Land art in the West, Twilight and the Quileute tribe; three days in New Mexico, Montana, and Reno; Las Vegas gun tourism; Craig Childs on travel to the deep past.
Tracking Ice Age people in Oregon
Wind-whipped rainclouds formed a low ceiling over the oceanic buttes and basins of south-central Oregon. The usually sundrenched sage darkened in the weather as I walked, my hood pulled up against the grass-bending tug of the northwest breeze. The air smelled richer than it usually does on the dry side of the Cascades, the sagebrush…
Three days in the Four Corners
The Four Corners country — the point where sage plains, mesas and desert canyons radiate out from the intersection of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah — is a land of friction. The cultures of the Ute, Apache and Navajo tribes rub up against the Hispanic and Anglo cultures. The ancient rudely bumps into the…
Three days in eastern Montana
The bull erupted from its pen, plunged toward the dirt, kicked its hooves into the air and sprayed grainy shit across my face. None of the bull-riders and cowboys winced like I did. Cow crap is as common in their lives as sunlight and coffee. “It’s just something you’ll have to experience for yourself,” the…
The Quileute Reservation copes with tourists brought by “Twilight”
Five Quileute boys emerge from a phalanx of drummers. Barefoot and bare-chested, they wear black cloaks and wolf headdresses, and dance, crouch and crawl within the center of a large circle. On the outskirts, women and girls move rhythmically to a chant and steady drumbeat, several of them sporting red and black capes emblazoned with…
Three days in western Nevada
Think Reno is merely a smaller, tamer stepchild of Las Vegas? Think again. Spend three days here, and you’ll get a taste of a modern Western city that’s still both quirky and affordable. It’s a great base for side trips, too: within easy reach of a classic Western tourist trap, a historic state capital, two…
Three days in southwest New Mexico
Downtown Santa Fe’s uniform aesthetic is no coincidence. It’s protected and propagated by city codes: Windows must be modestly sized, edges rounded, exteriors colored an earthy adobe blush. The resulting faraway mystique charms hordes of tourists. But the electric farolitos and “fauxdobe” make others groan: “Enough already!” with the “Disneyfication,” one architect told a local magazine…
Cally Carswell’s New Mexico route
The travel route the author took when visiting New Mexico
Ray Ring’s Nevada route
The travel route the author took when touring around Reno, Nevada.
A review of Elevating Western American Art
Elevating Western American Art: Developing an Institute in the Cultural Capital of the Rockies Thomas Brent Smith, editor. 320 pages, hardcover: $34.95. Denver Art Museum, 2012. The Denver Art Museum’s Petrie Institute of Western American Art hosts an impressive collection of historic and contemporary paintings, textiles, prints and sculptures. Elevating Western American Art celebrates the…
Exploring the West’s land sculptures — made by artists and industry
“Art erodes whatever seeks to contain it and inevitably seeps into the most contrary recesses, touches the most repressed nerve, finds and sustains the contradictory without effort.” — Robert Morris in a 1979 essay in which he suggested hiring land artists to reclaim spent industrial sites and open-pit mines. When I first see them, fuzzy…
Western travel tips
If you decide to go running on a BLM backroad near Bisbee, Ariz., consider taking a couple of large friends or some dogs as insurance against getting chased (twice) by emaciated-yet-speedy longhorn Mexican bulls. –Sarah Gilman, associate editor Park the car and take public/mass transit. I know this sounds crazy, as we’re talking about the land…
Land art of the West: An interactive map
Land art is not by any means a purely Western phenomenon. Big, monumental sculptures, along with smaller, more ephemeral works, can be found throughout the world. But the big land art movement really was born in the late 1960s and early 1970s in the West, when Michael Heizer, Robert Smithson, Walter DeMaria and others came…
Faraway, favorite and less-than-famous places
We asked our readers and staff to send in some of their favorite places in the West. Here’s a sampling of their responses. Add your own in the comments! California’s Alabama Hills — Not only was this rolling desert stippled with boulder outcrops the setting for Tremors, my family’s favorite cult film, in which giant…
High Country News skips an issue
We’ll be skipping the July 9th issue. (We publish 22 issues per year.) Instead, we’ll be picking western Colorado cherries, celebrating the Fourth of July, welcoming new interns and working on exciting new stories. You’ll see the next edition of HCN around July 23; in the meantime, enjoy the sweet lazy days of early summer,…
Our first travel issue
When the suggestion that High Country News do a travel-themed edition first came up, there was a lot of skepticism. After all, who needs more fluff about the “Top 10” thisses, and the “Best Secret” thats? We focus on serious issues — the West’s cultures, economies and environmental problems. Right? Right. And that’s why you’re…
Shooting at The Gun Store in Las Vegas
On the last day of my first trip to Vegas three years ago, my older brother and I faced a conundrum: What do you do in Sin City when the sin’s been had and only the city is left? Go to Caesar’s, maybe, and lose another $50 bucks at craps, or, schmuck-like, watch the Bellagio’s…
The Atlas of the Industrial West
Ever wanted to tour a wind farm, a giant dam or an oil and gas field? This map will help. Click on the icon of the industrial site nearest you for a bit about the site and tours, if offered, along with a link to more information. Purple = oil & gas; Aqua = dams…
Neil LaRubbio’s Montana route
The travel route the author took in Montana