On the scale of hotel room awesomeness, outdoor showers rank up there with killer views and private Jacuzzis (and, okay, free minibars). We don’t need to spell out why, especially after a day of ripping up waves, pounding mountain trails, zip-lining, safari-ing, or just nursing margs on the beach. And you know the only thing better than that first sip of coffee in the morning? Waking up with an outdoor shower. That’s not a scientific fact, but it’s true. Trust us. To help you make this vacation dream a reality, we scoured the world of adventure hot spots for some of the coolest outdoor showers. That list is right here.

Arenal Volcano National Park, Costa Rica

Nayara Hotel, Spa, and Gardens
The amazing adventures around Costa Rica’s Arenal Volcano are no secret: hiking, rafting, canyoning, biking, hot springs, and, of course, zip-lining. But hidden beneath the shadow of these jungle-clad hills are the gardens of , which are everywhere at this tropical enclave, even in the romantic rooms’ private courtyard showers. Rough stone walls, pebbled floors, and palm fronds add to the natural vibe.

Bahia, Brazil

Uxua Casa Hotel and Spa
From sea kayaking and beach volleyball to capoeira, fishing, and trail biking, there are plenty of ways to get your heart racing at , an intimate, oceanside Bahian hideaway. Each of the ten casas, ranging from refurbished fishing shacks to treehouses, has an outside tropical shower. The one in  feels most like the ultimate jungle fantasy, where you cool off in a stream of water that cascades from a tree. You might have to brush away palm fronds to wash your hair, but doesn’t that make things more fun?

Okonjima Nature Reserve, Namibia

Okonjima
is located in a private nature reserve and is home to the , which works to conserve and rehabilitate Namibia’s cheetah population. It’s one of the few safari camps with its own self-guided hiking and . Each of the four bedrooms in the private Grand African Villa, part of a camp with many styles of accommodations, has a dramatic, curvaceous outdoor shower that’s a big step up from the usual bush shower. 

Phuket, Thailand

Paresa Resort
Bespoke adventures abound at : Hike to secluded villages by starlight, kayak out to caves on the sea or through jungle streams, or take it easy with lunch on a floating raft in the Kho Sok Forest. But first you’ll have to peel yourself out of your room. Each is perched on the Kamala cliffs amid a tropical forest. An entire balcony is dedicated to the art of outdoor showering (and includes a private pool). Looking down over the balcony railing, the view is of the indigo waters of the Andaman Sea.

Sonoma, California

Carneros Inn
Exploring the tremendous bounty of wineries throughout Sonoma County, especially via bicycle, is possibly one of the most romantic trips in the United States. The sprawling  offers a new take on the landscape’s beauty, with alfresco showers adorned with peekaboo windows that look out onto the property’s 27 acres of grapevines, apple orchards, and farmland.

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Ladera
 is the only resort located inside the St. Lucia's UNESCO World Heritage site, and travelers hideaway here to sail, snorkel, or climb the famed 2,619-foot Gros Piton (right next door). While the showers aren’t strictly open-air, they might as well be: Picture windows let you look out on the view, and the showers feature exuberant mosaic tiles depicting tropical gardens. 

Antigua

Jumby Bay, A Rosewood Resort
Cars are banned, and everyone gets around by bicycle or on foot at , a resort on a private island a few miles from Antigua in the West Indies. But escaping it all doesn’t mean giving up a luxurious bathroom. The suites all have private courtyards with curvaceous showerheads mounted on pearlescent tiled walls, plenty of room to splash around, eye candy in the form of bougainvillea, and, for more serious bathing endeavors, claw-foot soaking tubs.

Zighy Bay, Oman

Six Senses Zighy Bay
Oman, one of the most visitor-friendly countries in the Middle East, is quietly becoming a hot spot for rock climbers, mountain bikers, and divers looking for an exotic escape. Stay at the  and you’ll also soak in some of the local culture: The outdoor showers in the Spa Pool Villas are a slightly glammed-up version of a traditional Omani outdoor bathing area. ���ϳԹ��� the walled courtyards, the northern Musandam Peninsula beckons with its mix of stunning nature—jagged mountains on one side and the waters of Zighy Bay on the other. 

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You don’t have to be a foodie to love Healdsburg. You don’t have to be a wine snob, either. Or a cycling geek. But if you’re all three, leaving this Sonoma County, California, outpost after a weekend getaway will surely break your heart. Which explains why there’s a growing community of creative and impressively fit professionals living in this  town of just 11,000. They came to eat, drink, and play—and realized this is how they wanted to live.

Wine Country Style: Amber Keneally

Climbing gym trainer

Amber Keneally

On trainer Amber Keneally: Drop-Waist Chambray dress by Levi’s Made and Crafted ($210); Warm-note cardigan by Madewell ($110); Nora ankle boots by Hinge ($120); jewelry from Urban Outfitters

Healdsburg’s hub, , takes farm fresh literally: the restaurant is itself a barn, albeit an artsy one with a chef who helped launch New York City’s Per Se. Amber Keneally, 32, the restaurant’s events coordinator, came to Healdsburg in 2004 to work in hospitality. Now she moonlights as a trainer at a climbing gym in Santa Rosa, 20 minutes south, and has launched a roving outdoor-fitness club. “We take advantage of whatever’s available to get a workout,” she says.

On trainer Amber Keneally: Campsite shirt by ($80); Tight Skinny jeans by ($65); Clementine sandals by ($69); jewelry from .

Wine Country Style: Dawid Jaworski

Gallery manager

Dawid Jaworski

Dawid Jaworski

Dawid Jaworski, a 33-year-old Polish-born former NCAA high-jumping champion and avid cyclist, credits his competition background with helping him land a job managing Studio Barndiva, the gallery next door: “It makes me focus on every little detail.”

On Dawid: Step Up jacket ($108) and Crumble dress shirt ($145) by ; Saltwash Pique polo by ($39); Tapered jeans by ($250); Elementum Terra watch by ($1,000); glasses his own.

Wine Country Style: David Huebel

Vintner

David Huebel grew up in Healdsburg, went on a walkabout (a year in Europe), then was drawn back. In his case, it was “the outdoor lifestyle of farming grapes.” The singletrack in nearby Annadel State Park didn’t hurt, either. A dedicated mountain biker, Huebel, 33, now manages family-run . Some of the field staff have been around for 35 years; the patriarch, Dick Hafner, 86, still writes the press releases; and sales are all direct to consumers.

On vintner David Huebel: Chambray shirt by ($69); Big Horn pants by ($99); Weekender watch by ($53).

Wine Country Style: Dino Bugica

Restauranteur

On restauranteur Dino Bugico: Blue Denim jacket ($125) and Olive Utility shorts ($80) by Denim and Supply Ralph Lauren; Half-Sleeve BD shirt by Woolrich Woolen Mills ($195); Ashcott shoes by Clarks Originals ($125)

During his twenties, Reno, Nevada, native Dino Bugica spent eight years learning to cook in Tuscany and Liguria, which was where he met his wife, Sonja, a winemaker. On a vacation to California in 2001, they found themselves eating in a Healdsburg restaurant that served hardcore Italian cuisine—tripe, sweetbreads—made from local ingredients. “I thought, This is what I want to do,” says Bugica, 36. They relocated, and in 2009 he opened in nearby Geyserville.

On Dino: Nautical Stripe pullover by ($59).

Wine Country Style: Colin Sinclair

Restaurant manager

Diavola’s general manager is Healdsburg native Colin Sinclair, 31, whom Bugica lured back from San Diego. “My friends are all here now,” says Sinclair. “We may have moved away, but we came back.” The menu features cucina povera (peasant cooking) harvested from nearby fields, which, thanks to the temperate climate, are productive year-round. “We have farmers growing Italian varieties of vegetables and herbs,” says Bugica. “We use local rabbits, sheep, and pigs.” At house parties, the fare can get wilder: “Someone will shoot a wild boar and we’ll have a pig roast.”

On restaurant manager Colin Sinclair: 1933 shirt by ($59); Classic Khaki Chino pants by Denim and ($90); Weekender Slip Thru watch by ($45). On Dino: Men’s Dress watch by Timex ($50).

Wine Country Style: Daniel ‘Cappy’ Sorentino

Mixologist

On mixologist Cappy Sorentino: Hooded Field coat ($249) and Bean’s Canvas Cloth pants ($69) by L.L.Bean Signature; Harmonica work shirt by Levi’s Made and Crafted ($190); Hartlin-Check tie by J.Crew ($60)

In a region of grape aficionados, Daniel “Cappy” Sorentino is the oddball mixologist, following a Sonoma County–styled “farm-to-glass approach” as the manager of Spoonbar, inside Healdsburg’s . “There’s Meyer lemons in the winter and heirloom tomatoes for bloodies in the summer,” says Sorentino, 26. Spoonbar often goes quiet by midnight—people wake early to ride bikes or, like Sorentino, run in the foothills.

On mixologist Cappy Sorentino: Plaited cardigan by ($50); Darin Red Sole shoes by ($150); hat by ($10); SNAE49 watch by ($395).

Wine Country Style: Tod Brilliant

Writer/photographer

Nobody’s sure how Healdsburg became a magnet for artists and musicians, but these days you can spot members of the Killers and Journey around town. Tom Waits lives nearby. Then there are creative types like Tod Brilliant, a 31-year-old writer/photographer who “lucked into it” 12 years ago when his then wife lured him here. Among his many gigs: strategy and communications for the Post Carbon Institute, a Santa Rosa think tank.

On writer/photographer Tod Brilliant: Dorm Duty SS shirt by ($55); Original Raw straight-fit jeans by ($285); 1000 Mile boots by ($340).

Wine Country Style: Greg Fisher

Magazine editor

Greg Fisher

Greg Fisher

As the editor of Santa Rosa cycling journal , Greg Fisher (above left) can talk forever about the pro-pedaling vibe in Sonoma County, which makes possible events like , a 103-mile epic that draws 7,500 cyclists. “The government here sees biking as an economic pillar,” he says.

On magazine editor Greg Fisher (above): Port Waikato shirt by Quiksilver Waterman Collection ($65; quiksilver.com); 511 Commuter 5 Pocket jeans by ($78); Rant shoes by ($70); Core watch by ($329).

Wine Country Style: Nick Bertalon

Fireman

On fireman Nick Bertalon: Canvas Work jacket by ($129); Tapered jeans by ($250).

