Outdoor adventure
Take A Hike With The Humanities
Take A Hike is a virtual program designed to get Idahoans enjoying the outdoors with a reading inspired by the beauty of this land. Each week we suggest a reading to help you make the most of your outdoor adventures! We will include short stories, poems, cartoons, essays, songs and more.
Share your photos/thoughts/inspiration with us on Facebook, Instagram, or at johanna@idahohumanities.org.
January 2026
This Week Take a Hike With Danez Smith
Danez Smith is a writer, performer, and poet; the author of four poetry collections and has won numerous prizes for their work including the Forward Prize for Best Collection, the Minnesota Book Award in Poetry, the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and have been a finalist for the NAACP Image Award in Poetry, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the National Book Award, as well as an array of grants, fellowships, and residencies including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. They live and work in the Twin Cities. This week, take a hike with Danez Smith.
Check Out Previous Hikes
Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening
One of the most beloved and well-known American poets, Robert Frost explored universal themes using language as it was usually spoken. President John F. Kennedy, at whose inauguration Frost delivered a poem, said of the poet, “He has bequeathed his nation a body of imperishable verse from which Americans will forever gain joy and understanding.”…
In Memoriam
Read In Memoriam by Alfred, Lord Tennyson and get outside to enjoy the blustery, gloomy weather to celebrate the New Year.
Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem
Join us outside this week to read Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem by Dr. Maya Angelou.
River
It’s coming on Christmas They’re cutting down trees They’re putting up reindeer And singing songs of joy and peace Oh I wish I had a river I could skate away on Join us on the trail this week with River by Joni Mitchell.
Praise Song for the Day
During this season of reflection and gratitude, we are bundling up and getting on the trail with Pulitzer Prize nominated poet, writer, and academic Elizabeth Alexander and her poem Praise Song for the Day.
I’ve Been Working So Hard
This week, enjoy nature through the eyes of a child and read I’ve Been Working So Hard by beloved children’s writer Shel Silverstein.
The Peace of Wild Things
We are embracing the healing power of time in nature this week with writer Wendell Berry. Read The Peace of Wild Things and “for a time…rest in the grace of the world,” and be free.
August 24th, 61 from Markings
Embrace the changing of the seasons with some thoughts from former UN Secretary General and Nobel Peace Prize winner Dag Hammarskjold, translated from Swedish by Leif Sjoberg and W.H. Auden. Vägmärken or Markings, is the journal where Hammarskjold collected his thoughts beginning in 1925 when he was 20 years old. This journal was discovered in…
Wild Geese
IHC board members Dr. Mac Test and Dr. Bob Reinhardt from Boise State University both share this poem as a favorite! Layer up for an early morning hike, or layer down for an afternoon walk, and enjoy Wild Geese by Mary Oliver.
Behavior in Crisis
September is here, students are back to school, and it is harvest season. This week we are reading Behavior in Crisis by Ruth Mota.