Author Archives: Howie Wolke

Backpacking or canoeing with your child, teen or young adult can be a very rewarding experience. Most parents who trek the backcountry with their offspring on a Big Wild Adventure share with us, at trips’ end, that it was one of the best weeks ever spent with their young.

Spring is in the air! A traditional time of rebirth, spring gets me thinking about personal renewal practices. Cognitive health experts agree that higher brain functioning requires down time. Indeed, hitting the reset button is essential to prepare the brain for more to come.

Being aware of the natural world is a trait shared by many of the folks who trek with us on our week-long backpacking and canoe trips. Whether it is a family making an initial connection with their national park lands, such as Yellowstone, or return clients reconnecting with a favorite ponderosa pine forest, red rock […]

As Valentine’s Day approaches, I find myself reflecting on my loves and passions. A consistent love since early childhood has been wild places and their wild life. At a very young age I had a profound experience in Yosemite National Park. I was alone in a cathedral forest looking at long shafts of sparkling light […]

Camping in Yellowstone, the world’s first national park, is not just an iconic American experience, but if done right, it can be one of life’s most memorable and wondrous events. There are two approaches to Yellowstone camping.

Let’s cut right to the chase. Backpacking (wilderness trekking) requires a certain level of physical fitness, yet it is a very basic, natural activity. After all, we upright two-legged Hominids evolved in the wilderness, and our ancestors spent many millennia walking through almost every kind of wilderness imaginable. It has been noted that we humans […]

The term “Adventure Travel” is popular nowadays, but its ever-expanding use has radically diminished its meaning.