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October 2020

A man with a yellow helmet in the forest.

Trail & Public Lands Champions: Bill Way and the NEWTS

Some of us only ride, hike, or run trails. But there are many others who also support outdoor recreation and conservation groups and volunteer their time on trail and restoration projects. We need more of the latter, people who are trail and public land champions, like Bill Way and the NEWTS, Diana Roberts, and Bill Kinzel. (OTO)  Bill […]

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A man smiling at his two dogs and parrot.

Campervanning With the Petting Zoo

By Rebecca Mack  “Will you bring the petting zoo?” Our far-flung kids ask this every time we head out to see them. Of course, the answer is yes. The ability to travel with the animals is one of the primary reasons we bought our van, so we’re happy to make room for the dogs and birds and their sundry provisions. Our two senior

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Sunset on a forested hillside.

Hiking Mount Misery – Blue Mountains

By Pete Meighan  Approaching from the north, Eastern Washington’s Blue Mountains appear as little more than inconspicuous rolling hills on the horizon. This outwardly unremarkable appearance belies the spectacular network of deep canyons and tabletop ridges concealed within the Umatilla National Forest. Perhaps the trail that best showcases the dramatic landscapes comprising the Blue Mountains is the ominously

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Exploring the Hanford Reach National Monument

Paddling a river through any desert area seems a contradiction, at first. In the arid middle of Washington State, the Columbia River churns past sun-bleached sage and grasses, jackrabbits and rattlesnakes, and, in one special stretch, an abandoned nuclear reactor.   Northwest of Richland, the Hanford Reach National Monument includes the bones of the Hanford Site, a government

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A forested mountain scape.

3 Scenic Inland NW Drives with Day Hikes

The federal government owns nearly 30 percent of Washington’s land; in Idaho, that figure is more than doubled. Which is to say, we, the public, own some of the most beautiful real estate in the country, from sagebrush steppe to subalpine meadows. And while much of it is remote backcountry requiring serious sweat equity, vast swaths border backroads and two-lane highways.  

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A foggy, rocky area lined with trees.

Public Lands 101

In the collective mind’s eye of America, public lands were born the day Yosemite became a public park in 1864, when president Lincoln deeded it to the State of California, or when president Woodrow Wilson established the National Parks Service in 1916. In reality, protected lands in the United States are managed by a broad swath of federal, state, county, city, and tribal

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