November is the time of year when we in the northern hemisphere get that sweet reminder of how shitty it feels to be too cold. If you are one of us who depends on a fire to stay warm through the winter, you know this fact: kindling is king. Whether it鈥檚 for your wood stove at 6:00 am when your house is as chilly as the dickens, or when you get off the river with frozen fingers on a fishing trip, the answer remains the same: If you want good kindling fast, you need a good hatchet. To help you find the right one for your needs, I tested some of the best models on the market. Here are my five top picks.

At a Glance

• Best Value:
• Best for Wilderness Survival:听
• Best for Precision Cutting:
• Most Ergonomic:
• Lightest:
• How I Tested

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Best Value

CRKT Chogan Hatchet

听

Weight: 1.5 lbs.

Overall Length: 13.2 in.

Pros and Cons:
鈯� Insanely capable
鈯� Extremely affordable
鈯� Not powerful enough for most hardwoods

This one-and-a-half-pound, sub-14-inch hatchet proved small but mighty. The head is made from one solid piece of 1055 carbon steel鈥攌nown for its durability and edge retention鈥攚hich was heavy enough in relation to the glass-reinforced nylon handle to provide a hefty swing. This concentration of weight behind the blade allowed it to work its way through softer woods like cedar and fir, but it did find its limitations with the harder woods like madrone and oak. While I could get through the heavier woods, it typically took me at least a dozen strokes, with some feeling dangerously taxing on the nylon handle. It was a heck of a little hammer on the stakes, though, and I found it particularly easy to swing accurately; in fact, it’s about the same size and weight of the hammer I keep in my toolbox back home.

Best for Wilderness Survival

Gerber Bushcraft Hatchet

听

Weight: 2.4 lbs.

Overall Length: 15.3 in.

Pros and Cons:
鈯� Handle doubles as waterproof match storage
鈯� Heavy enough for hardwood
鈯� Rubber gets mangled if you miss a strike
鈯� Blade is small compared to rest of hatchet

My wilderness survival game is relatively tight, but I would by no means call myself a bushcrafter. (In other words, I can reliably make a good fire with a single match, but can鈥檛 use a bow drill for shit). Still, I found this hatchet a blast to play with, even with my novice skills. There are five feet of ever-useful paracord in the handle, which contains a hollow, waterproof compartment big enough to store five waterproof matches and half a handful of wood shavings. The Bushcraft鈥檚 hefty two-and-a-half-pound weight and more than 15-inch length allowed it to work through oak and madrone quite easily鈥攚hen it came to hardwoods, it felt more like a small ax than a hatchet. For all the advantages that extra weight gave for the Bushcraft in terms of swing, its heft didn’t do it any favors in the carrying test. This would be my last pick to take on a long hike. It also lacked some blade length compared to the Ono and James Brand options. That made it harder to get through the thickest pieces of wood. The back of the head was a proper hammer that drove even the toughest stakes. The rubber insets around the back of the handle felt good in the hand, but it did get pretty mangled after a few missed strikes on the stakes. While this didn鈥檛 hurt the overall performance of the hatchet, it did become a bit unsightly.

Best for Precision Cutting

Silky Ono Hatchet

听

Weight: 1.8 lbs.

Overall Length: 12 in.

Pros and Cons:
鈯� Crazy-sharp blade
鈯� Very sexy look
鈯� No real ability to hammer

鈥淥oooooh,鈥� my friend and I moaned audibly as we took this premium Japanese-crafted hatchet out of its hand-wrapped and -written-on packaging. I don鈥檛 fault us for our gratuitousness: this hatchet is sexy. It’s a big-ass piece of alloy steel with a perfectly grippy, textured, rubber handle and a four-and-a-half-inch blade. It looks like a meat cleaver you鈥檇 want by your side during a zombie apocalypse. The blade is so damned sharp鈥攔ight on par with the frighteningly sharp Hellgate below鈥攖hat I could shave pine logs as if they were giant bricks of Parmesan cheese. I really appreciated the superior grip of the handle while I made a 6:00 am fire with frozen fingers, and the swing weight from that large-bladed head let it crush through hardwood in spite of its kinda-short 12-inch length. I couldn鈥檛 really hammer tent stakes in with the back of it, which puts it at a disadvantage as a do-it-all camping tool. Still, I was willing to forgive the Ono due to how well it ate through wood to make kindling.

Most Ergonomic

The James Brand TJB Hatchet

Weight: 1.9 lbs.

Overall Length: 14 in.

