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...

Water, Deserts & the Wealthy

In American society, the wealthy enjoy an increasing number of social perks, based on their ability and willingness to pay for them; close-i...

Southwest Monsoon in January

The Southwest Monsoon, bringing welcome rains to the Desert Southwest, occurs in summer each year, though its intensity and extent often var...

The Gila River

Covering more than 58,000 square miles, the watershed of the Gila River includes most of Arizona south of the Mogollon Rim.  The river itsel...

Southern Plains Monsoon

The annual Southwest Monsoon, which develops during the summer months, results from low pressure over the northern Baja and high pressure ov...

The Pecos River

The Pecos River rises in the Pecos Wilderness of the Sangre de Cristo Range in north-central New Mexico; its uppermost tributaries gather ea...

New Mexico's Bootheel

While avid American travelers are familiar with many regions of our country, few have likely been to the Bootheel of New Mexico.  Part of a ...

Sierra Grande

The Clayton-Raton Volcanic Field stretches across northeastern New Mexico, extending into southern Colorado and extreme western Oklahoma.  P...

Dramatic Route to the Rockies

Back in the early 80s, when we lived in Arkansas, we usually took a southern route to the Rocky Mountains.  After following I-40 through Okl...

The Desert Hawk

Zone-tailed hawks inhabit the Desert Southwest, from Southern California to southwest Texas, and range southward through Mexico, Central Ame...

Mt. Taylor

In late September of 1975, I caught my first glimpse of a snow-capped western mountain; it was Mt. Taylor, 11,302 feet, rising WNW of Albuqu...

The Raton Basin

Driving along I-25 between Walsenburg, Colorado, and Raton, New Mexico, one enjoys spectacular scenery, including lofty peaks, high mesas an...

Musk Hogs

Collared peccaries, otherwise known as javelinas or by their more colorful title of musk hogs, are native pig-like residents of the Sonoran ...

The Desert Raccoon

Natives of Central and South America, coatimundis have spread into the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts of the southwestern U.S. Formally kno...

The Desert Owl

Elf owls, the smallest owls in North America, are summer residents of the Sonoran Desert in southern Arizona; some inhabit the Chihuahuan De...

The Permian Reef

During the Permian Period, about 260 million years ago, a shallow, tropical sea covered what is now southern New Mexico, West Texas and nort...

Wintering Cranes

Sandhill cranes breed across the Arctic tundra of North America and in scattered regions from the Upper Midwest to the Intermountain West; a...

The Chuska Mountains

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

Rio Grande Rift

Ten million years ago, as the Miocene-Pliocene Uplift of the Intermountain West continued, fracture lines developed from southern Colorado t...

Bosque del Apache

Established in 1939, the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge covers 57,000 acres along the Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico. A mosaic...