The bald eagle landed on a cottonwood branch 40 feet from where I stood on the bank of the Mississippi River near Lock and Dam 14 in Iowa. It was early January, about 22 degrees, and the bird’s white head looked almost absurd against the gray sky and dark water. Then a second eagle appeared. […]
Winter Wildlife Watching Across America Read More »
The woman behind the counter at the Natchez Visitors Center looked at me like I had asked a strange question. ‘Why is nobody here?’ I had said, gesturing at the empty streets. It was mid-January, 62 degrees, the azaleas were already threatening to bloom, and I had just walked through three antebellum mansions without encountering
Southern Winter Escapes: 8 Towns Worth the Trip Read More »
The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad pulled out of the station at 9:15 AM on a Saturday in mid-December. The coal-fired steam engine, built in 1925, chugged and hissed through downtown Durango, past the Animas River, and into a canyon that narrowed until the track hugged a ledge 400 feet above the water. Snow
Scenic Winter Train Journeys Across America Read More »
I turned off the headlamp and waited for my eyes to adjust. It took about 20 minutes. Then the sky above Cherry Springs State Park in northern Pennsylvania did something I had never seen it do: it revealed itself. The Milky Way was not a faint smudge but a structural feature of the sky, a
Dark Sky Destinations for Winter Stargazing Read More »
The ice castle in Lake George, New York, was 30 feet tall, honeycombed with tunnels, lit from inside with color-shifting LEDs, and entirely handmade. An artisan named Brent Christensen started building these things in his front yard in 2009. Now they show up in five or six cities every winter, and each one takes a
Best Winter Festivals in America for 2026 Read More »
The lighthouse keeper’s house at Portland Head Light was dark except for a single lamp in the upstairs window. It was February, a Tuesday, and I was the only person in the parking lot at Fort Williams Park. The lighthouse itself, white tower against a pewter sky, the surf throwing spray across the rocks below,
America’s Best Winter Lighthouse Trail Read More »
The oyster arrived on a chipped plate at a raw bar in Charleston, and it was perfect. Fat, briny, cold, pulled from a creek bed that morning. The woman shucking them said January through March is when local oysters are at their best: the water is cold, the meat is firm, the flavor concentrates. She
America’s Best Winter Food Cities Read More »
Steam rose off the water in slow, curling sheets. It was 14 degrees outside at Dunton Hot Springs in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, and I was sitting in a hand-hewn log tub fed by a 106-degree natural spring, watching snowflakes dissolve the instant they touched the surface. My fingers were numb from the
America’s Best Hot Springs for Winter Soaking Read More »
The flight attendant announced our descent into Kahului, and through the window, Maui looked nothing like the postcards. Thick clouds draped over the West Maui Mountains, rain streaked the tarmac, and the couple across the aisle exchanged worried glances. They had come for sun. We had come for whales. Hawaii in winter is a different
Winter in Hawaii: Why the Islands Are Better Off-Season Read More »
I have a theory about American cities in winter: the good ones get better. The tourists leave. The restaurants fill with locals. The cultural institutions run their best exhibitions knowing they need to earn attendance when nobody is visiting for the weather. The skylines sharpen against cold, clear air. And the cities that are actually
Urban Winter Weekends: 7 Cities Better in the Cold Read More »
