Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1096066
24 | SPRING 2019 BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK TEXAS: Float (way) off the grid! It's where Big Bend National Park gets its name — from that broad, canyon-fl anked crescent of the Rio Grande where you can "go for days without seeing another boater" notes the National Park Service. It's also where dedicated adventure seekers making it all the way out here are richly rewarded with one of the best fl oat trips between deep West Texas and the rest of the universe. Visitors can opt for single- or multi-day paddles with veteran local adventure tour operator Far Flung Outdoor Center, headquartered near the old ghost towns of Terlingua and Lajitas. A favorite section: Santa Elena Canyon, featuring 1,500-foot canyon walls, myriad wildlife and a growing suspicion that you have the whole world to yourself. nps.gov/bibe, bigbendfarfl ung.com MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK WASHINGTON: Hike around a massive mountain! Summiting a giant, famous mountain is an obvious enough bucket-list item, especially if that mountain is named Rainier. Washington's highest point and the country's premier glaciated peak is a rite of passage for climbers and Himalayan dreamers of all stripes. But if there was ever a reason to forego a 14,410-foot summit push and circumnavigate a hulking icy rock instead, it would surely be on Mount Rainier's equally checklist-worthy Wonderland Trail. Encircling Mount Rainier (a volcano encased in more than 35 square miles of snow and ice), the legendary 93-mile trail undulates through some of the most varied and dramatic wilderness imaginable. Old growth forests. Subalpine meadows carpeted in wildfl owers. Torrential glacier-fed rivers. And unbeatable vantage points of the famous peak from all sides. Doing the full Wonderland Trail (many visitors opt for portions of it) is solid proof that hiking all the way around a mountain can be at least as challenging as clambering up it. The National Park Service recommends a minimum of 10 days, but allows for two weeks, to complete the entire route, which is divvied between 18 trailside camps and enough ups, downs and endless hairpin switchbacks to feel like its own sort of Everest less than 100 miles from Seattle. nps.gov/mora JORDAN RANE writes about travel and the great out- doors for CNN Travel and other national publications. He was going to include Yosemite in this article, but decided to keep it his own little secret. T E X A S W A S H I N G T O N