Southwest Life

DYMOCK, England – The woods were cool, a welcome balm on a hot day. Shafts of sunlight poured through the canopy. Slowly, I walked down a track thick with long-fallen leaves. And then I found it....

BOULDER – Not every destination lends itself to a whirlwind tour, but in the beautiful city of Boulder, you can sample five fun and scenic spots in one afternoon. Of course, if you’ve got more...

In cities around the world, hotel rooms – with their carpets showing the fresh tracks of a housekeeping vacuum and their vents exhaling temperature-controlled air – await the arrival of strangers....

BOSTON – You might want a bigger boat, but you probably don’t need better odds. The confirmed return of great white sharks to Cape Cod has rattled some boaters and beachgoers. Yet the chances of an...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – There’s an upswing in monkey business in and around a state park in Florida, where bands of non-native rhesus macaques live along a river that’s popular with kayakers and...

Summer travel can be crowded, hot and expensive, especially in Europe, where it’s peak tourist season. Travel expert Rick Steves, the guidebook writer, public radio and TV show host, offered these...

MADRAS, Ore. Just before sunrise, there’s typically nothing atop Round Butte but the whistle of the wind and a panoramic view of Oregon’s second-highest peak glowing pink in the faint light. But on...

HOPKINSVILLE, Ky. – Cross over the old Louisville & Nashville Railroad in this town remembered for its Civil War encampment and you’ll see the first signs – there’s fresh anticipation in the rural...

ALBANY, N.Y. – A rare herd of ghostly white deer kept mostly from public view for decades is no longer off-limits. The herd at a former World War II Army weapons depot in upstate New York will be...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Leonard Larkins and nearly 4,000 other segregated black soldiers helped build a highway across Alaska and Canada during World War II, a contribution largely ignored for decades...

For me, summer vacation means spending time on a Maine pond where the sound of loons calling is about the most exciting thing that happens all day. But I do venture occasionally from my little...