Melanie Haiken is a freelance journalist who writes about science, wildlife, adventure travel, history, and health for National Geographic, BBC Travel, Afar, Smithsonian, AARP, and more.
She can’t remember a time she didn’t love the outdoors, from childhood camping trips and teenage backpacking adventures to trekking the Annapurna Sanctuary in her 20s. More recent explorations have included tracing ancient footpaths in Turkey and Greece, scaling a via ferrata in the Swiss Alps, and tracking wolves, tigers, whales, sharks, and rare birds around the globe. On the road as often as she’s home, she can be found overlanding in red rock canyon country, dispersed camping in deep wilderness, discovering remote corners of national parks, and hiking with her blue heeler in her northern California backyard.
Published
High altitude, lake breezes, and northern latitude keep high temps in the mid-70s in these small adventure-packed spots in the U.S.