The nature essay is much like a personal journal because it is a description of the effects of nature on writers. Although there is no one set definition of this type of essay, there are certain common characteristics seen in the nature essay. When one writes a nature essay, there are audiences as well as personal and rhetorical purposes in mind. The main "rhetorics" used by nature essayists include the following: that of the skeptic, preacher, urban nature lover, journalist, storyteller, spiritualist, naturalist, explorer, philosopher, and preservationist. The reoccurring themes in the nature essay include the following: self-reliance, solitude, higher laws and spirituality, time, idleness, community, exploration, and preservation, the natural, and, of course, nature.
 

The nature essay has many different styles and forms, but it most often is personal and deals with feelings and emotions as well as the exploration of a natural place or phenomena. The nature essayist often uses this exploration of a place or phenomena as a sort of launch pad to explore herself/himself or truths about the natural world. In the end, something else has been discovered about him or her that often seems to come as a surprise.

Some authors claim that there are no more travelers: that we are all tourists now.  Perhaps that is true, but there are still different kinds of tourist.  Perhaps the distinction can be made not so much on the basis of why we travel, but on the basis of what we do when we travel.  Can a "tourist" stereotypically defined write travel essays?  I think probably not.  Do travelers by definition write travel essays?  Not at all.