Ken Burns's National Parks: The Grand Canyon and the Empire of Grandeur

For as long as most of us can remember, the Grand Canyon has been a protected natural wonder we can traverse without worrying about some manmade intrusion blocking our view. But someone had to fight for the protection of the splendors that millions of people view every year. Last night’s edition of Ken Burns’s National Parks: America’s Best Idea was about the amazing Empire of Grandeur (1915-1919) and the people who did just that.

World Class: Rare Refuge at the Philippines' El Nido Marine Reserve

Miniloc Island Resort just might be the greenest lodge in the entire Coral Triangle, the richest ecosystem on Earth found between the Philippines, Indonesia, and the Solomon Islands. The buildings themselves hit all the right eco-notes, with recycled hardwood walls and roofs crafted from local thatch, but that's not the half of it. Since opening the 50-room hideaway on Palawan Island in 1982, Miniloc's owners have donated thousands of dollars to help protect the surrounding El Nido Marine Reserve. Here you'll find scores of limestone cliffs, some studded with climbing routes, rising from blue-green water. Snorkelers can dive through coral passages to emerge in sheer-walled grottoescompletely cut off from the world (from $150 per person, including meals; elnidoresorts.com). 

—Global Travel Editor Costas Christ, from his October 2009 World Class column.

Discover additional World Class Coral Triangle lodges in Malaysia and the Solomon Islands here >>

Ken Burns's National Parks: Insider Escapes in Yellowstone, Yosemite

If you've been watching Ken Burns's The National Parks: America's Best Idea series this week on PBS, you've probably already started dreaming of your next escape. The first episode, which aired on Sunday night, captured the grandeur of Yosemite and Yellowstone enough to make anyone want to find their inner John Muir and head out West. 

Just makes sure you do it right and far from the crowds with these unexpected adventure trips. Then get more game plan ideas from Editor at Large Robert Earle Howells's national parks feature story and photo gallery. Or read an essay by Ken Burns about his love for the national parks.

Age of Citizen Science - Four Websites Where You Can Lend a Hand

Crowdsourcing. Group thinking. Call it what you will, but in the past ten years, average Joes tasked with online assignments (from bird counting to cloud identification and more) have contributed reams of data to the scientific body. Just one thing: Few scientists ever took it seriously. That’s changed. Sites are better, questions keener, and citizens are becoming viable foot soldiers in legitimate scientific studies. “We have over 30 ornithology papers published in peer-reviewed journals that use volunteer-collected data,” says Rick Bonney of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Citizen Science Program. Here are four ways you can lend a hand.

CamelBak Gives Water Bottles to Bottle-Banning Australian Town

CamelBak Australia is donating 2,000 of its Better Bottles to Bundanoon, a tiny tourist town 90 miles southwest of Sydney, Australia, that voted in July to ban the sale of bottled water. The difference with the CamelBak bottles, of course, is that they won’t be pitched into the rubbish at the end of the day. Rather, they’ll be refilled again and again by some of the 2,500 residents at indoor taps, drinking fountains, and three spanking new filtered-water filling stations around town.

The movement against the sale of “single-use” bottled water began when a Sydney-based beverage company, Norlex, proposed pumping water from a local aquifer to bottle for sale. The prospect of buying back their own water—marked up as much as 250 times—in the midst of a seven-year drought struck some Bundanoon townspeople as ridiculous. In July, a meeting was called and more than 350 citizens voted to take it a step farther and outlaw the sale of bottled water.

The Amazing Race: A Previous Winner Tells All

Imagine a chance to travel all over the world with your best bud and share a million dollars—if you can handle the obstacles that true adventure travel throws at you. Well that’s The Amazing Race, which pits teams of two against each other as they race around the globe for the pot of gold at the finish line. With the premiere of season 15 at 8 pm EST on CBS, we wondered, what does it mean to win the race? ADVENTURE caught up with season three winner Zach Behr in New York. Behr, now a supervising producer on MTV’s Made, explains what you do when you win half a million dollars, the importance of experiencing local color, and the simple pleasure of eating Vietnamese chicken satay from a street cart.