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Shroomin’, Cascade Range, Oregon
Yes, mushroom picking sounds like an activity for grandmothers and jam-band fans between tours. And sometimes it is. But every September and October in the Cascades, it becomes a form of extreme sport: Thousands of foragers descend on the Crater Lake area with dreams of plucking prized chanterelles and matsutakes, which they can later sell for up to $300 per pound. While the professional scene can be fiercely competitive, the recreational pickers are after more than just a cash crop. Walking through old-growth Douglas firs with your hungry eyes to the ground gives you an entirely new perspective on the forest. (Afterwards, regular hiking will seem like stomping across a trout-thick river with no fly rod.) Bunk down at the Featherbed Inn, in Chemult (doubles, $50; ). Across the street, fungi aficionado Dana Van Pelt owns a mushroom hunters’ tent camp where, for the right haggled price ($30 should do), you might find a professional forager willing to let you shadow. Pick up a permit at the ranger station (free for amateurs, $2 per day if you’re planning to sell your harvest; fs.fed.us/r6/willamette). For an outfitted version of the same experience, tag along with Forestville, California–based Wild About Mushrooms’ annual Cascades Foray. Based out of the Willamette National Forest, the trip, starting October 12, includes guided hunts, gourmet mushroom feasts, and four nights at the Horse Creek Lodge, a backwoods affair with couches for lounging and a fireplace for warming your feet ($675; ).

Sea Stalk, Rockland, Maine

You can’t haul your own lobster from the Maine coast—it’s illegal without a license. Plus the locals might boil you. A better way to get your dinner? Ride shotgun with a spinning rod in hand, catching mackerel and helping your ship captain pull in the traps. Your port: Rockland, a postcardy fishing town at the mouth of Penobscot Bay. Book passage aboard the Captain Jack, a 30-foot boat sailing out of Rockland Harbor. Veteran seaman Steve Hale, sporting the requisite lobster biceps tattoo, hauls in crustaceans ($25; ). Dinner, of course, is the day’s harvest, boiled yourself (rent a lobster cooker from Coastal Fuel, a stone’s throw from the pier; 140 Park Street). To add more action to the trip, opt for a Maine sleigh ride: Seaspray Kayaking, based out of West Bath, an hour south, offers sea-kayak fishing trips in the midcoast region, where striped bass run in the summer (from $115; ).

Glutton Paddle, Gulf Islands, British Columbia

Now and then you just want to be served great local food. On an empty island. After paddling there. This is the idea behind Blue Planet Kayaking ���ϳԹ���s’ three-day tour of the wave-battered, sandstone-cliff-lined Gulf Islands of southwestern British Columbia. The area is home to some of Canada’s top cheese- and winemakers, as well as family-run fishing boats hauling in line-fresh albacore tuna and sablefish. Your guide is owner James Bray, a Vancouver Island chef turned sea-kayak guide. (Tough life, James!) Fall here means dry, warm days, no crowds, and a landslide of produce from local farms. After launching from Cedar-by-the-Sea, on Vancouver Island, you’ll pass porpoises and bald eagles while paddling the four miles to 300-acre De Courcy Island. Base camp is a windswept cliff overlooking Pirates Cove, where a pre-hike lunch of smoked-albacore niçoise salad, washed down with a glass of local black­berry port, awaits. ($780; ).

Farm Spin, Sonoma, California

Two things to take to Sonoma this fall: a road bike and an appetite. The farm-heavy county is home to miles of bike-ready roads that pass by enough organic farms to feed a Tour de France peloton. Make the town of Sebastopol your base (rent a cottage at the Full House Farm for $245; ) and pick up a bike from West County Revolution (from $30; ). Ask co-owner Bradley Saul to point you to the 65-mile Peach Tree Loop, which starts in town and heads north across the Russian River. Then ride. And eat. Want veggies? Love Farms Market’s organic salad bowl, in Healdsburg (), serves up greens picked daily. How about fruit? The Golden Nectar farm, in Windsor, grows everything from apples to Chinese wolfberries (). Wait, you’re riding—you need bacon! Hit Bud’s Custom Meats, in Penngrove (707-795-8402). If you’re ready to take the action off-road, do as local cycling star Levi Leipheimer does and roll the 40 miles of jeep and singletrack trails through Annadel State Park, 14 miles from Sebastopol. Before leaving, carbo-load with a takeout feast from sometime ski bum Gerard Nebesky (), who, up until the first snow, serves the best paella in the state from a stall in the Healdsburg market, at the top of the Peach Tree Loop.

High-Country Harvest, Aspen, Colorado

Most people don’t come to Aspen to play in mud and manure. But that’s exactly what the folks at the tony Little Nell hotel are hawking—for $2,300. And it’s worth it. Go hand-to-mouth on a three-day, three-night trip that shuttles you between 400-thread-count luxury at the lodge and potato-field reality at chef Ryan Hardy’s 15-acre Rendezvous Farms, in Crawford, 100 miles southwest (). Here, Hardy, 33, and co-owner Michael Waters grow heirloom crops and raise free-range, heritage-breed pigs, chickens, and lambs. You’ll dig for fingerling potatoes, snip asparagus, collect eggs, and pluck wild apples—then devour them all with newfound appreciation at lavish outdoor picnics and dinners. Hardy’s partner in crime, Little Nell wine director Richard Betts, also leads a chanterelle-mushroom-picking trip up nearby Independence Pass. If that’s not your thing, just ask for a post-meal mountain-biking trip. Tip: Don’t miss the stunning glacial-valley trails and alpine lakes of the Maroon Bells, 11 miles from Aspen.

Backcountry Gourmet, Philipsburg, Montana

If you think the ideal camping provisions are Snickers and Skippy, then the folks at Royal Tine Camp Cook School would like a word. The school—a gussied-up cook tent run by outdoor guide LeRee Hensen—is located on a 10,000-acre cattle ranch in the foothills of southwestern Montana’s Anaconda-Pintlar Wilderness. On a two-week trip, guests learn how to prep and cook wild game—skills include cooking over an open fire and Dutch-oven baking ($1,700; ). When you’re not sautéing elk medallions, escape into the ranch’s meadows and lodgepole pine thickets on the Hensens’ quarterhorses, or fish the Middle Fork of Rock Creek, which runs through the property. Trips are available between April and July.

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You won’t find a better time—or a more breathtaking way—to experience California wine country than in autumn by bike. Whether you’re blazing your own trails or following the lead, you’ll be accompanied all the way by an intensely beautiful change in seasons: a kaleidoscope of deep purples, burnt reds, and flaxen yellows explode from the vineyards and wine berries sit ripe for the picking. Harvest fairs and festivals throughout October offer a smattering of wines from all over the region. You can hop from bakeries to wineries that moonlight as art galleries and artisan cheese factories. And because Sonoma County is stockpiled with these types of watering holes, your biking routes and options are virtually endless, even if your energy isn’t. When your quads cry out for mercy, finish off the day with a nightcap of port and dark chocolate in the comfort of a cozy bed and breakfast.

LA DOLCE VITA: Life is good on the NoCal wine route.

Sonoma, nicknamed “the poor man’s Napa,” celebrates a more laid-back lifestyle than its neighbor to the west, while staying just as serious about wine. Smooth pinot noirs, cabernets, chardonnays, and sauvignon blancs pour from casks at wineries not far from the center of town along country roads. These scenic, less-traveled paths make for a fantastic two-wheel tour du vin.

Hiring a guide will be more expensive than doing it yourself, but you’ll spend less time poring over maps and making reservations—and more time swilling wine. Getaway ���ϳԹ���s’ most popular one-day package, the Healdsburg Sip & Cycle, takes you on a 15- to 20-mile leisurely ride through Dry Creek Valley. You’ll visit up to five wineries and sip snifters of spicy reds and crisp whites, without having to plan your next stop. After a few hours of whetting your appetite, Getaway serves a picnic lunch made with some of the region’s best fruits and cheeses. Then it’s back down the country roads for a close-up look at vines that tangle for miles along the rolling hills of the valley. Another option: the outfitter’s Pedal & Paddle adventure, which visits three wineries by bike in the morning before clients trade pedals for paddles on an easy flatwater float down the Russian River. All tours include bike rental and safety gear, lunch, guide, and a shuttle to schlep your purchases (or you, if you’ve had one too many). Prices are $125 or $165 per person, respectively, for each of the above tours (1.800.499.2453; ).

For the passionate (and well-funded) cyclist, DuVine ���ϳԹ���s offers a five-night, six-day tour along the Pacific Coast, through Dry Creek Valley and the region’s towering redwood forests. With a longer tour, you’ll have more time for wine tasting, mud baths, and hot-air ballooning. Reserving rooms at some of the area’s most historic hotels and choosing top restaurants to cap off each day, the outfitter has plotted a course that taps into some of the best scenery, urban and otherwise, that northern California has to offer. Packages start at $2,995 per person and include all rentals, meals, and lodging (1.888.396.5383; ).

Creatures of curiosity that we are, guided tours won’t slake a thirst to explore. More than 40 wineries sit clustered together in a 17-mile-long span around Sonoma, so renting a bike and doing it yourself might not be as hard as you think. It’ll save you about $100, too, though you’ll have to do some digging to find the best wineries. For starters, rent a bike for just $25 a day and pick up a bike map for $10.95 at the Sonoma Valley Cyclery (20093 Broadway; 707.935.3377), or buy a map online at .

Start your self-propelled oenophile voyage at the Sonoma Creek Inn, where rates start at a reasonable $129 per night (1.888.712.1289; ). Begin the next morning with a leisurely bike to breakfast at the Basque Boulangerie Café in the Sonoma Plaza for muffins and coffee. Think ahead and pack one of the bistro’s baguettes and organic green salads dressed with champagne vinaigrette, as you’ll need plenty of palate cleansing as the day unfurls. The wine is fine just about anywhere in Sonoma County, so find vineyards that offer more than just a tasting room. The Imagery Winery has a collection of over 190 paintings of wine labels created just for the company (1.877.550.4278; ). Bruce Cohn, manager of the Doobie Brothers, also owns his own spread. But step into his tasting room at the B.R. Cohn Winery and you’ll discover it’s a dipping room for olive oil as well—Bruce presses his own selection of oils from his grove of 130-year-old olive trees (1.800.330.4064; ). There’s also an abundance of gourmet restaurants, such as The Girl and The Fig (707.938.3634; ), that offer fresh seafood and cheeses from the region. So go ahead and indulge. You can work it all off on the ride back.
– Amy Clark

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NAPA VALLEY: The Benchmark

Napa Valley, CA

Napa Valley Vineyards: Little rows of heaven

Taking stock of the classic wine-country getaway
IT’S A LATE-FALL AFTERNOON two weeks past the wine harvest, and I’m pedaling with a few local cyclists to the top of Mount Veeder, home of some of Napa Valley’s steepest cabernet vineyards. The turning grape leaves are a kaleidoscope of color—gold, mustard, red, and rust, with a hint of leftover green. From the summit, we roll along the ridgeline, then dip down through valleys of oak and olive groves, breathing in air ripe with crushed grapes, wild sage, and smoke from wood fires. That’s when the sensation hits me: I feel like I’m in Italy—in Umbria, to be exact, on the back side of Mount Subasio. I became enamored with the forest-covered hills laced with ribbons of quiet asphalt in that corner of central Italy while leading bike tours there in the late 1990s for a Berkeley-based adventure travel company. Now, I feel like I’m tracing those same roads again.

