It wasn’t a long hike to the lookout tower in Island Park, but it was exciting just the same to be going to someplace new. At the tower, there were no interpretive signs (although we later learned ...

DOUGLAS COUNTY — The day presents a fair challenge. Snow swirls above the forest sprawling south to Pikes Peak and to the far-off mountains in every other direction. Thin clouds gather in spots across ...

DORA — Three Douglas-fir trees growing on BLM land in the Sitkum area of eastern Coos County have earned champion status over the years. The history of the Centennial Fir, Finnegan Fir, and Doerner ...

As a young boy, Ray Villa vividly remembers seeing a fire lookout tower for the first time on his home television. He didn’t fully understand what he was seeing on his screen at the time — he just ...

And now a page from our "Sunday Morning" Almanac: June 10, 1905, 113 years ago today – the day America's first forest fire lookout tower went into operation on top of Squaw Mountain in Maine, with ...

THE RIDGEWOOD FIRE SAFE COUNCIL is looking forward to enhanced vigilance when it comes to fires this year – and a large portion of the rest of the county will benefit as well. The Two Rock Lookout, a ...

PALOMAR MOUNTAIN — There was a time in the past century when lookout towers sat atop mountains and hills all over Southern California, manned by professionals from the U.S. Forest Service who scanned ...

BLUE RIDGE, Ga. — When Mark Derenthal set out to build a space that allowed occupants to fully immerse themselves in the natural beauty of its remote, off-grid setting, he didn’t realize what a ...

A hike up to Baker Butte culminates at an idyllic, pine-shaded pinnacle. Swarms of hummingbirds whip through lilac-scented air and masses of ladybugs cling to trees, shrubs and knee-high wildflowers.

There comes a moment, every time you visit a fire lookout tower, when you become certain that you have gotten hopelessly, irretrievably lost. The dirt road is buckled and overgrown; your tires skirt a ...