Tests have begun to replace Denali National Park’s fleet of “noisy, carbon dioxide-spewing diesel” engine buses, as the AP puts it, with new hybrid vehicles. If they’re adopted, it would improve what’s already one of the most impressive outdoors experiences in the U.S. Except for a few days a year, visitors can only travel the Denali Park Road in one of the park’s 110 buses, and if the new buses are cleaner and quieter than the current models, the experience will only get better. 

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"In the pantheon of walking, the conquering of the ‘Belgian Plateau’ merits few Brownie points,” Mark Rowe writes in The Independent. “Partly, this is because it is not very high, but mainly because almost no one knows it exists.” Rowe has a point: Belgium’s reputation was built on chocolate, beer and Tintin—not the great outdoors. That could be about to change.

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In the latest issue of The Believer, Peter Lunenfeld chronicles surfing’s meteoric rise from SoCal subculture to global brand. “The thing to remember is that, since 1957, surfing as something you buy has overshadowed surfing as something you do,” he writes. “I would hazard that no other activity has ever generated as many products among people who neither know how to do it, nor follow those who do.” The essay touches on topics ranging from Gidget to Freud to Malibu Barbie, and uncovers the unlikely role of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in propelling the sport to pop culture dominance. 

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A quick congratulations to Deanne Stillman, whose new book, Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West, hits bookstores Monday. Last summer, we published an excerpt from the book, The Horse Spirits of Big Sky Country. “Mustang” has already earned critical praise from the likes of Tony Hillerman and Ian Frazier. Remarked Frazier: “Told with passion and skill, filled with drama and dust and fascinating facts, ‘Mustang’ is a worthy addition to the literature of the horse in the American West.” Stillman is also the author of Joshua Tree: Desolation Tango and Twenty Nine Palms.

That’s the prediction of our faithful Onion correspondent, on the scene of a mountain rescue that has all the ingredients for a “thrilling, made-for-TV movie”:

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You and the rest of us, Dan. Los Angeles Times Pulitzer winner Dan Neil embarked on a solo backpacking trip across Joshua Tree National Park recently armed with a satellite phone, a GPS unit and a personal locator beacon. “It’s my life’s ambition not to be the subject of a Krakauer book,” he writes, referring, of course, to Jon Krakauer’s “Into the Wild” and “Into Thin Air.” He continues: “I have kids, a wife, a cat who’d miss me terribly. But sometimes, I want to be alone too. Why? Because I have kids, a wife, a cat etc.”

Related on World Hum:
* World Hum Travel Movie Club: ‘Into the Wild’
* The Winding Road to Joshua Tree

Photo by Paraflyer via Flickr, (Creative Commons).

The Tibet side of the mountain will be shut to down until May 10, effectively stopping climbers from making any serious tries at the summit this season. Why? 

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We recently noted that fewer Americans are spending their free time camping, hiking and fishing in our great outdoors. But while our parks are losing human crowds, they may are gaining some people-produced troubles—contaminants such as pesticides and mercury. 

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That’s the verdict Gayle MacDonald comes to, after making the climb with 11 other middle-aged Canadian moms. Her recent story in the Globe and Mail, which is heavy on the ugly details, doesn’t exactly make me eager to try taking on Kilimanjaro myself, but it does make for a fun read about an unlikely group of people breaking from their routines and rising to a challenge. Here’s a sample:

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As a little kid I used to watch Grizzly Adams and Ben tear through the forest, chewing my braids as I strained to sense the scents and sights. So when my parents finally took us to the Black Hills one summer, I ran through the real forest, breathing in the pine and earth and windy scents of wildflowers. It was so much better than watching it on TV. Alas, since my favorite television show in my little girl days went off the air in 1982, our connection to nature has been steadily weakening, NPR reports. Participation in outdoorsy activities such as hiking, fishing and camping has dropped 18 percent since the 1980s, according to a University of Illinois study. 

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That’s what park rangers and visitors are wondering, given a new prediction that in just 50 to 100 years global warming will make the southern California park too warm to support its namesake trees. I’ve spent a lot of time at Joshua Tree park, hiking, playing on boulders and even shivering through the 2000 New Year’s Eve there. 

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Saturday was a good time to be in northern California. Pro surfers from around the globe and thousands of spectators converged on the legendary surf spot near Half Moon Bay for the sixth edition of the Mavericks big-wave contest. The wave breaks a good distance offshore, and spectators who didn’t want to peer through binoculars had an interesting option.

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