Napa Valley, which stretches 30 miles from Carneros in the south to Calistoga in the north, is the closest Americans will come to a European wine region without crossing the Atlantic. Although only 4 percent of California’s wines come from the estimated 600 vineyards in Napa, the region is home to most of the country’s ultra-premium labels—a fact that has transformed the valley into one of the nation’s best-known and poshest wine destinations. Accordingly, traffic is often heavy on Highway 29, the major artery through the area, and the sipping occasionally comes with some attitude. But for most, these are slight inconveniences compared with the breadth of wines on offer. The valley’s startling range of Mediterranean-like microclimates is ideal for growing several varieties of grapes: Napa’s cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay are legendary, and the region has been producing pinot noir since the 1870s. As winemakers better understand the nuances of grape growing on each hillside, additional varietals—like sangiovese and malbec—are taking root.

I’m quite particular about chardonnay—the rich, buttery varietals are definitely not my thing. With that in mind, I head up to Stony Hill Vineyard, on the flanks of Spring Mountain, where owner Peter McCrea shows me to the tasting room, a terrace overlooking a garden brimming with zinnias. McCrea pours me a glass of his straw-colored chardonnay, which his father began producing in the 1950s. I stick my nose in the glass and am pleasantly surprised to breathe in a burst of ripe pear fragrance: This is a chardonnay I could learn to love. I take a swallow, savoring the mineral and citrus flavors that linger on my tongue.

Napa winemakers are rightfully proud of their creations. Robert Sinskey, whose three-decades-old vineyard bears his name, was once a guest on a walking trip I led in Liguria, a region in Italy known for its wine, especially the whites. Sinskey showed up with his suitcase stuffed full of his own wines, which we drank before dinner each night. By trip’s end, everyone on the tour agreed: Sinskey’s jammy pinot noir was as good as any Italian bottle we’d uncorked. Likewise, Pat Kuleto’s Napa winery, spread across 97 hilly acres above Lake Hennessey, squeezes out a coral-colored sangiovese that screams fresh strawberries, and a syrah with a blueberry aroma and peppery taste—a glass of each in the tasting room brought all good intentions of an afternoon hike to a premature end. And PlumpJack, a 50-acre estate growing grapes since the 1880s, produced a black, inky, fruit-forward ’02 cab that sold out in less than four months.

But Napa serves up its indulgence in more than just liquid form. Over the years, the valley has continued to refine itself with decadent dining, lodging, and spa treatments. The best spot for dinner in Napa is ZuZu, a tiny Spanish tapas joint, or Terra (in nearby St. Helena), where the setting feels Tuscan villa (a fieldstone building with arched windows), while the dishes stick to California cuisine (grilled quail on caramelized endive). Afterwards, head down the street to the Bounty Hunter wine bar for a slice of persimmon pie with pomegranate molasses and a nightcap. After a moonlit swim in the lap pool at the new Calistoga Ranch, I return to my creekside cedar-and-stone abode to find the fireplace aflame, a bottle of champagne on ice, jazz on the stereo, and a tiny chocolate wine bottle on my pillow. A few weeks later, when I make reservations at the recently opened Poetry Inn, a three-room California Craftsman enclave perched high on a hill in the Stags Leap district, the innkeeper phones back to ask my music preferences and preferred pillow type, then greets me in person at check-in with a flute of sparkling wine.

The best part about Napa, however, is the way sophistication and the natural environment merge—there’s a hint of romance and a heady mix of elegance and rustic mystery. During an afternoon mountain-bike ride on the forested flanks of the Howell Mountains, 1,400 feet above the valley, I come face to face with this bucolic side of Napa. I’ve been riding singletrack for about two hours without seeing a soul, and the sun is sinking fast. Just when I think I might be lost, I hear branches crackling and my mind skips ahead: Rattlesnake? Black bear? Mountain lion?! Instead, a local mushroom collector appears out of the woods, finishing up an afternoon out rustling for chanterelles. Dressed in a fleece against the gathering evening chill and carrying a large wicker basket, he reminds me of a mushroom gatherer I bumped into in the forested hills of Italy’s northwestern Piedmont region. After a quick chat, he tells me the fastest way back to the trailhead—but he won’t divulge where to find the best mushrooms. Known and overblown as it is, even Napa still guards a few secrets.

Sonoma County, CA

SONOMA COUNTY: Vintage Chill


Savoring seclusion around Napa’s offbeat sibling
WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE? I’m lounging on my back in a hot tub, my fiancé, Steve, reclining next to me. Every so often our personal bath attendant arrives to blot our steamy foreheads with cool washcloths and offer us ice water through a straw.

What’s so wrong? Let me tell you. We are entombed in two tons of soggy, steamy sawdust. And we are naked.

We’ve come to Osmosis, a homey little day spa in rural western Sonoma County, to sample their cedar-enzyme bath, an ancient Japanese healing treatment. The premise: Submerge yourself in cedar and fir pulp, and the wood will beautify your skin, reduce tension, and infuse you with feelings of “elation.”

Right now, immobilized by 120-degree sawdust, I’m fixated on these thoughts, in this order: Did they make us sign a waiver? No. Then surely it can’t be dangerous. How often do they change the chips? And, with regret: I should have worn my bathing suit. Once I work through this panic loop, I find myself oddly, calmly accepting: This is the Zen moment I’ve been waiting for. But when the attendant informs us, “The heat of the bath comes from fermentation” (yup, we’re sprawled out in rotting wood), I can’t get out fast enough.

Later, after we’ve scrubbed off every last wood chip, we’re tucked into narrow cots upstairs, with herbal pillows placed over our eyes and Meta music piped in through headphones. I trance out for the best spa treatment of my life. When the crashing of ocean waves stops and I open my eyes, Steve is gone. I find him in the meditation garden out back, contemplating a bed of gravel raked into perfect, impermanent swirls.

Such are the unexpected pleasures of Sonoma, a laid-back valley just over the gnarled Mayacamas Mountains from Napa’s glossy wine empire. With more than 70 wineries in the 22-mile-long Valley of the Moon and another 180 in the surrounding county, Sonoma is consistently among the top five wine-grape-producing regions in North America and second only to Napa in wine-tourism revenue. But where Napa is sleek and chic, Sonoma is farmy and friendly; ask a local for a recommendation in the wine aisle at the market and he’ll chat you up about the valley’s renowned cabs and the Russian River’s rich pinot noirs.

For a week over Thanksgiving, we went in search of the wilder side of Sonoma. Our first stop was Healdsburg, a stylish town of about 11,000 in northern Sonoma County. The place to stay is the Hotel Healdsburg, a stately three-story inn on the plaza. Inside, blocky concrete columns, sea-green glass tiles, and bare pecan floors are warmed by leather couches, double-wide slipcovered chairs, and king-size beds.

Biking may not be the most original way to tour wine country, but thanks to an abundance of quiet farm roads looping past picturesque vineyards, it’s arguably the best. So we embraced cliché and set out late in the day on a 25-mile loop through Dry Creek Valley, just north of Healdsburg. Leaving town, we raced daylight up West Dry Creek Road, past rust-red vines, small bungalows, old wooden barns, and a 1950s Mercedes with a bumper sticker that read I VEG TO DIFFER. With ten minutes until sunset and 12 miles still to ride, we debated whether there was time for a detour to the boutique Bella winery, then wheeled up to its tasting cave for a flight of fruity zinfandels. On the fast, wine-fueled ride home, we zinged past the darkening blur of a rowdy Mexican fiesta and a self-serve stand selling $1 persimmons.

Speed workouts are best followed by giddy self-indulgence: Ours entailed an hourlong massage in the spa, dinner next door at the popular, if a little stuffy, Dry Creek Kitchen, and finally the soundest sleep I can remember. We hadn’t exactly found the untamed heart of Sonoma, but we weren’t complaining.

The next morning we redoubled our efforts with a ten-mile canoe trip on the Russian River, a tranquil run through redwoods that gave us a glimpse of a woodsier, wilder Sonoma. Manager Ted Schroeder and co-owner Linda Burke of Burke’s Canoe Trips, a second-generation outfit that’s been renting canoes on this flatwater stretch from Forestville to Guerneville for more than 50 years, accompanied us downstream. The river was shady and cool and, except for the odd heron, utterly still.

Back in the Valley of the Moon, we chanced upon Kaz, one of the smallest tasting rooms in the valley. Rick “Kaz” Kasmier produces 1,000 cases of organic wine a year inside a clapboard barn. He welcomed us with tastings of tawny port, and his wife invited us to help her cut wine labels. We left with a signed bottle of 2003 Sangiofranc.

Which brings us back to the cedar-enzyme bath. Well wined and dined, a little bit achy from our exploits, we found this sawdusty haven and, at least for a little while, true elation.

Applegate Valley, OR

APPLEGATE VALLEY: Wineward Ho!


Searching out the wild heart of Oregon
MICHAEL GIUDICI DOESN’T EXACTLY exactly extend a pinkie finger when he sips his wine. He doesn’t dress up, either—at least not today, in his sweatpants as he shouts at his dogs barking at strangers in the driveway. I double-check my brochure on southern Oregon wineries. Sure enough, we’re at the right spot. For the next 45 minutes we sit with Giudici, owner of John Michael Champagne Cellars, and sample shots of his estate-bottled bubbly, a sparkling sake, and a 2001 blanc de blancs that took best of class at the 2005 Los Angeles County Fair. I have no idea whether that award would impress a wine connoisseur, but I do know that Giudici’s boutique concoctions are tasty and as full of “intense character” as the man who makes them.

My girlfriend, Heidi, and I are weekending in the Applegate Valley, near Grants Pass, Oregon, looking to blend an earthy cuvée of Siskiyou Mountain hikes with stops for chardonnays and syrahs at the up-and-coming vineyards sprouting across this part of the state. While the land in this region, 4.5 hours south of Portland, is rugged—steep hills falling into angry whitewater—it’s the wine part that intimidates me. As a red-blooded dude with a beater truck, I turn hangover-green at the snootiness that sometimes pairs so well with pinot.

The Applegate Valley, I’m learning, is my kind of wine country: small, a little bit wild, and unpretentious. The $1.4 billion Oregon wine industry is small in the first place, compared with California’s $45 billion juggernaut, but most of the Oregon action takes place in the verdant fields of the Willamette Valley—a 147-mile-long yawn farther north that’s famous for velvety pinot noirs. The Applegate is a drip on the wine taster’s map; masters here cork less than 1 percent of the 1.2 million cases produced in Oregon. But size can be deceiving.

