Table of contents for Fall 2025 in AFAR

LATE IN THE SPRING of 2023, a short footnote in a book brought me to the Anne Spencer House & Garden Museum in Lynchburg, Virginia. A librarian and part-time teacher at the segregated Paul Laurence Dunbar High School for nearly 20 years, Spencer was also an activist and published poet who touched on topics of race and feminism. She was the first Black woman to be included in the Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry in 1973. When I arrived at the museum in early June, Spencer’s granddaughter, Shaun Spencer-Hester, showed me around and shared memories of the woman who knew Marian Anderson, Martin Luther King Jr., W. E. B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, and Langston Hughes, all of whom visited her home. I stood transfixed in front of Spencer’s writing…

Epic trips come in all shapes and sizes—you don’t need to summit the tallest peak or hike the deepest canyon to find travel that pushes your limits. And you don’t need to go that far from home. We’ve collected 15 experiences across the United States, divided among five ecosystems: mountains (p.42), lakes and rivers (p.48), deserts (p.52), cities (p.56), and oceans (p.60). For each, trip ideas run the gamut from low-key outings (beach camping and bird-watching) to multiday itineraries that are guaranteed to get the adrenaline pumping (packrafting and canyoneering). Whether it’s tracking wolves in Yellowstone or mountain biking in the middle of a city, find your next stateside adventure here. MOUNTAINS View synchronous fireflies in the Great Smoky Mountains TENNESSEE Photinus carolinus is not your average lightning bug: This…

AS SHE STEPPED of our hotel in Lima, my wife, Tracy, took in the view. I’m blind, so I did not. Some sensations reminded me of our home on Vancouver Island, though. Sea lions barked. The fog from the Pacific Ocean filled my nose with a briny air. As Tracy and I followed the city’s malecón, or boardwalk, gentle waves peeled like a sigh, suggesting the presence of surfers. At cevichería Canta Rana, I scarfed a bowl of chupe, a Peruvian soup made here with sea bass, tomato, sweet potato, and the occasional maize kernel the size of a kidney bean. We washed it all down with tall glasses of chicha morada, Peru’s ubiquitous purple corn juice. Not the view, but these first sounds, smells, and tastes landed me in…

JAPAN Abercrombie & Kent Its combination of traditional and modern architecture, and ancient history and pop culture, has made Japan one of the most appealing cruise destinations in Asia—not least because so much of it is accessible by water. In spring 2026, luxury tour operator Abercrombie & Kent is chartering Ponant’s Le Jacques Cartier to explore five islands over 14 days, from Kyushu down south to Hokkaido in the north; the cruise is capped at 148 passengers, making for a favorable guestto-guide ratio. After a precruise stay at the Ritz-Carlton Osaka, the itinerary includes private performances by Kodo taiko drummers and geishas, strolls among cherry blossoms and bonsai trees, and visits to castles and temples, such as the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto. In Hiroshima, travelers have the opportunity for quiet…

AN HOUR INTO THE BUSH AND A DUNG BEETLE had already pushed its namesake orb across our path. From a purple-pod terminalia tree a crimson-breasted shrike pontificated at us. A small croc in a muddy pond eyed us crossly. (Or sweetly? Hard to read those guys.) We reached the dry riverbed around noon. For 15 minutes we traveled along its sun-bleached bank. Then our guide, Kyle MacIntyre, held up a hand. “Notice anything?” he whispered. He gestured toward a lagoon ahead. We scanned. No, nothing. Unless— Two dark forms in the water. I began nudging my family backward. “It’s okay,” MacIntyre said. “If we move very slowly, no sudden movements, we can get closer.” We crept through scrub, stopped when the forms came into focus: ears wriggling, skin like wet…