Building a huge park is anything but easy
Marc Katz is a retired entrepreneur who lives part-time in Durango, Colorado, a town of 19,000 people who all seem…
MoreA candy bar fueled the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic
If you don’t know much about the Iron Horse bike race that begins in the town of Durango in southwestern…
MoreSki bum culture hits reality
Nearly two decades ago, I moved to the mountains to be a ski bum, chasing snow. I was a stereotype—an…
Robson Hatsukami Morgan, via Unsplash
MoreThe West has too many visiting hunters
Hunting may be losing popularity nationally, but in the West the number of hunters is climbing. According to the U.S….
Dan Vigueria, Paonia, Colorado, Grizzly Longbows LLC
MoreThere’s such a thing as trail etiquette
The uppermost switchback on the Bright Angel Trail in Grand Canyon National Park is eight feet wide. Yet the last…
Bright Angel Trail, NPS/Ty Karlovetz
MoreToo many tourists follow a leader
A spectacular picture recently appeared on social media of a young lady in Arizona. She was poised on the edge…
spencer backman, via unsplash
MoreRestoring the land can feel a lot like fun
Driving back to Colorado State University with a van full of students after a day of working to heal some…
Autumn at a cattle ranch in Colorado near Ridgway – County Road 12, Craig Zerbe Photo
MoreBackcountry heroes always try to bring us back
When I was leading groups into the Wyoming wilderness in the 1990s, once we left a trailhead we were on…
The Tetons in Wyoming, a great place to get lost, photo by Mike
MoreMountains don’t need hardware
We humans want the most out of life, so why shouldn’t we push to get more of what we want?…
A female mountain climber pulling herself up a climb. Image credit steele2123 via Istock Photo
MoreOld bones can be a small town’s movie stars
The prehistoric past can perk up the present. When woolly mammoth bones were found in my hometown in Wisconsin years…
Allosaurus jimmadseni, courtesy NPS
MoreNew Mexico court upholds public access
Every state in the West has some type of law declaring that its waters belong to the public. But what this…
The Los Alamos and Rio Grande in NM, courtesy of Jonah Saleh via Unsplash
MoreHiking public lands shouldn’t require a ladder
Imagine you were part owner of a nice piece of rural land, maybe with a trout stream running through it….
Lisa Mcintyre via Unsplash
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