Forest Service travel tips

When summertime temperatures start creeping up to triple digits in Denver, I know I'm bound to get a text from a friend.

The Dyrt, the No. 1 app for camping availability, photos and reviews, has found that 18% of campers reported that wildfires or natural disasters disrupted their camping plans in 2023. That’s three times more than the 6% who said their plans were disrupted in 2019, and indicates a steady rise over the past five years.

On a crisp spring morning, I trusted a horse — a bay named Sino — to show me the vast Gila Wilderness of southern New Mexico. Red rock walls rose beside us as we wove back and forth across a shallow creek separating ponderosa pine on the shady south side of Rocky Canyon from barrel cactus in the cliff crevasses on the desertlike north face. I leaned against his neck as Sino climbed a steep ridge that led to a hilltop savannah of pinyon, juniper and groves of tentacled cane cholla cactus tipped in faded yellow fruit. Surrounding them, forested mountains were unblemished by buildings or roads.

It was a typical day at Colorado’s Breckenridge Ski Resort, 80 miles west of Denver—until a large moose lumbered up to the base lodge.

When people plan trips to national parks and protected areas across the United States, they hope to see the wolves of Yellowstone or the alligators of the Everglades. But talk to any bug scientist, and they’ll tell you that the best things come in small packages.