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Articles by Toby Gorman
The American Mountains You Can Reach By Gondola
A grueling, multi-hour hike isn't the only way to reach the high alpine. A modern, comfortable gondola can whisk riders to the top in just a few minutes, sparing sore feet and saving time for the views. These six gondola rides span the country, reaching the volcanic summit of Mammoth Mountain in California's Sierra Nevada and the rounded, forested hills of Minnesota.
Dark-Spotted Anaconda
The dark-spotted anaconda is a little-studied, nonvenomous constrictor known from northeastern Brazil and French Guiana, where it inhabits open and forested flooded environments. This elusive predator is the smallest and least-studied member of the iconic anaconda genus. It is smaller than the green anaconda and has dark blotches that help conceal it among wetland vegetation and turbid water.
How The Forest Came Back After Mount St. Helens
Wildfires strip American forests bare every year, and the real question is always whether the trees grow back. Mount St. Helens is the clearest case anyone has studied. Its blast scorched square miles of Washington forest down to bare rock and ash. Decades later the trees are back, and much of that happened with no planting at all. A few firs buried under snow and a single caged gopher helped drive the comeback. This is the best look we have at how trees grow back after a forest is wiped out.
Why The Milky Way May Never Collide With Andromeda
Andromeda is closing in on the Milky Way at about 250,000 miles per hour (400,000 km/h), and for decades, astronomers predicted that the two galaxies would collide and merge within four to five billion years. A landmark June 2025 study in Nature Astronomy challenged that forecast. Across 100,000 computer simulations, researchers found roughly even odds of a merger over the next 10 billion years, and only about a 2% chance of a head-on collision on the original timeline.
The US Rivers Where Bull Sharks Swim Upstream
Imagine going for a swim in the Mississippi River near St. Louis, Missouri, more than a thousand miles from the Gulf of Mexico, when a steel-gray dorsal fin breaches the water's surface nearby. A shark sounds impossible, but maybe not, since there have been at least two documented sightings of bull sharks traveling this far up the Mississippi, one in 1937 and another in 1995.
The Rivers Where Sturgeon Still Spawn
Sturgeon are older than the dinosaurs, and they are still spawning in rivers scattered across the United States. On the Hudson, biologists have logged eggs, larvae, juveniles, and full-grown adults in the same stretch of water. On Wisconsin's Wolf River, the spawning run comes so close to shore that onlookers can watch six-foot fish thrash in the shallows. On Florida's Suwannee, crews have scooped sticky eggs straight off the limestone riverbed.
The Most Dammed Rivers In America
During the 19th and 20th centuries, America's rivers were harnessed to help power a growing nation. Engineers, often from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and policymakers constructed thousands of dams to address urgent human demands that included flood control for growing towns and cities, securing reliable irrigation for agriculture, creating commercial barge navigation, and generating hydroelectric power to fuel the Industrial Revolution and Western expansion.
The Ocean Creatures That Can Kill You Without Teeth
When a human enters the ocean, they enter a vast, beautiful, and dangerous world full of creatures built for survival. Nature has given these animals a wide range of defenses to protect themselves in a world of hungry predators. Some of these animals use toxins, others venom, and some even deploy saliva more potent than cyanide to take down an opponent or hunt for food.
The Largest Domed Stadiums In The United States
AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, can accommodate more than 100,000 people and drew a record 108,713 fans for the 2010 NBA All-Star Game. In Inglewood, SoFi Stadium matches that scale, with room to expand to 100,000 and an estimated $5.5 billion construction cost, making it the world’s most expensive stadium. Its translucent canopy and open sides offer a very different experience from the rounded roof of the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.
The US Bridges Rated Structurally Deficient
A bridge is classified as structurally deficient or rated as "poor condition" by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) if at least one of its key structural elements (the deck, superstructure, or substructure) is rated as in poor or worse condition. This does not mean that there is imminent danger of a collapse, though bridges in places like Minnesota have failed in modern times, taking human lives with them.
