Outdoor/Travel

What color is winter? Easy! It's gray—even when it's not supposed to be.

It's nearly mid-September, so you know what that means. It means the Halloween paraphernalia has been on display at the supermarket for nearly a month already, and the kiddos are happily (?) back in the classroom, using interactive smartphone apps to track the days until Spring Break.

But more important, it means that we'll soon be enjoying Mother Nature's fall festival of fabulous foliage. Here is the prediction map you've been waiting for, courtesy of the wonderful folks at smokymountains.com.

Photo Walks are in. As we welcome spring to our part of the world, photo walks should be on your radar. But he who hesitates is lost wandering the streets alone. For example, Ricoh Imaging recently announced a photo walk in Las Vegas via an email blast. Slated for April 6, the event sold out with lightning speed. Thankfully, Ricoh has more walks at other locations in the works. Similarly, Fujifilm and Luminar Neo recently shared plans for 50 photo walks throughout the US. If you hope to participate in a photo walk, you must monitor the schedules and act FAST. Let's unpack this.

Two leading supporters of protecting wild spaces, Peak Design and SITKA, have joined forces to create unique, limited edition styles of the Peak Design Slide Lite camera straps and Capture Clips in SITKA's renowned low-visibility patterns and colors, Subalpine Optifade and Treeline Green. 

Just in time for the holiday gifting season, the new products are available exclusively from SITKA's website beginning today.

Every autumn millions make the pilgrimage to New England, the Great Smoky Mountains, a local woodland or their own backyard to capture the magnificence of Mother Nature's fiery fall foliage display. Although winter lurks just around the corner, everyone rejoices in summer's last natural fireworks celebration. Here are 10 tips from MPB to help you make the most of the annual limited-time experience.

Are you tired of hearing locals say, “Shoulda been here last week,” after driving to a likely destination to view and photograph autumn foliage? Improve your odds of finding the red and orange leaves you crave by downloading the most respected nationwide fall leaf map and one of the best fall resources in the country.