Here, you’ll find unfortunately true tales of an accidental naturalist’s misadventures in the wild, as well as shorter, inspirational reflections of nature
Arkansas in Autumn
You can glide all day through the Ozarks and not hit a mall until Branson. I wind through oaken national forest on routes that switchback like true mountain roads even though they rise only 30 feet here, dip just 20 feet there. I don’t reach higher elevation until the Boston Highlands, […]
The more time I spend in the woods, the more time I want to spend with them. Yesterday, I limbed a pinyon I’d spent days cutting down. The work became easier. Much easier than expected. The first part – cutting down an oversized tree with a 12″ diameter trunk, was much more difficult. I never […]
Highway 50, wandering east-west through Nevada, is billed as America’s Loneliest Highway. I can’t believe it’s any lonelier than some of the other highways I’ve travelled (95 in Oregon, 278 or 225 in Nevada, 51 in Idaho). Still, I didn’t run in to an Olive Garden.
A vast, wandering playa stretches south, some of it mirrored […]
The Colorado Plateau is a geologist’s dream. How can rock be alive? Yet it once was. Take a look at this picture…
I am a know-it-all, so it is with some humility that I confess I cannot make out what made these scratches on the stone. If anyone can explain it, please do. It was taken […]
Growing up in Chicago, I had to discover my own mountains. I could choose from skyscrapers or clouds. Tall buildings were okay, and I still love them, especially with the world-class architecture that’s downtown Chicago. But high-rises always look the same, no matter what day you ride up the elevator. Clouds are different. They change […]
Yellowstone Caldera will eventually end the world!!
If we look at the world today, we see a vast array of splits, divisions, and conflicts between and among peoples. Worldwide, there are protests, revolutions, the talk of war between great powers. There are splits between religions, and within religions. There is heightened class warfare. Although […]
Navajo Mountain, from the south
Standing in a forest of snags, a dead woodland. Ponderosa scorched by fire. No less in beauty than a living thing. Aspen goldening in autumn. Sun rises. Navajo Mountain, a bluing turtle’s back, looming above the Paria Plateau, framed by the bleeding maroon of the Vermillion Cliffs.
A bevy of […]
I’d been living the drought for years, dodging forest fires, watching trees die, seeing ponds dry up. 2021 wasn’t only the year of Corona, it was the year of the megadrought. 75% of the West is in severe or exceptional drought, and my little piece of the Four Corners was no exception to the exceptional.
Some […]
North Rim Vista
The topography resembles papier mache, crinkled a little here and there. This is a region of implacable upheaval. I become lost in its bays and shelf forests. When one region falls into shadow and cools, my eyes, like ravens, fly off to another butte, or an adjacent scarp. I stand on […]
A Daoist might say: Go with the flow. A Buddhist might advise you: Detach from it. A Hindu yogi may conclude: There is no flow. It’s an illusion. A Christian mystic might tell you to embrace the flow. It has something to teach you. In the end, they all say the same thing.
I’d been drawn […]