The American Mountains With Roads To The Summit
Picture parking your car at 14,115 feet. The engine ticks as it cools, the air is thin enough to notice, and the Great Plains lie flat below you like a map somebody forgot to fold. That is an ordinary afternoon on top of Pikes Peak in Colorado's Rocky Mountains. Six American summits, spread from the Rockies to the Appalachian and Adirondack ranges, have a paved road all the way to the top, including the highest paved road in North America.
The US Dams Rated Highest Hazard By Federal Inspectors
A 2025 study identified six dams in Texas, Kansas, and California with the highest modeled overtopping probabilities among 33 US dams examined. All six are large and classified as high-hazard potential, meaning failure or misoperation would probably cause loss of life. Their nearest downstream communities have about 274,000 residents in total, although the study did not model structural failure, breach inundation, or the number of people directly at risk.
The Windiest Mountain In America
On April 12, 1934, the wind on Mount Washington reached 231 mph (371 km/h), a velocity so extreme that it remained the fastest surface wind ever recorded by a staffed weather station for more than 60 years. The measurement was made during a storm that covered the summit in heavy icing, while weather observers worked to keep their instruments operating and verify what they were seeing.
The Largest Dams In North America
Some of North America's largest dams rise hundreds of feet from their foundations, holding back reservoirs that supply cities, generate electricity, and regulate major rivers. The dams below are ranked by their maximum structural height from foundation to crest. That puts several less familiar structures ahead of famous landmarks such as Hoover Dam. The ranking also covers the full North American continent, including Mexico and Central America.
2026's 10 Most Scenic British Columbia Towns
Scenery in British Columbia likes to show off. One town has a granite wall climbers have been scaling for generations. Another has a lake that freezes into the longest skating trail on the planet, and another trades all of it for a pocket desert where rattlesnakes live next to the vineyards. Ten towns, ten completely different backdrops, each one grown up around the landform that made it, and all within a weekend of home. Squamish Downtown Squamish, British Columbia.
The Largest Lakes On Every Continent
One of these lakes sits under two miles of Antarctic ice and no one has ever laid eyes on it. Another fills the crater of a supervolcano. A third holds a fifth of the planet's unfrozen fresh water. These are the largest freshwater lakes on each of the seven continents, measured by surface area. Saltwater bodies are out, which is why Australia's Lake Eyre, the Caspian Sea, and South America's Lake Maracaibo do not appear. The seven that made the cut are listed in alphabetical order by continent.
Caribou
Caribou are among the most recognizable animals of the far north. Built to withstand environments inhospitable to humans, these animals play an important role in the northern ecosystem. Vast herds of up to half a million animals migrate thousands of miles over Arctic tundra, eluding predators and insects while navigating freezing rivers and lakes to reach their destinations, shaping the Arctic ecosystem as they move.
The Highest Bridges In The United States
We often take bridges for granted, yet these structures combine bold design, careful science, and clever engineering to link places that terrain once kept apart. Some, like the Glen Canyon Dam Bridge, went up solely to enable the construction of another structure. Others, like the Royal Gorge Bridge, were built purely as an attraction. Most bridges exist to shorten the distance between two points, as the New River Gorge Bridge does by replacing a long detour with a quick crossing.
The US Lakes Where Snapping Turtles Live Past A Hundred Years
Drop a baited line into the right southern lake and you might haul up something that predates the dinosaurs. Alligator snapping turtles can top 200 pounds and live past a century. They spend those decades hunkered in the mud of warm, slow water. A few American lakes grow them bigger than anywhere else on Earth. Warm winters and deep cover and decades of easy food are the recipe. The five lakes below have all three in abundance. Each one has raised snappers to sizes that stop anglers cold.
Indigo Snake
Strong, intelligent, and ravenous, indigo snakes rule the longleaf pine forests in the southeastern United States. While always on the hunt to feed their insatiable appetites, these large, non-venomous snakes are mostly harmless to humans despite their intimidating appearance and are often mistaken as threats and routinely killed out of fear.