Pros and Cons:
鈯� Ergonomic wooden handle
鈯� Great swing momentum for extended chopping
鈯� Too big to pack into the backcountry

The James Brand partnered with legendary German ax-making company Adler to craft this beaut. The delightfully contoured, U.S.-sourced hickory handle and big old C60 steel head combine for an incredibly classy-looking hatchet. The blade was plenty sharp enough to make matchsticks out of oak. The TJB also boasted the second-largest striking surface in the test at four inches. The combo of that large, efficient head; the dampening factor of the wood handle; and a nice texture at the base of the grip just felt so damned good, strike after strike. I could make kindling with it all day. In fact, on my camping trip, I got carried away splitting cedar for over an hour straight without feeling much fatigue. It a little on the larger side to bring camping, and is suboptimal to pack in anywhere at its nearly two-pound weigh-in, but this hatchet is definitely the one that will live next to my woodpile at home if The James Brand lets me keep the sample. It feels a little lame to complain about the packaging, but I found myself not knowing what to do with it: When I first received this hatchet, I thought the ornate wooden box it came in was a nice touch, particularly for the price. Unfortunately, I broke the box while transporting the hatchet to my camping trip and had to put it in a landfill pretty quickly into my testing process.

Lightest

Montana Knife Company Hellgate Hatchet

Weight: 0.9 pounds

Overall Length: 10 inches

Pros and Cons:
鈯� Beautiful craftsmanship
鈯� Perfectly balanced swing
鈯� Portable and lightweight
鈯� More than twice the price of most competitors

I know that comparing this hatchet to the others on this list is inherently unfair: It鈥檚 like bringing a gun to a proverbial hatchet fight. Or, perhaps more accurately, comparing a cottage-built ultralight thru-hiking pack to a clunky, big box-brand backpacking pack. Here鈥檚 the thing, though: I couldn鈥檛 leave this truly beautiful tool off this list because it was so remarkably capable. It weighs less than a pound but was still able to cut through softwoods like butter, thanks to its razor-sharp blade and perfectly balanced swing weight. The lack of swing weight meant that hardwoods like madrone put up a hell of a fight, usually taking half-a-dozen hits or more to split, but I wasn鈥檛 complaining about the reps thanks to the Hellgate鈥檚 aforementioned balance. The lightly textured handle has a slight curve on the back that made it feel like it was made for my palm. This is a very subtle detail that delivered a notable amount of comfort over extended use. I found myself using it consistently for 20- to 30-minute increments without really thinking about the fact that I had a hatchet in my hand. On top of that, the Hellgate was made for hiking. While walking the 60-acre property during my portability test, I barely noticed I was bringing it along. The biggest bummer: The $375 price tag is certainly worthy of sticker shock. Still, I stand behind it: It hit like a heavy weight in a bantamweight package.

How I Tested

I made an absolutely obscene amount of kindling for this test. Over the past three weeks I have offered my kindling-creating services to all the wood-stove users in my friend group (there are four) and invited myself over to chop away on their wood piles for as long as it took to get a feel for each axe. I also took these hatchets on an annual fishing and camping trip with friends. While my buddies fished, I stayed back at camp and played with the hatchets.

I tested each blade on five different kinds of wood (pine, cedar, fir, oak, and Oregon madrone) and created all different sizes of kindling, from curly-gossamer shreds to solid thumb-size chunks. I used the backside of each hatchet to hammer in tent poles at the beginning of the trip. I also carried these hatchets around the 60-acre campsite we stayed on to gauge portability, and I weighed them on a kitchen scale (when I got home of course) to compare each one’s weight to its manufacturer-listed specs. Here are the results.

The post The Best Hatchets for Camping, Homesteading, and Backcountry Survival appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

In 2022, 68,988 wildfires in the United States burned , and the federal government ran up a suppression tab. In 2023, our forests fared a little better:听 burned . These fires, and, and triggered numerous , and closures across the west. Wildfire, of course, has played a critical role in North America鈥檚 ecosystems for thousands of years. But these days, most of them .

Modern wildfire risk reduction policy focuses on two strategies: forest thinning and prescribed burning, which even the Forest Service admits cannot be scaled to properly address the problem. Efforts are underway to harden communities and infrastructure to wildfire鈥� to reduce structural losses. But little has been done to address the human ignition problem.

So I have a proposal: We听should ban campfires.听All of them.

Every summer, in response to hot and dry conditions made worse by climate change, public land managers across the country issue fire restrictions and often close large swaths of land, sometimes for months on end. I suggest the inverse: a year-round blanket ban on campfires on public lands, with exceptions during especially wet periods. Banning campfires sends a clear message to the public that humans (and all their toys and infrastructure) are the most common source of ignition, and that reducing the number of fires we light鈥攐n accident and on purpose鈥攊s an important part of living in a dryer, hotter West.

