Prepare for serious sky confetti. In mid-August, the peak of the Perseid meteor shower—one of the year’s most prolific celestial happenings—will spark dozens to hundreds of soaring streaks per hour. The conditions couldn’t be better.

(Photo: DenisTangneyJr / Getty)

During North American summers, South America has their austral winter, and this year's ski season should be the best in decades with record-breaking snow.(Photo: Tamara Susa)

Toadstool Geologic Park.(Photo: Shiann Olberding)

(Photo: Getty / Canva / Ayana Underwood)

I get a lot of work-related hate mail, which is interesting considering I have a relatively benign job. I’m not dealing in blood diamonds. I’m not a Pharma Bro. I write articles about cool places to go and fun things to do. Occasionally, I write aboutmountain townsfor this magazine—mountain towns you can actually affordand thebest mountain bike towns,to name a few. That’s when I start hearing from you in emails and social media messages, questioning my purpose on this planet and asking me to please not write about your towns.

The mountain at the brand new OZ Trails Bike Park isn’t very big. Rising less than 300 feet in elevation, I don’t even think you can call it a mountain. It’s a hill. But what the trail designers have done with that hill is nothing short of amazing. The park has a high-speed quad lift feeding bikers to more than 20 miles of gravity trails, which offer plenty of options for every level of rider. There are green cruisers and blue flow and black jumps and double black boulder drops—it is a world-class bike park spread across 200 acres on a tiny hill in Arkansas, in the town of Bella Vista, which sits six miles outside of downtown Bentonville. I had the chance to ride the new park during the grand opening weekend, and I came away with one overwhelming emotion: jealousy. I live in a well-known mountain bike town,Asheville, North Carolina, with tons of trails, but we don’t have a bike park like this.

The Pacific Ocean is the obvious draw, but San Diego goes beyond its SoCal-cool image and delivers a community that’s full of culture and surrounded by adventure.

Boulder is a crossroads in many ways. It sits at the front edge of the Rocky Mountains, where the plains meet the peaks, while it also occupies a rare intersection between urban culture and the great outdoors.

(Photo: Breckenridge Tourism Office)

(Photo: Parc national de la Gaspésie ©️ Tourisme Gaspésie / I. Roberge)

View of Main Street, Anaconda, Montana.(Photo: Getty)

Most travel slogans land somewhere between crass marketing and hokey catchphrases. But inCosta Rica,pura vidais so much more than a slogan. It captures an entire worldview, and you hear it everywhere, woven into the fabric of daily life: at the airport, in the surf lineup, from a farmer reaching into a bag of custardy-sweet guanábanas to make a batido before you follow the sound of howler monkeys into the cloud forest canopy.

Mountain bikers in Moab, Utah.(Photo: Courtesy of Visit Utah)

(Photo: Kathleen Fu, Background Image: Getty)

At last summer’s Chicago River Swim, the first in a century in that iconic waterway of stunning skyscrapers and ornamented drawbridges, swimmers were captivated by one of the joys of urban swimming: a unique perspective on the city, from the water.

Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park in Macon, Georgia.(Photo: Courtesy Visit Macon CBF)

A crowd gathered to watch the Firefall in Yosemite(Photo: Anadolu / Contributor / Getty)

Those who have been to Moab know it’s an incredible place—and all you have to do is show up to experience its wonder. If you haven’t visited yet, you’ll understand why when you do. Whether you’re hiking, mountain biking, rafting, off-roading, or taking a scenic drive, around each corner you’ll find a new landscape that knocks you back with beauty and new experiences to fill you up with adventure. There are vistas to soak in, towers to climb, rivers to run, slickrock to explore (on two legs, two wheels, or four), and there’s no time like now to do it.

Tent on a campsite by Lemolo Lake in morning mist, Umpqua National Forest, Orego.(Photo: Getty)