The Countries That Would Fit Inside Lake Superior
Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area, with a footprint covering 31,700 square miles and a shoreline stretching 2,726 miles. It contains 2,900 cubic miles of freshwater, more than all the other Great Lakes combined with three additional Lake Eries. If theoretically emptied out, it would cover all North America and South America in water one foot deep.
Pygmy Rattlesnake
Venomous snakes like the pygmy rattlesnake trigger a deep-seated fear in most humans. Coincidentally, humans trigger a similar fear in these diminutive rattlers, which would rather be left alone to ambush their prey, bask in the sun, and live their solitary lives in the southeastern United States. Recent research shows that the last thing these rattlesnakes want to do is bite anybody, and they will only do so when repeatedly provoked.
Gharial
The gharial looks like a crocodile that got its snout stretched in a taffy machine. This fish-eating reptile survives in just a handful of rivers across northern India and Nepal. Males grow a bulbous knob on the snout tip that buzzes and blows bubbles to court females. Its lineage stretches back tens of millions of years to one of the oldest branches of the crocodilian tree. Today only a few hundred breeding adults remain in the wild.
Beaver
Trappers nearly wiped the beaver off two continents to make felt hats. The global fur trade ran hard on beaver pelts between the 16th and 19th centuries. North American numbers crashed past 99 percent and left about 100,000 animals by 1900. Eurasian beavers fell to roughly 1,200 animals across a handful of refuges. A change in hat fashion eased the pressure just in time. Scientists later measured what beavers build into a river and found wetlands that feed and shelter dozens of other species.
Ocelot
Ocelots have been highly regarded by humans for thousands of years. These cats climb, swim, and hunt in pitch-black forests. They cover several miles each night within their territory. They pack the energy and toughness of much larger cats into the size of a housecat. Worshipped as symbols of power in ancient Aztec and Mayan cultures, ocelots featured prominently in the artwork of these ancient civilizations.
The Only Lakes In The World With Freshwater Seals
Only five seal populations in the world are known to live year-round in freshwater lakes. They occur in Lake Baikal and Lake Ladoga in Russia, Lake Saimaa in Finland, Iliamna Lake in Alaska, and a remote network of lakes centered on Lacs des Loups Marins in northern Quebec. They are not all the same kind of seal.
Where People Are Moving To In British Columbia In 2026
Ask anyone who has tried to buy a place in Vancouver lately and you will hear the same sigh. The prices stopped making sense years ago. So people are voting with their moving trucks. They are heading up the valley and across the water and into the interior. Each town on this list is catching a different kind of newcomer for a different reason.
Where People Are Moving To In Ontario In 2026
Ask anyone who has tried to buy a house near Toronto lately and you will hear some version of the same story. The job is here, the friends are here, but the mortgage math simply does not work. So people are voting with their moving trucks. More residents now leave the Toronto region for other parts of Ontario each year than arrive from within the province, and the newcomers arriving from abroad are increasingly skipping the big city for somewhere they can actually afford a yard.
Where People Are Moving To In Alberta In 2026
Ask a moving-truck company which way Canadians are relocating right now, and the answer keeps coming back the same: west, and specifically to Alberta. More Canadians moved here from other provinces than to anywhere else in the country for three straight years running, and in 2025, the province's population passed five million for the first time. What makes that interesting is not the headline number but the shape of it.
Giant Panda
A global symbol for global biodiversity conservation, giant pandas are unmistakable with their black and white coats, insatiable appetite for bamboo, and sometimes comedic and clumsy antics. Found exclusively in the mountains of southwestern China, these solitary bears spend their days foraging, followed by periods of sleep to preserve energy.
7 Best Cities To Retire In British Columbia
Retirement in British Columbia buys a rare kind of morning. You can walk an oceanside seawall with snow-capped mountains filling the horizon. The coastal cities of Vancouver, North Vancouver, and Victoria pair that scenery with strong healthcare and reliable transit. Inland, Kelowna and Chilliwack trade the ocean for warm lake days on the water. Farther north, Prince George stretches a retirement budget further while keeping wilderness close.
