For pure, unabashed fun and a bit of adventure, you won’t want to miss this travelogue by writer Nate Schweber and photographer Lido Vizzutti on the week they spent getting lost in the “Montana Triangle.”

The corners of their journey? Glacier National Park, theAmerican Prairie Reserve and Yellowstone National Park.

You’ll find plenty of trees along the way, but also an amazing story of history, change, and the power of great landscapes and a lifelong friendship. So grab a cup of coffee; you’ll want to spend some time with this new installment in our Travel through Trees series. [Read more…]

National forest lands are home to some of the world’s largest living organisms, and the Smithsonian wants to help you visit and understand these biological wonders.

My go-see list includes the Pando Clone on the Fishlake National Forest in Utah, and it comes with an asterisk that says “in the fall when after the colors change.” [Read more…]

The gray winters of Portland often leave me looking – and yearning – both forward and back. Ahead, I imagine the adventures of the coming summer and its long, sun-filled days. Looking back, I often return to my family’s August 2012 trip to the oldest, the biggest and the tallest trees on Earth, a trip my pun-friendly parents christened “The Treefecta.”

We sandwiched our eco-tour between my sister’s wedding in Oregon and a cousin’s wedding in Southern California. Circumstances allowed both my parents and me to take off the two weeks between these family celebrations, so I traveled with my father (a forester, ecologist and incorrigible tree geek) and my mother (a primary school teacher with an eye for birdwatching). [Read more…]