John Wesley Powell, Edward Abbey and hiking Canyonlands National Park.
Edward Abbey

To the Desert With Edward Abbey

Clay visits with Edward Abbey, the colorful, eloquent, and passionate advocate of the American West.
Teddy Roosevelt at Yosemite Valley, CA. 1903.
Imagine America if Theodore Roosevelt had never been president. During his tenure, the “Cowboy President” set aside an astounding 230 million acres of U.S. public land as National Parks, National Monuments, National Forests, National Wildlife Refuges, and National Game Preserves.
Clay visits Pompeys Pillar National Monument along the Yellowstone River east of Billings, Montana.
On my way back to North Dakota I visited my modest cabin 2 miles from Yellowstone National Park I wanted to make a pilgrimage to Old Faithful.
Mt. Katahdin, which translates to “Greatest Mountain” in Penobscot, is the highest mountain in the state of Maine at 5,269 feet.
Wild horses
There’s horse trouble in Theodore Roosevelt National Park which is home to a feral herd of about 200 equines.
My daughter Catherine, now living in Great Britain, brought her boyfriend Simon to America for the holidays. He’s French-Swiss.

Winter Arrives in North Dakota

Well, I put the Airstream away for the winter. And just in time, too. It went into storage here in Bismarck on Monday, and it snowed for the first time Wednesday night.
Buffalo in snow
Ken Burns’ new documentary The American Buffalo airs this week on PBS. Like everyone I’m eager to see how he explores the history surrounding this iconic creature.