The Forest Service鈥檚 current strategy revolves around two stages of restrictions: Stage I prohibits campfires outside developed campgrounds, smoking outside of developed campgrounds or vehicles, and driving a vehicle without a properly functioning . Then comes Stage II, which bans all campfires, smoking outside of a vehicle or building, fireworks, explosives, welding, driving a vehicle off a road, and some nuanced limitations on daytime chainsaw use (you may use a chainsaw at 3 a.m.). You will forgive the camping public for not having these committed to memory.

And then they close the forests. These closures do more than disrupt weekend plans, they upend that are tied to public lands recreation. They cancel events from major races to small, private weddings and complicate the collection of scientific data.

Plus, the closures always seem to arrive a day late and a dollar short. In the summer of 2022 and a smoldering slash burn erupted in early April and later merged to become the largest wildfire in New Mexico history. It wasn鈥檛 until on May 19th that a closure order was issued for the rest of the Santa Fe National Forest, even though it was abundantly clear that conditions were dangerously hot, dry, and windy as early as late March.

Let’s enter an era of year-round modified Stage II fire restrictions on all public lands. No campfires, no smoking outside of a car, and restricted vehicle access during peak fire seasons. The outside of Flagstaff, AZ has already taken many of these steps and created a template for what should be included in a new national wildfire policy.

Banning campfires is of course a euphemism for comprehensively addressing the primary source of wildfire: human ignition. Recent studies suggest that 89 percent of all wildfires are , and that number jumps to 97 percent for . Unattended campfires are not the only culprit: negligent smoking habits, malfunctioning off-highway vehicles, trash burning, target shooting and firework use are all known causes of wildfire. Also included in this category are fires started by ,, and gender reveal parties, including a that sparked a blaze that destroyed five homes and killed one firefighter. Recent studies show that have both increased the duration and severity of the

A campfire is a primal pleasure and for many of us, our main contact with fire. But a blanket ban on campfires is both practical and a symbolic reminder that any spark-emitting activity is a potential tragedy in the making. Each summer, the government assumes that we, the camping public, have left our incendiary ways on the last cold hearth of spring. They wait for someone to start a fire when it is particularly hot and dry, or all the available firefighting resources are in Canada or California, and then roll out the fire restrictions.

But one of the harsh realities of climate change is that our future will look very different from our past. This is inevitable, whether we make choices that direct that change or wait until our hands are forced. Our best bet is to make bold decisions now that offer a chance at a livable future.

A ban on common sources of human ignition is a small price to pay when the alternative is considered: abnormally long, large, and hot fire seasons driven not just by human-caused climate change, but by human-caused fires. And if you find yourself nodding in agreement, there is no need to wait for the government to act. You can simply leave the firewood and axe at home next time you head out.

The post It鈥檚 Time to Ban Campfires for Good appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Cemeteries are spooky. Cemeteries tucked into the woods miles from anywhere, like the one I stumbled into one night deep in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, are downright spine-chilling. My headlamp cast uneasy shadows in every direction.

I was backpacking in the Smokies to experience some of the history that the park encapsulates. When it was established in 1940, GSMNP swallowed up several communities, and the ruins of tiny timber towns can still be found. There are at least 150 cemeteries inside the park, according to the book Cemeteries of the Smokies. Some are still kept up by family members, and others are slowly being swallowed up by the forest.

Did I actually see a ghost that night? I sure thought I did, given all of the shadows and the noises coming from the woods around me. I set up my tent a quarter-mile away and barely slept, waking at the faintest sound. No wonder Great Smoky Mountains are littered with ghost stories: tales of witches who snatch children or glowing orbs that appear before the eyes of lost hikers.

As co-host of the podcast, Cassie Yahian often looks into such tales. She鈥檚 unsurprised that a number of people report supernatural events inside our parks.

鈥溾�楴ational park鈥� is a relatively new label placed on locations that have largely been around for time immemorial,鈥� Yahian told me in an email. 鈥淭he locations protected under that banner have historied pasts that include indigenous peoples, European settlers, pioneers, and beyond. The land remembers,鈥� she said, 鈥渁nd shares those stories 鈥� sometimes through an icy chill or a disembodied whisper.鈥�

Here are six of my favorite ghost stories from our national parks. Happy Halloween.

Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

The Wailing Woman and John Wesley Powell

Roughly 900 people have died within Grand Canyon鈥檚 boundaries since the 1800s, including those in the tragic 1956 plane crash that killed 128. So you can imagine a ghost or two milling around here. Marjorie 鈥淪lim鈥� Woodruff is a naturalist who has been hiking in the canyon for 50 years and knows all such stories. She鈥檚 even had a couple of experiences that she鈥檚 not sure have logical explanations.