Though people in the area first began crushing grapes and topping casks in the mid-1800s, the Applegate wasn’t recognized as an American Viticulture Area until 2001. Today, only about a dozen wineries pepper this 30-mile-long valley of rolling dairy farms pinched by hills of madrone, oak, and cedar. But those wineries serve scores of micro-wines—often cabernet sauvignons and syrahs poured by the owners’ own purple hands. Giudici’s operation might be an extreme case—as suave as David Beckham in a coonskin cap—but who cares about highbrow tasting airs when there are 200-plus miles of raftable rivers, 1.8 million acres of national forest, mossy granite canyons, and lonely, serpentine roads out the tasting-room door?

As our base for a late-fall weekend, Heidi and I pick the woodsy Weasku Inn, a log-cabin lodge in Grants Pass, a small town at the northwestern corner of the Applegate Valley. The inn was built in 1924 and was once frequented by Clark Gable, Bing Crosby, and Walt Disney. We dump our bags in a cabin and ease our car out on Route 238, looking for our first taste.

First stop: Troon Vineyard. We pull on the door and walk into an airy space of Brunello Italian granite and hand-scraped hickory floors. Inside, the mood is lively, with tasters sampling Troon’s 14 wines, some with whimsical names like Druid’s Fluid or Jeanie in the Bottle. Chris Martin, a techie who traded software for stemware, opened this Tuscan-style tasting room last summer—one of four new ones in the valley last year, with at least two more on the way in 2006. “We’re the redheaded stepchild of the wine industry,” Martin jokes, adding that all of the grapes for his 5,000 cases come from vineyards within two miles of his casks. “This is what Napa was maybe 20 years ago, but without so many people.”

We roll onward past pastures out to Valley View Winery. At 34 years old, Valley View is the oldest continually operating winery in the area, though it shares its name with the long-since-closed winery that in 1854 started it all. Between checking scores on the football game, Michael Wisnovsky pours us a buttery chardonnay followed by a 2000 meritage, in glasses set on his circular copper bar. After tasting a late-harvest dessert wine that lingers so miraculously thick and sweet on the tongue you’d think Willy Wonka had made it, we buy a bottle and head for our drizzle-splashed cabin to uncork it.

The next morning we set out on a three-mile hike to Rainie Falls, near Galice, northwest of Grants Pass, to look for migrating steelhead fighting up the currents. The trail is spectacular, a thin ribbon of rock and dirt gouged into the side of a steep canyon. One hundred feet below, the Rogue River coaxes black boils of water through hissing rapids that you can raft, inn to inn, during the summer. Waterfalls braid down the mountainside and collect on mossy ledges. This is the kind of Oregon I imagined as a kid.

The rain starts to pad across the forest floor again, so we hike back to the car and drive to the Blue Giraffe Spa, in Ashland. I get an hourlong rubdown that leaves me drooling through the headrest. I’d be embarrassed, but any thoughts I can muster keep coming back to the wineries we missed. I’ll return next year with a mountain bike and plenty of room for cases of Troon’s Ltd. Reserve II. I can already smell the blackberry air whipping through the holes in my truck.

Walla Walla, WA

Walla Walla, WA

LITTLE RED: Label from a 2003 bottle of L'Ecole No 41 Cabernet Sauvignon

WALLA WALLA: Nouveau Red

Uncorking the chic side of rural Washington

MY AUNT PAM, A POLISHED, Gucci-wearing, Met-season-ticket-holding, 31-year-old financial headhunter, lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. She’s one of those New Yorkers who would never consider living in a borough as remote as Brooklyn or Queens. So when she broke the news that she was moving cross-country to Walla Walla, Washington, to help her husband open their own winery, I laughed—long and hard. Sonoma, maybe, but backwoods Walla Walla?

It turns out, the joke’s on me. Walla Walla is emerging onto American oenophiles’ radar screen as fast as the bottles of its award-winning L’Ecole No. 41 and Woodward Canyon Winery reds are being uncorked around the world. Although the area’s oldest winery, Leonetti Cellar, opened in 1977, the rise of Walla Walla—from sleepy college town to an oasis of hip in a decidedly rural part of the state—has taken place primarily over the past five years. Since roughly 2000, denizens of cosmopolitan cool—young professionals in their mid-thirties, like Pam and her husband, Greg Harrington, a veteran sommelier of both Emeril Lagasse’s and Wolfgang Puck’s cellars—have moved here for the emerald-green rolling hills dotted with Wyeth-style farmhouses and a drier climate that’s well suited to cultivating merlot, syrah, and cabernet sauvignon grapes. Along with urban sophistication, this influx has brought the talent and funding to open 70 wineries and counting. The new wave includes wine entrepreneurs of all kinds, from Pepper Bridge’s Jean-François Pellet, a third-generation vintner from Switzerland, to Chuck Reininger, a former Rainier climbing guide. Considering that Walla Walla is a rising superstar in the firmament of American winemaking, I’ve decided to join the line of the young and urbane checking it out—in the name of family, of course.

After a quick breakfast in my palatial two-story “cottage” at Basel Cellars, Greg picks me up to begin my tour of Walla Walla wine country. We bounce along the rural JB George Road on our way to Va Piano Vineyards, where Greg is making his first barrels of syrah. As he points out Saviah Cellars and Waters Winery, off in the distance, Greg explains what possessed him to start his winemaking career in the isolated southeastern corner of Washington, three hours from Spokane.

“I was impressed with the region,” Greg explains. “Some of the syrahs they’re making here are as good as in France.” And he should know—ten years ago, at age 26, he was awarded a diploma from London’s Court of Master Sommeliers. It also doesn’t hurt that the land here is more affordable than in California’s classic wine regions. Greg recently closed on his ten acres on JB George Road, which will eventually be the home of Gramercy Cellars, named for the lush park in Manhattan; the first vintage will be uncorked in the spring of 2007.

In the morning, I learn the finer points of winemaking, including “punch-down,” in which Greg jabs a huge vat of his blueberry-looking grapes with a metal pole, which releases the tannins to give the wine more flavor and color. Then I spend the afternoon strolling historic Main Street with 35-year-old mixed-media artist Squire Broel, a Walla Walla native who moved back to his hometown from Hong Kong and Seattle. Squire seems to know every one of the 30,000 residents. As we walk out the door at Starbucks, we run into Sarah, a friend of Squire’s, who also happened to be my waitress at the CreekTown Café the night before. I’ve been in Walla Walla for less than 24 hours, and even I am running into familiar faces.

From friendly locals like Squire and fly-fisherman Skip Pritchard (the guide who helped me perfect my loop right before I fell into Mill Creek) to athletes like freeskier Ingrid Backstrom and Cowboys quarterback Drew Bledsoe, the mix of folks who have savored the smart-country vibe is eclectic. Add to this the big-time chefs opening upscale restaurants—26 Brix and Whitehouse-Crawford, to name a few—in a town that’s full of public sculpture by such artists as Deborah Butterfield and local Jim Dine, and suddenly the idea of moving to the middle of nowhere to fulfill your dreams doesn’t seem so crazy after all.

Paso Robles, CA

PASO ROBLES: Good Libations


Sipping on the success of a Sideways glow
IT WAS FOOLISH TO THINK that one case of zinfandel could sustain five couples through the long weekend. I realize this now, sifting through the empties the morning after our arrival, and I very briefly regret the error in planning. But not for long. Thankfully, we’re in the Paso Robles wine country, a 24-square-mile patchwork of 100-plus wineries in central California, three hours from both San Francisco and L.A. Running out of wine here is like running out of gas in the middle of a Saudi oilfield—except here, refilling the tank is a lot more fun.

Wine consumption is not our only objective, however; we’ve come sufficiently stocked for more robust activities than sipping. In addition to the liquid cargo that we picked up on the way into town, our weekend caravan from the L.A. area carried seven bikes, ten pairs of hiking shoes, and two fishing poles to our plush base camp at Cottontail Creek, a guest ranch on 850 oak-studded acres in Cayucos, at the southwest corner of the wine zone. Our second day’s mission is now apparent: Explore the ranch’s ten-mile network of trails, then replenish the wine supply so as to enjoy depleting it once again.

We chose Paso Robles because it’s nothing like California’s other wine country. Vintners here are more likely to wear overalls than neckties, less likely to shun tasting-room visitors caked in bike grease and sweat. The roads are car-free, and the resident wine aficionados are a hodgepodge of aging cowboys, escaped professionals, and urban renegades—a lot like us.

Paso is the precocious teenager of the California wine family. It may not have Napa’s history or polished presentation—in fact, it flat-out refuses to fancy itself up—but it has worked hard to create its own distinct identity, with the buzz of a place on the verge of transition. This is the fastest-growing wine region in California, with ranchland quickly giving way to fields of grapes. In the past decade, the total number of wineries has more than doubled, and what was once the secret domain of a few connoisseurs is becoming de rigueur on the California wine circuit.

Credit the 2004 sleeper Sideways, filmed 90 miles south in the Santa Ynez Valley, for much of this newfound notoriety. After the movie exploded, so did wine tourism along this stretch of the Central Coast, and some of the wineries featured in the film suffered unexpected growing pains. At Foxen Winery, in Santa Barbara County, pinot noir sales more than doubled, and the owners had to start hiding the tasting bottles behind the counter to prevent inebriated film fans from following protagonist Miles’s lead in helping themselves to seconds.

Though Paso’s wineries have thus far been spared weekend parades of stretch Hummers and tour buses, the movie boosted sales significantly, especially among producers like Wild Horse and Windward Vineyard that make pinot noir (Miles’s varietal of choice). The former saw pinot sales jump 135 percent from the previous year, during the movie’s Oscar run, while the latter, which produces only pinot noir, saw total annual sales increase by 25 percent.

The grape that first put Paso on the American wine map is zinfandel, which came to California from Croatia in the 1850s. French Rhône varietals like grenache and syrah have also done well; each spring, international experts flock to Paso Robles for Hospice du Rhône, the world’s largest festival of Rhône varietals, which attracts around 3,500 people.

That’s precisely the sort of glitz we’re hoping to escape, so we lose ourselves in Cottontail Creek’s web of trails. We spend the morning pedaling past orange and avocado groves to an oak-shaded back road that skirts a deep-blue reservoir, then hike amid grazing cows to a ridgeline with panoramic ocean views. Soon enough it’s time to replenish the stores, so we drive to Justin and L’Aventure, two of the few local wineries that have garnered international attention and 90-plus-point ratings from critics. Justin is the local celebrity, whose success with a rich, earthy Bordeaux blend called Isosceles has elicited some sour-grapes sentiments from less celebrated neighbors who snub the winery’s frescoed ceilings and posh decor. For us, though, the opulence is a welcome break from cattle country, and everyone agrees that the wines stand up to the ambience.

