Author: wildgreenquest@gmail.com

A prolonged, historic rainstorm has triggered evacuations at Many Glacier Hotel and shut down massive sections of Going-to-the-Sun Road. Here is how to navigate the closures and salvage your trip.Paradise Meadow along Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park at sunset. (Photo: Krista Taylor/Getty Images)Published June 30, 2026 03:11PMHeavy flooding in Glacier National Park prompted officials to evacuate visitors and close areas across the park beginning in late June. Now, the National Park Service (NPS) is asking the public to avoid specific areas of the park due to rising floodwaters and the potential for rockslides.On June 28, park…

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Published June 30, 2026 01:11PMA hike or going on any outdoor adventure can leave you feeling good-exhausted, at peace, and connected to nature. But you might also end up with a less pleasant souvenir: a gnarly bug bite—or smattering of them.Figuring out which bite you have can help determine what kind of itching or pain you might expect and whether you need to worry about an insect-borne disease. “Everyone reacts a bit differently to bug bites, so it’s not always possible to know the culprit just from looking at the bite,” Allison Gardner, a medical entomologist and associate professor of…

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We got a sneak peek of dozens of outdoor gear innovations during the Switchback gear show. These were our favorites.Published June 30, 2026 09:08AMNew Orleans is known for great music and amazing food. In the middle of June, it was also host to the Switchback gear show, where brands from around the world gathered to show off all the new gear they’re launching in the coming year. For two days, we paced the floor of the NOLA convention center to find the most innovative, most exciting new gear releases. Here are eight innovative outdoor gear products you need to check…

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Competitors put it all on the line in the final climbing event, then trade rock shoes for ski boots as the athletes vie for $40,000 cash Listen to this articleListenPublished June 29, 2026 01:44PMThe only way to determine the best mountain athlete? Head-to-head competition in the ultimate mountain sports: rock climbing, backcountry skiing, and mountain biking. That’s why Outside and Toyota Trucks teamed up to launch Ultimate Mountain Athlete, an unprecedented test of skill, endurance, strength, and style. In the spring, eight elite athletes—four male and four female—gathered in southern Colorado’s San Juan Mountains for Season 2 of the competition.…

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Updated June 29, 2026 03:21PMLet me start by saying this is not a competition. All of our national parks are amazing and no one park is better than another. It’s like being a parent and someone asking you to choose a favorite. No kid is better than the other, they’re just different. At least, that’s what parents are supposed to say, but we all know that’s not true: Parents have favorites. They just don’t say it out loud. So yes, all national parks are wonderful, it’s not a competition. But if we’re in the trust tree, I’ll tell you that…

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Published June 29, 2026 03:33PMThe three firefighters who died on June 27 while battling a blaze along the Colorado-Utah border deployed a technique meant to keep them alive in the event of quickly approaching flames.But experts say that lifesaving practice—which involves setting up a shelter made of protective material—is a “last resort” that does not always work. “A shelter is a tool of last resort meant to protect one from a flaming front and the gases released during a fire,” says Bill Kaage, a retired firefighter and the former chief of the National Park Service’s division of fire and aviation.…

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Climbing. Skiing. Mountain biking. Can one athlete dominate them all? The competition kicks off in the first episode of Season 2. Listen to this articleListenPublished June 29, 2026 01:44PMHow do you determine the best athlete in any sport? Head-to-head competition of course. But until recently, there was no such thing for all-around mountain athletes. There were plenty of champions in the individual disciplines—climbing, skiing, and mountain biking—but no way to crown a champion of them all. So in partnership with Toyota Trucks, we decided to do something about it. The result is Ultimate Mountain Athlete, an unprecedented competition staged in…

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With a world-class trail system, dense forests, and pristine lakes—and zero crowds—Athens County is like nowhere else in the MidwestMountain biking at Baileys Trail System in Chauncey, Ohio. (Photo: Joel Prince)Published June 29, 2026 07:54AMWhen you read the headlines about overcrowded national parks and maxed out trailheads, it’s easy to think the outdoors is overrun with selfie-chasing hordes. But there’s plenty left to discover if you know where to look. Proof: Athens County, Ohio.  Tucked into the hills about 75 miles southeast of Columbus, this corner of Appalachia delivers something you won’t find elsewhere: real surprise. The glaciers that pancaked…

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Everyone is emulating Norwegian threshold workouts. How does that apply in the weight room?Norway’s Johannes Hosflot Klaebo (Photo: Marco BERTORELLO / AFP via Getty Images)Published June 28, 2026 03:14AMThe lessons we’ve fixated on from Norway’s world-beating endurance athletes mostly focus on, well, endurance training: double thresholds, lactate testing, VO2 max records, and so on. This is logical, but it’s not the whole picture. What if there are other elements of the Norwegian approach that underlie their success? Has anyone studied the Norwegian diet? Maybe fårikål and tørrfisk are the fuel of champions.Or maybe there are some more obvious candidates. In…

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