Big, Loud Californians
I arrived well before sunrise, but the cacophony had already begun. While I unpacked my gear in the parking lot, the staccato barking is echoing throughout the Ballard neighborhood in Seattle. I’m guessing people don’t need alarm clocks from fall to about early spring, when...
Toppling Muir Not Enough
The last time I visited Yosemite National Park, I stood atop Glacier Point and gaped at the views of Half Dome, Yosemite Falls and the other geological baubles of Yosemite Valley. Lost in the almost hallucinatory beauty, I imagined myself in conversation with John Muir...
Joys, Risks of Black Birding
During the wee hours of a recent Sunday morning, a Black man and his mixed-race, Black and Latinx friend meet in front of Be’er Sheva Park in Seattle’s Rainier Beach neighborhood, among the most diverse in the city. They are wearing caps and face masks...
Nelson Wins Rare Triple
Glenn Nelson, the founder of The Trail Posse, earned what is believed to be an unprecedented three first-place awards from the Society of Professional Journalists for the same column, on race and social justice, for Crosscut.com. The three 2019 honors came for Column, Editorial and...
Yellowstone Winter
Sunshine in Bozeman. Pink orange mornings. Stars and howls at night. Lamar Buffalo Ranch: The American Serengeti across the street. Heated floors in the bath house! Collegiality in the bunk house. Meg in charge. Jessica at the wheel. All is good. Frosty bison and yipping...
A Trail of Ghosts
Note: This piece was part of winning entries in Best of the West (2nd Place) and SPJ Northwest Excellence in Journalist (1st Place). Doan Nguyen was sufficiently “worked up,” as she put it, by the time we reached Nihonmachi (Japantown) Alley, a history-filled thoroughfare in...
National Parks Wildlife
Throughout the years, my biggest thrills in national parks came when I spotted and photographed wildlife, from the tiny Pika to the big Grizzly. The gallery below represents some of my best. Admittedly, our feathered species get short-shrifted here, but are abundantly represented throughout the...
2020 Nature Calls
Making calendars is not a business for me. I started a few years ago because some friends asked me to. I make them the way I like them – with nice paper so the images pop and I can actually write on them. This year,...
Birding While Black with Drew Lanham
Drew Lanham is a different bird. And he’s known that to be the case since, back in the day in Edgefield, South Carolina, he leapt off buildings and trees with cardboard wings, umbrellas and parachutes made of garbage bags. One time he broke his collarbone...
‘Nature Keeps Me Grounded’
It’s hard to say how or why Chevon Powell was granted a rebirth so close to the beginning of her life. She was only 5 months old when her family’s Houston apartment burned down. She was rescued after suffering first- and second-degree burns on about...
Your Guide for #DogOnAHike
Hiking offers a variety of benefits for the heart, mind, and body. Aside from the many known health impacts, time spent outdoors also can serve as a restorative and stress-relieving activity for the whole family (Spoiler Alert: even the dog!). It may seem as simple...
Connected by Nature
OVER THE COURSE of 3½ months, I made more than 30 visits to a nest site that’s surprisingly urban, in the middle of Seattle, in the shadow of the University of Washington campus, where aspirations sometimes rise and fall as suddenly and unexpectedly as the...