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 FacebookInstagram, or at programs@idahohumanities.org.

June 2026

This Week Take a Hike With Homero Aridjis

Born in Contepec, Michoacán, Mexico, Homero Aridjis has written over fity books of poetry and prose and has won many important international literary prizes including the prix Roger Caillois, the John Hay Award from the Orion Society, two Guggenheim fellowships, and most recently the 2024 Griffin Poetry Prize. Formerly Mexico’s ambassador to Switzerland, UNESCO, and the Netherlands, he is also the former president of PEN International. Often regarded as the “poetic soul,” of Mexico’s environmental movement, Aridjis founded the Group of 100 in 1985; an organization of 100 artists, authors, and scientists dedicated to preserving the natural world.

Take a Hike with Homero Aridjis

Check Out Previous Hikes

River

December 23, 2025

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

December 10, 2025

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

November 18, 2025

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

November 5, 2025

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.

Dag Hammarskjold

August 24th, 61 from Markings

October 14, 2025

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…

Mary Oliver, poet

Wild Geese

October 3, 2025

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 17, 2025

September is here, students are back to school, and it is harvest season. This week we are reading Behavior in Crisis by Ruth Mota.

John Prine

Summer’s End

September 2, 2025

This week we start to say farewell to summer with Summer’s End by Grammy winner, singer-songwriter John Prine.

Jose Mari Iparragirre

Agur Euskalerriari

August 14, 2025

We are enjoying the return of Jaialdi to Boise this week by hitting the trail with Basque writer Jose Mari Iparragirre.

On the Fifth Day

July 31, 2025

Beat the heat by getting outdoors with contemporary poet Jane Hirshfield.