A few weekends back, I was out in the front yard, digging a deep hole. I cut out wedges of turf to mark the dimensions, then went down through layers of topsoil. The first foot was easy, through rich moist dirt. After that I hit seams of gravel. The ground got drier and harder the […]
Recreation
Posted inWotr
Exploring the shrinking marvel of Lake Powell
I grew up thinking of Lake Powell as sacred in the way that a mass grave is sacred. But I’m also a practical person, and I see the lake as a giant highway offering access to some of the most spectacular country in the West. It was the practical side that agreed when my wife […]
Posted inWotr
What’s worse than an unethical hunter?
All-terrain vehicles aren’t good or bad in themselves; it’s all about context. When my son was lost for an entire night in the mountains of northeast Oregon, search and rescue volunteers from Union County showed up on their ATVs and set out to bring him home. I was never so glad to see machinery in […]
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Mules and hikers keep duking it out in the Grand Canyon
“Hold real still,” drawled the lead wrangler, his mule plodding past a hiker trying to flatten herself to a rock wall on the Grand Canyon’s narrow South Kaibab Trail. He didn’t have to repeat himself. The woman, wearing sneakers, seemed scared to death. This meeting of animals and hikers from all over the world has […]
Posted inSeptember 3, 2007: A Climate Change Solution?
The good and bad of peak-bagging
“Above this memorable spot, the face of the mountain is … a maze of yawning chasms and gullies, in the angles of which rise beetling crags and piles of detached boulders that seem to have been gotten ready to be launched below. But the strange influx of strength I had received seemed inexhaustible. I found […]
Posted inAugust 20, 2007: Bonfire of the Superweeds
Old West meets Old World in Big Horn
Shane Winkler pops open a can of Bud Light and stuffs a wad of Copenhagen into his mouth before turning on the sound system at the Big Horn Equestrian Center just outside Sheridan in northern Wyoming. It’s a hot July afternoon. The only shade is in the top rows of the small set of bleachers […]
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Peak bagging and how to avoid it
“I could not rest until the topmost stone was beneath my feet,” said John Muir. That’s right, nature-loving boys and girls: John Muir was a peak bagger. Long celebrated for his founding of the modern environmental movement and his exuberant love for the small wonders of nature — “not a sparrow falls to the ground […]
Posted inWotr
Reckless at 50
I celebrated my 50th birthday a few years back by just about killing myself on a desert hike. I lived atop a 3,000-foot plateau called Grapevine Mesa, an extraordinary place that towered over the far eastern end of Lake Mead, a huge man-made body of water that sprawled through desert canyons 80 miles distant. My […]
Posted inJuly 23, 2007: Hydrogen Highway Revisited
Natural diversity
As a black park ranger, I’m often asked why more minorities don’t visit national parks or participate more in outdoor activities. That’s a short question with a long answer, and one part of it involves the perpetuation of historical inaccuracy, since the victors get to write what passes for history as portrayed in movies and […]
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Don’t book my adventure, please
Not long ago, I Googled my old hometown, Moab, along with the word “adventure,” and found over 500,000 links. Apparently there are adventures enough to be found in Moab to keep tourists entertained and spending their money until the next millennium. Just to mention a handful, I found the Moab Adventure Center, Moab Adventure Xstream, […]
Posted inMay 28, 2007: Problems In Paradise
The deer departed
And the ones that will remain while the National Park Service conducts a controversial mammal birth-control experiment at Point Reyes National Seashore
Posted inMay 28, 2007: Problems In Paradise
Voluntary excess
As budgets shrink, national parks increasingly rely on volunteers instead of paid staff
Posted inMay 28, 2007: Problems In Paradise
Problems in Paradise
A murder near the famed waterfalls of Havasu Canyon reveals the social ills of a tribe that needs help
Posted inWotr
So what if park fees go up?
A day at Disneyland costs a family of four at least $232, not counting Mickey Mouse ears. At Six Flags Magic Mountain, the admission price would be at least $180. A seven-day pass to enter Yellowstone National Park costs $25 per car, which means that the same family spending a week among bison, elk, geysers […]
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Wilderness is the place that can make or break you
Beyond the end of most any road in southern Utah rests the crucible for my soul –? the beauty, ecological abundance and sanctuary of our public lands. With the Bunsen-burner intensity of its noontime sun, desert wilderness burns off the ephemera of my life, and there remains only the essence of emotion — awe that […]
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Why do we keep driving ourselves crazy?
This winter. my family discovered that Oregon’s Mount Hood is known for more than dramatic mountain rescues. Would you believe it could also be called the mother of all traffic jams? Tail lights for as far as the eye could see, gridlock for nearly an hour: That’s what the highway through the Mount Hood National […]
Posted inMarch 19, 2007: The Silence of the Bees
The romance of deceleration
As we back the snowmobiles off the trailer, the couple in the car nearby is scowling. I can see their faces through the windshield, and I know why they’re unhappy: They have to share the trail with us. They’ll be on skinny, light skis, using only as much power as their muscles can generate, while […]
Posted inMarch 5, 2007: Wish You Weren’t Here
Don’t move a mussel
Whether you raft, kayak, fish or swim in Western waters, you can make sure quagga mussels — and other aquatic invasives — don’t travel with you. Here’s how. Before leaving any body of water: Inspect your boat, trailer, clothing and any other wet gear for plants, fish or animals, and remove them on site. Wash […]
Posted inFebruary 5, 2007: The Efficiency Paradox
Two weeks in the West
As more people play in the snow, skirmishes heat up.
Posted inFebruary 5, 2007: The Efficiency Paradox
Don’t part out our national parks
When I worked as a seasonal ranger at Yellowstone National Park some years ago, I came to believe that magnificent places like this should remain free from commercial exploitation. Yellowstone and our other national parks belong to all of us as a public commons to be protected for future generations. Park rangers tell visitors to […]