safe for camping (and then pitch your tent way above that mark). Larger beaches are just another mile down the coast.

Santa Rosa offers loads of other adventures as well. The water is surprisingly clear compared to what you find off the mainland, so snorkeling is primo, with reefs and kelp forests hiding abalone and lobsters. And there’s no light pollution, so the night sky is popping.

How to Get There: If you have a friend with a boat, call in a favor, as you could cruise the 40 miles from SoCal to Santa Rosa and surf one of these remote breaks without needing to camp. Otherwise, catch a ferry with (from $45 per person, one way) and get dropped off at Becher’s Bay and start hiking. Make sure you have a in advance (from $15 per night), because you’ll need that to reserve a spot on the ferry.

9. Remote Safari

Mount Nkungwe, Tanzania

Africa is brimming with remote places, but , in the western edge of Tanzania, has a special mix of isolation, exceptional wildlife, and beauty. There are no roads within the 632-square-mile park, so all travel is on foot, and Mahale occupies a peninsula jutting into the massive Lake Tanganyika, one of the largest lakes in the world, so the only way to reach it is by plane or a day-long boat ride.

The park was established in 1985 to protect the world’s largest known population of chimpanzees, which today are thriving at 1,000-strong. It’s also one of the few places in the world where chimps and leopards share the same terrain. The park’s landscape quickly shifts from white sandy beaches on the shore of Tanganyika to dense forest and steep mountain slopes cloaked in mist.

Reaching the park alone is a feat, but if you really want to tick off a far-removed spot, climb Mount Nkungwe (8,077 feet), the tallest mountain inside the park’s borders. It’s a grueling 10-day hike, requiring that you go up and over two sub-peaks and gaining more than 6,000 feet in elevation to reach the summit. Most hikers break the trip up into three days, camping along the way. The views from the top are astounding—you can see all of the Mahale Mountains and Lake Tanganyika below—but the summit isn’t the real highlight of this journey. In addition to chimpanzees, you’ll have the chance to see elephants, giraffes, and buffalo, not to mention the red colobus monkeys that live in the higher elevations of the park.

How to Get There: The fastest way to reach Mahale Mountains National Park is by plane, but most people arrive by boat. It’s easy to charter a boat from the town of Kigoma, and speedboats make the journey in four hours. , a six-tent luxury property on the white sands of Tanganyika, is the most popular place to stay, especially since a family of chimps lives in the jungle nearby (from $2,250 a night during high season between June and September, all inclusive). Published fees to enter the park are $40 per person, but reports from some previous visitors indicate the price fluctuates. All hikes require accompaniment by a ranger. Reach out to the directly for timing, fees, and other information.

10. Remote Dunes

Athabasca Sand Dunes Provincial Park, Saskatchewan, Canada

The Athabasca Sand Dunes Provincial Park covers 62 miles of sand dunes in far north Saskatchewan. These are the most northerly sand dunes on the planet—a slice of the Sahara in the midst of Canada’s boreal forest. But unlike the Sahara, Athabasca, which is flanked by a large lake and dissected by three rivers, has plenty of fresh water.

You can only reach the dunes by float plane or boat, and there are no services within the park. No roads, no cell service, no rangers or structures, so be prepared to take care of yourself in a wilderness setting. Head to the William River Dune field, where the longest, largest dunes are. Land on the shore of Thomson Bay and hike west across the smaller Thomson Bay Dune Field for four miles to the Williams River. If the water’s low enough, you can wade over to explore the largest dunes in the park. You can within the park from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

How to Get There: Stony Rapids, on the eastern edge of Lake Athabasca, is the closest gateway town, though 90 miles east of the dunes. It has a float-plane base, making chartering a plane easy (but not cheap). Fly to Thomson Bay and start hiking west. offers a guided six-day backpacking adventure that includes the flight into the park from Fort McMurray ($3,900 per person).

