This landscape isn’t always beautiful — but that’s what makes it loveable.
Essays
Posted inMarch 6, 2017: Uncomfortable Corners
Cowboys with surfboards
How Hanalei, Hawaii, reflects small Western towns.
Posted inMarch 6, 2017: Uncomfortable Corners
Growing up in timber country
A writer returns to the old-growth forest of her youth.
Posted inMarch 6, 2017: Uncomfortable Corners
Raptors in flight
Enduring relationships begin with encounters.
Posted inMarch 6, 2017: Uncomfortable Corners
The Yaak Valley’s ‘Dirty Shame’
In the infamous Montana saloon, a lesson about home in harsh places.
Posted inMarch 6, 2017: Uncomfortable Corners
Together we pause
Sometimes we need to stop — to think about the ways we wreak havoc in the world.
Posted inFebruary 20, 2017: Overdosed
The watcher and the watched
Observation transforms our bodies and minds.
Posted inFebruary 6, 2017: River of Healing
Naked in the desert
The sunburned, imperfect and deeper wild of the human body.
Posted inJanuary 23, 2017: For Which it Stands
Standing Rock’s men at war
By challenging our myths of the West and its warriors, Native men find their voice.
Posted inDecember 26, 2016: Obama and the West
A case of mistaken identity at the dinner table
The ‘turkey’ was oddly shaped, too small — and the meat too dark.
Posted inDecember 12, 2016: How the Park Service is Failing Women
Tolerance in Trump’s America
Amid fear and despair, we’ll have to find ways to talk to each other.
Posted inNovember 28, 2016: A Weird and Perfect Wilderness
Hope in a post-nature society
A writer seeks answers from Lake Powell.
Posted inNovember 28, 2016: A Weird and Perfect Wilderness
The captivating magic of a dry, dusty text
An encyclopedia-style book published in 1933 offers surprising perspective.
Posted inNovember 14, 2016: The Long View
Why we don’t mention my great-grandfather’s name
Aaron A. Abeyta on his family’s shadowy past in New Mexico
Posted inNovember 14, 2016: The Long View
Adventures of a roving Bookmobile driver
This is not your typical library job.
Posted inNovember 14, 2016: The Long View
Terry Tempest Williams and the refuge of change
One of the West’s most beloved authors revisits Great Salt Lake.
Posted inOctober 31, 2016: A Monumental Divide
How to shear a sheep — and why
On the satisfaction of back-breaking labor.
Posted inOctober 3, 2016: Purple Rain
Remembering a ‘free man’ who died at the Grand Canyon
A transient outdoorsman, he only wanted to be in the mountains or down some canyon.