The guides warned us, of course. Or they sort of did. It was sometime after the river outfitter’s shuttle van had passed through the latticework of gates and fences that guards the steep, hairpinned road to the boat-launch at the base of the Hoover Dam, and possibly right before we realized that we had left […]
Recreation
Posted inWotr
Paddling bill is bad news for Yellowstone and Grand Teton parks
How boaters are looking for special treatment.
Posted inWotr
A little paddling won’t hurt the Yellowstone experience
RELATED: Paddling bill is bad news for Yellowstone and Grand Teton parks If we’ve gained any strength as environmentalists, it’s because we’ve stuck to science and public processes. The other stuff is for the bad guys who want to exploit public land for profit. As a longtime activist on forest issues, I could give you […]
Posted inGoat
Google Street Viewers can now raft the Grand Canyon
Back in the early 1980s, the French philosopher Michel de Certeau went to the 110th floor of the then-brand-new World Trade Center and looked down at Manhattan. It was a revelation to him: “To be lifted to the summit of the World Trade Center is to be lifted out of the city’s grasp. When one […]
Posted inWotr
Let’s not bring Las Vegas to Grand Canyon
Critique of a developer’s plan to haul tourists on a tramway to the Colorado River.
Posted inGoat
Even unpopular national parks are economic engines
Last summer, I visited Rocky Mountain National Park for the first time and, to be frank, was a little disgusted. Not by the park itself – the mountains were beautiful, even if the beetle-kill and $20 backcountry permits were disheartening – but by the salt-water-taffy-munching, airbrushed-tee-shirt-wearing crowd glutting the park’s gateway community of Estes Park, […]
Posted inFebruary 17, 2014: The Gila $olution
Pacific Crest Trail: A Journey in Photographs by Chris Alexander
We recommend using the gallery view to enjoy these photographs. Pacific Crest Trail: A Journey in Photographs Chris Alexander, 120 pages, hardcover: $49.95. wanderingthewild.com, 2013. At 2,660 miles long and with over 400,000 total feet of elevation change, the Pacific Crest Trail, which stretches from Mexico to Canada, is not for the weak-legged. Chris Alexander’s […]
Posted inWotr
Deadly avalanches and the lure of the mountains
Mountains are our barometer and our playground, and, on occasion, our tomb.
Posted inFebruary 17, 2014: The Gila $olution
The Latest: Ecoterrorist in Vail fire is sentenced
Backstory In 1998, the Vail, Colo., ski resort was growing, and so were the tensions around it. Some accused the rich of monopolizing public lands for pricey recreation; others saw Vail’s planned expansion as encroaching on habitat essential to the rare Canada lynx. That October, members of the radical Earth Liberation Front set fire to […]
Posted inWotr
Recapture Canyon and an illegal ATV trail
A Utah county attempts to gain right of way on an illegal ATV trail built on public land.
Posted inWotr
Mountain bikes and wilderness don’t mix
To loosen wildland restrictions now starts us down a slippery slope.
Posted inFebruary 3, 2014: The Hanford Whistleblowers
Public-land users and abusers
I own property that borders several thousand acres of national forest, and with my neighbors control the area’s access road (“Public land, locked up,” HCN, 12/9/13). These public lands are used for grazing and for recreation. We allow public access, but are also aware that the public is basically clueless when it comes to land […]
Posted inWotr
Gliding past while bullets fly
Rafting the Yellowstone River while hunters shoot ducks out of the sky.
Posted inDecember 23, 2013: Beauty or Beast
Not all kayakers oppose limitations
As an avid kayaker in Grand Teton National Park, I was surprised to see it lumped with Yellowstone in “Forbidden waters” (HCN, 11/11/13). Grand Teton does not have a “blanket ban” on kayaking. To the contrary, 36.6 miles of the Snake River in the John D. Rockefeller Memorial Parkway and Grand Teton National Park are […]
Posted inDecember 23, 2013: Beauty or Beast
Outlaws on the river
There are excellent reasons why paddling is not permitted in most streams in Yellowstone (“Forbidden waters,” HCN, 11/11/13). Many streams meander through large meadows replete with grazing bison and elk. Paddlers would not only disrupt wildlife feeding along the steams, but the visual pollution caused by a parade of boats would spoil the magnificent scenes visitors presently enjoy. As […]
Posted inDecember 9, 2013: The Tree Coroners
Inside the BLM’s abrupt decision not to ban shooting in an Arizona national monument
Why guns, politics and saguaros don’t mix.
Posted inDecember 9, 2013: The Tree Coroners
Public land, locked up
In the Rocky Mountain West, more than 4 million acres of federal public land are rendered off-limits because there’s no way for the public to access them.
Posted inDecember 9, 2013: The Tree Coroners
Unmechanized wilderness
In his essay about racing his BMW on the track in eastern Colorado, Daniel Brigham reinforces the old myth that the wilderness is only for men, only for those with “a certain amount of grit,” and, worst, only for those with access to an expensive, powerful machine (“Mechanized wilderness,” HCN, 11/11/13). The sensations he describes […]
Posted inGoat
The Grand Canyon, temperature inversion and the worst parenting ever
I have two daughters, ages 12 and 14. They’ve lived in the Southwest for most of those years, and they’ve never seen the Grand Canyon. This, in my wife’s eyes at least, is a sin. My sin. “Why don’t you take them if it’s so important?” “Hey, you’re Mister Southwest guy. I took them to […]
Posted inGoat
Wilderness vandalism sparks legislation in Utah, plus a look at what makes a vandal good
Last month, two Utah Boy Scout leaders inadvertently became internet sensations after posting a video of themselves toppling one of the ancient rock formations that gives Goblin Valley State Park its name, then laughing and high-fiving each other. The men, David Hall and Glenn Taylor, said they acted out of concern for public safety, but […]