Everything was up for grabs. For three centuries, England, Spain and France sent soldiers, trappers and merchants to plant flags, move goods, build forts. They drew maps to mark territory, signed treaties abused the natives, but their hold on North America was weak. All that time, Americans had put down roots along the eastern seaboard,…
Author: rondungan
Hiking Canyonlands National Park
Getting lost in The Maze I don’t know what I can tell you, other than don’t go, or think about it, or, take a friend and make sure you stop frequently for a map check. Getting turned around in The Maze is easy to do, and it’s not much fun. Trails are few and hard…
Hiking Saddle Mountain Wilderness
A walk on the wild side Saddle Mountain Wilderness is home to a small population of Apache trout. The fish are small and skittish, and the casting windows range from tight to impossible. Unless you enjoy nettles, snags and fishless days, leave the fly rod in the truck. This is a place to hike. The…
A short history of Jerome
Arizona’s mining towns frequently went up in flames Jerome burned. And burned and burned. Three years in a row, the town burned, and merchants rebuilt the tents and shacks that sheltered saloons and cathouses. It was a mining town, where men dug furiously by day and drank away the night. Jerome ran on whiskey, dreams…
Arizona Wildfire
The Bighorn Fire.
Hiking Aravaipa Canyon
Eddie thought we were crazy. He thought that all that wading on a cold day would end in disaster once the sun went down, but we didn’t listen. The canyon was calling. The forecast called for colder and getting colder, clear to partly hypothermic at night. It was December, and someone, I think it…
Grand Canyon bison saga continues
The latest in the story of the rogue Grand Canyon bison herd: https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/too-many-bison-culling-hunting-grand-canyon-beefalo
Up in smoke: Will Arizona escape a major wildfire this year?
Spring is here, and the Forest Service has taken charge. People in the high country are nervous. They talk about a year with no winter. How it’s drier than it was when Rodeo-Chediski blew up. Just before Memorial Day weekend, the Forest took the rare step of closing down sections of various tinder-dry sections of…
Conservationists say BLM living up to its nickname: Bureau of Logging and Mining
Bureau of Land Management employees have begun to wear cards with oil rigs affixed to them, according to media reports. At first glance, the story appears like fake news, but Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility obtained images of the cards and gave them to The Washington Post. The Post reported that it independently confirmed the…
New monuments keep feds busy
The Trump administration’s monument reductions are likely to fail, conservationists say, but that hasn’t stopped the feds from moving forward with new management plans. The reductions came late last year, when the administration announced it would shrink Grand Staircase-Escalante, created during the Clinton administration, and the newly created Bears Ears National Monument. Conservationists, tribes and…