Suggest a Hike for Our Hiking Guide!!!

Hey Everyone,  we are gonna start doing some hiking in another week or two in the St. Louis area.  We would really like to get some suggestions, requests, recommendations, etc from people.  Let us know your favorite hikes in the St. Louis area, we'll hike it, and then see if it is Falcon Guide worthy.

If you want, make a suggestion and then meet up with us for the hike!

Hiking in the Missouri Bootheel.

Potential New National Monuments

Devil's Tower in WY is one of our favorite National Monuments.

So, JD likes to visit National Park administered lands and collect the "Passport Stamps" at the visitor centers either before or after exploring (Emily thinks he is a dork for doing so).  Anyway, those of us that collect the stamps will be excited to know that President Obama is considering 14 new National Monuments.

Check em out...

• San Rafael Swell, UT
• Montana’s Northern Prairie, MT
• Lesser Prairie Chicken Preserve, NM
• Berryessa Snow Mountains, CA
• Heart of the Great Basin, NV
• Otero Mesa, NM
• Northwest Sonoran Desert, AZ
• Owyhee Desert, OR/NV
• Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, CA (expansion)
• Vermillion Basin, CO
• Bodie Hills, CA
• The Modoc Plateau, CA
• Cedar Mesa, UT
• San Juan Islands, WA

Read more HERE.

Seth Warren, a multi-award winning film-maker, at the AEE Conference

As a professional kayaker for nearly 10 years, Seth Warren explored and paddled rivers around the globe. Inspired by the world’s natural playgrounds and his passion for outdoor adventure sports, in November 2004 he decided to focus on protecting these diminishing resources for future generations. To do so, he created the Elements Tour, a mobile advocacy project that teaches the public, and especially youth, about how to protect natural resources and live more sustainable lifestyles. He has shared ideas and given presentations to more than 280,000 people over the past four years including over 20,000 K-12 students in 16 countries. The centerpiece of Warren’s outreach is a one-of-a-kind carbon-neutral vehicle and rolling classroom called “Baby.” Warren retrofitted Baby, a former Japanese fire truck, to run on any natural or waste vegetable oil. Baby also creates and stores energy generated from wind, solar, and kinetic sources for later use. An intrepid filmmaker who uses his films as part of his outreach, Warren is the director of the award-winning documentary Oil + Water (2007), which detailed the longest-ever petroleum free road trip, as well as Nature Propelled(2010). When not on the road Warren calls Missoula, MT home. 

Seth is a very entertaining speaker and very passionate about what he does.  We will be showing both of Seth's films at the conference.

Don't miss out on this opportunity!!!!

Back in the Heartland

We are back in the Midwest to finish up the writing portion for the two Falcon Guides we are revising. After we got back, we were offered THREE more books to write in the St. Louis area. Looks like we are gonna stick around for a little while.

In the meantime, we hit up one of favorite places to hike today. Check out some pics from Giant City State Park near Carbondale, IL.

JD, risking life and limb.

How do rocks end up like that?

Emily, getting artsy.

Just thought this was a cool picture.

Emily and Arnie hiking near Hole-in-the-Rock Road.

Fred Flintstone?

Does anyone see Fred Flintstone in this rock spire?

We were hiking in Kodachrome Basin State Park in Utah and came across this rock spire called the "Fred Flintstone Spire".  I (JD) do not see it. Emily said she sees it.  Do you?