The Blanca Monsoon

Blanca, initially a hurricane off the coast of the Baja Peninsula, has moved into the Desert Southwest as a Tropical Depression, bringing co...

Journey to Flaming Gorge

Though my wife and I have traveled extensively throughout the Western U.S., a visit to Flaming Gorge, on the Wyoming-Utah border, has eluded...

Winter Slides South

After a mild autumn across most of the U.S., a dome of Arctic air is sliding south across the Mountain West and Great Plains.  Devoid of pot...

Southwest Flooding

Tropical moisture, swept into the Desert Southwest by Tropical Depression Ivo (now off the Baja Peninsula), has been caught in the Southwest...

Eolian Jurassic Sandstones

Three eolian (wind-deposited) Jurassic sandstones make a major contribution to the spectacular scenery of the Colorado Plateau.  These strat...

The Uncompahgre Plateau

At the beginning of the Miocene Period, some 25 million years ago (MYA), the Colorado River and its tributaries were cutting their way throu...

The Painted Desert

The entire Colorado Plateau, from Dinosaur National Monument in northwest Colorado to the San Rafael Swell in central Utah and southward to ...

The Abajo Mountains

Anyone who has visited Arches or Canyonlands National Parks has surely noticed a cluster of mountains that rises to their south, towering ab...

Sage Grouse Saga

Greater sage grouse, the largest grouse in North America, inhabit sage grasslands of the Intermountain West, from Colorado to the Columbia P...

The Elusive Ringtail

The ringtail, named for its bushy, banded tail, is a small, nocturnal omnivore of the western U.S. and northern Mexico. Extremely agile, th...

The Virgin River Staircase

The North and East Forks of the Virgin River rise on the south face of the Markagunt Plateau, in southwest Utah, amidst colorful outcrops of...

Unaweep Canyon Mystery

While the field of plate tectonics has solved many geologic mysteries, others remain. One of these is Unaweep Canyon in the northern portio...

Jurassic Parks

The Colorado Plateau of the Western U.S. harbors one of the most extensive exposures of Jurassic strata on our planet. Stretching from 200 t...

Claron Lake

When the Rocky Mountain chain began to rise, some 70 million years ago, the crust to its west was stretched, producing a mosaic of ridges an...

Flowing Back in Time

West of Glenwood Springs, Colorado, the Colorado River passes through the Grand Hogback and enters the Colorado Plateau, a vast geophysical ...

The Chuska Mountains

Forming a topographic wall across northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico, the Chuska Mountains are the remnants of an elongated, s...

Dinosaurs and the Grand Canyon

Mention geologic history and most people think of dinosaurs or famous landforms, especially the Grand Canyon. No doubt, many visitors have ...

The Mogollon Rim

The Mogollon Rim is a prominant escarpment that curves across Arizona from the western end of the Grand Canyon to southwest New Mexico. More...

The Green River Lakes

As the Paleocene gave way to the Eocene, 60 million years ago, a trio of lakes were forming in the intermountain west. Fossil Lake, the sma...

The Hualapai Travesty

So the Hualapai Indian Tribe has dedicated their glass-bottomed walkway over the rim of the Grand Canyon, a marvel of engineering and a disg...