11. Remote Mountain Peak

Mount Khuiten, Mongolia

A trip up Mount Khuiten (14,350 feet), the tallest peak in Mongolia, presents experiences in both solitude and culture. Khuiten sits in the heart of Altai Tavan Bogd National Park, which preserves 6,362 square miles of lakes, glaciers, and snow-capped mountains in western Mongolia. Altai is one of those places where you want to have a good map and a local guide, because if you get lost here, you could end up in either China or Russia (the park shares a border with both countries). This is a dream trip but a demanding one, so be experienced and prepared, and arrive fit and with top-flight warm gear. See below for intel on finding a guide.

The park encompasses groupings of petroglyphs and burial sites that illustrate the development of Mongolian nomadic culture over a 12,000-year time period, earning the area status. You have the chance to see some of these petroglyphs on the multi-day journey to the summit of Khuiten. You’ll also see modern-day nomadic culture, as the road into the park passes communities in traditional yurts.

As for the approach, the 10-mile trek from the edge of the park to basecamp ends at the 8.5-mile-wide Potanin Glacier, with camels to carry your gear. Most people climb the smaller sister mountain, Malchin Peak, to acclimatize to the altitude before navigating the crevasses of Potanin Glacier to High Camp on the edge of Khuiten. The final push to the top of Mount Khuiten is 3,000 feet up steep, snow-covered slopes requiring crampons, ice axes, and ropework. The view from the snow-capped summit encompasses all of the Altai Mountains as you gaze down on three countries: Mongolia, China, and Russia.

How to Get There: Fly into UlaanBaatar, Mongolia, and take a domestic puddle jumper to the village of Olgii, on the edge of the park. From there, it’s a six-hour drive over rough roads to the ranger station just inside the park. Next you’re on foot for days, depending on how much you want to acclimate, before your summit bid. The trek requires mountaineering skills and local knowledge, so hire a guide. is a trekking company owned by locals that offers a variety of expeditions on and around Khuiten (from $2,600 per person).

How to Be a Conscientious Visitor

Keep in mind some basic rules when you’re traveling to these far-flung locales. Follow Leave No Trace principles, taking everything you brought to the destination back home when you leave. Respect local cultures and customs, and learn about whose land you’re on. Whenever possible, stay in a lodge where the money goes directly to local entrepreneurs, and use local guides and services. Buy something if you can afford it. Always protect the wildlife and natural environment, which means keeping your distance and minimizing your impact.

Graham Averill is ���ϳԹ��� magazine’s national parks columnist. If he has to choose between a remote beach and a remote mountaintop, it’s going to be sand and surf every time.

For more by Graham Averill, see:

7 Most Adventurous Ways to See the Total Eclipse��of 2024

The 6 Most Adventurous Train Trips in North America

The Best Budget Airlines—and ���ϳԹ��� Locales They Go To

The post 11 Remote Destinations That Are Definitely Worth the Effort to Visit appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

In 2020, lots of things have had to adapt, including , the beloved annual climbing film tour. With in-theater movie watching not an option this year, its 15th installment will stream for 72 hours this weekend starting tonight at 9 P.M. Eastern Time ().

Reel Rock has always showcased hard, cutting-edge climbing—think , or —and that’s still the case this time around, but this year’s lineup puts a particular focus on climbers with more diverse backgrounds than the tour’s films have featured in the past. The most traditional of the films is Action Direct, about French climber Mélissa Le Nevé’s first female ascent of the late Wolfgang Güllich’s famous 9a/5.14.d, in Germany’s Frankenjura. Next, Deep Roots��tells the story of California climber Lonnie Kauk’s second ascent of Magic Line, a 5.14c trad route established in Yosemite by his father Ron in 1996. First Ascent/Last Ascent is about—notice another trend here?—several trad first ascents, this time by British climbers Madeleine Cope and Hazel Findlay in remote Mongolia. Finally, Black Ice, the most interesting film from this year’s tour, follows a group of Black climbers from Memphis, Tennessee, on a trip they take to Montana to go ice climbing and winter camping.

