Mono Lake, An Economy of Ecology

The alarm rings at three in the morning, for which I curse having shared whiskeys with drinkers and jokers in Lee Vining the night before. I have coffee to make, and a walk along a lake, here from a perch in the dirt under my truck, under the shadow of the Sierra Nevadas. I am not quite sure why I am here, but sometimes that is the way travel goes. No answers, at least not yet.

Wilson's Phalaropes - migratory shorebirds - and the Kutzadika'a shared in common a palette for a particular fly. The Alkali fly - Ephedra hyans - dislodges his head and inflates a large sac between his head and neck to pop his pupa shell. A natural scuba diver; small hairs on the body of Ephedra hyans create for his small black body a droplet of air which can keep him underwater for quite some time.

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Great Basin

A Gulch in the Escalante Desert
Going solo in the lonely canyons of Escalante

The Loneliest Road
A journey across the Nevada's Great Basin and the Loneliest Road in America. We follow the struggle between off-roaders, Great Basin Indians and conservationists over the fate of a blue butterfly.

Magicians, Travel Writers and Summer Lake
Part II of a conversation about travel writing, this episode continues into the southern Oregon Desert.

Rachel, Nevada and Area 51
Area 51 is a dusty set of hangars at the bottom of a dry lake bed.

The Owyhee Puzzle
Part I of the Oregon Testament. Follow us to Leslie Gulch, where we stumble upon a yet undiscovered Native American site.

The Alvord Desert
Part II of the Oregon Testament. Fishing under the Steens Mountains, and wandering the alkali flats of Alvord Lake.

Mono Lake
They are twisted, trollish, ungodly, like a woman turned to stone

East Oregon High Desert
Wandering the High Desert of Eastern Oregon

The White Mountains
By the accidents of geologic history, this land has remained relatively unchanged.

Zion Canyon
Zion Canyon as a launching point for discussion on the politics of sin.

Glen Canyon
What Creatures will Roam Glen Canyon?