Secret Vistas

Secret Vistas: A Day Trip to Shenandoah to Focus the Mind

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Secret Vistas – By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — So in between everything else that’s going on in the news and my life at this time, which has been pretty busy and productive of late, I had a chance on Thursday to get out on the road for a day trip to Shenandoah National…

Feed Your Biophilia by Tracking the Art of Rich Autumn Color

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Secret Vistas – By Glynn Wilson – CATOCTIN MOUNTAINS, Md. — Many years ago in a land far away, I proposed a way to test E.O. Wilson’s Biophilia hypothesis by adding a few questions to annual surveys of visitors in the most visited national park in the United States, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park…

Camp David: The White House in the Mountains of Maryland

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Editor’s Note: This article is published here for educational purposes only from information published in the public domain on the web – Secret Vistas – By Glynn Wilson – CATOCTIN MOUNTAINS, Md. — The birds arise first. They will sing you awake if you let them. The star singer here is the wood thrush, although…

Spring Bird Migration: A Few Splendid Sentences About Pretty Things

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Secret Vistas – By Glynn Wilson – Sometimes, when sitting outside in the Appalachian Mountains in the shade thinking about what to write about on Sundays, I wonder how to go about writing splendid, pretty sentences. Perhaps the key is writing about pretty things, not bad news. I don’t know. I’ve even Googled it, and…

Somehow We Made It to the First Day of Spring 2022: Get Outside

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Senate Sherpa Doug Jones Says He’s Confident of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Confirmation – The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — At 11:33 a.m. Sunday, we cross the vernal equinox from winter into spring, and it feels like it’s about time, y’all. The Japanese cherry blossoms are blooming along the Tidal…

Exploring Shenandoah National Park in Virginia in Autumn

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By Glynn Wilson – SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK, Va. — Warm, humid October weather that could be attributed to climate change due to global warming from humans burning fossil fuels for energy has slowed the arrival of peak Autumn color in the mountains of Virginia. But it was a beautiful day in the park anyway on…

Camping and Cycling Around Catoctin Mountain in Maryland

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Secret Vistas –  By Glynn Wilson –  CATOCTIN MOUNTAIN, Md. — While tens of thousands of people flock to the iconic national parks of the American West in the summer travel season, exacerbating an already disastrous mega-drought and experiencing a record-breaking heat wave and an already out of control wildfire season, there are lesser known…

Camping in the Washington, D.C. Area Can Be A Rewarding Challenge

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Secret Vistas –  By Glynn Wilson –  SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK, Va. — The American west is on fire again with wildfires burning in 11 states. Temperatures are setting records with highs in the 120 degree range. A heat dome hovers over the region, and the devastating drought continues unabated. New Orleans and the states along…

Camping in the Eastern United States: Planning for Human Survival Here

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Secret Vistas –  By Glynn Wilson –  Abandoning the cities and suburbs for a camper van or other type of Recreational Vehicle in nature is becoming a reality for hundreds of thousands of people, and not just because of the coronavirus pandemic, the changing climate and economy and the movie Nomadland. It doesn’t have to…

Giving Voice to Americans Living in Nomadland

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“I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life…” – Henry David Thoreau Secret Vistas – By Glynn Wilson – CATOCTIN MOUNTAIN, Md. — Thousands of Americans are waking up to the advantages of traveling and immersing themselves in nature and even living full time in Recreational Vehicles, making the transition…

Secret Vistas: A Spiritual Experience in Shenandoah

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By Glynn Wilson – SHENANDOAH, Va. — It’s a bit early for a year in review story, but for me, it’s been one hell of a year. A humbling year. I’ve long known that we are all just like tiny grains of sand in the long run of history, here on this special beach of…

Secret Vistas: Riding the Gap Trail Over the Mason-Dixon Line

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Secret Vistas – By Brooks Boliek – FROSTBURG, Md. — I have nothing against Charles Mason or Jeremiah Dixon. As a matter of fact, I admire and esteem both men for their scientific contributions and service. Mason and Dixon were both scientists who were asked to resolve a land dispute between Thomas Penn and Fredrick…

Autumn Color: Shenandoah National Park, Virginia

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Secret Vistas – By Glynn Wilson – SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK, Va. — Well, truth be told, it’s not exactly a secret. This is one of the well known national parks, one of two Crown Jewels of the East along with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee. Yet it always feels like an amazing…