Peering over the edge of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison from one of its numerous overlooks, it’s natural to feel weak in the knees. The dark canyon walls streaked with once-molten magma fall sharply down the river below, as if someone used a knife to slice a 48-mile slit in the earth’s crust. At … Read more
ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO — A federal judge is being asked to issue a stop-work order on a $10 billion transmission line being built through a remote southeastern Arizona valley to carry wind-generated electricity to customers as far away as California. A 32-page lawsuit filed on January 17 in U.S. District Court in Tucson, Arizona, accuses … Read more
Saltdale is not California’s most picturesque ghost town. It’s certainly not the largest, nor is it the most historical. But it may be the next to disappear. Saltdale sinks into Koehn Lake, a dry lakebed with salt deposits on its surface in the Mojave Desert, about 20 miles north of California City. Up close, the old … Read more
Members of a wild horse herd in Reno, Nev., with a subdevelopment in the background. gchapel/Getty Images In the remote towns of the Sierra Nevada, a recent spike in bears being struck by cars has raised questions over the coexistence of bears and humans — are there too many bears, or are there too many cars? But … Read more
The essence of lonely is embodied after peeling off Highway 50 into a dusty parking lot at Middlegate Station, a pit stop in the Nevada desert about an hour from any cities in both directions. There’s a small wooden building that appears to have been standing for at least 100 years and near the front … Read more
