#trail-length-controversy

#trail-length-controversy

The entrapment was so severe that emergency responders, including fire department personnel, had to use forcible methods including hatchets to pry the carousel components to free (Odette's) hand.

Three Falls State Park is centered around three waterfalls, including the 128-foot Frontenac Falls, which cascades down through a wooded gorge before meeting the lake.

Abiqua Falls is a stunning 92-foot waterfall that tumbles over a wall of columnar basalt into a wide pool, perfect for swimming. The surrounding area features a pebbled beach that provides breathtaking views of the falls and lush greenery.

"For the first time, we can truly see how popular and meaningful the Appalachian Trail and its landscape are to millions of people," says Cinda Waldbuesser, president and CEO of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, in an official March 2026 statement.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park was the most popular park in the country last year, drawing more than 11.5 million visitors, according to data from the National Park Service. In fact, the park, which straddles North Carolina and Tennessee, accounted for 12.3 percent of all national park visits.

The nine national parks in the Golden State - including Yosemite, Death Valley and Joshua Tree - attracted nearly 12 million recreational visits in 2025, according to statistics from the National Park Service. That's up more than 800,000 visits from 2024 and up more than 300,000 from the previous record set in 2019, according to the data, which stretches back to 1979.

For 2025, there was good news and bad news: overall, these areas were visited 323 million times over the course of the year. That's the good news; the bad news is that this figure was down ever so slightly - specifically, 2.7% - from a record-setting 2024.

The only interest he has in our parks is the money he can make from them. Case in point is how Socha, as an executive for the hospitality company Delaware North, sued the NPS for $51 million for the naming rights to Yosemite National Park, Ahwahnee, Wawona, etc., claiming they were the company's intellectual property. Twenty-two years as concessionaire entitles them to own and profit from the names? How absurd and disrespectful.

Not only do we have an amazing trail with 10 waterfalls (four of which you can walk behind), but it's a great place to see and learn about plants and wildlife. We also have several historic buildings that are open to the public-all built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the 1930s and 1940s.

The body is a shifting landscape transformed by surfaces and sensations. Each look captures a different tactile world: the heat of blood, the cool weight of metal, the yielding drift of water. The result is a sculptural study of how the elements carve, shield, and release the self. The materials we embody become the emotions we carry, and the body becomes a materialised exhibition of our emotions, from the pulse of Blood to the discipline of Metal to the surrender of Water.

If that sounds like a dry lab statistic, here's the part you'll actually remember: Lyme is one of those infections that can make you feel like you got hit by a truck. Feverish. Wiped out. Achy. Foggy. And it can start as the kind of "I'm just run down" stretch that people blow off for a week or two - especially when it's winter and everyone's tired anyway.

The idea that hiking trails are a tool for conservation is based on a simple premise: people protect what they know. That requires making conservation areas accessible. There's no point telling people you only protect what you know, if you don't give them the tools to know. The trail is this tool. People who hike, people who camp, these people often become defenders of the environment.

A sudden weather change, a mechanical, a missed turn, or a momentary lapse in judgment can all turn a "quick ride" into a surprisingly long day. The good news? While some of those problems are big, the solutions are often small. A last-second weather check. An extra granola bar. A quick link and a zip tie that's been living in the bottom of your bag for the last five years. Little things can often be the difference between a perfect ride and a problem ride.

Though trails have reopened, hazardous winter conditions still persist and hikers should come prepared to meet snow-covered trails, icy sections, limited visibility, and the possibility of sudden storms, said the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department in a news release. That means evaluating weather conditions, carrying appropriate gear, and understanding personal limits.

Many of them were built for purposes that no longer exist - cattle drives, mining prospecting, early U.S. Forest Service fire patrols - while others were packed by the footprints of the Chumash people well before the colonization of North America. Sections of trail cling to steep slopes that seem to barely resist gravity, shedding soil and stone with each winter storm.

Wildlife populations are in decline. Recreation sites are crowded and often underfunded. Wildfires are larger, more destructive and harder to control. Climate change is reshaping natural systems, from ocean fisheries to mountain snowpacks, faster than institutions can respond. At the same time, communities are being asked to host new energy projects, transmission lines and mineral development - often without clear processes, adequate resources or trust that decisions are being made in the public interest.

We are all familiar with the idea of a library. You go, check out a book, read said book, and return the book when you are done. Yes, there is a bit more mixed in there, such as attaining a library card, due dates, and late fees, but I'm sure you get the general idea. We all know how libraries work.

Western water law is based on the prior appropriation doctrine, which gives the first entity to make "beneficial use" of water the right to keep on using that amount, even if that means that upstream "junior" users' spigots will get shut off. By the early 1900s, a rapidly growing California was enthusiastically diverting the Colorado River, with huge irrigation districts gobbling up the senior water rights.

AllTrails, a hiking app with trail maps and reviews, dug into insights from their 90 million-plus members and team of trail experts to spotlight lesser-known places where the trail alone is worth planning a trip around. Their guide, Travel-Worthy Trails for 2026, spotlights eight unexpected destinations around the world where the trail is the destination.

If you want to get outdoors, note that this year, Presidents Day falls on Monday, Feb. 16, when all national parks will be free to enter. But things are a bit different than in past years. This year, the freebie days are only for American legal residents. Foreigners will pay much higher fees. These freebies can save you $50, but you should definitely plan in advance and get up to go at the crack of dawn, before it gets crowded with sleepyheads.

A massive landslip has dramatically reshaped a section of the Jurassic Coast, weeks after a significant 300ft crack emerged in the cliff face. Thousands of tonnes of rock and mud have collapsed onto Charmouth beach in Dorset, obliterating a chunk of the popular South West Coastal Path England's most-visited National Trail. A 30ft wide section of the 450ft tall cliff has detached from the mainland, now resting approximately 20ft lower than its original position.

Over the past year, a wave of high-profile development proposals - from oil fields and mining roads to timber projects - has reshaped a fast-moving debate, propelling Alaska into the center of the national conversation over how to balance energy production with conservation. These projects have revived long-running tensions over what the state's public lands are for, and who they ultimately benefit.

The next morning, I checked the critter-cams and saw the bear again, now captured by a camera I'd placed by a little mesh-covered opening near the small basement under my house. I watched as a massive shape emerged from the hole. My brain refused to believe it. The bear looked too large to fit in that tiny gap. I watched it again, shocked. My hands started to sweat.