- Grand Canyon National Park (Arizona)
- Bryce Canyon National Park (Utah)
- Badlands National Park (South Dakota)
- 2023 Badlands Astronomy Festival from July 14 to July 16
- Shenandoah National Park (Virginia)
- Night Sky Festival from Aug. 11 to Aug. 13
- Great Basin National Park (Nevada)
- astronomy festival from Sept. 14 to Sept. 16
- Joshua Tree National Park (California)
- Night Sky Festival on Oct. 13 and 14
Category: California
Explore Worldwide, an “adventure travel” agency, has put together a list of 35 of the best hikes in the world that almost anyone can do, from short jaunts you can do in less than an hour to longer, multi-day itineraries »
- Perito Moreno Glacier Trail, El Calafate, Santa Cruz, Argentina
- Aoraki/Mount Cook Loop, Canterbury, New Zealand
- Scenic Drive, Zion National Park, Springdale, Utah, USA
- Continental Divide Trail From NM 547, Grants, New Mexico, USA
- Lower Yosemite Falls Trail, Yosemite Valley, California, USA
Sixty years ago, in 1962, Kenichi Horie was the first person to sail the Pacific Ocean solo and nonstop.
The Japanese adventurer has achieved a number of other long distance solo voyages, including sailing around the world in 1974.
Well-known Japanese yachtsman Kenichi Horie, 83, arrived on June 4 off the Kii Peninsula in western Japan after crossing the Pacific, becoming the oldest person to sail solo and nonstop across the world’s largest body of water.
Horie set sail from San Francisco on March 26 on a voyage lasting 69 days. The trip, which covered about 8,700 km, went relatively smoothly. But he had to battle through bad weather at times, sailing into a storm and high seas immediately after leaving San Francisco. In his online diary, he wrote, “Can’t do anything but wait for it to pass.” In a later entry, he simply wrote: “I’m fed up.”
It was the latest achievement for the octogenarian adventurer, who in 1962 became the first person in the world to successfully complete a solo nonstop voyage across the Pacific from Japan to San Francisco.
Sixty years later, he traveled the opposite route.
Elsewhere » The Guardain / AFP / CNN /
America’s national parks are becoming more and more crowded. Some parks are extremely busy during the summer.
Out of necessity to preserve fragile ecosystems, some of the more popular are choosing to restrict visitor traffic with a reservation system.
Acadia National Park, located near Bar Harbor, Maine, is among the smallest and most popular national parks in the United States with more than 3.5 million visits a year. Growing visitation has caused severe traffic and parking congestion at the park’s most popular destinations. Recreation.gov has info on gaining access to the Cadillac Summit Road.
On January 3, 2022, Arches National Park, located near Moab, Utah, implemented a pilot timed entry reservation system to enter the park from April through October, 2022. Visitors will need three things for their visit, 1) timed entry ticket, 2) photo ID, and 3) park entrance fee OR valid park pass. Learn more at Recreation.gov
Glacier National Park, located near West Glacier, Montana, is implementing a vehicle reservation system from May 27 through September 11 this year. In addition to a vehicle reservation, visitors also need a park pass. There are two areas of the park affected by the vehicle reservation system. More at Recreation.gov
Rocky Mountain National Park, near Estes Park, Colorado, now requires each vehicle carry a special pass to enter the park between May 27 and October 10, 2022.
Shenandoah National Park, located just 75 miles from Washington, D.C. As of March 1, 2022, those wishing to hike Old Rag are required to purchase a day-use ticket.
Yosemite National Park, is crowded. Even in winter months. To cut down on congestion, a reservation is required to drive into the Park from May 20 through September 30, 2022.
Zion National Park, located on State Route 9 in Springdale, Utah, is piloting a permit program to hike Angels Landing starting April 1, 2022. The program provides a fair process that will improve visitor experience and protect park resources along Angels Landing. Permits will be required at all times of the year and times of day.
Cyril Derreumaux and his custom-made kayak named Valentine
Updated 2021.06.11 »
After more than four days of holding in place and waiting for things to get better, Derreumeux made the difficult decision to call the U.S. Coast Guard for a rescue.
A helicopter was dispatched in the night to retrieve the ocean kayaker, who was airlifted off the water and flown back to shore. Once on land however, it didn’t take him long to start thinking about resuming the journey.
Updated 2021.06.07 »
After just a week, Cyril Derreumaux has abandoned his attempt to kayak alone to Hawaii. He set off on May 31, and although the first few days went smoothly, conditions deteriorated over the last 72 hours. He eventually called for rescue.
Derreumaux had not moved since June 4. Because of the rough weather, he deployed his sea anchor and stayed inside the cabin.
Yesterday, winds reached 55-65kph with gusts over 80kph. The waves towered to 4.5m. He also had an issue with his sea anchor but couldn’t try to fix it in such weather.
Earlier…
Rebecca McPhee for Explorersweb »
On May 31, Cyril Derreumaux dipped his paddle in the Pacific and began his 4,450km solo kayak from San Francisco to Hawaii. The 44-year-old hopes to complete the journey in 70 days.
His custom-made kayak Valentine — named after his sister –- includes an enlarged watertight aft cockpit for sleeping and storage of some of his 140 kilograms of equipment and supplies. This makes his experience quite different from the iconic paddle that Ed Gillet did in 1987, using an off-the-shelf sea kayak. Gillet, the only person to kayak from the U.S. to Hawaii, was the inspiration for Derreumaux’s project.
This video from space of San Francisco Bay, California is brought to us by the European Space Agency (ESA).
San Francisco Bay, almost 100 km in length, is a shallow estuary surrounded by the San Francisco Bay Area – an extensive metropolitan region that is dominated by large cities such as San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose. The densely populated urban areas around the bay contrast strongly with the surrounding green forest and park areas.
In the upper right of the image, the delta of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers is visible – with the brown, sediment-filled water flowing down into San Pablo Bay. Here, the murky waters mix before flowing into the larger bay area, which is connected to the Pacific Ocean via the Golden Gate strait. A large sediment plume can be seen travelling westward into the Pacific in the left of the image.
The Golden Gate Bridge, around 2.7 km long, is visible crossing the opening of the bay into the Pacific Ocean between Marin County and the city of San Francisco – which can be seen at the tip of the southern peninsula in the centre of the image. Treasure, Angel and Alcatraz islands can be seen sticking out of the waters of the bay, with several bridges connecting its east and west shores. Several boats are also visible.
The bright green and yellow colours in the bottom right of the image are salt ponds and are part of the Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge. Covering an area of around 120 sq km, the refuge contains salt marsh, mudflat and vernal pool habitats for millions of migratory birds and endangered species.
Iohan Gueorguiev’s videos are well made, but they are generally an hour long.
With this video Iohan recaps his trip so far, from Alaska to Argentina, in less than 15 minutes.
If you like this, you’ll love his full length videos.
America’s national parks hosted a staggering 82.8 million visits throughout it’s 59 national parks network in 2016. Which are the most popular — and perhaps which to avoid if you don’t like crowds? Here are the top ten according to the National Geographic.