The feathers of a sparrow drift down like snow out of a sky made bluer by yellow leaves and white clouds. A victim of a Cooper’s hawk. Life seeking and reducing everything to amino acids. The Junko is oblivious. The energy of the sparrow will power the hawk for [...]
The world is green, cool and humid. The land falls away over a valley, and beyond that, another and another. I ask the driver of the Land Rover to let us off a couple of miles from our camp at 10,000 feet. We are on the slopes of Mount [...]
Forests are the lungs of the earth. They give us about one third of the oxygen we breath, and they sequester carbon dioxide. Around the world, they absorb almost 40% of human carbon emissions and help slow the rate of global warming. I am walking along the east side [...]
The lake is a mirror to the universe. I can not tell where the sky begins and the water ends. There is no boundary. The sun dips below a reef of clouds and the world turns orange. The earth turns and Venus rises as it’s twin reflection sinks. We [...]
It’s been a while. Maybe two million years. For me personally, about sixty years. What, you ask? Since I’ve sat in a tree. Which is where I am right now. As a species we used to sit in trees. Mostly for safety and to escape nighttime predators; the lions [...]
A bald eagle wings southeast across blue skies on the north shore of Yellowstone Lake. We are just inside the east park boundary. Ian (10) and Teo (7) are playing in a snow field just over a pass. Being from Atlanta, they have almost never seen real snow up [...]
Wyoming. Two brothers, 7 and 10. Rolling plains ahead. 350 miles to Yellowstone. No electronics. Boredom. Someone said there is no sibling rivalry without parents. It is either a Darwinian or biblical battle going on in the back seat. So I wonder if the boys will kill each other, [...]
Pooh Bear is at the top of the stairs. Christopher Robin has him by the foot and Pooh is about to be bounced down the stairs on his head. He wonders if there is a better way to descend the stairs, but by the time his head hits the [...]
Night in Chaco Canyon Coyote willow in the wash Saltbush on the flats Grace notes of a vireo Red sunset on the rocks Ancients in their kivas Certain desperate stars Ragged upon the world The black cold desert night While the Lyrids play An effervescent game Who will ever [...]
I am on a desert walkabout. Places like Hovenweep, Canyons of the Ancients, Arches, Great Sands, Chaco. I try not to hike the main trails. It’s not that I don’t like the sights. It’s that I don’t like lots of people. Not personally. Just en masse. It’s the back [...]
