Juan Palma discusses states’ rights, landscape-scale planning and how personal history affects public decisions.
People & Places
Posted inArticles
Author Craig Childs talks about his ‘barbaric’ children with KDNK
In the Alaska backwoods, Childs tested the boundaries of the belief that kids should play in the wilderness.
Posted inApril 10, 2015: Strangers in a Strange Land
Raccoonboy’s guide to urban wilds
When in doubt, climb; fences are made for hopping.
Posted inApril 10, 2015: Strangers in a Strange Land
The West in 72 hours
Asian tourists look for space, spectacles and a decent bowl of noodles.
Posted inApril 10, 2015: Strangers in a Strange Land
A German’s shattered romance with the West
An essayist asks whether the West is the most misunderstood region in the U.S.
Posted inApril 10, 2015: Strangers in a Strange Land
An outsider’s guide to insider Portland
Dispatch from a dryland alien in the rainy Northwest.
Posted inApril 10, 2015: Strangers in a Strange Land
Children in Alaska’s wild country
As parents, we watch our kids walk into vast new worlds — like it or not.
Posted inApril 10, 2015: Strangers in a Strange Land
International tourists in Western states, by the numbers
Where they’re from, where they go and where they spend their money.
Posted inApril 10, 2015: Strangers in a Strange Land
On the road with America’s sightseers
A photographer looks at three decades of tourism.
Posted inArticles
Ranch Diaries: Tiny living, 23 miles from town
After a chicken coop, a tipi and no electricity, this four-season camper is our most modern home yet.
Posted inArticles
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid announces retirement
The Nevada senator is a formidable leader and champion of progressive issues.
Posted inArticles
Unwanted California tires end up in rivers and beaches
But efforts to use the trash as building materials in Mexico offer new hope.
Posted inArticles
Senior editor Jonathan Thompson talks lessons from Farmington’s bust with KDNK
The energy extraction-dependent New Mexico town has ridden out a couple ups and downs.
Posted inMarch 16, 2015: Wild Ride
A giant resort overshadows a tiny Colorado town
A teacher’s perspective of big changes to a small town.
Posted inMarch 16, 2015: Wild Ride
The quietest and noisiest spots in the West
Some places are 20 decibels or less, similar to levels in pre-Colonial times.
Posted inMarch 16, 2015: Wild Ride
The woman who brings drinking water to remote Navajo homes
In the parched countryside, delivery means community.
Posted inArticles
American boondockers
Surprising photographs of people who live in their vehicles, from the Cascades to the Rockies.
Posted inArticles
Marie’s dictionary
The last fluent speaker of Wukchumni creates a dictionary to document her tribe’s language.
Posted inArticles
Jim Deacon, pioneering desert fish biologist, dies
But the concept of saving big places through little animals lives on.
Posted inMarch 2, 2015: Unite and Conquer
Balancing the pulls of domesticity and wilderness
How I take inspiration, and cautionary advice, from Ed Abbey’s family misadventures.