A tip of the cap goes to J.D. at the Get Rich Slowly blog for compiling a great list of tips to make any camping trip cheaper and easier. A select few suggestions are: Old shower curtains make great...

One thing I would rarely worry about while hiking in the U.S. is a cow encounter of the perilous kind. Apparently Swiss cows are a different breed altogether. After a number of reports from distressed...

Despite having some relatively serious big wave experience, and going fearlessly into waves as large as fourteen feet in the past, I was approaching this surf session with quite a bit more caution...

Humbled fully by my experience watching our earth be created right before my eyes, I returned to South Kona, the agricultural paradise overlooking the sea. The entire drive home my eyes were consumed...

Later, marching towards the active lava zone we had to cross the inactive lava zone, it was all black rocks, harder than cement strewn about in the haphazard fashion of a flow. Inconsistent grades,...

Lava. One word retains so much power in it. That one word connotes the essence of life, the building blocks of our terrestrial existence. I was lucky enough to be able to visit the most current...

Returning to the beach after nearly an hour exploring the reef with the aid of snorkel (allowing me to fake like a sea mammal), I was ready for a rest in the sun. Hawaii! I could not believe how...

Being only able to withstand the bright sunshine and morning heat for a few minutes, I made my first forage into the water at a reef south of Kona. Instantly my eyes bugged out of my head with the...

Pele has convinced me that she does not want me to surf good waves at this time in my life. How did I come to this absurdly blasphemous conclusion you ask? Well, the first time I was on the Big......

Up on the farm my perspective was from up high above the blue plateau of the ocean stretching before me. I was pondering the various vegetation, the massive Mango trees, the poinsettia, the jacuranda,...

Not twenty minutes into my first morning on the Big Island I was clinging to the back of a tractor, camera around my neck, dodging overhead tall shrubs and low-hanging trees as they snapped back...

Stepping off the plane it was hard to believe what my eyes revealed. I was expecting lush, tropical vegetation. I was expecting waterfalls, high clouds and rainbows. I was expecting a varietal...

In this day and age, more and more kids are turning to things indoors to entertain themselves. Video games, Internet and Ipods are ecouraging our children that the outdoors are not for them. When I...

Three tribes of indigenous peoples shared the Big Sur area before the onset of Whiteman's plagues, and the decline and subsequent extinction of their customs and cultures. The Ohlones, Esselen,...

When you have certain things in your immediate environment, sometimes it's like you are sitting in a slice of heaven. Big Sur can bring about those strong emotions in a person. The stupendous...

Mirounga angustirostris, or Northern Elephant Seals spend a large part of their year at rookeries like this one in San Simeon on the doorstep of the illustrious Big Sur. Males can grow up to fourteen...

Yes, it's hard to under-estimate an elephant seal, considering it's obvious girth, but think about it: 5,000 feet below the lapping tides on the shoreline! That's how far down they have...