That’s a lineup that, for only the second time in the tour’s history, does not include any big names like , Adam Ondra, , or Dean Potter. (Technically, Conrad Anker makes an appearance in one.)

The first three films are standard fare: pro climbers on quests to climb the unclimbable. For the most part they’re adequate or, in the case of First Ascent/Last Ascent, which focuses on Findlay and Cope’s charming friendship, even a bit better. But Black Ice is something entirely different.

The climbers in Black Ice are connected through Memphis Rox, a climbing gym in a tough part of south Memphis with no other gyms or recreational facilities to speak of. Memphis Rox is a non-profit with admission on a sliding scale and an orientation toward community. It’s been the subject of some , largely for introducing climbing to a community of Black people who might not otherwise get to climb.

While the setup of the film felt a bit cringeworthy, it becomes much more compelling once it begins to tell the story of a climber named S’Lacio, a 20-year-old who is recovering from a hard childhood and near-fatal gunshot wounds suffered several years earlier. The North Face-sponsored trip to Montana is S’Lacio’s first time leaving Memphis, his first time on an airplane, his first time camping, and, it seems, his first break from the trauma and stress of his life. He ends up having a profound experience of connection and perspective, and the film is a great example of how climbing can be vital, and why it is so important that more people get to do it.

Reel Rock has included stories about people other than climbing’s larger-than-life white men in the past, but this year’s lineup feels deliberate. While not always quite hitting the mark, the films remind us that a more diverse climbing culture isn’t just important, it’s also more surprising and interesting than the status quo.

The post Reel Rock 15 Looks Different This Year appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

Riding a horse has often been used as a metaphor for power and dominance, but two new books flip the script. ($25, Catapult), a memoir about a Mongolian horse race,��and��($28, William Morrow), a historic dive into the culture of Hawaiian cowboys, look at the connection between horses and humans when both are competing against long odds.

Lara Prior-Palmer wasn’t thinking about winning when she signed up for the Mongol Derby, a��seven-day, 600-plus mile��race where competitors ride a series of 25 Mongolian ponies. She was 19, she’d been fired from her gap-year nanny job, and she was antsy for an adventure, or at least a way to channel her pent-up energy. Rough Magic��starts with her rash decision to sign up, and things don’t get any less impulsive after that.��

Incredibly, she ends up winning, becoming the first woman to do so��and the youngest-ever finisher. But the story��largely ignores those accolades. Instead, to the book’s great benefit, Prior-Palmer chronicles the ups and downs of the race, from raging stomach flu to jet-fast ponies streaking across the Mongolian plains��and all the ways an untrained teenager managed to win.��

Rough Magic succeeds on its realness��and Prior-Palmer’s unsparing analysis of herself and the scene. She’s a likable underdog, but she’s also kind of a shit,��full of teenage comeuppance and emotion. She outlines the conflict between her inner world��and the way the field perceives her. She can channel her ungainliness when she’s on a horse. Some of the most fun parts are when she realizes she might win��and starts gunning for the leader, who Prior-Palmer portrays as an uptight Texan running on Gu packets and bravado.��Even in the down moments, when one of her ponies��is temporarily��injured��and she’s struggling, the fast-paced book is lyrical and full of tight, action-packed sentences. It reads like it came bursting out of her.

The underdog themes of Rough Magic mirror that of Aloha Rodeo, which takes place more than 100 years earlier, in 1908, when three Hawaiian cowboys (paniolos) showed up on the grounds of Wyoming’s Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo. They were there to challenge the world’s best cowboys on what was, at the time, the biggest stage imaginable. In Hawaii, paniolos had been running cattle since British explorers first dropped the animals there in the 1790s, and a unique island-ranching culture had sprung up, removed from the rest of the world and reflective of the lush, rugged landscape. Mainland cowboys discounted their skills, but they were proven wrong on the rodeo grounds. Coauthors David Wolman and Julian Smith chronicle the rise of that island-ranch culture, which grew up��independent of its mainland America counterpart and then became interwoven.