At the much homier Opolo Vineyards, whose peppery zinfandels and rich syrahs have come into prominence in the past few years and whose Rhapsody blend is my favorite find of the trip, we are the only tasters. Likewise at Dark Star Cellars, Linne Calodo Cellars, and Fratelli Perata, a family-run vineyard planted in 1980, one of the oldest in the region. As general manager Carol Perata pours a Bordeaux blend called Tre Sorelle (Italian for Three Sisters), she tells us how her husband, Gino, and his brother, Joe, the sons of an immigrant Italian winemaker, still insist on doing everything from picking grapes to labeling bottles by hand. We’re sold, and leave with a case, one of only 2,000 produced each year.

That night after dinner we sit around the lodge’s outdoor fire pit, sipping a beefy zinfandel blend we picked up at Linne Calodo. The wine, called Problem Child, is in some ways Paso’s kindred spirit—robust, irreverent, and underappreciated. We raise a glass to Problem Child and to Paso Robles itself: May they never grow up.

Access and Resources

california

Napa Valley



ROOM & BOARD:
Expect stunning settings and lavish attention to detail at Napa’s trio of new retreats: Calistoga Ranch (doubles from $475; 707-254-2800, ); the Carneros Inn (doubles from $435; 707-299-4900, ); and the Poetry Inn (doubles from $475, including a three-course breakfast; 707-944-0646, ). The all-new Redd, in Yountville, serves up staggeringly modern creations—like peeky-toe crab salad with a citrus vinaigrette or fresh cod with a chorizo-studded curry sauce (707-944-2222). Everything at Rutherford’s Auberge du Soleil is good—including the view from the terrace—but don’t miss the chocolate dumplings with tarragon ice cream (707-963-1211).


THE VINTAGE:
With so many premium wineries, it’s difficult to know where to begin. Start here: Stony Hill Vineyard (by appointment only; 707-963-2636, ); Kuleto Estate (by appointment only; 707-963-9750, ); Cliff Lede Vineyards (private tours by appointment; 707-944-8642, ); Robert Sinskey Vineyards (800-869-2030, ); PlumpJack (707-945-1220, ).


BETWEEN TASTINGS:
Calistoga Bikeshop rents Santa Cruz Blurs and Bianchi road bikes ($60 and $40, respectively; 866-942-2453, ). Or splash out in a kayak or canoe at Napa River ���ϳԹ���s (from $50 per day; 707-224-9080, ). Afterwards, Lavender HillSpa specializes in couple’s treatments that will leave you bleary-eyed and wobbly (800-528-4772, ).—A.M.

Sonoma Valley



ROOM & BOARD:
Hole up at the Hotel Healdsburg, where doubles start at $385 (800-889-7188, ). For high-end comfort food—pork chops, grilled cheese—without the attitude, try the Fig Café & Winebar, in Glen Ellen (707-938-2130, ).

THE VINTAGE:
In the townof Sonoma, Gundlach Bundschu’s popular cave tour and picnic grounds are open daily (707-938-5277, ). Seven-year-old Bella Vineyards and Wine Cave,in Dry Creek Valley, boasts 100-year-old vines (866-572-3552, ). Kaz is one of only a handful of organic wineries in Sonoma Valley (877-833-2536, ).

BETWEEN TASTINGS:
At the Osmosis day spa, in tiny Freestone, the 90-minute cedar-enzyme treatment (about 20 minutes of actual bath time) starts at $140 per couple (707-823-8231, ). Wine Country Bikes rents road bikes, hybrids, and tandems starting at $30 per day and $140 per week. Owner John Mastrianni will also customize two- to seven-day supported, self-guided tours to the coast or northern Sonoma County (prices from $395 to $2,500 depending on lodging; 866-922-4537, ). For DIY paddling on the Russian River, Burke’s Canoe Trips rents boats for $55, including shuttle transport back to your car (707-887-1222, ).—K.A.

Applegate Valley



ROOM & BOARD:
The Weasku Inn’s five main lodge rooms—all rustic, with creaky wooden floors and antiques—sit over a country-style dining room with a panoramic view of the Rogue River (doubles from $195; 800-493-2758, ). To find out what pairs well with hericium mushrooms (a fat steak anda big red), make a reservation at Summer Jo’s Farm, Garden, and Restaurant, in Grants Pass (541-476-6882, ). Most everything is grown on-site.


THE VINTAGE:
Contact the Southern Oregon Winery Association (800-781-9463, ) for maps of tasting rooms in the region.


BETWEEN TASTINGS:
The Blue Giraffe Spa, in Ashland, about 45 minutes south, serves up a six-hour pamperfest: steam rooms, body polish, massage, facial. Not your scene? Get the two-hour Manly Things treatment, which includes a massage and a detoxifying steam shower (541-488-3335, ).—T.N.

Walla Walla



ROOM & BOARD:
Only two Walla Walla wineries offer accommodation. Abeja has restored the old farmhouses sitting on its property into three charming cottages and two suites (from $235, including breakfast and tasting; 509-522-1234, ). Basel Cellars, “the castle on the hill,” rents out the entire eight-bedroom estate house and a smaller cottage (estate for $2,400, cottage for $350; 509-522-0200, ).


THE VINTAGE:
In Lowden, 14 miles from downtown Walla Walla, L’Ecole No. 41 offers daily tastings in its restored 1915 schoolhouse (509-525-0904, ). Let Chuck Reininger tell you how he went from home winemaking to owning his own boutique winery over a tasting at Reininger Winery (509-522-1994, ). This year’s Spring Release Weekend will be May 6–7 (Walla Walla Valley Wine Alliance; 509-526-3117, ), followed by the Balloon Stampede Weekend, featuring more than 35 hot-air balloons, May 12–14 (509-525-0850, ).


BETWEEN TASTINGS:
Practice your fly-fishing cast on a fully equipped two-hour to full-day trip with guide Skip Pritchard (509-522-4717, ). Nothing goes better with wine than cheese, so don’t miss the Monteillet Fromagerie’s artisanal goat and sheep cheeses, in Dayton, 40 minutes away (509-382-1917, ).—M.M.

Paso Robles



ROOM & BOARD:
The five-bedroom, 4,200-square-foot luxury lodge at Cottontail Creek sleeps up to 20 and offers massage services, gourmet catering, and yoga instruction ($995 per night for up to 10 guests; 805-995-1787, ).


THE VINTAGE:
Free tasting is an endangered tradition that’s still honored at most Paso wineries. Opolo Vineyards (805-238-9593, ; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily) serves a complimentary six-flavor fleet and will even tap a barrel on request. The Perata family asks that you call before stopping by (805-238-2809, ), but there’s no charge to try their wines, which are usually served with snacks. Hospice du Rhône 2006, Paso’s largest annual winefest, takes place May 11–13 ().


BETWEEN TASTINGS:
Central Coast Outdoors runs guided bicycle trips around Paso Robles from $119 per person per day (bikes $25 extra; 888-873-5610, ). They also lead kayaking trips in nearby Morro Bay, one of the state’s top stops for migratory waterfowl. —K.L.

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Superior Mushing
Boundary Waters, Minnesota
Everyone knows northern Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is the place to practice your J-stroke. But long after the last canoe has been portaged, the lakes freeze solid to create the best mushing terrain south of Alaska. On the Beargrease Special , a January 28–February 2 trip with Ely-based White Wilderness Sled Dog ���ϳԹ���s, professional mushers will show you how it’s done. First, watch as the pros set off on the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon, a 400-mile race along Lake Superior. While the race is on, you take the helm of a six-dog sled, geeing and hawing for 25 to 30 miles a day past moose, bald eagles, and gray wolves in Superior National Forest. At dusk, park the canines and dine on cold-weather delicacies like pork schnitzel with chipotle apple brandy sauce. Then take a quick peek at the blaze of stars—there’s no civilization for miles—before shutting up the yurt and piling on the blankets for a cozy night’s sleep. From $1,545 for the five-day trip, based on double occupancy, including lodging, food, equipment, and guides; 800-701-6238,

Caribbean Breaks

Rincón, Puerto Rico

With some of the biggest swells in the Caribbean, Puerto Rico’s northwest coast is like Oahu’s North Shore—only smaller. If you’ve brought your own board—and know how to wield it—hit the break at Tres Palmas, just north of the town of Rincón, where February swells can bring faces up to 30 feet. The beaches south of town tend to see smaller waves year-round. Whether you’re just getting wet or you’re a longtime surfer, Rincón Surf School (787-823-0610, ) offers one-to-five-day courses with seasoned coaches. Most students stay at the nearby Rincón Surf and Board Guesthouse (from $20; 787-823-0610, ), a sprawling hilltop spread with suites, private rooms, and dormitory-style bunks—plus a poolside tiki bar that serves a tasty breakfast of fresh pastries and local fruit. Or splash out at the posh Horned Dorset Primavera resort (doubles from $490, including two meals; 800-633-1857, ), where the yoga classes, massage therapists, and seafood—blackfin tuna with hibiscus sauce or grilled mahi-mahi with pesto coulis—will have you rested and ready for the next day’s lesson.

Vintage Velo

Sonoma and Napa Valleys, California

Lance might rethink his retirement when he hears about Getaway ���ϳԹ���s’ Napa and Sonoma cycling trip—a veritable Tour de Vin ($950, including bike rental, hotels, and meals; 800-499-2453, ). Getaway ���ϳԹ���s has been leading bike tours in the Sonoma and Napa valleys since 1991, and they get it just right on this four-day, 156-mile sip-and-spin excursion. The ride winds north from Calistoga to the wildflower-filled meadows of Sonoma Valley—and, along the way, several flights of cabernets and zinfandels at Frank Family Vineyards. The road kicks up the Valley of the Moon to Bodega Bay, but a sampling of crisp chardonnays at Matanzas Creek Winery is the perfect reward. Day four follows the rugged Pacific coast to Armstrong Redwoods State Reserve, leaving plenty of time for a bubbly toast or two at Korbel Champagne Cellars. At trip’s end, in Healdsburg, if you haven’t had your fill—or you’re too tipsy to ride home—book a night at Les Mars Hotel (doubles, $425–$995; 877-431-1700, ), the town’s newly opened boutique inn. The 16 guest rooms have soaring ceilings, roaring fireplaces, canopy beds, and mountain views. Plus there’s a library where you can settle in with a book and—what else—a glass of vintage merlot.

Virgin Beaches

Maho Bay, St. John

Don’t rule out the U.S. Virgin Islands: While cruise ships belch a carnival of tourists onto the shores of neighboring St. Thomas, tiny St. John remains mercifully unscathed. Thank American financier Laurance Rockefeller for that: After buying up a major hunk of the island in the 1950s, he built a private resort on Caneel Bay, then donated 5,000 acres of his remaining tropical paradise, which forms the cornerstone of today’s Virgin Islands National Park. Sample the bounty—from silent, palm-studded beaches to coral reefs teeming with sea turtles and rainbow fish—on one of Arawak Expeditions’ ���ϳԹ��� Week packages (from $1,125, based on double occupancy, including meals, lodging, gear, and guides; 800-238-8687, ). Local guides lead kayak trips into the blue-green waters off Honeymoon Beach and Henley Cay, hiking ventures to jungled, pre-Columbian petroglyphs, and a strenuous mountain-bike ride (well, harder than lolling on the beach) to the top of 1,277-foot Bordeaux Mountain. Home base is the Maho Bay Camps eco-resort, on St. John’s north shore, where each roomy platform-tent cabin is naturally cooled by lush foliage and outfitted with twin beds and a private deck.

