A popular redrock canyon in Southern Utah is the latest proving ground in the undying Western debate over roads on federal public land. Last Friday, a U.S. District Court ruled that an old jeep trail up Salt Creek in Canyonlands National Park is not a “highway,” thereby upholding the park’s 2004 decision to officially close […]
Recreation
Posted inWotr
Privatization threatens an Arizona national forest
Once upon a time, the Western public lands — places like our national forests and parks — were supported with American tax dollars. In return, we were welcome to use them. Undeveloped areas required no money to enter, and developed facilities were basic but affordable. Land managers were public servants whose mission was stewardship – […]
Posted inApril 18, 2011: Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters: Silt and the Slow Demise of Glen Canyon Dam
Updated 5/17/11 The Lower San Juan River courses through a rather forsaken landscape of clay hills and redrock plateaus in southeast Utah. At the end of a long, dusty road, there is a boat ramp at the water’s edge where, at any warm time of year, vans and roof-racked Subarus bake in the sun while […]
Posted inApril 18, 2011: Muddy Waters
Explorer’s notebook: Craig Childs on the Lower San Juan
Craig Childs reads from his journal and narrates his paddle down the Lower San Juan River, with photos and video he took on the trip. Additional photography courtesy of andrew davidoff, Alaskan Dude, and kla4067. Licensed under Creative Commons. Canyon treefrog recording copyright Jeff Rice and the Western Soundscape Archive.
Posted inRange
Rants from the Hill: What would Edward Abbey do?
“Rants from the Hill” are Michael Branch’s monthly musings on life in the high country of Nevada’s western Great Basin desert. One crisp, blue day late last fall I dodged work in order to climb my home mountain with three friends who were also shirking their adult responsibilities that day. My Silver Hills buddy Steve […]
Posted inRange
A stand against racing in Colorado National Monument
I hold with Wallace Stegner that “national parks are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, the 95-year old park system reflects us at our best rather than our worst.” The purpose of the national parks (and really, it is a system of diverse natural cultural recreational and historic areas) have always […]
Posted inMarch 21, 2011: Big Beef
The Tao of Pow: Learning to love winter
Once, in midsummer, I stood in my garage with a buddy. We’d just returned from a hike near northern Utah’s Cache Valley. He saw my snowshoes hanging on the wall and asked, “Where are your tellies?” I thought he was making a “Monty Python” joke — about a skit in which the actors discuss the […]
Posted inRange
Red, white and blue is the new green
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House Despite what freshman Republican lawmakers would have us believe, giving a flying finch about the environment is very American. The authors of recent proposals and bills surrounding the federal budget—which have been called some of the most anti-environmental pieces of legislation in recent history—are out of touch with […]
Posted inRange
Confronting scofflaws
There are some places I don’t like to write about, since in my experience, that’s a quick way to trash the scenery. People read about it, decide to visit for themselves, and whatever solitude and splendor the spot offered has vanished. That’s one reason I seldom mention an arid valley named Castle Gardens or Castle […]
Posted inFebruary 21, 2011: Palin, politics, and predator control
Arizona’s Fossil Creek gets restored — and loved to death
Deep in Arizona’s Mazatzal Mountains, there’s a 16-mile-long undulating channel of emerald-green travertine. Clear 75-degree water bubbles from the ground and flows down it at a steady 45 cubic feet per second. It’s home to a thriving native fish population, rare and endangered aquatic and terrestrial creatures, and towering canopies of cottonwood, ash and sycamore […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
A cheap vacation that got out of hand
THE WEST John Daggett, one of the West’s iconic characters, died recently at age 82, though his amazing feat of body-surfing the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon 56 years ago will no doubt live forever. Back in April 1955, Daggett and his friend, Bill Beer, both 20-something Southern Californians, got the crazy idea of […]
Posted inFebruary 21, 2011: Palin, politics, and predator control
Craig Childs walks with desert ghosts on the Navajo Nation
The dogs are getting closer, barking through junipers about a half-mile away. We douse our small can stove, scoop the rest of breakfast into our mouths, and within two minutes are gone. The day before, we were dropped off on a dirt two-track where we hopped a gate and smuggled ourselves into the wilderness atop […]
Posted inFebruary 21, 2011: Palin, politics, and predator control
Political animals
In a recent op-ed, Denver Bryan, a self-described “hunter, conservationist, and also a supporter of wolves taking their rightful place in the West,” fell in step with the backlash politics of Western wildlife policy. (See Denver Bryan’s Writers on the Range opinion piece in fullhttp://country-survey-collabs.info/wotr/yes-to-wolves-but-not-so-many.) He began by declaring that legitimate conservation groups are trying […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
Challenges pile up for avalanche mitigation on mountain highways
Backcountry skiers complicate slide control
Posted inRange
Is Recreation in the Rockies Becoming a Bigger Forest Service Priority?
By Steve Bunk, 1-25-11 The West’s outdoor recreational industry—including ski resorts, outfitters, and others—is on track to have a stronger say in how national forests are managed in coming years. A vigorous lobbying effort, in which recreational groups and politicians of Rocky Mountain states played key roles, has had a big impact on new regulations […]
Posted inRange
The Most Visited National Parks Could Be Self Sufficient
By Shawn Regan Visitors to national parks got into the parks for free this weekend, the first of 17 days in 2011 the National Park Service is waiving entrance fees. While it’s hard to complain about what seems like a free lunch, the NPS can ill afford such freebies. Its backlog in deferred maintenance projects […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Missing item
WYOMING Drivers along a section of Highway 22 near Jackson, Wyo., wondered why drug-sniffing dogs and squads of patrol officers, two or three abreast, were walking the road a few weeks ago. Then the story emerged: They were on the trail of a box of drugs. A dog handler from the sheriff’s department had placed […]
Posted inBlog
Go play outside
An article in the most recent edition of New Scientist about a fascinating study conducted at the University of Washington offers yet more evidence that investing in community green space can pay off in significant public benefits. The University of Washington study tracked the Body Mass Index of 3,831 children over two years, New Scientist […]
Posted inGoat
Canyoneering, four ways
Ever wondered what it’s like to don harness and wetsuit and delve into one of southern Utah’s deep, cold, water-filled slot canyons? A new documentary called Gorging, due out next summer from DFS Films, follows notorious guidebook author Michael Kelsey and three other canyoneers (a photographer, a guru, and a weekend warrior) into the twisting, […]