The popularity of bird-watching, camping, and hiking has skyrocketed this year. Whether your gift recipients are weekend warriors or seasoned dirtbags, they'll appreciate these tools and gear for getting most out of their hiking experience.

1. Stanley Nesting Two-Cup Cookset; $14

Stanley’s compact and lightweight cookset includes a 20-ounce stainless steel pot with a locking handle, a vented lid, and two insulated 10-ounce tumblers. It’s the perfect size for brewing hot coffee, rehydrating soup, or boiling water while out on the trail with a buddy. And as some hardcore backpackers note in their Amazon reviews, your favorite hiker can take the tumblers out and stuff the pot with a camp stove, matches, and other necessities to make good use of space in their pack.

Buy it: Amazon

2. Osprey Sirrus and Stratos 24-Liter Hiking Packs; $140

Osprey’s packs are designed with trail-tested details to maximize comfort and ease of use. The Sirrus pack (pictured) is sized for women, while the Stratos fits men’s proportions. Both include an internal sleeve for a hydration reservoir, exterior mesh and hipbelt pockets, an attachment for carrying trekking poles, and a built-in rain cover.

Buy them: Amazon, Amazon

3. Yeti Rambler 18-Ounce Bottle; $48

Nothing beats ice-cold water after a summer hike or a sip of hot tea during a winter walk. The Yeti Rambler can serve up both: Beverages can stay hot or cold for hours thanks to its insulated construction, and its steel body (in a variety of colors) is basically indestructible. It will add weight to your hiker's pack, though—for a lighter-weight, non-insulated option, the tried-and-true Camelbak Chute water bottle is incredibly sturdy and leakproof.

Buy it: Amazon

4. Mappinners Greatest 100 Hikes of the National Parks Scratch-Off Poster; $30

The perfect gift for park baggers in your life (or yourself), this 16-inch-by-20-inch poster features epic hikes like Angel’s Landing in Zion National Park and Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. Once the hike is complete, you can scratch off the gold foil to reveal an illustration of the park.

Buy it: Amazon

5. National Geographic Adventure Edition Road Atlas; $19

Hikers can use this brand-new, updated road atlas to plan their next adventure. In addition to comprehensive maps of all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Canada, and Mexico, they'll get National Geographic’s top 100 outdoor destinations, useful details about the most popular national parks, and points on the maps noting off-the-beaten-path places to explore.  

Buy it: Amazon

6. Adventure Medical Kits Hiker First-Aid Kit; $25

This handy 67-piece kit is stuffed with all the things you hope your hiker will never need in the wilderness. Not only does it contain supplies for pain, cuts and scrapes, burns, and blisters (every hiker’s nemesis!), the items are organized clearly in the bag to make it easy to find tweezers or an alcohol wipe in an emergency.

Buy it: Amazon

7. Hiker Hunger Ultralight Trekking Poles; $70

Trekking poles will help increase your hiker's balance and stability and reduce strain on their lower body by distributing it to their arms and shoulders. This pair is made of carbon fiber, a super-strong and lightweight material. From the sweat-absorbing cork handles to the selection of pole tips for different terrain, these poles answer every need on the trail. 

Buy it: Amazon

8. Leatherman Signal Camping Multitool; $120

What can’t this multitool do? This gadget contains 19 hiking-friendly tools in a 4.5-inch package, including pliers, screwdrivers, bottle opener, saw, knife, hammer, wire cutter, and even an emergency whistle.

Buy it: Amazon

9. RAVPower Power Bank; $24

Don’t let your hiker get caught off the grid with a dead phone. They can charge RAVPower’s compact power bank before they head out on the trail, and then use it to quickly juice up a phone or tablet when the batteries get low. Its 3-inch-by-5-inch profile won’t take up much room in a pack or purse.

Buy it: Amazon

10. Pack of Four Indestructible Field Books; $14

Neither rain, nor snow, nor hail will be a match for these waterproof, tearproof 3.5-inch-by-5.5-inch notebooks. Your hiker can stick one in their pocket along with a regular pen or pencil to record details of their hike or brainstorm their next viral Tweet.

Buy it: Amazon

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Each year, Nikon holds the Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition to recognize the coolest images of the smallest subjects. The 2020 winners were just announced, and as usual, it’s a stunning collection of things only visible under a microscope—hippocampal neurons, for example—and familiar things that look completely different under a microscope (like human hair).

First place went to Daniel Castranova, an aquatic research specialist at the National Institute of Health, for his snapshot of a juvenile zebrafish. The photo isn’t the result of a brief camera click; instead, Castranova and his colleague Bakary Samasa scanned the fish using a technique called “confocal microscopy” and then stacked more than 350 frames to create one comprehensive image. During the project, the researchers realized that zebrafish—which are already used as lab models to study many human diseases—have lymphatic vessels in their skulls, which means their lymphatic systems are much more similar to humans’ than previously thought. They're so similar that zebrafish may prove useful in Alzheimer’s disease and cancer research.

“Until now, we thought this type of lymphatic system associated with the nervous system only occurred in mammals,” Castranova told Nikon. “By studying them, the scientific community can expedite a range of research and clinical innovations—everything from drug trials to cancer treatments. This is because fish are so much easier to raise and image than mammals.”

The image is also evidence that art and science can go hand in hand—the overarching point of the whole competition. See some of our other favorite winners below, and scroll through the full gallery here.

Embryonic Development of a Clownfish // Second Place

Daniel Knop from Germany’s Natur und Tier Verlag stacked images to capture the progression of a clownfish (Amphiprion percula) forming in its egg—a difficult feat, considering that the embryo didn’t exactly stop moving to pose.

Tongue of a Freshwater Snail // Third Place

A snail’s tongue, or radula, is covered in thousands of microscopic teeth that rub against its food to snag off small bits. As demonstrated by this photo from Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Dr. Igor Siwanowicz, it’s actually more dazzling than disgusting.

Bogong Moth // Fifth Place

The dull brown coat of Australia’s Bogong moth is nothing special from afar. Magnified under the lens of Indonesia-based microphotographer Ahmad Fauzan, it looks like a tiger-inspired shag carpet (which is almost as cool as its spiral tongue).

Red Algae // 11th Place

Red algae’s tendrils have a skeletal quality even when viewed with the naked eye. University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s Dr. Tagide deCarvalho shows just how much they look like long, alien skeleton hands when seen beneath a microscope.

Crystals Formed From an Ethanol and Water Solution // 13th Place

New York-based photographer Justin Zoll used polarized light to reveal the vibrant details of crystals created when an amino acid-containing solution of ethanol and water was heated.

Nylon Stockings // 16th Place

Micrography can also illuminate the beauty of seemingly mundane, human-made products. This image, taken by Alexander Klepnev at Moscow’s JSC Radiophysics, shows how nylon fibers are knotted to make a pair of tights.

Skeleton of a Fruit Bat Embryo // 20th Place

University of Cape Town’s Dr. Dorit Hockman and Dr. Vanessa Chong-Morrison didn’t utilize any light-filtering techniques to snap this photo of a short-tailed fruit bat's embryonic skeleton smiling at you (or so it seems). Happy Halloween!