Robert Annis

With most of the Alaska park closed to traffic, I heeded the call to explore the deserted backcountry.

The brown spot in my camera’s viewfinder grew larger and began taking shape — four strong legs, two short rounded ears and a powerful shoulder hump. It was a male grizzly, and it was quickly coming our way across the scree. My heart was beating so loudly, I was sure the other photographers could hear it pounding over their clicking shutters.
When the grizzly got within 20 yards, I began to c...

In two recent events, grizzlies shared the trail with hikers in Canada and a black bear joined the crowds at Magic Kingdom. Growing bear populations are the cause, experts say.

Is this the most ridiculous adventure ever?

It started as an innocent, non-threatening lark. I would hike and paddle my way to the largest island on the largest lake on the largest island on the largest lake in the world, which also happens to be in the middle of the least visited national park in the lower 48 states. A virtual Russian nesting doll of idiocy, adventure, or maybe both.

Although I consider myself more of an Average Joe adventurer these days, I’m no stranger to difficult outdoor...

A grizzly-curious writer decides to train as a bear guide in British Columbia, and surprises himself along the way

My travel companions and I had spent nearly a week in Alaska’s Katmai National Park surrounded by wild coastal grizzlies with nary an issue. But on our last day in Hallo Bay, a popular bear-viewing area in the park, something was amiss. Our guide Brad Josephs, an...

At the western edges of North and South Dakota, large swaths of grassland prairie collide abruptly with multicolored rock formations of limestone, shale, volcanic ash, and sandstone. When seismic upheaval created the Rocky Mountains 65 million years ago, these Dakota badlands formed almost as an afterthought, as sand, silt, and mud flowed down ancient rivers to be deposited here, hundreds of miles away.

I hoisted myself over the rocks and dusty buttes of the Caprock Coulee Trail ....

THE WOLF TRACKS — large, wide paws about the size of an NBA player’s fist, claws digging into the frozen ground — are fresh, likely made just minutes earlier. Kneeling down to get a better look, our guides estimate a dozen wolves could be traversing this lonely stretch of wilderness just west of Canada’s frozen Hudson Bay. The chase is on.

I’ve known Tim O’Donnell for well over a decade, and I’d never heard this particular tinge of panic permeating his voice until this moment in western North Carolina. Tim had just started fishing a tiny section of the Pigeon River’s west fork, a hole about the size of a five-gallon Harbor Freight bucket, when his indicator suddenly disappeared from the water’s surface and his 3wt Thomas and Thomas rod nearly bent in half.

An expert roadtripper's guide to the best American road trips based on their proximity to adventure—from fly fishing holes to flowy singletrack and unreal stargazing.

Over the last three decades, I’ve driven all across the country, sometimes flying in and renting a car, more often just driving my Roadtrek camper van from my Indiana home. During those road trips, I’ve also visited every national park in the contiguous U.S. Whenever I’m home too long or the news gets too dire, I start to feel t...

My favorite spots to fly fish offer more than just abundant trout or salmon; I love being surrounded by the majesty of a place, be it the grandeur of the Rockies or the quiet beauty of a Midwestern oak forest.

Those locations also lend themselves to other outdoor pursuits. I fill my day as if I were ordering à la carte adventures off a take-out menu. I’ve spent days biking the hills and mountains of North Carolina, only to ease my aching legs into a cold flowing river with a fly rod in my hand ....

Hop aboard the most thrilling rail routes, from the highest railway in the world to a night train that takes you to the Arctic Circle

There’s nothing quite like hopping on a train and watching the world go by. Train travel is more popular than ever with intrepid travelers in 2025, not only as a more sustainable alternative to flying, but as a way to gain a deeper experience with the destination. The journey itself becomes the focus — and the ultimate adventure.

Channel Islands National Park isn’t far from Santa Barbara, but this ecologically rich archipelago is anything but familiar.

Walking the trail that led to Lobo Canyon felt like being on a different planet. Arid terrain gave way to steep sandstone cliffs that towered above lush greenery and spiny cacti, an intriguing mishmash of environments. At times I had to be a contortionist, ducking under the low-hanging limbs of island oak trees, scrambling up and over rocks, and walking across a wobbly ...

Iceland is renowned for its incredible natural beauty, so when I had the opportunity to sail nearly 1,200 nautical miles around the island on a National Geographic Lindblad cruise ship, I leapt at the chance. During the course of 10 August days, I played out all my past Arctic explorer fantasies (without having to face either scurvy, frostbite or cannibalism).
My wife Dee rarely gets to join me on my adventures (unlike me, she has a real job), but when she learned about my plans, she demanded...

The gigantic bear ambles closer and closer. Weighing between 800 and 1,000 pounds, its the largest predator I’ve ever come across—and I’ve certainly never been this close. Now, just yards away from me and the eight other bear-watchers in my tour group, just off the eastern coast of Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve, it looks up across the flat, tiny patch of meadow between us and meets my gaze. I’ve wanted to see a bear in the wild for years, but in these first few seconds, I’m second-guessing that desire.

Researchers say Churchill's polar bears are headed toward extinction if warming continues

If you’ve ever seen a nature documentary about polar bears, odds are it was filmed near Churchill, Manitoba, in Canada. For more than 40 years, scientists, wildlife biologists, and filmmakers have traveled to Churchill—which calls itself the “polar bear capital of the world”—to study and document these magnificent creatures. Last year, I visited Churchill with Natural Habitat Adventures to photograph the...

Hiking a social trail behind Joshua Tree National Park’s famed Cap Rock, I came across a peculiar sight that, if you know what you’re looking for, actually isn’t so unusual at all: a crude cross made of dark stones below a scribble of orange graffiti.

It was a makeshift memorial to Gram Parsons, the 1970s rock star who had a deep connection to the park in life — and in death. So much so that fans, nicknamed “Grampires” by some park staff, still haunt this dusty patch of Mojave Desert decades ...