The rodeo is the central��event that the book builds toward, but the backstory is deeper than the action. It follows two lines of the frontier:��the boom and bust of rough cow towns like Cheyenne��and the cultural changes Hawaii faced as it became an American territory and then a state. The three cowboys, Ikua Purdy, Jack Low, and Archie Ka’au’a, illustrate the story of racism against Hawaiians��and the ways that imperialism tries to flatten culture. Ultimately, like Prior-Palmer, their riding and roping speaks for them. In Wyoming, the Hawaiian cowboys proved their roping prowess to a crowd obsessed with the fantasy of the Wild West.��

Succeeding against the odds is an often abused cliché of a narrative arc for a book, but in both of these, the winning almost feels like an afterthought (Prior-Palmer spends less than two pages on it). Instead we get the context and the struggle, the beauty of connecting to a horse and a landscape, and the pride of being competent and strong. The animal is more than just a metaphor.

The post Two New Books About Underdogs Who Sit Atop Horses appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

Hot take: We’re abusing the heck out of our planet’s natural resources. These great new books investigate the ways—insidious, institutional, and illegal—those exploitations shake out, from the globalization of poaching to the legal knottiness of fracking in the Northeast.

‘A Cast in the Woods’ by Stephen Sautner

When Stephen Sautner bought a cabin in the Catskills to be close to trout water, he didn’t expect energy developers to come creeping around his doorstep. He quickly entered the fight to ban fracking in the area, in part because it affected the fish he was casting for. Sautner is primarily a fishing writer, but the strength of stems from his ability to look up from the stream and identify the shifting baseline of use and abuse on the rivers he loves.

‘Big Lonely Doug’ by Harley Rustad

The Doug of is Canada’s second tallest tree, which, on a whim, a logger decided not to fell. Rustad, an editor at the Walrus, looks at how this one old-growth Douglas fir became a symbol of the backlash against large-scale logging in coastal British Columbia and beyond. Rustad grew up in the area, and his microscale descriptions of the landscape and how commercial forestry has changed it bring you into the depths of Vancouver Island. He digs into logging’s inherent instability and the battles between timber companies, tribes, and environmentalists. More than anything, Big Lonely Doug’s story is a reminder of how much the ecosystem has been altered when we’re down to caring about one particular tree.

‘Poached’ by Rachel Nuwer

Nuwer ticked through 12 different countries, African killing fields, and restaurants serving pangolin to trace the supply and demand of and what can be done to prevent it. Wildlife poaching and species conservation is siloed from other trans-border crimes—biologists, not border agents, deal with animal-related offenses—but the crimes happen on a similar scale as drug or arms trafficking. To curb international poaching, Nuwer says we have to take it seriously and get to its roots, and she gives a clear view of what’s at stake if we don’t.

‘The Dinosaur Artist’ by Paige Williams

In a story about trafficking much older forms of wildlife, Paige Williams traces the rise and fall of , who in 2012 illegally sold a million-dollar dinosaur skeleton that had been smuggled out of Mongolia. Based on a 2013 , the story covers Prokopi’s bumbling foray into high-value specimen collecting, as well as the wider world of commercial paleontology and how it pits science against commerce and countries against each other. Williams pings between different groups of obsessive seekers and tries to find the line where��treasure hunting goes too far.

If You Like Those, Revisit These

‘The Golden Spruce’ by John Valliant

Recommended if you liked Big Lonely Doug but want more crime and intrigue (and, fair warning, a story about death in the woods that you will never not be able to think about). John Valliant of Grant Hadwin, the logger turned environmentalist who chopped down a singular golden spruce in the northern British Columbia islands now called Haida Gwaii. Hadwin’s story alone would be enough to carry the book, but Valliant brackets it with the get-rich-quick history of logging in Canada, the embedded battles between the tribes and the loggers, and the symbolism a single tree can hold.

‘The Orchid Thief’ by Susan Orlean

One of the many joys of reading Susan Orlean’s writing is her needle-sharp descriptions of people and subcultures. (If you haven’t read her ���ϳԹ��� story about surfers that became the basis Blue Crush, start there.) In , where she investigates a ring of criminal Florida orchid poachers, those details pull you into an underground world of fanatical flower freaks.

