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Three Father's Day Trip Gifts for Your Outdoorsy Dad

You have less than two weeks left to get dad a Father's Day gift. Avoid going to the mall and picking out yet another tie and treat dear old pops to a vacation. We can help you out with some suggestions for some outdoorsy activities, but it's up to you to book these adventure travel packages before June 19.

Check out three adventure travel deals for dad:

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Golf Travel / Sports Travel / Airports / Lists / Active Travel / Outdoor Travel / LGA / LAS / SLC / DTW / PDX / → All Tags

Five Golf Courses Easily Accessible to Both Fairways and Runways

If you’re looking for something to do between flights—and you always travel with your clubs—there might be a place convenient to both the fairways and the runways. Check out our picks for some of the best golf courses that are like only 10 miles from the airport or less:

· Colwood National Golf Club - PDX
There’s four courses that are within a short cab ride from Portland International Airport, but the easiest to access is Colwood National Golf Club. It’s so close to the airport—as well as the Air National Guard Station—that there are places where you can see the planes taxi and take off.

It’s a full 18-hole course, and this summer playing all the holes will set you back around $30. There are a lot of red-eye flights out of PDX back to the east coast—and beyond—so we recommend hitting up one of their twilight specials before heading to the airport. On Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays it's just $9 to play 8-holes as long as you begin after 3:00pm.

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National Parks / Animal Travel / Outdoor Travel / Active Travel / → All Tags

Why You'll Need to Bring Pepper Spray on Your Next Visit to Yellowstone

Spring has sprung in national parks across the country, but if you’re heading out into the wilderness just remember one thing. All the critters and creatures are also excited about the warmer weather, and they’re also kind of hungry after being cooped up indoors for the entire winter.

In Yellowstone National Park, the bears have started to come out of their dens, and they’re eager to snag a few pick-a-nick baskets or whatever us humans leave lying around the park. Officials say that loads of snow has forced the bears to stay put a little longer than usual, but they’re on the loose now and they really want a snack or two.

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Go Frolicking in the Park for Free During National Park Week

Outdoorsy types, get your hiking boots on and backpacks ready. National Park Week is set for April 16 to 24, giving you the chance to explore 394 national parks for free all week long. Freebies include national monuments and historic sites.

While a number of national parks are usually free, more than 100 of them charge you to enter. So you'll save the $20 car fee at Yosemite and Rocky Mountain National Park as well as the $25 vehicle fee at the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone.

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San Francisco's Golden Gate Park Cracks Down on Doggies

Time might be limited for Fido and Fluffy at San Francisco’s Golden Gate National Recreation Area, as there are some new rules kicking around that would limit canine activities at the park.

A new, too-long-to-read document—like 2,400 pages—was released earlier this month by the country’s largest urban national park dealing with all kinds of stuff, but the things that have gotten residents all worked up is the possible new leash law. Right now the area is the only national park in the country where portions of the park allow pups to do their thing free and clear, but soon everyone might be getting a less room to roam.

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Free National Park Entrance Days Start in April

The National Park Service really wants more and more people to check out their offerings, especially since they’ve started allowing visitors into plenty of parks for free over the last couple years.

This year is no different, as Uncle Sam is eager to invite one and all into his backyard without shelling out up to $20 or so per carload. Entrance fees will be waived on the first day of summer—that’s June 21. Things will also be free on Public Lands Day on September 24 along with Veterans Day weekend from November 11 through 13.

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Movie Set Travel / Texas Travel / Cowboy Travel / True Grit / Matt Damon / Jeff Bridges / Movie Travel / Healthy Travel / Outdoor Travel / → All Tags

'True Grit' and Matt Damon Put Granger, Texas on the Map

This week, Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon are bringing Westerns back with the release of their latest film, True Grit. Though parts of the movie were filmed in New Mexico, most of the shoot took place in Granger, TX which was transformed into an 1870's version of Fort Smith, Arkansas.

The rural town—with a population of only 1,400— seems like an unlikely choice for a big budget Hollywood movie, but the look and feel of Granger convinced producers that it was the right location: "We chose Granger because its appearance is close to that of a turn-of-the-century town that matched the reference photos we have for Fort Smith, Ark.," the film's location manager, Robbie Friedmann said.

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Outdoor Travel / Winter Travel / Active Travel / Holiday Travel / Birds / Animals / Volunteer Travel / → All Tags

Christmas is Really for the Birds, Thanks to Audubon's Annual Bird Count

It’s pretty cold outside right now, and while we do enjoy the warmth of a fire, there’s plenty of outdoor action this holiday season. The Audubon Society is encouraging everyone to bring their spiked eggnog outside over the next couple of weeks, as it’s time for the annual bird count.

Things are already underway for the 111th annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count—it’s the longest bird type census thing in the world—but don’t worry if you didn’t count any birds just yet.

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National Parks / Winter Travel / Active Travel / Outdoor Travel / National Parks Travel / Holiday Travel / Yellowstone / → All Tags

Winter Weather Means Show Shoe Tours and Winter Hours at National Parks Like Yellowstone

Snow has started to blanket much of the nation, but some of the country’s national parks are far more white than green right now. Parks like Yellowstone, Olympic, and Grand Teton are some of the best places to explore the great outdoors under a fresh blanket of snow this month, as the parks have opened their doors for winter exploration.

Since some of these parks get so much of the fluffy stuff during the winter, hours and access to the parks change during the colder months. As of yesterday, Yellowstone has opened for the winter, which means fewer roads for normal cars and more roads and access points for over-snow vehicles. Access to some of the main attractions—like Old Faithful—is now only accessible via snowmobile (this would be awesome to do) or through a snow coach operator. The park limits the amount of vehicles allowed in the park per day, so be sure to plan ahead if you want to visit this winter.

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Can Oprah's Yosemite Camping Trip Revive National Park Travel?

America's National Parks have been having a pretty good month, publicity-wise. First there was the announcement that master documentarian Ken Burns would be lending his skills and voice to creating tours of some of America's backlands and badlands and now comes news that the world's single biggest marketing jackpot—Oprah Winfrey herself—s getting into the mix.

The talk show host/erstwhile cult leader took a camping trip to California travel destination Yosemite National Park earlier this month, and then featured the experience on her show. The hope from the park service is that the episode and all the associated attention will increase interest in National Parks across the board, but they're especially looking to remedy the disproportionate lack of African-American visitors.

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What the Heck is a 'Biffy Bag?' Well, It's a Travel Toilet

Listed as one of Fall 2010's Travel Essentials by Magellan's, the Biffy Bag is the "world's only personal disposable toilet designed to be used comfortably without a bucket or comode to sit on."

If you found that confusing, no worries. It took us reading the Biffy Bag homepage, the how it works section, and the online FAQ to figure out the mechanics of what was going on here. And we don't mean that in like a giggly "haha people go to the bathroom" kind of way. We mean it in a very technical "what attaches to what and why is that something someone would want" kind of way. We eventually had to watch the instructional video, which we've helpfully embedded below.

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Fall Foliage Travel / Fall Travel / Outdoor Travel / Lists / → All Tags

Stuck in the City? Five Urban Parks That Offer Vivid Fall Foliage

Rustic, out-of-the-way little towns don't have a monopoly on beautiful fall foliage. Sure, places like Stowe, Vermont, and the Catskills in Upstate New York teem with amazing color leaves, but you don't have to trek into the country to get a dose of autumn. We're gonna go all Leslie Knope and tell you about the great parks in urban areas where you can get an eyeful of fall foliage.

After the jump, see our top five city parks for leaf-peeping.

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