For many of us, summer is winding down. Which means it is doubly important that we fill our last few weeks of warm weather with as much adventure as possible! We’ve compiled a list of weird, exciting, educational, and inspiring adventures to help you cap your sunny season in style!
Root Glacier Trail | Alaska
This short and sweet point to point lets you live the life of a grizzled polar explorer, minus the hardships of a frozen beard or a diet of dehydrated food. The trail features stunning alpine vistas, and over 6,000 ft of glacier to explore at your leisure.
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Visit the Explorer’s Club Headquarters | New York City
This Manhattan gem harkens back to the days when exploration meant more than a selfie and hashtag. Taking in the countless artifacts from the golden age of scientific exploration will surely inspire your next great adventure!
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Paddle Loxahatchee River | Florida
Wind your way through dense vegetation and pristine forests on this 7.6-mile section of Florida’s Loxahatchee river. The diverse yet compact section of river twists through seagrass channels, oyster beds, cypress swamps, and coastal dune features. Kayaking offers a quiet method of travel, allowing for an increased ability to spot wildlife. Common species include manatees, alligators, bobcats, turtles, otter, and over 250 bird species!
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Druid Arch Trail | Utah
Explore surreal and otherworldly geological formations in this 9.5 mile out and back, tucked in the feature dense Canyonlands National Park. Bring water, a wide hat, and good camera for maximum effect!
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Gear Up at the Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co. | Seattle
Looking for a one stop shop for all of your cosmic needs? The Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co. is sure to have what your after. Operated by The Greater Seattle Bureau of Fearless Ideas, the real purpose of this out of this word storefront is to inspire and encourage young creative writers (ages 6-18) to pursue their passions and Find Their Beyond.
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The Halemau'u Trail | Hawaii
The sweeping beaches and lush foliage of Maui already illicit images of a far-flung world of its own. The cloud dotted vistas of deep red pumice stone found on the Halalai'i and Pu'unaue trail are so alien, you’ll be tempted to check the hills for little green men! This 11.2-mile loop trail offers a great challenge for those who are looking for a little more than a relaxing beach vacation!
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Ape Cave | Washington
Bring your headlamp and your OROS Explorer Quarter Zip for 3 miles of rugged subterranean hiking. The Ape Cave Trail offers a unique and beautiful scramble through a feature dense and unforgettably unique lava tube, formed nearly 2,000 years ago following an eruption on Mount St. Helens. The temperature in the cave is a constant 42 degrees, offering a great reprieve from both summer heat and winter cold!
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Mountain Bike Sedona | Arizona
Want to cruise over technical Martian terrain, but haven’t found a good bike rack for your spaceship? Head to Sedona. The red dirt and stunning rock formations will be let you live out all of your interplanetary single-track fantasies without the hassle of a 36-million-mile round trip commute. Beginners should try the Bell Rock Trail, while more adventurous riders should take on the Hiline Trail.
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Visit the Space Shuttle Endeavor | California
At the California Science Center, visitors can view the iconic Space Shuttle Endeavor. The shuttle completed 25 missions for a total of 299 days in orbit over its 19 years of service. Take the time to marvel at one of our most prolific spacecrafts and let your mind wander to the boundless possibilities of future space exploration!
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Explore The Solar System | Maine
This 1:93,000,000 scale model of the solar system begins with the Sun, as represented by a massive yellow ring bisecting the Northern Maine Museum of Science. This representative model gives adventurous lovers of space the opportunity to travel the cosmos from the comfort of their vehicles. All the major planetary bodies are represented, even Pluto!
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Explore the Badlands and tour the Wind Cave | South Dakota
Badlands baby. Explore a hidden world beneath the prairie of the badlands and enter the remnant island of intact prairie--the Wind Cave, one of the longest and most complex caves in the world. Named for barometric winds at its entrance, this maze of passages is home to boxwork, a unique formation rarely found elsewhere.
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Stargaze at Cherry Springs State Park | Pennsylvania
Designated by the International Dark Sky Association as a dark sky park, offering stunning views of the galaxy’s nucleus. There are photography workshops and night sky tours. Artificial light has polluted the brightness of the night sky such that 80% of Americans can’t see the glorious Milky Way from where they live.
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Relive space missions at Kennedy Space Center | Florida
An hour outside of Orlando, enter a vast visitors complex with hundreds of interactive activities including an astronaut training simulator, a shuttle launch experience, and the option to share a meal with an astronaut. You can relive the first moon landing through a 3D film that includes historic footage and control room recordings.
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Bioluminescence: Creatures of Light | Florida
Three hours north of Miami, BK Adventure offers eco-friendly tours in Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge, where you can glitter through flow in the dark plankton in a see-through kayak, spot manatees and bioluminescent comb jellies on a sunset picnic paddle. Guides suggest paddling on a moonless night to see the full bioluminescent natural affects.
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Star Parties at Big Bend National Park | Texas
450 miles west of Austin, enjoy night sky constellation tours and views of celestial objects through a number of telescopes in the Rebecca Gale Telescope Park and beautiful views of clear skies and bright stars on a dark night.
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Dream of interstellar travel at Space City in Houston | Texas
Houston is ground zero for human space travel, and Space Center Houston is the best place to get a taste of what it's like to blast off. This museum offers science shows and exhibits, as well as tours of nearby Johnson Space Center. You can see artifacts like suits actually worn in space and on the moon, a fragment of the orbiter Skylab that survived its fall to Earth and a lunar rock you can touch.
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Devil’s Kettle in Grand Marais | Minnesota
A large rock biset the Brule river in Judge C. R. Magney State Park. The water that flows to the east tumbles 50 feat down a cliff and continues toward Lake Superior. The water that flows to the west enters a hole and disappear...a water portal to nowhere. The water becomes an underground flow that has puzzled man a Minnesotans and researchers alike. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources conducted experiments in 2016 that finally seemed to solve the mystery. In early 2017, the department’s scientists announced that they had, at long last, solved the riddle. As it turns out, the water that tumbles into the kettle simply rejoins the river a little ways downstream.
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Hole N” The Rock | Utah
Hole N’ The Rock is a 5,000 square-foot home is carved out of the living rock of Utah’s Canyonlands. A quintessential American Roadside attraction, Hole N’ The Rock features a tour of the home, gift shop, and petting zoo!
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Nuclear Waste Adventure Trail | Missouri
Just outside of St. Louis, in the City of Weldon Springs lies the quintessential nuclear tourism destination in the Midwestern United States. The Nuclear Waste Adventure Trail is a manmade containment structure for 1.48 million cubic yards of bad news, including radioactive uranium and radium. Leave your geiger counter at home, the Missouri based containment zone is perfectly safe to traverse!
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Dinosaur Fossils at Lake Powell in Glen Canyon | Arizona
In recent years, Glen Canyon has been most notable for the droves of Instagram Models flocking to the now tragically over-photographed Horseshoe Canyon. Ditch the insta famous scene for the incredible density of mesozoic era fossils that can be readily observed in the area. Be sure to bring your camera, to collect data!
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