
Middle of the night at the Toolik Long Term Ecological Research Station in Alaska. It gets cooler and slightly darker, but the sun is always peeking its head around the corner.

Freshly fallen snow can only be stepped in once. But it also muffles noises for the kind of serene winter that only happens in the north.

There’s a trail along the length of the 3-mile gorge allowing you to feel enveloped by nature and be up close and personal with mosses, ferns, and waterfalls (even walk under one).

There’s a person tucked in that wiregrass. In fact, he’s out collecting seeds to ensure a new generation of the understory of the longleaf pine forest in the sandhills ecosystem in eastern North Carolina.