The post Dark New Books on Our Greed for Nature appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

has been at the cutting edge of adventure filmmaking for a few years now, with films such as The Bus, Pedal to Peaks 2, and Yeti Cycle’s��'Proven Here'��series. In his most recent��adventure, Flashes of the Altai, Schusler and childhood friends�� and ��ventured to the remote regions of Mongolia. The goal:��packraft and mountain bike through the Mongolian Altai, one of the most sparsely populated areas of the world. The journey��required them to navigate glacial ridgelines and rivers filled with silt due to runoff. Along the way, they encountered a few locals hunting with golden eagles, intense whitewater sections, and a ruthless climate. In the words of Schusler, “This was not an adventure these young lads would soon forget.”

The post Riding and Paddling Across the Mongolian Altai Mountains appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

In Mongolia, the tradition of training eagles to hunt runs deep within the culture. Though it’s a dying art, there are a few elders passing on the knowledge through eagle hunting celebrations and expositions. This segment, The Fox Hunt, from GoPro’s upcoming feature ��captures the essence of the sport perfectly.

The post GoPro: Hunting Foxes with Eagles in Mongolia appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

The post The Mongol Rally Is a Guaranteed (But Super-Fun) Disaster appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

The post The Hardest Mountain Biking Race on Earth appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

Nomadic life has been central to traditional Mongolian culture throughout history. Even with development and urbanization in recent years, more than 25 percent of Mongolians are . They are dependent on their vast, open surroundings for survival.

But life has become increasingly difficult due to serious changes in the land. Hundreds of lakes and rivers are disappearing and a majority of the country is at risk of desertification. Photographer set out to capture this issue by creating backdrops of what the landscape used to look like and how the nomads are interacting with it today. The effect is similar to viewing a museum display.��

“It is based on an imagination that these people would have to place themselves in a museum diorama to survive into the future,” says Lee. He brought billboard-size images into the countryside for the project.

A Korean non-governmental organization (NGO) , a group focusing on planting trees in the barren regions of the county, helped Lee with logistics and locations during his shoot. Many of the nomads in the images have since been hired by the NGO to plant trees, which has become their main source of income.

“By doing this, I hope to accomplish a sense that the lives of these nomadic people occur between this reality and a virtual space of a museum,” says Lee on his images.

Lee successfully captured many facets of the Mongolian nomadic life in this project, including traditional clothing, wrestling, and golden eagles used for hunting. “This nomadic lifestyle is better alive in an original society or culture than preserved as a fossil in a museum,” says Lee.

The post Stunning Photographs of Mongolia’s Transformation into Desert appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.

Legend has it that, in 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton seeking men to help him become the first person to cross the continent of Antarctica. Fact or fiction, more than a hundred years later his risky appeal resonates with adventurous types who dream of contributing to a new discovery. From Asian steppe to Arctic sea, here are a handful of upcoming scientific (and science-inspired) trips that anyone—who can afford the price tag—can join. ��

Chase Glaciers in Greenland

In July 2016��the mother daughter duo of Mindy Cambiar, a professional photographer, and Professor Sarah Aciego, a geologist and glaciologist, are taking up to eight guests on their ��with Bill Chill ���ϳԹ���s. The itinerary includes open speedboat icefjord excursions, kayaking under the midnight sun, hiking the most primitive trails, mountain biking on an ice sheet, and a helicopter flight to a supraglacial lake. The 12-day trip may also include dog sledding across an ice cap, weather permitting of course. Climate change will be the topic of exploration as Cambiar and Aciego race to document the most catastrophic glacier retreats in the world. $9,250 per person.��

