Parks and Outdoors Travel Experts

Karen Berger has earned her reputation as a hiking expert with footsteps—literally millions of them. Seventeen thousand miles. Six continents. And hundreds of stories. She has hiked America's "Triple Crown" of hiking trails: the Appalachian, Pacific Crest, and Continental Divide trails, and has walked across England, Scotland, France, Holland, Beligum, and the Netherlands, as well as trekked in New Zealand, Nepal, and East Africa. As a...

The author of 13 outdoors guidebooks, Ann Marie Brown is a dedicated California outdoorswoman. She hikes, bikes, and camps more than 150 days each year in an effort to avoid routine, complacency, and getting a real job. Ann Marie's work has also appeared in various magazines, including Sunset, VIA, Backpacker, and California. When not traipsing along a California trail, Ann Marie can be found at her home near...

Deke Castleman is the author of eight editions of Compass Las Vegas, six editions of Nevada Handbook, one edition of Compass Nevada, and one edition of Utah and Nevada Camping. He lives in Reno and has been traveling around and writing about Nevada for more than 20 years.

A Washington, D.C.-based scribe and researcher with eclectic interests, Paul Elliott roams the mid-Atlantic region—and the West—in search of natural, cultural, and regional history and adventure. He also writes articles and books, gives illustrated talks on outdoor recreation, leads outings for the Sierra Club and Appalachian Mountain Club, cultivates his friends and garden, and sometimes rests on his laurels.

Mike Kautz is a Mainer, writer, and photographer who spends his winters in Montana and his summers in Maine. Mike grew up along the Maine-New Hampshire border and learned to hike, bike, climb, ski, hunt, and paddle in the foothills of the White Mountains. He is currently at work on a book of non-fiction about his home state.

Though he cut his adventure teeth in the Wisconsin and Minnesota northwoods, Brian Kevin lives, writes, and plays in Missoula, Montana. Brian writes about national parks and other Western destinations for Fodor's Travel, and he's a periodic contributor to Outside, High Country News, E: The Environmental Magazine, and handful of other publications. When he's nesting, Brian skips the adventure thing altogether and writes about books,...

Rockies native Kim Lipker is a writer, mom, and an outdoor enthusiast based in the beautiful town of Fort Collins, Colorado. The Rocky Mountains are her home, but her heart also belongs to Hawaii, where she has traveled extensively. Her children are sixth-generation natives of Colorado, and they've traveled right along with mom. Everyone made their maiden voyage to Hawaii early—before their first birthdays.

Kim has a fond...

Steve Metzger is the author of the first six editions of Moon Handbooks New Mexico (Avalon Travel Publishing) and the first five editions of Moon Handbooks Colorado (Avalon Travel Publishing), as well as Day Trips Sacramento (Globe-Pequot Press). He has published more than 200 magazine and newspaper articles in a wide range of national and international publications.

Johnny Molloy is a writer and adventurer based in Johnson City, Tennessee. A native Tennessean, he was born in Memphis and moved to Knoxville in 1980 to attend the University of Tennessee. It was in Knoxville, where he developed his love of the natural world that has since become the primary focus his life.

It all started on a backpacking foray into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. That first trip, though a disaster,...

Jeremy Pataky lives, writes, and works as a hiking and climbing guide in Alaska. He earned an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Montana. ...

A native of Houston, Texas, Laurie Roddy has been writing for more than 25 years on everything from computers to the outdoors. She ran her own company, Roddy Communications, Inc. for 11 years after working as a technical writer for Compaq Computer Corporation for 10 years. She now freelances for several Houston-area magazines and recently completed the book 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Houston. Her main interests and current writing career...

Mike Sigalas is the author of Moon Handbooks South Carolina, North Carolina, Coastal Carolinas, Charleston & Savannah, and (with Jeff Bradley) the Smoky Mountains. Mike taught writing for a decade at a number of colleges and universities, including the University of South Carolina, the Citadel Military College, Orangeburg-Calhoun College, and others. He holds degrees from the University of South...