Great Escapes Most Viewed

Camping, biking at the west end of Catalina

Sun, 06 May 2007 00:00:00 MDT

TWO HARBORS, Calif. - The car culture can wear you down in Southern California. Clogged freeways. Out-of-sync traffic lights. Tangled parking lots. Drivers on the phone weaving in their lanes.

History and scenery along Highway 395

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 MDT

BODIE, Calif. -- An early-morning wind moaned softly across the desolate landscape, disturbing a door at the Boone Store & Warehouse, causing it to creak on rusty hinges. You'd think someone on a film crew had cued special effects.

Preparation is key for a rim-to-rim hike

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 00:00:00 MST

Advance planning and a little research is essential for a rim-to-rim hike of the Grand Canyon. The trek can be an exhilarating and fascinating passage through one of the great wonders of the West, but the experience will be entirely different if you're suffering miserably with every step.

In search of the ultimate San Diego fish taco

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 00:00:00 MST

SAN DIEGO - It is a humble assemblage of ingredients: a lump of fried or grilled fish, shredded cabbage, salsa fresca and white sauce in a corn tortilla, with a wedge of lime perched on top.

A Grand Canyon hike from rim to rim

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 00:00:00 MST

Hikers compare notes about stretches of trail with omnious-sounding names: the Devil's Corkscrew, Jacob's Ladder, Heartbreak Hill, the Box. They converse in hushed tones about sightings of black-and-yellow helicopters. Those weren't sightseeing tours they were medical evacuations. At the risk of tempting fate, they might even invoke the name of Margaret Bradley, a supremely fit young woman who lay down in the depths of the canyon last summer and put her head on her pack. She died of dehydration.

Palms and pines welcome Palm Springs hikers

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 00:00:00 MST

PALM SPRINGS -- On the west side of Palm Springs, the San Jacinto Mountains don't so much rise from the desert floor as stab skyward. From an elevation of 150 feet in the city, the terrain soars to the 10,834-foot summit of Mount San Jacinto in just six linear miles -- one of the steepest escarpments in the United States, according to ranger Adrienne Fitzgerald of nearby Joshua Tree National Park.

A mule ride on Molokai to former leper colony

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 00:00:00 MDT

KALAUPAPA, Hawaii - Through most of the tour of the sorrowful settlement, our focus had been on how the occupants had coped with life.

Cycling and sipping on a Napa Valley tour

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:00:00 MDT

CALISTOGA -- The route to Vincent Arroyo Winery wasn't nearly as convoluted as it might sound: over a wood-slat bridge that clattered beneath our tires, through the parking lot of the Home Plate Cafe, alongside a golf course, across a one-lane stone bridge built in 1904, and down a dirt lane flanked by leafy green grape vines.

Foot-traffic jam

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 00:00:00 MDT

Hordes of tourists are grasping for the cable handrails on the slope leading up Yosemite National Park's iconic Half Dome, delaying climbers and frustrating serious athletes who say the unprepared masses have made the hike unpleasant and downright dangerous.

The number of weekend and holiday Half Dome climbers has increased 30 percent since the mid-1990s, according to park officials. In the past year, three people have died on the grueling, 8.6-mile hike, which begins in the Yosemite Valley and ascends to Half Dome's 8,842-foot summit.

A taste of the cowboy life at Arizona ranch

Wed, 14 May 2008 00:00:00 MDT

TUCSON, Ariz. -- They arrive at the corral each morning wearing boots, hats, sometimes chaps and leather gloves. In the evening, they change into dressy denim vests, fringed jackets and shirts that close with pearly snaps -- creating a Western wear fashion show during cocktail hour in the Dog House Saloon.

Travel Interactive: Arizona's Tanque Verde Ranch