Once, while backpacking deep in the backcountry inside the park, she and a friend heard footsteps outside their tent, even though there were no other hikers around. Another time, after joining a gathering inside the Shrine of the Ages multi-purpose building on the rim, she and a ranger, hanging out alone, heard music playing in another room. But when they looked, they found no one.

鈥淲e got out of there,鈥� Woodruff says. 鈥淚 wasn鈥檛 going to check it out any further.鈥�

The most prevalent ghost story in the Grand Canyon, according to is that of a young woman who traveled there with her husband and son shortly after the Grand Canyon Lodge was built in 1928. The husband and son went for a hike on the Transept Trail, which travels from the lodge to the North Rim Campground, while the mother stayed behind. The father and son were caught in a storm, lost their footing, and fell to their deaths along the trail. The mother, dressed in a white dress with blue flowers, searched the trail when they didn鈥檛 return to the lodge, and eventually, upon learning that her son and husband had perished, ended her own life in the lodge.

Some visitors have reported hearing the sounds of a crying woman along the Transept Trail, while others say they鈥檝e actually seen her ghost, dressed in a white dress with blue flowers. The Grand Canyon Lodge burned to the ground in 1932, and some witnesses reported seeing a woman鈥檚 face in the flames, according to Haunted Hikes: Spine Tingling Tales from North America鈥檚 National Parks.

Some science-minded folks are quick to point out that mountain lions make noises that sound like a woman screaming, but these people are no fun and shouldn鈥檛 be invited to your campfire.

Grand Canyon Spooky Hike: Phantom Ranch

You could hunt for the weeping woman along the Transept Trail, a three-mile jaunt between the Grand Canyon Lodge and the North Rim Campground. Or consider something more adventurous, like looking for the ghost of John Wesley Powell deep in the belly of the canyon at Phantom Ranch. The 101-year-old ranch, built on a plateau just above the river, consists of a handful of cabins and bunkhouses surrounding a larger lodge. Stones from Bright Angel Creek were used as pillars for the buildings, which blend in with the surrounding cottonwoods, and are classic 鈥減arkitecture.鈥�

But people gathered on this plateau for centuries before the park was established. When John Wesley Powell voyaged through the Grand Canyon by boat in 1869, his expedition rested in this very spot, at the base of stone huts built by ancient Puebloans. Powell was a one-armed Civil War hero whose Grand Canyon expeditions helped fill in the last unknown swaths of the American West. He did not meet his end there, but supposedly his ghost still haunts the Phantom Ranch and nearby Phantom Creek.

Woodruff knows another ghost story surrounding Phantom Ranch: 鈥淎pparently, there鈥檚 a red-headed woman who comes up to people near the ranch and says, 鈥業 don鈥檛 know how to get out of here!鈥� and then she vanishes,鈥� Woodruff says.

Hike the 7.5-mile descent from the South Rim on the to Phantom Ranch, passing some big overlooks (Ooh Aah Point and Skeleton Point). The dorm rooms at Phantom Ranch are closed through 2023, but the Phantom Ranch Canteen is open from 8 A.M. to 8 P.M. for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You can鈥檛 camp at Phantom Ranch, but is .5 miles away.

Great Smoky Mountains, North Carolina and Tennessee

Floating Orbs

听The 500,000-acre Great Smoky Mountains National Park was established in 1940, protecting one of the most biodiverse landscapes in the world. The mountains inside the park had been inhabited for centuries, by the native Cherokee and later by farmers and families who lived and worked in small mill towns tucked into the valleys. Thousands of people had to leave their homes when the park was created. The remnants of those communities, from churches to homesites to family cemeteries, can still be found inside the boundaries of the park. And whenever human history intersects with remote wilderness, you have a recipe for scaring鈥ell, me, at least.

One of the coolest phenomenons鈥攍ights that defy a definitive scientific explanation鈥攑redate the park designation. The are bright, flashing lights that emanate from the undeveloped ridges of the Thomas Divide Ridge, deep inside the park. You can see them to this day from the Thomas Divide Overlook, at mile marker 464 on the Blue Ridge Parkway, while centuries ago the Cherokee saw the lights and considered them to be spirits of their ancestors.

Scientists have researched the phenomenon, guessing that they鈥檙e electric charges from the granite deposits in the mountains, or perhaps some sort of biogas release, but there鈥檚 no definitive answer. Similar mysterious lights can be seen in other spots throughout the world, including the Brown Mountain Lights in nearby Pisgah National Forest.