Rouge-Rock ���ϳԹ���

Sedona, Arizona

Rouge Hotel and Spa

Rooftop Terrace View

From crystal-toting vortex hunters to canvas-schlepping artists, Sedona’s three million annual pilgrims can’t be wrong: Arizona’s canyon-guarded oasis is a slice of desert inspiration. If you’re feeling more perky than pensive, Coconino National Forest’s swell of sandstone is just as good for climbing as for contemplating, and the slickrock rivals anything in Moab. After a hard session of walking meditation—some call it hiking—on sandy, juniper-lined trails, the chic Sedona Rouge Hotel & Spa (from $199, based on double occupancy; 928-203-4111, ) is the perfect place to unwind even further. Opened in June, this sumptuous retreat blends Old World Mediterranean decor (brightly painted Moroccan furniture, ornate iron balconies, and ancient Tunisian vases) with 21st-century luxury (flat-screen TVs, goose-down comforters, and rain-spray showers). Work out the kinks at the full-service spa with a hot-stone massage and a reflexology session, then sink into an overstuffed leather armchair at Reds, the hotel bistro, for the house-specialty brick-oven sea bass with baby fennel.

Peaceful Valley

Yosemite National Park, California

In the summer, it’s difficult to savor Yosemite’s splendor through the throngs of sunburned tourists and snarls of metro-worthy traffic. But as soon as the snow begins to stack up, the video cameras and RVs head south with avian consistency, leaving a silent Yosemite Valley. Take in the enormous views on Yosemite Cross Country Ski School‘s one- and two-night cross-country ski trips from Badger Pass to 7,200-foot Glacier Point (one night, from $160; two nights, from $240; 209-372-8444, ). You’ll ski ten and a half miles of groomed beginner and intermediate trails through lodgepole pines and red firs, with eerily empty views of Half Dome, Yosemite Falls, and the Sierra Nevada, before reaching the top of the granite cliff. Then bunk down at the Glacier Point Winter Lodge, a comfortable stone-and-log cabin, for a fireside meal. After dinner, slip out of the hut and patter through fresh snow with moonlit views of the valley. Sure, you’ve seen Yosemite before, but you’ve never seen it like this.

Historic Ramble

Natchez Trace Parkway, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee

If history is a guide, the Natchez Trace is worth the trip. The Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes walked this 444-mile path centuries ago, famed explorer Meriwether Lewis mysteriously died while taking the route toward Washington, and thousands of ambience-seeking sojourners have completed segments of the tour since the track was named a national scenic byway in 1996. Now, after 67 years of work, the entire length of the historic trail has been preserved as the Natchez Trace Parkway, a snaking two-lane scenic drive from Natchez, Mississippi, to Nashville, Tennessee. Autumn is prime time for this southern road trip, when the black gums burn red and the hickories blaze gold. Start your journey in downtown Natchez with an indulgent southern breakfast of sausage, biscuits, and grits at the 1888 Wensel House B&B (doubles from $95; 888-775-8577, ). Then hop in your car and peel back the top for a leisurely drive past antebellum homes, prehistoric ceremonial mounds, and the graves of unknown Confederate soldiers. Need to stretch your legs? Spend an extra day in an 1830s log cabin at the Ridgetop Bed & Breakfast (doubles $95; 800-377-2770), where you can hike the trails on the property’s 170 wooded acres, canoe the nearby Buffalo River, or saddle up for a horseback ride with Natchez Trace Riding Stables (931-682-3706, ).

Polynesian Bounty

Kauai, Hawaii

Though the origin of the name Kauai is hazy, some speculate that it means “season of abundance.” If so, no wonder: Hawaii’s oldest island has miles of precipitous coastline strewn with tangled forests; steep hillsides planted with coffee, squash, and pineapples; and the highest annual rainfall on the planet—5,148-foot Mount Waialeale receives an average of 460 inches a year. Austin-Lehman ���ϳԹ���s explores the bounty on its new Hawaiian offering, Kauai: The Garden Isle. The six-day adventure packs in everything from a rugged hike to 200-foot Hanakapiai Falls, on the Na Pali Coast, to a screaming 3,500-vertical-foot, 12-mile mountain-bike descent from Waimea Canyon to the Pacific coast. The accommodations live up to the island’s abundance: The 356-room Kauai Marriott Resort & Beach Club has elaborate tropical gardens, a 26,000-square-foot hibiscus-shaped pool, access to world-class surfing on Kalapaki Beach, and a spa renowned for its open-air massages overlooking Nawiliwili Bay. From $2,848, based on double occupancy, including meals; trips begin December 25, 2005, and January 1, 2006; 800-575-1540,

Island Chic

Honolulu, Hawaii

Halekulani Hotel

Halekulani Hotel

Be a movie star—or at least play one on vacation—with the definitive fashion-forward excursion to the Halekulani Hotel (doubles, $4,000; 808-931-5005, ), on Honolulu’s famed Waikiki Beach. This 88-year-old luxury resort has teamed up with fashion mogul Vera Wang to create the first designer-branded digs in Hawaii. The 2,135-square-foot Vera Wang Suite bears all the marks of an authentic label: fine-china settings in the formal dining room, silk linens in the master-bedroom suite, and antique elm furniture flown in from the South Pacific and Asia—all personally chosen by Wang, of course. The 642-square-foot lanai, a huge stretch of private deck with expansive views of Waikiki Beach and the Diamond Head volcanic crater, can second as your own private catwalk. There’s supermodel-worthy service, too: VIP passes to the symphony, museums, and the Honolulu Academy of Arts; 24-hour in-room made-to-order meals; private in-suite spa therapies; butler service; individual master surfing instruction with the hotel’s director of surfing; and a personal limo to get you to those 5 a.m. surf sessions. To the beach, Jeeves!

Deep Key Fishing

Islamorada, Florida

Cheeca Lodge and Spa

Cheeca Lodge and Spa

Islamorada—a seven-square-mile length of sand and scrub in the 1,700-island Florida Keys archipelago—gets sloshed with waves from both the Atlantic Ocean and Florida Bay (known to locals as “the backcountry”). The island’s waters are stuffed with a staggering 600 species of fish and the only tropical coral reef in the continental U.S. Push off from Cheeca Lodge & Spa‘s 525-foot pier—a nod to the island’s stretch geography—with the Backcountry Fishing Package ($900 per couple for three days and two nights) and cast for marlin, snapper, sailfish, and wahoo from a privately guided boat. If you’d rather swim with the fish than hook them, you can practically brush flipper to fin with angelfish, parrotfish, spotted rays, and green moray eels at Alligator Reef and Cheeca Rocks, two nearby dive sites. On the shore, the recently renovated property is just as stunning as the aquatics, with 27 beachfront acres highlighted by a spa that focuses on indigenous treatments, four waterfront restaurants (the chefs will prepare your catch-of-the-day), and 201 guest rooms and suites with oversize bathtubs, mahogany beds, and giant windows with sweeping views of the Atlantic and the resort’s 27 palm-swept acres. Doubles from $250; 800-327-2888,

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Maine:

national parks, state parks

American Splendor: Canyonlands National Park

Utah:





Michigan/Minnesota:





Tennessee/North Carolina:





Colorado:





Washington:





California:





PLUS:

Acadia National Park, Cutler Coast Public Reserve Land

national parks, state parks

The coastal calm of Acadia National Park

ACADIA
THE NORTHEAST’S ONLY NATIONAL PARK, Acadia manages to shoehorn some 2.8 million annual visits into its compact landscape, mostly on Mount Desert Island (with smaller tracts on Isle au Haut and nearby Schoodic Peninsula). The finest way to lose the crowds and take in the park’s cymbal-crash surf, craggy stone-shored islets, and requisite clifftop lighthouses is to venture out of bounds by SEA-KAYAKING. Put in at the public boat ramp in Manset, located on the southern end of Mount Desert Island, and mosey up Somes Sound, the only bona fide fjord in the lower 48, for a five-hour voyage through the Maine that sets watercolorists’ hearts aflutter. Watch for porpoises, seals, and the mountains, which rise more than 400 feet in elevation from the shore. (And do yourself a favor, Cap’n: Time it so that you’re paddling in and out of Somes Sound with the tides.) Another day’s ocean ramble begins at Seal Harbor beach and aims south for the Cranberry Isles; Little Cranberry, with the Islesford Historical Museum and classic seafood served at the Islesford Dock restaurant, makes a fine spot to stretch your sea legs. The most reliable marine-mammal ogling goes down in Frenchman Bay, off Bar Harbor, where you can paddle around Bar Island and the magnificent and uninhabited Porcupine Islands. Keep a polite distance from the seal ledges, please. Hazardous conditions in these parts can include 55-degree water, 12-foot tides, persistent fog, and currents; unless your kayak schooling includes a master’s in wet exits, hire a guide. For group trips and boat rentals, contact an outfitter: Try Acadia Bike and Coastal Kayaking (800-526-8615, www.acadiafun.com) or Aquaterra ���ϳԹ���s (207-288-0007, ). Post-adventure, the Inn at Bay Ledge (doubles, $160–$375; 207-288-4204, ), perched atop an 80-foot cliff overlooking Frenchman Bay, makes a most civilized base camp.

CUTLER COAST PUBLIC RESERVE LAND
Acadia’s watery splendors are a mere warm-up for the astounding sea views you’ll encounter on the Bold Coast, two hours north of the park on routes 3, 1, and 191. Spend two days BACKPACKING one of the East Coast’s longest seaside trails, the ten-mile Fairy Head Loop, opened seven years ago. Few people take in the raw beauty of this unpolished coast. See for yourself on a figure-eight loop that combines the Coastal Trail with the Inland Trail. The path meanders through blueberry heaths and boardwalked swamplands before opening up atop 70-foot cliffs jagging out over Cobscook Bay. You’ll hike through fog-nourished spruce woods, in and out of seal coves, and to Black Point Beach, littered with sea urchins, a good spot for a 50-degree cold plunge (beware of currents). Watch for eagles overhead and sprays on the horizon from the whales that cruise past from May to October. At Fairy Head, the farthest point of the loop, you’ll find three designated campsites tucked into the woods atop the cliffs. From here, Canada’s Grand Manan Island looks otherworldly in the orange blush of sunrise. Maps are at the trailhead, and you can pick up supplies in Machias.

