Coyote Crossing

Protect Gold Butte

Most of you have never heard of it, but northeast of Las Vegas, in one of the least-visited parts of the continental United States, a desert treasure in Nevada needs your support.

I visited Gold Butte for the first time in 1997. I was just

At Grand Canyon, water battle rages anew

Via Lee Allison, a relatively thorough story in the Arizona Republic about the Grand Canyon, Glen Canyon Dam, and science and the environment being disregarded for considerations of political and electrical power.

Nearly a year after the federal

Desert Pavement

This wind is a tide. Plant your footsoles on the earth: the wind will scour the sand out from underneath, send you toppling backward into the holes it digs beneath your heels. It is relentless. It is patient. Sandgrain after wind-driven sandgrain

Ferocactus on Lava

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Yucca schidigera

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Eagle over Morning Star Mine Road

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Owens Valley: The Sequel

[Updated 1/26: A warm welcome to the folks from LADWP stopping by. Feel free to join the discussion.]

Las Vegas is the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the US. It’s in the middle of the Mojave, the driest desert in the US. Vegas gets the vast

US National Park Meme

I call the Mojave National Preserve “The Park” as often as not, but I’m painfully aware that it isn’t one. The difference between “Preserve” and “Park” status? Hunting is allowed in National Preserves. Letting hunters shoot things in the Preserve

Surprise Canyon

There’s snow on Telescope Peak right now. We saw it from the spot we hiked to in Red Rock Canyon State Park this afternoon, my first visit in years. (The Raven and I sat for a time where Zeke and I sat one night long ago.) And then a few hours

Noshing Pronghorn

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Rio Puerco Raven

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Yosemite

Roger Minick’s “Woman with a Scarf at Inspiration Point, Yosemite Valley, 1980,” reproduced here under Fair Use guidelines for purposes of criticism, is hanging these days at the Getty Museum right now as part of the exhibit In Focus, The

Tuolumne Ice

Because a guy can’t always be arid-minded. At the confluence of the Tuolumne River’s Lyell and Dana forks, Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park, Thanksgiving weekend … (continues)

Letters from the desert: Jarhead

At the wheel on Saturday afternoon, The Raven flinched. “What the…?” A low black sports car came out of nowhere behind us on Kelbaker Road, passed us doing at least 40 miles per hour more than our sedate 60 or so, and straddled the center line as

Letters from the desert: Good news about the devastating Hackberry Fire

I took it upon myself to answer the implied question I posed here, about the existence — or lack thereof — of surviving piñon pines in the Mid-Hills.

I drove up into the burn zone Tuesday for my first thorough look at the place. I’d been up there

Beauty

It is raining, a little. The wind off the little storm front brings the temperature down to a positively comfortable level. It’s almost cool. Not even 80°, and the scent of wet juniper and rock hangs in the air.

How long has it been since I’d