The 10 Deepest Lakes in the World
The world's deepest lakes were born from catastrophe. Tectonic rifts tore the crust apart and glaciers gouged out bedrock over millions of years. Supervolcanoes blew their tops and left craters that slowly filled with rain. Baikal alone holds a fifth of the planet's unfrozen surface freshwater. Vostok stays liquid under two miles of Antarctic ice. Each basin filled its own way and grew its own creatures. These 10 lakes plunge deeper than any others on Earth.
Arctic Wolf
Arctic wolves live in some of the harshest regions on the planet, enduring extreme cold, persistent darkness, unrelenting winds, and limited shelter. Found in Canada, Greenland, and Alaska, these apex predators have evolved to withstand and even thrive in these harsh conditions. Extremely intelligent, curious, and social animals, Arctic wolves prey on everything from musk oxen to beetles to ensure their fat stores can sustain them when prey is scarce and the temperature drops.
The US States That Would Fit Inside Lake Superior
Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake on Earth by surface area at 31,700 square miles. That covers about as much ground as the entire state of South Carolina. The lake stretches roughly 350 miles east to west and 160 miles north to south. A surface that vast is hard to picture without laying familiar shapes across it. So consider the US states small enough to fit inside it. Ten of them come in under Lake Superior by area, several many times over. Rhode Island would fit more than 20 times.
Boa Constrictor
While far from the largest snake species, boa constrictors are one of the most iconic, firmly embedded in world culture and media. The concept of constriction, the inescapable act of crushing, is used widely as a metaphor, and therefore has brought this species of snake forward as an ambassador to human society. And because they thrive in human captivity, boas have become a staple in zoos and as private pets, giving people around the world direct personal contact with them.
How the Great Lakes Were Formed
The Great Lakes took more than a billion years to carve into their present shape. Their story starts with a continental split that tried to tear North America in two. That rift failed and left a deep scar of soft rock across the interior. Mile-thick ice sheets later ground down that weak rock into five enormous basins. Meltwater flooded the basins as the last glaciers pulled back toward Canada. The land is still rising today where all that ice once pressed it down.
9 Stress-Free British Columbia Towns For A Weekend Retreat
In British Columbia you can soak in a mineral hot spring one weekend and watch orcas surface off a harbor the next. The province packs warm Okanagan lakes and glacier-fed rivers into towns small enough to see in two days. Squamish sits beneath a 2,300-foot granite monolith that draws climbers all summer. Harrison Hot Springs has centered its whole village on mineral pools since 1886. Penticton stretches its beaches between two lakes and banks more than 2,000 hours of sunshine a year.
NBC Greenlights Emmy-Nominated Event Series ‘The Americas’ for 2nd Season
‘The Americas: A Wild 250th’ special premieres July 2 on NBC and streams next day on Peacock. June 30, 2026 Tom Hanks is set to return as narrator for a newly greenlit Season 2 of NBC’s Emmy-nominated nature documentary series The Americas. Set to premiere in 2028, the new season will explore new regions and dig deeper into the wildlife and majestic landscapes the supercontinent has to offer.
African Wild Dog
Best not to give this dog a pat. The African wild dog is a canine native to sub-Saharan Africa, mostly found in patchy distribution throughout East Africa. It’s a specialized hunter of ungulates like antelope and impalas and has strong social bonds within its pack.
Wombat
Don't be fooled by the wombat's short legs and expressive face. These cuddly looking creatures can be feisty, and won't hesitate about standing up to threats, including humans. Their stout, compact bodies have some weight behind them, up to 40 kilograms (88 pounds) in large adults, along with powerful claws and very sharp teeth.
10 Rhode Island Towns With A Slower Pace Of Life
Rhode Island is filled with quiet coastal towns and historic villages where life moves at an easygoing pace. Narragansett offers plenty of coastal recreation, including fishing, kayaking, and leisurely walks. Warren is popular with cyclists because the East Bay Bike Path runs through downtown. New Shoreham is a peaceful island community where visitors can take in panoramic Atlantic views from towering clay cliffs. Exeter holds the state's largest stretch of protected wilderness.
