标签美国下的文章

阿斯本附近的褐铃山，科罗拉多州 The Maroon Bells, near Aspen, Colorado (© Christopher E. Herbert/Getty Images)

Opt outside today

Instead of rushing to the mall today for Black Friday deals, perhaps you could make it a Green Friday and find a treasure in a nearby park or a wilderness like the Maroon Bells near Aspen, Colorado pictured here. A few years ago, outdoor retailer REI made news by closing its doors on the biggest shopping day of the year and encouraging its employees and customers to 'Opt Outside' and spend time with their families instead. And while there is still no shortage of shopping options available to the intrepid Black Friday deal-hunter, a growing number of organizations have gotten behind this concept of Green Friday. And let's face it, after all that turkey and pie yesterday, you could probably use a nice walk. (And you can always shop online at work on Cyber Monday ;).)

凤凰城天港国际机场鸟瞰图，亚利桑那 Aerial view of Sky Harbor International in Phoenix, Arizona (© Nearmap/Getty Images)

Have you turned off your electric device?

If you're already in the air looking down at this bird's eye view of Sky Harbor International in Phoenix (or some other airport), well then, congrats. You've made it through the terminal on one of the busiest travel days of the year. Wait for a second, isn't the day before Thanksgiving the absolute busiest day to travel? Well, according to travel industry experts, traffic is actually heaviest on Fridays during the lazy, hazy days of summer. That's when crowds of people clog the highways and skyways to get out of their respective towns and go on vacation. You, on the other hand, can relax. Unless your plans are to host a table full of hungry guests on Thanksgiving. In which case, may we suggest yoga and meditation tonight? (And turn off this electronic device before the flight attendant comes by again.)

阿查法拉亚盆地中的一棵柏树，路易斯安那州 A cypress in the Atchafalaya Basin, Louisiana (© Chris Moore/Tandem Still + Motion)

Autumn in the cypress swamp

Autumn still brings a splash of color to this hardwood forest of bald cypress in Louisiana. But make no mistake, a stroll through these wetlands is not a cozy New England leaf-peeping journey. The swamp forest floor is often covered by the waters of Atchafalaya River delta as it drains into the Gulf of Mexico, so the autumn colors here are best viewed from the seat of a canoe or a pirogue, as the local Cajuns use. The water-resistant bald cypress thriving in the Atchafalaya Basin constitutes the largest tract of contiguous cypress forest in the United States. The ecosystem here is so unlike any other in the US, the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area organization calls it ‘America’s foreign country.’

锡安国家公园的秋色，犹他州 Fall colors in Zion National Park, Utah (© pabradyphoto/Getty Images)

Zion National Park Turns 100

It's been exactly 100 years since President Woodrow Wilson signed an act to convert Mukuntuweap National Monument into Zion National Park. Fewer than 2,000 people visited back in 1919 due to poor road conditions and lack of trails. These days, the park has the opposite problem—with more than 4 million people coming each year, crowds create long lines for shuttles and clog popular areas such as the Narrows. Part of Zion Canyon, the Narrows can be seen from a paved path. But many people like to experience it up close, hiking in the Virgin River, and it can get crowded at peak times since it's—as the name implies—narrow.

In recent years, Zion has even moved ahead of Yellowstone and Yosemite to become the fourth-most-visited US national park (Great Smoky Mountains, the Grand Canyon, and Rocky Mountain parks are the top three respectively). Also contributing to Zion's popularity is its proximity to other attractions. It's part of the Grand Circle, a region that includes parts of five states and is the most concentrated area of national parks and monuments in the country.

代阿布洛峰州立公园，加利福尼亚 Mount Diablo State Park, California (© Yuval Helfman/Getty Images)

Welcome to California

These are the peaks of Mount Diablo, part of the Diablo mountain range in the eastern part of the San Francisco Bay Area. On a clear day, you can see all the way to the Sierras from here. In fact, this is one of the best viewsheds in the Bay Area, which is a feat, since the peaks are comparatively low for the region. While Mount Diablo may tempt you to take in the scenery or hike in the surrounding state park, the area offers compelling stories from American history as well.

November 4, 1841, marks the day when a group of about 70 people, led by 22-year-old John Bidwell, finally reached the West Coast after setting out from Missouri. This was the first time a wagon train used part of the newly established California Trail to emigrate to California. The trip was grueling, covering more than 2,000 miles. The wagons traveled at a pace of just 15 miles per day, pulled by oxen, horses, or mules. The journey required traversing part of the Oregon Trail and crossing such daunting obstacles as the desert areas around the Great Salt Lake and the steep slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountains. After five months, the wagon train arrived at the ranch of John Marsh near Mount Diablo. The successful journey helped pave the way for expansion to the American West and marked the route for future wagon trains during the California Gold Rush.