Steven Reinhold, owner of the guiding service , remembers seeing the lights when he was growing up near the Thomas Divide Ridge. 鈥淭he lights would appear, and sometimes they鈥檇 float up into the air, sometimes they鈥檇 sink to the valley, sometimes they鈥檇 flash鈥hey didn鈥檛 seem to have any rhyme or reason,鈥� Reinhold says. 鈥淏ut there are quite a few different lights in this area. Maybe it鈥檚 balls of methane gas, or maybe it鈥檚 ball lightning, or maybe there鈥檚 something supernatural. Some people believe this whole area鈥檚 mystical.鈥�

The park is also supposedly home to a friendly ghost. Legend has it that before the park was established, a young girl from a local settlement got lost in the woods in the area that later, when dammed, became Lake Fontana. Her father went looking for his daughter but died during the search. According to lore, his spirit appears in the form of a glowing light along the north shore of Lake Fontana, guiding lost hikers back to safety.

That section of the park is home to a number of abandoned communities and cemeteries. I explored it on my visit 15 years ago, even camping near one of the cemeteries and exploring some of the buildings that still stand deep inside the park. I never saw any floating lights, thankfully鈥攇iven, already, the juxtaposition of historic ruins with gravesites and thick, overgrown forest.

Great Smoky Mountains Spooky Hike: The Noland Creek Trail

You can try to see the ghost of the settler yourself by hiking the Noland Creek Trail, where hikers have reported seeing a floating light as held by the long-ago father. Pick up the trail on the north shore of Lake Fontana, at the end of Lakeview Drive, and hike six miles into the park on an old road bed. Up the ante by spending the night at one of the located off the trail near the abandoned communities and cemeteries ($8 per night, reservations required).

Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky

Underground Ghosts

Mammoth Cave is the largest known cave system in the world, with 426 miles of mapped terrain. Artifacts found inside the cave suggest people have been exploring Mammoth for thousands of years, and yet scientists are still discovering new passageways and underground rooms. The cave became a national park in 1941. Before that it was a saltpeter mine during the War of 1812; then it was a privately owned tourist attraction; and it even served a brief stint as a tuberculosis clinic, with patients living underground for months at a time. A couple of the tuberculosis-patients鈥� cabins still stand inside the cave.

Cavers exploring the underground channels in the 1800s and early 1900s found mummified remains of Native Americans that dated back to 445 B.C. Also in the early 1800s, Stephen Bishop, an enslaved guide and explorer, discovered a species of blind albino fish inside the cave. Other scientists have found shark-teeth fossils.

Throughout modern history, visitors have reported ghostly apparitions according to Scary Stories of Mammoth Cave. Some have described the ghost of Floyd Collins, a caver who discovered many of the rooms that visitors now explore, but was trapped by a rock inside the cave in 1925. Collins died after two weeks stuck while other cavers mounted unsuccessful rescue attempts. Some say his ghost keeps cavers from getting lost or injured in the system.

Other visitors have reported hearing coughing from the TB cabins, or being shoved even though no one was near. One ranger wrote in the same book that several people say they have seen a ghostly figure standing on a rock in a room called Chief City, and that the man wore a distinctive hat with a drooping brim that was common among early guides and explorers.

鈥淥ther guides have mentioned seeing things, but it鈥檚 not something we talk about because we like to stick to facts,鈥� says Autumn Bennett, who has been guiding tours throughout Mammoth Cave since 2003. She鈥檚 never experienced anything supernatural herself, but understands how people鈥檚 imaginations might get the best of them: 鈥淢ammoth Cave has been described as grand, gloomy, and peculiar. It鈥檚 dark and unfamiliar.鈥�

Mammoth Cave Spooky Hike: Violet City Lantern Tour

More than a dozen different ranger-led tours will take you into the belly of the cave, but the ($25 per person) is the spookiest because it travels exclusively by lantern light.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a dynamic light,鈥� Bennett says. 鈥淚t moves, follows you, and gives you way more shadows. You really get to understand how easy it is to get carried away with just a lantern light and darkness around you.鈥� Not only is the light spooky, but the three-hour tour traverses large rooms where the tuberculosis clinic was housed. You鈥檒l even see the two remaining stone huts.

Death Valley National Park, California

Mystery Stones and a Ghost Who Was Hanged Twice

Death Valley is weird. Never mind its name, extreme temperatures, and vast expanses of desert鈥攖here are also stones that move on their own. At the , a dry lake bed between the Cottonwood and Last Chance ranges, stones large and small slide across the valley floor, leaving trails in the sand. Scientists researched the phenomenon for decades without finding a logical explanation. Ten years ago, while using GPS and weather-monitoring equipment, researchers developed a theory that a combination of ice, sunlight, rain, and high winds creates a scenario where the stones could feasibly be pushed across the firm but muddy surface of the former lake.

