Reflections on A Colorado River Journey
Sunday, July 02 2023
Conditions are changing so fast in the Colorado River watershed that it is impossible now to keep up. I write this on April 14, 2023. In two successive days since I returned to North Dakota, my news feed has served up stories on Great Salt Lake.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Circumnavigating the Great Salt Lake in a Kayak
Monday, June 26 2023
Days 12 and 13, Tuesday/Wednesday: Salt Lake City
Clay visits Salt Lake City to talk with Scott Baxter a passionate advocate and student of the Great Salt Lake.…
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Farewell to Our Intrepid Guide and a Water in the West Reading List
Friday, June 23 2023
Days 10 and 11, Sunday/Monday: U.S. 89 to Utah 20; Utah 20 to I-15; I-15 to Salt Lake City.
A sad farewell as Frank, our scout and chief raconteur for the last 10 days, heads home to Escalante, Utah, and Clay and Dennis continue north to visit the Great Salt Lake.…
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
A Day on Lake Powell — A Colorado River Journey
Saturday, June 17 2023
Clay and colleagues spend a glorious day on Lake Powell, a popular recreation destination with over 2,000 miles of shoreline, which hosts over 3 million visitors annually.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
A Quest for an Ancient Tree
Friday, June 16 2023
I co-led a hike in the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park recently. There were about a dozen of us. Our goal was a very old cottonwood tree in an obscure corner of the park down by the Little Missouri River. The tree is said to date to 1641.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
A Different View of Glen Canyon and the Colorado River
Monday, June 12 2023
I’ve read about Lee’s Ferry all my life. Among other things, it is the portal for float trips in the Grand Canyon. Countless stories feature Lee’s Ferry or originate there. I watched several groups tuck their gear into rafts as they embarked on the great adventure. I was filled with envy and a kind of apprehension.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
The Unnamed, Unheralded Falls of North Dakota
Saturday, June 10 2023
Geographers say North Dakota has only one waterfall. It’s a waterfall without a name, over in Ransom County, near the Minnesota border. For twenty years I have wanted to go see it.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
The Way of the Hopi — A Colorado River Journey
Monday, June 05 2023
Snow was on the ground when we awoke on the second Hopi mesa. We feared a snowstorm, possibly a blizzard. We slipped and lurched to a remote coffee house that Dennis and Frank had scoped out the previous evening and then drove back to the Hopi Cultural Center, where we met Donald Dawahongnewa.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Lands of Lost Borders
Sunday, June 04 2023
Because I am gearing up for years of travel across America, especially the West, I am reading books of adventure travel. I have reread Travels with Charley of course, and the published journal of John Wesley Powell’s 1869 descent of the Green and Colorado Rivers.
- Published in Books
At Lake Powell, a “Lost National Park” is Being Slowly Revealed
Saturday, June 03 2023
Like it or not, says the Executive Director at Glen Canyon Institute, Lake Powell is dying. But we can take advantage of the opportunities provided by its demise.
- Published in Features