Fort Rock Valley Historical Homestead博物馆，俄勒冈 Fort Rock Valley Historical Homestead Museum, Oregon (© Prisma by Dukas Presseagentur GmbH/Alamy)

A night on the (ghost) town

The spooky scene here might look like someplace you'd want to avoid, but it's not likely to scare you—not too much anyway. It's the Fort Rock Valley Historical Homestead Museum in central Oregon—a collection of abandoned homestead-era buildings from the area. In the late 19th and early 20th century, people acquired federal lands around here for farms and ranches via the Homestead Acts. But most left within a few years due to the hot, dry summers and extremely cold winters. Today, the buildings are assembled as a ghost town and contain items from that period, including furniture, dishes, and tools. There's also a nearby cemetery which, according to local lore, is haunted by the ghost of rancher and author Reub Long riding his horse.

You can find ghost towns scattered around the country, the dilapidated remains of towns whose populations grew quickly and then dwindled. Many of them, like Rhyolite, Nevada, and Bodie, California, were gold (or silver or coal) mining towns that declined once the profits dried up. Others, like Cahawba, Alabama, died due to floods or other natural disasters. They may not all be haunted, but they sure can give off a spooky vibe.

新罕布什尔州的县桥 County Bridge in New Hampshire (© Denis Tangney Jr/E+/Getty Images)

Bridge of Hillsborough County

The County Bridge has offered a picturesque passage over the Contoocook River in southern New Hampshire since 1937, when it replaced its covered predecessor that had been destroyed in a flood. But why even build a covered bridge? In a word, longevity. The roof and walls help protect the timber supports from rot. For comparison, an uncovered wooden bridge lasts an average of 20 years, while the covered variety can reach 100 years or more.

But even their durable reputation couldn't withstand our drive toward faster travel—the railroad, the automobile, and the heavier loads that came with both. As iron and then steel replaced timber as the bridge-building material of choice, covered bridges gradually went the way of the horse and buggy that used to traverse them. Out of about 12,000 covered bridges that were built in the US, only 750 remain today, with a quarter of those in Pennsylvania.

半月湾南瓜地鸟瞰图，加利福尼亚 Aerial view of a pumpkin patch in Half Moon Bay, California (© Tinker Street/Michael O'Neal/Gallery Stock)

The height of pumpkin season

If you happen to be in the Bay Area this weekend, you might want to swing by the Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival. The annual event displays enormous champion pumpkins weighing over a thousand pounds, hosts live pumpkin carving demonstrations, and offers really every kind of pumpkin-related food you can imagine, from pies to pumpkin flavored artisanal cocktails. Plus, Gourdy, the anthropomorphized pumpkin mascot. While California is the leader in the consumer pumpkin harvest, it is only the second-largest producer in the country. Illinois grows approximately a quarter of the 2 billion pounds of pumpkins the US produces yearly, though 80 percent of that ends up as pie filling or other processed products. Pumpkins require between 90-120 days to mature, so most are planted by late May or early June to coincide with our Halloween carving needs.

While carving vegetables into faces is a tradition in many parts of the world, the carving of jack-o’-lanterns around Halloween originated in Ireland in the mid-19th century, using potatoes or turnips. Irish immigrants brought the tradition to the US around the same time and discovered that the native pumpkins were much easier to carve.

Fall color sweeps across the West

The leaves are changing across the West, and few views are more striking than this one of the fall foliage in the Uncompahgre Forest in the shadow of Chimney Rock. The spire and its neighbor Courthouse Mountain dominate the landscape here year-round, but the changing colors make this area—and drives along the nearby Million Dollar Highway—even more scenic in the fall.

The forest gets its name from the Native Americans who have historically lived here, a band of Ute Native Americans called the Uncompahgre Ute People. The Ute People came to what is now Colorado and Utah around 1300, and usually spent their autumns traveling to make offerings to the spirits and hunting buffalo. And, we presume, admiring the spectacular fall colors.

阿卡迪亚国家公园的高丛蓝莓植物，缅因州 Highbush blueberry plants in Acadia National Park, Maine (© Danita Delimont/Gallo Images/Getty Images Plus)

Acadia transformed

Historically, mid-October is peak fall foliage season in Maine's Acadia National Park. The forest canopy is aflame with autumn color, and here, the highbush blueberries on the forest floor provide an additional splash of color. Acadia has six marked coastal trails, and our photo today was taken on one of the most popular: Wonderland Trail. It's just 1.4 miles round-trip, an easy trek for families and casual hikers. Acadia is Maine's only national park, and it's easy to see why this landscape was preserved—look at that beautiful fall color, and that's just at ground level.

星空迷