Canyonlands National Park, Goblin Valley State Park

national parks, state parks

Utah’s Labyrinth: Canyonlands National Park

CANYONLANDS NATIONAL PARK RENAISSANCE FUNHOGS, BRACE YOURSELVES: This trip, combining three days of MOUNTAIN BIKING with five days of WHITEWATER RAFTING on the Colorado River, may be the tastiest pairing since chocolate and cabernet. It takes you straight into the heart of Canyonlands’ high-desert rock garden, defined by the goosenecking canyons of the Green and Colorado rivers and an almost hallucinogenic symphony of spires, buttes, mesas, hoodoos, fins, arches, and slickrock. Phase one: a two-wheeled thrill ride on most of the 100-mile White Rim Trail, a celebrated track that requires a four-wheel-drive support vehicle to tote food and gear. Aim counterclockwise, along the Green River in the Island in the Sky district, and take a side trail at Lathrop Canyon or Potash to your prearranged meeting with your rafting guides. Here you embark on phase two: epic Southwest whitewater. A few miles below the confluence of the Green and the Colorado roars Cataract Canyon, a chain of about 25 Class III–V rapids that some claim trump those in the Grand Canyon, at least in the high-water months of May and June. O.A.R.S. Moab guides raft trips ($1,227, return flight from Lake Powell included; 800-342-5938, ).

GOBLIN VALLEY STATE PARK
Now for the soft side of your adventure: NARROWS HIKING. While you might feel hoodooed out, you’ll be awestruck anew by the whimsical sandstone gargoyles and skull-shaped gremlins of this state park. Goblin Valley, less than two hours from Canyonlands via U.S. 191, I-70, and U.S. 24, noses up to the southern end of the San Rafael Swell—an oval-shaped 3,000-foot fold of sandstone and shale wedged onto the northern edge of the Colorado Plateau. The land is so fantastic that it’s siphoning Moab loyalists—fast. These are the salient geological features: a 75-mile-long by 30-mile-wide rock dome, riddled with red-wall canyons, which meets a reef, a ring of nearly vertical eroded strata studded with slot canyons. Your hike into this alien land: the seven-mile Ding and Dang Loop, which in some sections carves through the reef via a slot that’s only as wide as a person. There’s plenty of scenic camping to be had all along the swell—if you travel light and can squeeze your backpack through the narrows. A more comfortable alternative is to do the route as a day hike and then set up your tent at the park’s 24-site campground (for reservations, call 800-322-3770).

Isle Royale National Park, Superior National Forest

national parks, state parks

Floating Kingdoms: Isle Royale National Park

ISLE ROYALE NATIONAL PARK
Kayakers come to this roadless, carless Lake Superior island for its rocky shoreline; fishermen and canoeists, for its 47 inland lakes; and backpackers, for its wooded basaltic ridges populated by moose and timber wolves. A savvy and intrepid handful of park visitors know how to really get lost here: Venture below the lake’s forbidding surface for SHIPWRECK DIVING. Ten major vessels have come to rest in park waters in the last 127 years, and the same frigid 40-degree water that forces divers to don drysuits has drastically slowed the wrecks’ decomposition. Visibility is often so good you can survey a ship’s exterior 40 feet down without a light. The shallower remains are most popular, such as the America, a package freighter that sank in 1928 and whose bow lies just a few feet below the surface. Others sit deeper; the Kamloops, a Canadian freighter not located until 50 years after it succumbed to a blizzard in 1927, lies between 175 and 260 feet under. Join an outfitter—Superior Trips (763-785-9516, www.superiortrips.com) or RLT Divers Inc. (507-238-4671, www.rltdivers.com)—and spend a week diving and living off a boat. Isle Royale is open mid-April through October; the ferry from Grand Portage, Minnesota, takes three hours.

SUPERIOR NATIONAL FOREST
Just as Isle Royale island fever sets in, the ferry hops you back to Grand Portage, on the doorstep of the wet wonderland of Superior National Forest. This vast two-million-acre area is home to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and its 1,500 miles of routes on silvery lakes and streams choked with northern pike and walleye. But here’s the surprise: Superior also hosts some fine MOUNTAIN BIKING, particularly in the rolling, moose-trodden highlands above Tofte and Lutsen. Minnesota’s Cook County is composed almost entirely of public lands, which translates to more than 500 miles of rideable forest gravel roads, two-track logging roads, and ski trails. (You may want to carry an inflatable pool toy to float your bike across deep water.) Start by driving an hour from Grand Portage on Highway 61 south to Grand Marais, your base for fat-tire fun; the Pincushion Bed & Breakfast (doubles, $95–$120; 800-922-5000, ) is a piney retreat overlooking Lake Superior. Try the 25-mile Devil’s Track Lake Loop, which starts out from the nearby campground on County Road 8. Superior North Outdoor Center (218-387-2186) has rentals and maps, and outfits inn-to-inn rides.

Great Smoky Mountains, Nantahala National Forest

Appalachian Adrenaline: Great Smoky Mountains National Park

GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK
IN THE SMOKIES, THE NUMBERS TELL good news and bad: 800 miles of trails, almost 700 miles of fishable streams, hazy blue ridges topping out above 6,000 feet (some of the highest east of the Rockies), 5,600 species of plants, more than 60 of native mammals … and upwards of nine million humans every year. So head where the masses aren’t—the Greenbrier area, on the Tennessee side—for three sweet and soothing days of HIKING and FLY-FISHING. Start hoofing it at the Porters Creek trailhead, reached by entering the park off U.S. 321 east of Gatlinburg. Follow the wide creek for 3.6 miles until you reach Campsite 31, gaining about 1,500 feet of elevation in the process—good reason to stop and wet a line along the way. Casting is easier here than in many of the park’s cramped, brush-banked streams, and you can catch rainbow trout. Next morning, backtrack 2.7 miles from your campsite to the Brushy Mountain Trail. You’ll cross trout streams and roam through tulip trees, hemlocks, rhododendrons, and mountain laurels. Bunk that night at the Mount LeConte shelter, a three-sided stone structure at 6,440 feet (free; reserve through the backcountry office at 865-436-1297). Or book a slot at the LeConte Lodge, a rustic haven reachable only by trail and lit by kerosene lamps (cabins and group lodges start at $83.50 per adult per night; 865-429-5704, ). On the third day, march six more miles on the Boulevard Trail, encountering many a heart-stopping mountain vista, to another shelter, at Icewater Springs near the Appalachian Trail (70 miles of which traverse the park). Finally, a 2.7-mile taste of the AT takes you to Newfound Gap Road, where you thoughtfully arranged for a shuttle to pick you up ($32 for up to five people; A Walk in the Woods, 865-436-8283).

NANTAHALA NATIONAL FOREST
Shake off the quiet of the past few days with high-intensity WHITEWATER RAFTING on the Chattooga near Nantahala National Forest. South of the national park, off highways 441 and 76, there’s easy access to the river’s sections three and four, a rumble strip of phenomenal Class III-V rapids. You’ll see nary a trace of man except your paddle mates, and it’s easy to get Deliverance-spooked while navigating rapids that ribbon through hemlock forest and echoing gorges, and dipping into holes ringed with eerie rock formations. After taming the first ten miles, set up camp at Woodall Shoals, where diversions include rope-swing acrobatics. Day two gets burlier, with 4.5 romping miles graciously followed by two calming miles of lake waters. Old Creek Lodge (cabins for two, $89–$229; 800-895-6343, ), in the artsy town of Highlands, is your post- paddle roost. Spin out your rafting legs by MOUNTAIN-BIKING the 6.6-mile, rhododendron-choked Blue Valley Loop Trail; from Highlands, access the trailhead via Clear Creek Road and Forest Road 367. Squeeze in a two-mile hike to the gray-cliff summit of 4,986-foot Whiteside Mountain, off Highway 64 between Highlands and Cashiers, for views of the rolling hills of North Carolina and Georgia. The Nantahala Outdoor Center (800-232-7238, ) leads overnight trips on the Chattooga and rents mountain bikes.

Rocky Mountain National Park, Routt National Forest

national parks, state parks

Colorado Sick-Track: Rocky Mountain National Park

ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK
JUST AN HOUR AND A HALF’S DRIVE from Denver and less than an hour from Boulder, Rocky Mountain National Park draws legions of Front Range residents with its elk meadows, hikes to chilly alpine lakes, and Trail Ridge Road, the Divide-straddling highway. Less appreciated is that when it comes to CLIMBING, the park’s got something for every subculture: alpine routes, sport climbs, bouldering, and ice climbs. At 14,255 feet, Longs Peak is “the granddaddy of the fourteeners,” says Jim Detterline, a ranger who’s summited Longs 220 times and counting. Thousands of other people also reach the top each year, most of them by the Keyhole Route (the most popular path), and most in July or August. Very few brave the Stettner’s Ledges route on the mountain’s east face. Their loss. Rich with alpine history, the climb, rated a Grade III, 5.7-5.8, was first ascended in 1927 by a pair of German-American brothers from Illinois; at the time, it was among the country’s toughest routes, and it’s still no gimme, even for those acclimatized to high altitude. Stettner’s entails a pre-climb backcountry bivouac, a glacier crossing, and six pitches over fractured granite, chimneys, cracks, and ledges, all capped by another 600-foot scramble to the top. Typically, this means six to eight hours of heroics after a 4 a.m. start to avoid afternoon lightning. But you’ll still want to pause to catch your breath and take in your surroundings, which include a close-up view of the Diamond, an 800-foot-tall face. Contact the Colorado Mountain School in Estes Park (970-586-5758) for lessons and guided climbs.

ROUTT NATIONAL FOREST
ONE OF Colorado’s greatest untrampled MOUNTAIN-BIKING play spots is tucked away in the northernmost reaches of high-elevation Routt National Forest, two hours from Rocky Mountain National Park. For three days of wheeled heaven, head west from the park on Highway 40 (you’ll hit the Continental Divide at Rabbit Ears Pass) and continue north of Steamboat Springs to Routt, named for the state’s first governor. The formidable Nipple Peak/Lopez Creek Loop, accessed via Forest Road 487, near Hahn’s Lake will humble even hardcore riders. This 16-mile burner follows nappy Trail 1156 through dense conifers and lupine-sprinkled meadows before a four-mile grind to the saddle near 10,324-foot Nipple Peak. Then it’s up over a divide, down along Willow Creek, and onto Trail 1147. Call it a day at the Hinman Park Campground, next to the Elk River, east of the town of Clark. It’s a delightful, lodgepole-pine-dappled camp, somewhat less used than its neighbor sites in the area. The following day, your riding agenda focuses on the Big Red Park/Manzanares Trail, which wraps along Big Red Park, a large mountain meadow, and has stellar views of the Mount Zirkel Wilderness Area next door. If you’ve got juice left, there’s still the Hinman Trail, also known as Trail 1177, near your campsite, which unleashes seven miles of aspen-fringed, rolling singletrack studded with roots, rocks, downed trees, and—just for extra credit—a couple of stream crossings. In Steamboat Springs, Sore Saddle Cyclery (970-879-1675, ) has bikes and maps.