Beyond that, the park and surrounding area have more than their share of ghost towns. One is Panamint, which was founded by outlaws who struck silver while hiding out from law enforcement. They gave up their criminal ways, mined silver, and established the town, though it was eventually destroyed by a flash flood in 1876. Ruins of some buildings and mines still stand in the hills.

Another is Skidoo, where in 1908 鈥淗ooch鈥� Simpson was hanged twice鈥攐nce for killing a banker, and a second time, in a staged event after he died, so that newspaper photographers could document it. According to , the townspeople actually dug Hooch up for the second hanging. By most accounts, Hooch was a fairly respectable businessman, but he was convicted of murder after shooting the popular banker and stealing $20.

After the second hanging, the town doctor cut Hooch鈥檚 head off, apparently looking for signs of syphilis (brain involvement is often an indicator), which might seem to explain his erratic behavior. The headless ghost of Hooch Simpson supposedly still wanders the area that was once Skidoo, looking for his noggin.

Just outside of the park, on BLM land, are the ruins of the town of Rhyolite, which was home to 10,000 people in its heyday in the early 1900s. You can wander the streets where several buildings still stand. The Goldwell Open Air Museum, next to the skeletal buildings of Rhyolite Ghost Town, is a large-scale sculpture installation created by a group of Belgian artists that鈥檚 complete with ghostly figures wearing white cloaks.

Not creepy enough? How about the town of , where the historic cemetery is filled with victims of a local fire from 1911 and a pneumonia outbreak from 1905, their graves marked with weathered wooden tombstones? Or consider that the ghost of George 鈥淒evil鈥� Davis, owner of the local saloon and popular local character who was shot by his wife while he was playing craps, still haunts Tonopah, playing pranks on visitors.

Death Valley Spooky Hike: The Ghost Town of Skidoo

OK, this isn鈥檛 actually a hike; it鈥檚 a scenic drive on the well-graded gravel that you can pick up off the paved Emigrant Canyon Road. But after driving or mountain-biking the eight miles to the town site, you can hike around the area, finding remnants of the town such as broken bottles and tin cans. The remains of the old stamp mill, where ore was crushed to extract gold, stick up on the hillside. There are roughly 1,000 mines in the hills surrounding the ghost town. (Don鈥檛 go in the mines, and as a matter of practice leave everything as you find it, even if you think it鈥檚 trash.)

Indiana Dunes National Park, Indiana

Diana of the Dunes

One of the newest units in the national park system, protects 15 miles of coastline butting up against Lake Michigan鈥檚 icy waters. It鈥檚 a landscape full of beaches, tall dunes, and sandy hiking trails鈥ith a woman ghost who stalks the dunes at night. The place being a Midwestern park, the ghost is by all accounts pretty damn polite.

Alice Mabel Gray, aka Diana of the Dunes, lived by herself in a shack for almost a decade in the early 1900s in the area that is now the national park. Gray had studied at the nearby University of Chicago and worked for the U.S. Naval Observatory after graduating, but chose to eschew modern life for a solitary existence in the dunes, hunting: When she moved to the dunes, she only brought a blanket, cup, knife, and gun. She was also fond of swimming naked in Lake Michigan.

Word got out, and journalists began documenting Gray鈥檚 alternative lifestyle, dubbing her 鈥淒iana of the Dunes,鈥� after the Roman goddess of the hunt. Gray was an advocate for protecting the dunes, even writing op-eds in local newspapers. She lived in the dunes throughout her adult life, pairing with a man named Paul Wilson (who by most accounts was a violent individual suspected of murder at one point) and having two children. According to the park service, Gray died in her home within the dunes after giving birth to her second child.

Diana鈥檚 ghost is less frightening than peculiar; hikers and beachgoers have reported seeing a nude woman running along the sands disappearing into the frothy waters of Lake Michigan. She doesn鈥檛 bother anyone. She minds her own business, frolicking and enjoying her natural surroundings, much like Gray did.

鈥淭his is my favorite ghost story from a national park,鈥� says Cassie Yahian, of National Parks After Dark. 鈥淪o often haunted locations are that way because of traumatic, violent events, but Diana鈥檚 story is quite the opposite. The way she lived her life inspired so many and cemented her place in local legend. Her spirit is said to still roam the dunes that she so cherished in life.鈥�

Indiana Dunes Spooky Hike: Diana鈥檚 Dare

The park has embraced the legend of Alice Mabel Gray and even named a hiking loop after her. ,1.5 miles, takes you from West Beach, on the edge of Lake Michigan, up a series of steps through sandy pine forest to the top of Diana鈥檚 Dune. From it you can see downtown Chicago, more than 30 miles away. If you want to have the best chance of seeing the ghost of Diana running for the water, I鈥檇 say hike the trail at night.

Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, Tennessee

Civil War Ghosts

The American South is fraught with historic battlefields from the Civil War. I grew up at the base of Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park and as a kid would find bullets while digging around in my backyard. protects the battlefields surrounding the city of Chattanooga, where one of the war鈥檚 last key battles was fought, over possession of the city, seen by Abraham Lincoln as the gateway to the deep South. Bloody battles raged throughout the fall of 1863 along the banks of the Tennessee River, in pastoral valleys, and on the flanks of Lookout Mountain, a long, craggy ridge overlooking the city.

As you might imagine with that sort of tumultuous history, Chattanooga and the surrounding landscape are full of ghost stories. Amy Petula, owner of , knows them all.

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 believe in ghosts when I started these tours,鈥� Petula says. 鈥淚 just thought the stories were a fun way to teach people history. But we鈥檝e had so many things happen on our tours, I definitely think there鈥檚 something to the stories now.鈥�

Petula says she鈥檚 personally experienced something inexplicable while touring the Raccoon Mountain Caverns, a 5.5-mile-long cave system at the base of Lookout Mountain. 鈥淚t was just a few of us, 200 feet underground, in complete darkness, and I saw this faint glowing light behind a girl in our group. It got brighter and started flashing, and then that girl felt something touch her,鈥� Petula says. 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 a flashlight. It wasn鈥檛 another member of our group. Maybe it was a weird cave gas, or something else. I don鈥檛 know.鈥�

Petula says there are stories about a mythical cat that stalks the woods near the battlefields at night, and tales of entire battalions of Confederate soldier ghosts roaming the military park. There鈥檚 the 鈥淟ady in White,鈥� a specter wearing a white dress searching for her fianc茅, a soldier who died in the battle. The stories have gotten so prevalent that park management discourages people from exploring the park after dark in an attempt to dissuade ghost hunters from damaging the historic sites.

The best-known ghost story is about 鈥淥ld Green Eyes,鈥� a pair of glowing green eyes that harass travelers making their way through the park at night. Sightings date back at least to the Civil War, according to the . Some say the glowing eyes belong to the ghost of a soldier who lost his head to cannon fire during the battle of Chickamauga. Other people insist it鈥檚 a mythical cryptid creature similar to Bigfoot. Or maybe Old Green Eyes is also the ghost cat that stalks the woods. Or maybe he or she is a deer standing in the woods whose eyes only look like they鈥檙e glowing. Most of the sightings occur near Snodgrass Hill, where some of the most deadly fighting occurred.

Chickamauga Spooky Hike: Snodgrass Cabin

The battlefield has 50 miles of hiking trails to explore, including 30 miles of mountainous terrain on Lookout Mountain. If you want to walk through history, hike through the heart of , piecing together a series of short trails to form a big, 14-mile loop around the entire area that takes in gravesites, monuments, old farms, and historic cabins, including Snodgrass Cabin, which was used as a battlefield hospital for both Union and Confederate soldiers. If you鈥檙e not up for the full 14 miles, you can put together a shorter, two-mile loop around the cabin.The Snodgrass homesite is where the majority of Old Green Eyes sightings occur.

Looking over your shoulder yet?

Graham Averill is 国产吃瓜黑料 magazine鈥檚 national parks columnist. He loves stories of ghosts and goblins and has even spent a couple of nights in the woods looking for Bigfoot. He鈥檒l continue to believe all of these stories are real because life is more fun that way.

The post Spooky Tales from Haunted National Parks appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

This story was originally published July 27, 2013 and updated on August 22, 2023.听

Bad-mouthing the classic campfire dessert known as the s鈥檓ore is just plain wrong. It鈥檚 tantamount to dumping on the Girl Scouts, who published the first s鈥檓ores recipe in a 1927 handbook, not to mention the magic of summer nights outdoors, camaraderie around an open fire, woodsmoke, sugar rushes, our kids and our memories of being kids, and the American tradition of sickeningly sweet junk food.听

As much as we love a traditional s鈥檓ore, we also know听there鈥檚 always room for improvement. Here are three of our favorite ways to give this classic campfire dessert a makeover. And if something here doesn’t inspire you, we tested the viral TikTok s鈥檓ores cookie to take this fan favorite up a notch.

