The Marlboro Man he's not.

He's spent his adult life in big cities - New York, Chicago and, now, Washington. Basketball, golf and bodysurfing are how this jock rolls. Indoor daily gym workouts are the norm. Hunting, climbing, rafting - not so much.

Yet there he was on a summer weekend, enthusiastically soaking in America's vast wilderness. He toured Yellowstone National Park, checking out Old Faithful. He strolled trails along the Grand Canyon's rim. He cast a fly while fishing in a Montana river and spent a night in a mountainside lodge.

"Pretty nice, eh," Obama said Sunday as the family took in the breathtaking view from the Grand Canyon's Hopi Point under a magnificent blue sky and overlooking a 5,000-foot drop to the Colorado River. "Last time I was here was when I was 11 years old." Asked by a ranger if it looked the same, he said, "It does!"

A day earlier at Yellowstone, the first family watched the world's most famous geyser erupt. "Oh, that's pretty good. Cool! Look at that. That's a geyser there," Obama said. His entourage also traipsed across wooden walkways in the steamy Black Sand Basin, a brilliant-hued hydrothermal spot in the park dotted with hot springs, geysers, mud pots and fumaroles.

With the wonders of his country at his disposal, Obama did things that might seem a little out of his comfort zone. It's safe to say that this Hawaiian-born president has spent more time on beaches and in cities than he has in the mountains of the West.

Obama brought his wife, Michelle, and daughters Malia and Sasha, as well as other relatives, including half sister Maya Soetoro-Ng and her young family, on a trip that was part family vacation, part policy promotion.

He held a couple of town-hall-style events to plug his efforts to overhaul health care. In Belgrade, Mont., he opened with this comment: "Here in Montana, you've got bears and moose and elk. In Washington, you have mostly bull. So this is a nice change of pace!"

At the Grand Canyon, Obama showed his daughters sites he saw as a child when he visited parks with his mother, grandmother and half sister.

As Obama tended to presidential duties this weekend, his wife and daughters spent 90 minutes whitewater rafting in rain and, at times, hail in Montana and went peach-picking in Colorado, bringing some back for travelers on Air Force One.

"He wants very much to see and share the outdoors and some of the beautiful places in the country with his daughters," press secretary Robert Gibbs said. "He's always tremendously enjoyed being outside with his family."

This article appeared on page A - 5 of the San Francisco Chronicle