Olympic National Park, Rose Lake National Recreation Area

national parks, state parks

Washington’s Never-Never Land: Olympic National Park

OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK
FEW NATIONAL PARKS MAKE PICKING your poison so gut-wrenching as Olympic does: Should you light out for the 7,000-foot-and-higher peaks and sparkling lakes of the Olympic Peninsula’s interior? The rugged headlands and tide pools of the 65-mile Coastal section, a lengthy ribbon of primitive coastline? Or the moist air and brooding old growth of the temperate rainforest? Tough call, but this should help: For a gratifying combo of remoteness, adventure, and greenery so lush you’d swear you can hear the plants breathing, set aside three or four days to BACKPACK part of the 15-mile out-and-back Queets River Trail, in the park’s southwestern area. To reach the trailhead, drive 45 minutes from Highway 101 along a one-lane gravel washboard, and then ford two rivers, the shallow Sams and the trickier Queets. (Use caution on the Queets; the riverbed is rocky, uneven, slimy in spots, and unpassable at times in spring and early summer.) The trail wanders among Sitka spruces and red cedars, with riverside sandbars inviting quick dunks in the martini-cold Queets and well-situated tent sites. Elk herds have been known to make a cameo. Pick up your wilderness permit ($5, plus a camping fee of $2 per person per night) at any ranger station or information center.

ROSS LAKE NATIONAL RECREATION AREA
Shortcut across Puget Sound to your second destination: Ross Lake National Recreation Area, hard by the Canadian border. Drive north on Highway 101 along the coast to Port Townsend, where it’s a 30-minute ferry ride to Whidbey Island and the cozy Captain Whidbey Inn (doubles, $150–$295; 800-366-4097, ). Next day, drive three hours on State Route 20 to 24-mile-long Ross Lake and the captivating Ross Lake Resort (doubles, $92–$197; 206-386-4437, ). First, there’s one more transportation leg: Ditch your car at milepost 134 on State Route 20 and hike a mile to the water, where a resort boat will ferry you to one of 15 floating cabins. Mellow Ross Lake, home to beavers and beatniks, has premier LAKE PADDLING, with 20 designated boat-in campsites if you want to sleep out (pick up a free backcountry permit at the Wilderness Information Center on State Route 20 on your way in; 360-873-4590; the resort rents canoes and kayaks). Afternoon winds tend to blow strongly uplake, so move in the morning. Your warm-up: Paddle the four miles up and down the Ruby Arm inlet. Or ride a motorboat to the trailhead for 6,100-foot Desolation Peak. It’s a 4.7-mile, 4,300-foot billy-goat hoof up to the lookout, where Jack Kerouac is rumored to have camped for 63 days. The views—of glacier-capped peaks and glistening Ross Lake—are nothing short of majestic.

Olympic National Park, Rose Lake National Recreation Area

national parks, state parks

Oh Capitan, My Capitan: Yosemite National Park

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK
QUICK—TRY TO THINK OF A NATIONAL PARK whose icons are more familiar than Yosemite’s masterpieces of rock and water: Half Dome, El Capitan, Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite Falls. No park comes close to this one’s abundant glacier-polished granite, a veritable shrine of ROCK CLIMBING. For those with aid-climbing skills, the tip of Lost Arrow Spire is an electrifying place to rise above the fray, quite literally, with outrageous views of Half Dome and Yosemite Valley. The spire is a tapering finger of rock that parallels the main Yosemite Falls wall, with an adrenalinizing twist: Although you climb only 200 feet on the spire, there’s some 2,500 feet between you and the valley floor below, more than enough to get you mumbling incoherently about your own mortality. By the numbers the climb is Grade III, 5.7, C.2; if any of that sounds like quantum physics, you’re not ready for Lost Arrow. (Instead, scamper up classic but less serious climbs like two-pitch Bishops Terrace, a 5.8.) There are two ways to approach the spire; we suggest making it a weekend trip either way, camping off-trail the nights before and after the climb. If you have ample sweat to spill, hike the four steep miles from the Valley on Yosemite Falls Trail via Yosemite Point. (Payoff: At about 6,500 feet, upper Yosemite Falls makes spectacular trail company.) For details of Yosemite routes and great climbing history, check out climber Chris McNamara’s Web site at . For lessons or guided climbs, contact Yosemite Mountaineering School (209-372-8435, ).

STANISLAUS NATIONAL FOREST
Hugging Yosemite’s northwest shoulder is the strikingly similar terrain of the Stanislaus National Forest, with more than 800 miles of rivers and streams, 1,470 designated campsites, and plenty of wilderness access points for sublime RAFTING and MOUNTAIN BIKING. Allow two hours to drive from Yosemite to a choice stretch of unpopulated whitewater, the North Fork of the Stanislaus, a steep, narrow canyon best run in May and June. Here await six miles of relentless whitewater, California’s longest continuous Class IV stretch. En route to this trove, spend a night at Murphys Historic Hotel in Murphys, a charismatic Gold Rush town off Highway 4 (doubles, $65–$100; 800-532-7684). Then start the wild ride at Sourgrass Crossing, about 20 miles from Murphys, navigating massive drops, boulder slaloms, and stair-step waterfalls, into Calaveras Big Trees State Park. O.A.R.S. offers daylong rafting adventures ($117–$143 per person; 800-346-6277, ). Next up: Continue on Highway 4 to Bear Valley, trade your paddle for knobbies, and tackle the Bear Valley/Lake Alpine route, ten miles of rock-hopping singletrack. Bear Valley ���ϳԹ��� Company (209-753-2834) has maps, guides, and rentals. With a sunset-facing deck and knotty timbered cabins, Lake Alpine Lodge (one-bedroom cabins from $120; 209-753-6358, ) is your serene base camp. Don’t dawdle: Highway 4 could be the state’s next scenic byway.

Ramp It Up

BMX: Lake Ferris, California

Brandon Nicholls, now 14 years old, got his first for-real BMX bike on his seventh Christmas. “I just started riding from there,” he says in a voice so newly dropped to baritone that he uses it slowly and carefully. Where he rode to was BMX glory. Last December, Brandon became the number-one–ranked amateur rider in the American Bicycle Association, BMX’s leading sanctioning body.

At five-foot-nine and 170 pounds, Brandon is fast growing into his voice. On a Sunday after lunch in Moreno Valley, California, 70 miles east of L.A., he wheels his $1,900 aluminum-frame GT Speed Series UltraBox, provided as part of his sponsorship deal with the GT/Panasonic Shock Wave BMX Team, to the family minivan. Brandon, his parents, and his brother Kyle are about to decamp to the nearby Lake Perris BMX course, as it has on nearly every Sunday afternoon for the last seven years. Brandon’s parents, Bill and Marci, will help officiate while their boy cranks out lap after lap in a local-level race, hurdling dirt-packed jumps and 25-foot-long stretches of dirt lined with 15 one- to two-foot bumps.

Once rolling, the Nicholls van takes on the glow shared by all family vehicles on the way to uplift and togetherness. “I think it’s important to do things with them, not just drop them off and pick them up later,” says Marci, a zaftig motherly sunbeam who works as a state truck inspector. (In lieu of a nametag, she’s wearing a T-shirt that proclaims her to be Brandon’s Mom.) Bill, a contractor who grew up in nearby Huntington Beach, brags about the preeminence of BMX here in the suburbifying drylands of Riverside County, the sport’s Fertile Crescent. In fact, BMX was born in these parts in the early 1970s as bicycle motocross, a nonmotorized version of motocross that pits eight torso-armored racers against one another in one-lap heats, or “motos,” on the 1,100 to 1,300-foot-long tracks.

Bill’s own recreational background—he used to race Baja buggies and motorcycles—says a lot about why this is BMX country. Daddies here share a predilection for things that burn gas and go like hell. Motorless kiddie motorsport, then, is a natural. Some dads turn to BMX when their kids get hooked, and the 60,000-member-strong ABA is more than accommodating: Age groups range from five-and-under to 56-and-over, with the 13-and-14-year-old division the biggest. Yet despite its competitive bent, BMX boasts a thriving recreational side, too: Nonracers flock to homemade dirt courses—outfitted with short, swooping downhills and steep jumps—in parks all across the United States.

Today at Lake Perris, Brandon Nicholls is in his element. He rockets down the starting hill, looking like a steelhead swimming with catfish. “Check this moto right here,” machine-guns the announcer, somebody’s dad being unhinged. “Check out Brandon Nicholls!” Kids who hope for BMX fame can see it in their midst, while parental hope is spelled out on the side of the Chevy pickup that belongs to the guy who runs the track: Keeping kids clean in the dirt.

The Dirt: More than a dozen L.A. suburbs have BMX tracks. Armoring up for your first moto requires ABA membership ($35 per year). At the Lake Perris track, practice times and races are scheduled throughout the week; call 909-657-4917 for details.

SPECIALIZED FATBOY HEMI

VITALS: $600; 800-245-3462;
WEIGHT: 4 pounds frame, 24.7 pounds complete
FRAME: No tubes, just an aluminum monocoque
FORK: Stout, chrome-moly unicrown
COMPONENT HIGHLIGHTS: A smattering of Specialized’s own parts (cranks, tires, handlebars) built to handle the high-flying rigors of the BMX track
THE RIDE: Whether you’re perfecting a gate-start at the track or simply hamming it up on the local trails, at $600 the Fatboy Hemi is cheap enough that you and Junior can think about getting matching bikes to work on your double-jumps together. (Sure beats hucking fastballs at each other.) The Hemi’s trademark monocoque construction makes it stiffer than most BMX frames, and it comes adorned with nice touches like a built-in pad on top of the frame—which, when you come up short on that double-jump, means Junior won’t necessarily be an only child.

S&M KRIS BENNETT

VITALS: $915; 714-835-3400;
WEIGHT: 6.95 pounds frame; 25.7 pounds complete
FRAME: Chrome-moly steel
FRAME: Stout, chrome-moly unicrown
COMPONENT HIGHLIGHTS: Pricey Profile three-piece cranks are worth every penny for their balance of durability and light weight
THE RIDE: Show up at any BMX street scene or dirt-lot jump astride the Bennett—named after the famed racer—and the local competition will immediately classify you as one of two breeds: dark horse threat or witless poser. You are, after all, riding the signature bike of one of the best “dirt-jumpers” in the country. Haven’t heard of Bennett or his niche MTV-style sport? You’re obviously not a threat. But that’s OK because the Bennett, with construction and componentry designed to handle the impact of the occasional flat landing on hardpacked dirt, is tough enough to be ridden away from all but the worst rookie-beaters. —ANDREW JUSKAITIS

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