Snowshoeing alone at night in the forest, a woman thinks – and prays – about the friends she loves, and the families they worry about.
Recreation
Posted inJanuary 22, 2007: Salmon Justice
Two weeks in the West
Big coal remains big and the weather gets wacky in the New Year. Is there a connection?
Posted inDecember 25, 2006: Confessions of a Methane Floozy
I fell into a burning ring of fire
Some people seek gentle hands to soothe knots from sore muscles. Others get a facial or a pedicure. Still others hold hands and hum around a vortex. In today’s world of indulgence-for-hire and guided leisure, you can practice yoga, Pilates, Nia. Screw that, I say. Play with fire. There’s something restorative about lighting a glowing […]
Posted inDecember 25, 2006: Confessions of a Methane Floozy
Tequila-fueled tunes
Name Roger Clyne Age 38 Vocation Front man for the Tempe, Arizona, band Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers. The Peacemakers are made up of Clyne, P.H. Naffah on drums, Steve Larson on guitar, and Nick Scropos on bass. Also markets his own brand of tequila. Known For The band’s high-energy live shows and Southwestern sound. […]
Posted inDecember 11, 2006: Old but Faithful
Old but Faithful
How a feisty group of government retirees faced down the Bush administration and changed the future of America’s national parks
Posted inDecember 11, 2006: Old but Faithful
A director from central casting
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Old but Faithful.” She calls herself a “city gal” who emigrated as a child to the U.S. from Leicester, England, where her family owned a large manufacturing company. After a 16-year career working her way up the National Park Service bureaucracy, Mary Bomar is […]
Posted inWotr
Running wild in Yellowstone National Park
In Yellowstone, it’s never unusual for a car to halt smack in the middle of the road. Nor it is unusual for a car’s driver to stand in the road, gawking at wildlife. It is unusual for a driver to be shouting — at me. I was riding my bike on Yellowstone’s northeast entrance road, […]
Posted inNovember 27, 2006: The West: A New Center of Power
Fed up with paying to play
One woman’s dissent could help cripple federal fee program
Posted inOctober 30, 2006: Peace Breaks Out In New Mexico's Forests
Just another giddyup
It’s a lot like any other rodeo, on an August weekend in a fairground arena as folks hide out from the monsoon rains. Friday-night cowboys with mustaches stroll past women wearing baggy-in-the-seat jeans and plaid flannel shirts. Tall men with big hats hug one another, catch up on circuit gossip, and check out newcomers. Pungent […]
Posted inWotr
A little flash flooding can be a wonderful thing
I took a sentimental trip to Arches National Park a few weeks ago. I haven’t worked as a ranger at Arches outside Moab, Utah, for 20 years, but I still remember it fondly and sometimes visit my favorite places. Perhaps the most dramatic change is the Delicate Arch road. It was always something of a […]
Posted inOctober 16, 2006: A River Once More
Dry-hiking in a desert awash with history
At 61, mountaineer and academic David Roberts can’t resist the chance to rack up another first. Comb Ridge is a jutting sandstone escarpment that runs from Kayenta, Ariz., to Blanding, Utah. One hundred miles long from end to end, the ridge was one of the few remaining hikes that no one had completed. But Roberts […]
Posted inOctober 16, 2006: A River Once More
What we love will save us
In troubled political times, go to the mountains.
Posted inOctober 16, 2006: A River Once More
Will your favorite Forest Service campsite be closed down next summer?
Perhaps, if it doesn’t fit the agency’s increased focus on “dispersed recreation” at remote sites. The 155 national forests are now ranking their developed camping and picnic sites to determine if they meet agency standards; those that fall short will be closed or have their services reduced. According to a recent report from the Western […]
Posted inOctober 16, 2006: A River Once More
Mother Nature rides an ATV
Two small cacti have put a stop to motorcycles and ATVs on one of southern Utah’s most contested pieces of public land. On Sept. 20, the BLM announced that off-highway vehicle use would be restricted in the desert surrounding Factory Butte to protect the endangered Wright fishhook and the threatened Winkler cactus. The decision closes […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Radio: Spice for the ears
Note: This article is one of several feature stories in a special issue about community media in the West. It sounds as if a lone angel alighted on the head of a pin, and encountered — to her surprise — a choir of angelic cousins there. Of course, we know that angels like gathering in […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Leave only footprints, and turn the darn phone off
The other day on a national forest trail, we passed a lone hiker. Cell phone glued to her ear, chattering away, she stomped by us without the usual trail civility of at least a smile. Engrossed in the world at her ear, I doubt she even registered the beargrass blooming at her feet. Since cell […]
Posted inWotr
The time I was struck by lightning
Just about everyone who has spent time in the high country has a lightning story to tell — when lightning cracked open a nearby tree, or how their hair stood on end and they got out of there. I’d been in Colorado a short time and was ignorant about everything Western when I decided to […]
Posted inWotr
Leave only footprints, and turn the darn phone off
Hiking the other day on a national forest trail, we passed a lone woman. Cell phone glued to her ear, chattering away, she stomped by us without the usual trail civilities of at least a smile. Engrossed in the world at her ear, I doubt she even registered the beargrass blooming at her feet. Since […]
Posted inSeptember 18, 2006: Going Big
Going Big
Mountain bikers, long vilified as unruly renegades, are finally winning respect — and regaining access to trails. But does a new generation of gonzo riders threaten it all?
Posted inWotr
How to be alone with a lot of other people
Since I live in Chaffee County, Colo., home to an even-dozen 14,000-foot peaks, I’m used to encountering what we call “peak-baggers” — people bent on climbing all 54 “Fourteeners” in Colorado — often in the shortest time possible. In recent years, the baggers have become so numerous that old trails have to be rebuilt or […]