Wolverine
If you’ve ever seen a wolverine in its natural habitat, consider yourself lucky. These stocky, powerful carnivores are among the most elusive animals on the planet and are seldom seen by humans, even researchers and seasoned backcountry users. Wolverines are solitary animals that live at naturally low densities and require huge home ranges, especially males.
8 Oregon Towns With A Slower Pace Of Life
Oregon's smaller towns tend to put the workings of daily life within walking distance of whatever natural feature defines them. Sisters built its Western-storefront downtown right against the Three Sisters peaks, and a summer quilt show held there since 1975 brings in international visitors without disturbing the town's working rhythm. Manzanita does the same thing on the coast, where the residents' day still tracks the Pacific tides rolling onto the beach.
8 Best Small Towns To Retire In Ontario
Ontario's smaller towns offer retirees a strong combination of waterfront scenery and practical everyday infrastructure. Niagara-on-the-Lake pairs Shaw Festival theatre and Niagara wineries with hospital access in nearby Niagara Falls. Elora sits on the Grand River with healthcare in adjacent Fergus. Tobermory anchors the Bruce Peninsula trail-and-shoreline circuit. Stratford's appeal runs on its world-renowned festival theatre and Stratford General Hospital.
11 Best Places To Retire In Quebec
Quebec offers retirees a combination of affordable housing, strong healthcare access in most regions, and small communities scattered along the St. Lawrence River, in the Laurentians, the Eastern Townships, and along the Saguenay Fjord. Many of the towns on this list run housing prices well below those in Montreal or Quebec City, and provincial healthcare access remains solid even outside the bigger urban centres.
This Is The Friendliest Small Town in Maine
Some places you visit once. Others welcome you back before you’ve left. Ogunquit sits on Maine’s southern coast 35 miles south of Portland, and families return for decades to the same cottages and the same stretch of beach. The Marginal Way still climbs the cliffs. The Ogunquit Playhouse still draws Broadway-caliber casts to its summer stage. Here’s why so many people call Ogunquit the friendliest place in Maine. The Marginal Way Oarweed Cove along the Marginal Way.
7 Prettiest Downtown Strips In Vermont
Vermont's prettiest downtown strips capture New England history through brick facades and historic churches, all set against the surrounding rolling mountains. These towns stand out in every season, from winter months when big, fluffy flakes fall in ski towns like Stowe, to autumn when surrounding mountains like Deer Leap turn red and gold, to springtime when the state's famous green mountains erupt with foliage.
9 Most Relaxing Nevada Towns
In Nevada, towns are often separated by long stretches of the Great Basin Desert and backed by mountain ranges like the Sierra Nevada, creating a level of quiet that's hard to find elsewhere. That distance is what makes places like Caliente, Ely, and Minden feel especially relaxing. Hot springs, dark skies, and uncrowded parks shape the experience. In Moapa, Valley of Fire State Park shows off its red sandstone formations.
8 Portugal Small Towns With Unmatched Friendliness
When visiting Portugal's Silver Coast or exploring Alentejo, you quickly stop feeling like a tourist. In Nazaré, you can chat with fishermen along Praia da Nazaré or watch surfers ride massive Atlantic swells at Praia do Norte. For a taste of Portuguese inland cooking, Almeirim is the place to try sopa da pedra or sample wines at estates like Quinta do Casal Branco. Each of the eight small towns below has its own identity, built on fishing, royal history, pilgrimage, or surf culture.
11 Best Lakeside Towns in the Adirondack Mountains
The Adirondack Region’s beautiful lakes (over 3000 of them), carved by glaciers, have shaped the area’s recreational landscape for generations. Lake Placid stands out for its Olympic legacy and lively waterfront setting. Lake George draws visitors with its long history as a vacation destination and its striking shoreline framed by forested hills. Together, these lakeside towns help explain why the Adirondack Region attracts visitors from around the world in every season.
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