An online outpost for those who'd rather be outside.

For this round of Let’s Clean Up, we’re taking on Halloween. Not by canceling the candy or telling you that your 12-foot skeleton is questionable. Frankly, if you already own that glorious beast, I hope he gets a name and his own room. We’re just cleaning things up a little.

Halloween has somehow become another holiday where we are encouraged to buy an entire collection of things specifically designed to become irrelevant the next day. I say boo to that.

The Field Trip Camping Quest: one printable, 24 little reasons to pay closer attention to what’s happening around you.

Outside Inn is a family-run campground and working farm in Santee, South Carolina, spread across more than 60 acres of pasture, pines, trails, and animal-filled goodness. There are full-hookup RV sites, tent camping and glamping options.

Previous studies have found evidence that managed honeybees can compete with wild pollinators for floral resources, particularly when flowers are limited. More recent work has also found changes in wild-bee foraging when managed honeybees are present.

Imagine someone knows protected bats are roosting in a tree and cuts it down anyway because they want the land cleared. They did not cut the tree because they wanted dead bats. Dead bats were simply a foreseeable consequence of getting the tree out of the way. From the bat’s side of things, this distinction is admittedly not very useful.

The world has been pretty heavy around the Field Trip campfire lately. Many of us are carrying hard things: difficult diagnoses for loved ones, sudden deaths of friends, financial hardships, relationships needing extra care, threats of wildfires and data centers in our communities, and the death of a pet.

I’ve had depression off and on since my early teens. Sometimes it has lasted a few weeks and sometimes much, much longer. Long enough to know there is a difference between “I feel sad” and “I need help.” Long enough to know that when someone well-meaning chirps, “You should get outside. Maybe go for a walk!” it can feel less like advice and more like being handed a kayak during a flood.

On August 25, 2026, the National Park Service celebrates its 110th birthday, and this year the party is bigger than the usual ranger-program-and-cupcake situation. The birthday falls smack in the middle of National Park Week, August 22–30, which means nine days of events, programs, outdoor adventures, history, wildlife, Junior Ranger activities and plenty of reasons to go play outside!

Give me a fresh notebook, a pretty pen, and an excuse to wander past a wall of colorful folders and I am suddenly eight years old again.

Awkward questions. Answered without the guilt trip.

Hey. I’m Scout! Welcome to Out and About with Scout, an ongoing Field Trip series where I roll into parks, campgrounds, trails, visitor centers, scenic overlooks, and wonderfully weird roadside stops to report back on what’s actually worth knowing before you go.