Looking out my back door

Hope you are having a wonderful holiday season! Probably like me, many of your are taking this time to relax, reorganize and reinvigorate.

I've been going through my photos from the last twelve months and there were a lot of great trips and memories! However, this photo was, by far, one of my favorites - my backyard in the summer time.

Rarely does Denver look this green but we were pretty fortunate to have a wet late Spring, which means tree plantings and thriving vegetable gardens.

Here's to your favorite green space, be it your backyard, or the backcountry. Thanks for helping support Leave No Trace in 2010 - see you next year!

Sarah

Osprey Packs, Kids Essay Contest - September Winner!

Congratulations to the September winner of Osprey's Kids Essay Contest, Isabella Zimmer!

The Kids Essay Contest is a monthly submission contest run by Osprey Packs that encourages kids to tell us about their most memorable outdoor experiences, and how they practiced Leave No Trace along the way.

To read Isabella's essay, "A Story of a Day in Little Wild Horse Canyon," you can visit the Kids Essay Contest website.

Keep up the great work, Isabella!

A New Favorite

Anything that gets me outside, looking at this ...

And makes me smile this big ...

... Is my new favorite way to play outside!

What's your favorite way to play outside?

Natural Wonders of the World

Last week I read an article regarding the global competition to name the "New 7 Wonders of Nature." The competition is coordinated by a Swiss nonprofit of the same name and is expected to draw over a billion voters via the internet (the wonder of technology!).

The nonprofit has received 441 nominations since 2007, including such natural wonders as Niagra Falls, the Great Barrier Reef, Mount Everest, Loch Ness, Zuma Rock, and the Matterhorn. The list was narrowed to 222 sites covering the globe.

Here's a link to the full article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090106/ap_on_sc/eu7_natural_wonders

That said, what is your "natural wonder of the world"? It could be something as simple as the woods behind your own backyard.

So Leave No Trace community...what is your vote?