Blog

  1. Smoking a Desert Pipe

    Many are the times I have encountered this odd plant with its bloated sac and branches protruding from it that make it look like some woody troll doll. It was a curiosity, nothing more. But with all things in the natural world, there’s more to it than a funky hairdo…

  2. I’ve Always Felt This

    “Frank Fraser Darling insisted on going barefoot, year-round, on his beloved island, on the basis that it was hard to feel the pulse of the universe through half an inch of Commando sole, and I’m sure that he was an even better zoologist as a result. I want to have…

  3. Winter Magic

    Stole up to the high desert a day after the storm blew through. Would have loved to be in the wind that painted this. Ice crusts yucca spines until the sun softens it. Then it falls like crystalline rain, coruscating and diamond bright. The shards create patterns in the snow…

  4. Edie & the Borderlands

    History Edie Harmon has lived in the Yuha Desert in Imperial County since 1976. She fell in love with the desert while serving two stints with the Peace Corps in Uganda, teaching biology and art. She’s slept on the ground in the Kalahari, climbed Kilimanjaro and Whitney. She was determined…

  5. Hiking California’s Public Lands - Mojave


  6. Conglomerate Mesa Under Threat

    I had several posts planned but this needs to take priority. As an artist, I have profited from images of this land. Photos of this wilderness have been featured in my exhibits in Los Angeles. I have hiked and camped and explored here for over three years. This desert is…

  7. Fall Colours & the Sierra Nevada

    Last week we spontaneously hopped in the car on a Friday afternoon, drove four hours north to Bishop, grabbed some awesome barbecue, crashed in a guest house and set off the next morning to find some autumn colour - something we don’t get much of in Los Angeles. It did…

  8. Coyote Hole

    “There is a book about Death Valley’s victims and surprisingly in most cases they turned out not to be the greenhorns that made some fatal mistake, instead it was often some old-timer that had forgotten to have enough respect for the harsh desert landscape.” - Emmett C. Harder Well, I’m…

  9. Love Letter to a Lion

    I’ve had a relationship with a mountain lion in a remote desert canyon for the past three years. We’ve never met up in “person” but I’m there frequently enough I know he knows my scent and has watched me as I explore his territory. I’ve seen his pug marks in

  10. Malpais Mesa Hike Video

    Malpais Mesa Wilderness is one of the most arid regions I’ve ventured into. There are no springs and receives an infinitesimal amount of precipitation annually, positioned as it is in the Sierra Range’s rain shadow. Despite this, creatures still thrive here though not as densely as in other areas with…

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