Joe Martinet Climber Joe Martinet en route to the base of the Lhotse Face on Mount Everest in late April. For six months, starting last September, Joe Martinet went to the gym twice a day for six days a week. He spent hours on a steep treadmill, wearing climbing boots and a 25-pound backpack. Then he hit the StairMaster and lifted weights. When Martinet, 37, wasn’t at the gym, he biked or ran near his home in Reston, Va. On the weekends, he’d drive 100 miles to Shenandoah National Park and scramble up one of the peaks, the tallest of which exceed [ ... ]

Joe Martinet Climber Joe Martinet en route to the base of the Lhotse Face on Mount Everest in late April. For six months, starting last September, Joe Martinet went to the gym twice a day for six days a week. He spent hours on a steep treadmill, wearing climbing boots and a 25-pound backpack. Then he hit the StairMaster and lifted weights. When Martinet, 37, wasn’t at the gym, he biked or ran near his home in Reston, Va. On the weekends, he’d drive 100 miles to Shenandoah National Park and scramble up one of the peaks, the tallest of which exceed [ ... ]

NORFOLK, Va. — Active-duty military personnel and their dependents will soon be able to enter every national park for free as part of an effort to thank service members and their families for the sacrifices they make, the Interior Department announced Tuesday. Experience Cuba — without leaving NYC Restrictions on travel to Cuba have eased [ ... ]

Imagine swimming in crystalline ocean waters shot through with sunlight when one of Earth’s most notorious predators swims into view — a very close view. Such pulse-quickening encounters are, in fact, the whole point for visitors to Tiger Beach, an idyllic spot in the Bahamas where eco-tourists can get up close and personal with tiger sharks — indiscriminate eaters known to devour everything from sea turtles to kegs of nails (and occasionally a few unlucky humans). Yet it is by playing to the sharks’ voracious appetites that dive operators [ ... ]

Nature Valley/McCann Erickson A virtual view on Mt. Washburn in Yellowstone National Park. No doubt you’re familiar with Street View, the Google Maps technology that lets you travel along city streets via your computer or smartphone screen. Now, for those looking to get off the pavement, there’s Trail View, a new program that lets you “walk” the trails of three national parks without taking a step. Created by granola bar company Nature Valley, a longtime parks supporter, the virtual experience covers more than 300 miles of trails in the Grand Canyon, Great Smoky Mountains and Yellowstone national parks. Pick a trail, hit Autoplay [ ... ]

For years, hikers across the country have had to pay a fee to park at U.S. Forest Service sites and trail heads. A federal court last month called into question parts of the fee structure, but the service on Thursday emphasized that while the program has been under review the fees remain in place — at least for now. “Visitors to national forests should continue expect to pay the established recreation fees that are currently in place,” the Forest Service said in a statement. “The U.S. Forest Service has charged user fees since 1965 and, since the mid-1990s, more than 90 percent of those fees have been used [ ... ]

An artist’s depiction of the zero-gravity roller coaster “Vomit Comet” as envisioned by the design company BRC Imagination Arts. Think about the tallest, wildest roller coaster you’ve ever been on. If a Southern California design firm has its way, you haven’t felt anything yet. BRC Imagination Arts is proposing a “zero gravity” roller coaster that would give thrill seekers a stomach-churning ride including at least eight seconds of microgravity. The proposed ride takes cues from NASA’s KC-135A aircraft, which was used to train astronauts and test equipment for spaceflight. The aircraft, nicknamed “the Vomit Comet,” flew specific flight paths to mimic various states [ ... ]

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. — Yosemite National Park officials say lowering the number of permits to Half Dome is the best option for maintaining the wilderness character at the popular hiking spot. Where to celebrate the Year of the Dragon Beginning Jan. 23, major Chinese New Year celebrations will be held in Hong Kong, Singapore, [ ... ]

As the PGA Tour island hops from Maui to Oahu this week, the Golf Guy and Birdie Bailey decided it was an appropriate time to bust out their picks for their top-5 dream golfing destinations. Feel free to add your thoughts on where YOU dream of playing. The Golf Guy Maui, Hawaii: Wailea to be exact. The Blue Course, the Emerald Course and the Gold Course. Three fun layouts, each with stunning views of the Pacific Ocean and some [ ... ]

Courtesy Taos Ski Valley Unlike many of its bigger competitors in Colorado and elsewhere around the West, Taos Ski Valley in New Mexico has plenty of snow. With bleak snowfall at Colorado’s biggest ski resorts, the nation’s smaller ski areas are moving in for the kill — and tourist dollars. Big Sky Resort in Montana has offered free skiing to anyone who bought an Epic Ski Pass good for Colorado’s Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone resorts. And Taos Ski Valley in New Mexico has offered discounted lift tickets to Vail season pass holders as well. “We kept hearing how dismal the snow in Colorado [ ... ]

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. — Yellowstone National Park will open for the winter season on Thursday but a lack of snow will limit where snowmobiles can go for now. Commercially-guided snowmobiles or snowcoaches will only be allowed to travel between the park’s South Entrance and Old Faithful. Park officials say roads in the rest of the park have too much snow and ice for regular vehicles but not enough for snowmobiles or snowcoaches. Commercial snowmobile and snowcoach operators will be able to use snowcoaches or regular vehicles to transport visitors from West Yellowstone and Mammoth Hot Springs to Old Faithful. [ ... ]

Peter McIntosh / UGC Peter McIntosh captured this sunset image in the Great Smoky National Park last spring. Peter McIntosh of Clayton, Ga., captured this incredible image while visiting Great Smoky Mountains National Park last spring. Clayton said he and “a zillion” other photographers were perched atop an observatory at Clingmans Dome – the park’s highest point – at sunset. Sunset shots are popular from that vantage point. “It was like kickoff at the Super Bowl with all those flashes going off,” McIntosh said. If his work looks familiar, it’s likely because you’ve seen it before – we featured McIntosh’s stunning photo of a lightning strike [ ... ]

Switzerland’s ski resorts, already beleaguered by the strong Swiss franc, are grappling with another obstacle — no snow. A dry November has forced several ski resorts to push back the start of the season, the latest in a string of bad news for hoteliers who have struggled to fill beds as the soaring Swiss franc deters foreign holidaymakers. Newspaper front-pages, weather reports and ski websites are showing grim images of snow-free slopes, threatening the traditional start of the ski season on the first weekend of December. “It would be ridiculous [ ... ]

ZURICH — Armed with snow canons and cut-price hotel deals some of Switzerland’s ski resorts, already beleaguered by the strong Swiss franc, are grappling with another obstacle — no snow. Thinking road trip? Tap into your wild side Traveling by motorcycle is as much fun as you can imagine. Renting one takes effort. [ ... ]

AP A section called Broadway is one of the main passageways in Mammoth Cave, averaging 40 feet high and 60 feet wide for three miles. Long shadows flickered before me as I walked through the dank, subterranean passages of Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave. During my recent two-hour Historic Tour, I crouched and twisted my way through the cramped alleys of Fat Man’s Misery, checked out a massive block of rock aptly dubbed Giant’s Coffin, and faced the gaping maw known as the Bottomless Pit. With more than 365 miles of discovered passageways, Mammoth Cave is the world’s largest cave system, and geologists believe there [ ... ]