3 Ways to Level Up the Classic Campfire Dessert

Banana Boat S鈥檓ores听

This recipe is one you might read and think, 鈥淒uh! Why didn鈥檛 I think of that?鈥� Because the concept for this campfire dessert is bananas, that鈥檚 why.听

Think s鈥檓ores-turned-banana-boat. You鈥檒l need bananas, semisweet chocolate chips or a bar, marshmallows (full-size or mini), aluminum foil, and, of course, a campfire. To begin, slice an unpeeled banana lengthwise so it opens like a hotdog bun. Stack your desired amount of chocolate and marshmallows into the 鈥渂un鈥� and close. Then wrap it in foil, making sure to pinch the top closed. Place over the embers on your campfire鈥檚 edge, making sure the seam in the foil faces the top. Cook for about five minutes, carefully remove from the coals, and open the foil. Allow a minute to cool and dig in.听

Cream Cheese S鈥檓ores

If you鈥檙e a fan of cream cheese frosting, you鈥檒l love this dessert. While it resembles a classic s鈥檓ore, the elevation lies in the substitution of marshmallow and chocolate. Hang in there and keep reading鈥攚e promise, it鈥檚 worth it.听

You鈥檒l need one container of low-fat plain cream cheese, raw honey, dark cocoa powder, graham crackers, and raw cacao nibs. As for equipment, this recipe requires a campfire grill grate and a baking sheet. To start, combine cream cheese and honey into a small bowl and mix until smooth. Then stir in cocoa powder until blended. Spread about a teaspoon of the cream cheese mixture onto each cracker and arrange on a baking sheet. Place onto grate for a few minutes, until warm and soft. You鈥檒l know they鈥檙e done when the cream cheese is melted and almost oozing out the sides. To finish off the dessert, sprinkle with cacao nibs. (Here are two more cheese-filled s鈥檓ores recipes if parmesan or mozzarella are all you’ve got on hand.)

Whisky S鈥檓ores Lollipops

This recipe has a bit of a kick that makes camping feel more like glamping. You鈥檒l need heavy cream, bittersweet chocolate, whiskey of your choice, marshmallows, graham crackers, a 2-quart sauce pot, and lollipop sticks. To begin, crush graham crackers into crumbs, spread onto a plate, and set aside. Bring heavy cream to a simmer in a large sauce pot and mix in chocolate until incorporated. Whisk in whiskey (use about 1听tablespoon) and remove from heat. Quickly, so the mixture doesn鈥檛 cool, skewer marshmallows with lollipop sticks and dip into the ganache. Then roll them in the graham cracker crumbs until coated. Once the lollipops have cooled, you have the option of lightly toasting over the campfire.

Recipe courtesy of Chicago-based chef Cory Morris.

Our Favorite Coolers to Keep Perishable Ingredients Fresh

Elevating s鈥檓ores to the next level of deliciousness also means that some of your ingredients are going to need to be kept cold. That鈥檚 where a cooler comes in handy, and we have a few recommendations to choose from.

Yeti Tundra 65

Yeti tops the list of our favorite coolers. The ($375) fits about 58 pounds听of ice and is durable, leak-proof, non-slip, and well-insulated. The Tundra 65 weighs about 30.3 pounds, which is surprisingly light for its size. A single person can manage this cooler, making it accessible and easy to use.听

Cabela Polar Cap 80

For those who are looking for a larger cooler, the ($349) is a great choice. This cooler can carry a whopping 80 quarts and weighs about 40 pounds. It can take a beating without leaking, which makes it ideal for long journeys in the back of a truck. Best of all, the Cabela Polar Cap is made with a rotomolded body and freezer-grade gasket lid, so ice stays cold for days.听

For more of our favorite coolers, check out these tested and approved weekend coolers.

Do鈥檚 and Don鈥檛s of Cooking Over a Campfire

Do Build Your Campfire the Right Way

The perfect campfire dessert starts with a quality fire. If you have an existing fire pit, this part is easy. If not, you need to scout for an ideal location: choose a level space free of debris like brush or decaying leaves. If possible, pick a spot that鈥檚 protected from wind. Then, follow these tips to build a better campfire where we cover how to prep your fuel, the pros and cons of using a tepee or log cabin structure, and the proper way to put out your campfire.

Don鈥�t Cook Directly Over the Flames

Specific techniques for cooking over a campfire will vary depending on the recipe, but in general, avoid cooking food directly over any flames. You鈥檙e more likely to burn whatever you鈥檙e cooking to a crisp under direct heat. Instead, use a low-burning fire or the embers on the edge. This allows for more control.

The post How to Elevate Your S鈥檓ores Into the Perfect Campfire Desserts appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.