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
Thunderstorms, Cottonwoods on the Great Plains
Thursday, June 01 2023
Typically we don’t get genuine punishing thunderstorms until after Memorial Day. I sat in a camp chair on the porch and studied the sky.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Navajo Nation and Canyon de Chelly — A Colorado River Journey
Tuesday, May 30 2023
Day Six, Wednesday: Canyon de Chelly; U.S. 191 to Burnside; Arizona 264 to Second Mesa.
Cattle traveling the Chinle Wash in Canyon de Chelly, part of the Navajo Nation.…
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Cadillac Desert: The American West and its Disappearing Water
Monday, May 29 2023
Marc Reisner’s Cadillac Desert has been around for a long time — since 1986 — but it continues to be the best introduction to the subject of Water in the West.
- Published in Books
A Visit to Ute Mountain, a Detour to the Holy Grail: Four Corners!
Friday, May 26 2023
This is six in a series of dispatches from Clay Jenkinson chronicling his recent journey with two compatriots following the Colorado River and neighboring region.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
What Tree Rings Can Tell Us About Climate Change and the Future of the West
Tuesday, May 23 2023
In an effort to predict the future, scientists are piecing together an astonishingly precise and far-reaching record of the past.
- Published in Features
Crow Canyon Archaeological Center — A Colorado River Journey
Monday, May 22 2023
This is the fifth in a series of dispatches from Clay Jenkinson chronicling his recent journey with two compatriots following the Colorado River and neighboring region. The day was spent at the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center
- Published in Dispatches from the Road