Outdoors | Smithsonian Magazine

Wild camping is first-class lodging in rural Turkey, where dinner is had in bed and nights are passed beneath the stars.

Zen and the Art of Sleeping Anywhere

By camping wild, we bypass unloading the luggage, taking off our shoes at the doorstep, and all the other logistics of dwelling in a well-groomed society

November 10, 2011

Zuccotti Park: Protest Site as Tourist Attraction

Getting a feel for the sliver of green in lower Manhattan that Occupy Wall Street Protesters call home

November 8, 2011

The author with his packed bicycle at San Francisco International Airport at the outset of the journey.

Beam Me Home, Please

Putting one’s means of transportation into a box while miles of travel remain is as clever as stepping into a shopping bag and attempting to carry oneself

November 8, 2011

Not Finding the Lost Explorer Everett Ruess

A recent book only adds to the enduring mystery of a legendary Southwest wanderer

November 4, 2011

The setting sun showers Spil Dag National Park in a dusky, rosy red.

The Final Sprint to Istanbul

The townspeople ogled the tourist he’d captured. “From America,” the cop boasted, like he’d shot me at 400 yards with a rifle

November 3, 2011

Figs like this one, so ripe it's bursting, dangle by the millions along the roadsides near Izmir and Aydin.

The Figs and Mountains of Izmir

Travel horizontally in any direction and you see no change in landscape; Siberia remains Siberia from Finland to Kamchatka

November 1, 2011

The author runs on empty as he pushes his bike over rough terrain in the Murat Mountains.

Rose Hips and Hard Times

Sultan packs me a goody bag with tomatoes, cheese and peppers so hot I can’t even touch them. I suggest paying and she tilts her head back—"not a chance.”

October 26, 2011

Sunlight bursts through a ceiling of rainclouds above the lonely west shore of Lake Burdur.

Gandhi’s Wisdom Falls Short

Then, from behind me, came a staccato war cry—“Aaaack!”—as my host sent a boot into the dog’s rib cage

October 25, 2011

The north pole of the Moon: Real or facsimile?

Replicators Have Arrived

Three-dimensional printing technology can be used in conjunction with the material and energy resources of the Moon to build new spacefaring capabilities

October 24, 2011

The author stands amidst weirdness in the Cappadocian village of Zelve.

Cappadocia’s Fairy Chimneys and Cave Dwellings

Doorways still lead into cool, cozy chambers where people grilled kebabs, served tea and worshiped until 1952

October 18, 2011

The Irritations of Airline-Speak

October 14, 2011

No doubt about it, bears had been in this area.

The Bear and the Bullet

The truck came by slowly and a spotlight swept the river bottom. "My God—they're hunting me!"

October 6, 2011

Water in the Black Sea’s northern reaches gets as cold as seawater can get—31 degrees Fahrenheit—and as warm as the 80s in summer.

The Wild World of the Black Sea

Visitors come for the place and spill onto the beach and pose exuberantly under umbrellas and wrestle with colorful inflatable toys in the brown waves

September 29, 2011

Fishermen pass the hours along the Bosporus Strait. They occasionally catch sardines.

Istanbul: The Maddest City in Europe

“That’s the fattest stray dog I’ve ever seen.” A lot has changed here since Mark Twain wrote about the city, but there's still plenty of mayhem

September 27, 2011

Uphill All the Way in the Rhodope Mountains

I have my dinner—cheese, a four-pound organic tomato, a sack of figs and a jar of pickled chanterelles—and I’m ready to get lost on the mountain roads

September 21, 2011

Spring-fed fountains are refreshing rest spots in the Bulgarian countryside.

Europe