So you won The Amazing Race and split a million dollars with your partner, Florinka Pesenti, a friend from your days at Vassar College. What'd you do with the money?

I took a chunk of it with my then girlfriend, now wife, and went to Costa Rica for ten days and traveled around. 

Video: Avalanche Skier POV Helmet Cam Burial, Rescue

Avalanche Skier POV Helmet Cam Burial & Rescue in Haines, Alaska from Chappy on Vimeo.

An amazing, sobering look at being stuck inside an avalanche. This skiier was outside of Haines, Alaska. Read the full story here.

The writer says:

"This was a decent sized avalanche. 1,500 feet the dude fell in a little over 20 seconds. The crown was about 1 - 1.5m. The chute that he got sucked through to the skier's right was flanked on either side by cliff bands that were about 30m tall. He luckily didn't break any bones and obviously didn't hit anything on the run out.

"He was only buried for 4 and a half minutes which is incredibly short. I cannot stress these next sentences enough; that in and of itself to be unburied in ONLY 4:28 is miraculous if you have any understanding of being caught in an avalanche and what it takes to be found. It could literally be some kind of "world record" just on how good the guide and supporting cast of other skiers was in getting to him. It also shows why you should ALWAYS be going with people trained in avalanche rescue / first aid....as well as why you'd want to be going with a guided heli operation. Sure this was terrifying for him, but he would've probably been dead if not for going with a guide."

Climate Ride Kicks Off Saturday - Cyclist Pedal 300 Miles From NYC to DC

This Saturday (September 26) the second annual Brita Climate Ride will roll away from lower Manhattan en route to our nation’s capitol. The five-day, 300-mile cycling tour will help raise money and awareness for climate change education through organizations such as Focus the Nation and Clean Air – Cool Planet. It will also raise hope for a future powered by renewable energy and a green economy.

Last year I pedaled the inaugural Climate Ride from NYC to D.C. for the first charity ride of its kind. The brainchild of two former Backroads biking guides, the event ran smoother than a well tuned S-Works. And it did not disappoint, either as a fully-supported bike tour through beautiful countryside or an inspiring message for change.

Legendary Explorer's Letter Found Behind Filing Cabinet in Tasmania

Though a recent expedition failed to find legendary polar explorer Roald Amundsen's lost plane, another relic of Amundsen's life recently re-surfaced—a letter Amundsen wrote soon after he became the first man ever to reach the South Pole in 1912. A Tasmanian yacht club discovered Amundsen's letter of acceptance to an honorary membership to the Derwent Sailing Squadron behind a filing cabinet, where it had been lost for years.

"Allow me to convey my very best thanks for the honour you have done me in electing me as an honorary member of the Derwent Sailing Squadron," Amundsen wrote in the letter. He was offered the membership while he stayed in Hobart, where local's discovered his identity after he telegraphed the news of the success of his Antarctic expedition to King Haakon of Norway.

The historic letter has been donated to the Tasmania Maritime Museum.

—Greer Schott

Leading Edge Gear: Weekend Warrior Fold-Up Plane

Move over Ski-Doos, the ultimate toy for weekend warriors is about to hit garages and driveways across the country. It’s the Icon A5 amphibious light sport aircraft ($139,000; iconaircraft.com). Created by a former F-16 pilot, this carbon-hulled, 22-foot-long plane reaches airspeeds of 120 miles an hour, its wings fold back so you can tow it on a trailer, and its 20-gallon fuel tank takes unleaded. FAA rules on this new aircraft category say that, in general, you can’t fly at night or near an airport with a control tower, but getting your license takes only 20 hours of in-flight training.  

Preview our October issue's Leading Edge story, featuring 21 ideas, bold explorers, and cool stuff to dream about, here.

Photograph courtesy of Icon Aircraft