Get Dirty Down Under��

Bush showers and creek baths will keep participants on Intrepid Travel’s�� clean after long days of surveying local flora and fauna and assisting with other fieldwork and data collection. The weeklong trip is one of Intrepid’s most physically demanding but it’s also one of its most affordable at $2,170 per person. Nights are spent conducting nocturnal wildlife watching studies or around campfires at pretty rustic sites that include a forestry camp set up for leaf litter sifting, insect sorting, and reptile measuring. Data from the trip is analyzed and used to help predict which rainforest species are likely to become endangered or extinct in the coming decades. The next departure is February 2016.��

Follow in Shackleton’s Footsteps��

To celebrate the centennial of Sir Ernest’s famous voyage, Wilderness Travel is offering a 20-day led by the likes of climber Conrad Anker, conservationist Dr. Carl Safina, wildlife photographer Frans Lanting and Tim Jarvis—the climate scientist who re-enacted Shackleton’s 800-mile rescue voyage in a wooden lifeboat replica. Participants will straddle the Antarctic Convergence, observe King penguin colonies, and visit active research bases including the British Antarctic Survey station and Poland’s Arctowski station. The voyage, which starts at $14,995, departs in November 2016 and travelers will stay on a 114-passenger boat featuring an ice-faring hull and a fleet of Zodiacs for shore excursions to sites like Elephant Island, where Shackleton’s 22 men were stranded for more than three months.��

Excavate a Grassland Ecoregion

Aspiring archeologists have a unique opportunity to work alongside Dr. Joan S. Schneider next June on the now offered by Earthwatch. For years the focus in the Ikh Nart Nature Reserve has been on wildlife conservation but recently, it’s shifted to include excavating the rough terrain for historically significant artifacts left by varying civilizations ranging from the New Stone Age residents to more recent Tibetan Buddhists. Travelers can help Schneider and an entire team of international scientists identify and interpret petroglyphs, draft and photograph burial sites from the Bronze Age and catalog 6,000-year-old artifacts including tools, weapons and ceramics. The 9-day trip costs $2,525, and accommodations include a contemporary guesthouse and a gers, a traditional Mongolian yurt.

Pay Homage to the Past

Although scientists have been guests on its cruises for years, ���ϳԹ��� Canada is just now announcing its new Scientists-in-Residence initiative. Applicants can submit RFPs for the chance to conduct their research on any of the company’s 2016 sailings including next August’s . Members of the general public can pay $8,995 to embark on the 17-day-long cruise and participate in the chosen resident scientist’s studies such as counting sea birds, harvesting complex organisms and documenting Inuit artifacts. The trip’s route is determined by the ice flow but will try to follow the paths carved by the first explorers who attempted to cross the Northwest Passage hundreds of years ago. Shore excursions include a stop at Beechey Island where the graves of many of the 134 men who perished on the infamous 1845 Franklin Expedition are found.��

Dive for Data in Ecuador

Dr. Andrea Marshall, whose moniker is the Queen of Mantas, was the first person in history to receive a PhD in manta ray ecology. Today, Marshall leads ��where she invites the SCUBA-certified public to help her study in aggregation sites such as Isla de la Plata. Her next expedition to this major manta ray habitat off the coast of Ecuador departs in September 2016 and will run between $2,200 and $2,400 per person for seven days. A percentage of each package price will be donated to the nonprofit, Proyecto Mantas Ecuador. Participants can expect to be trained in underwater photography and complete dozens of dives while assisting with genetics sampling, setting camera traps, tagging, measuring and updating the global manta ray database—the Manta Matcher.��

Learn Telemetry and Track Predators��

With the title of Mountain Coordinator, Veronica Baas has the responsibility of going up and down the mountain to check insect and mammal traps on Global Vision International’s . For $2,390, travelers can receive basic telemetry training and join Baas in tracking, darting and collaring Africa’s most feared carnivores including the cheetah, hyena, leopard, and lion. Data collected during the two-week-long expedition is used to determine how these predators influence prey populations. Commercial safari companies responsible for pay for sighting data and fund the research. Departures are monthly with migration patterns and game movements determining project specifics.��

The post Seven Expeditions You Can Actually Join appeared first on ���ϳԹ��� Online.