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Home > Great Basin

Discover the Great Basin

Travel writing from the Cold Deserts of North America

The arid cold deserts of western North America are often spare landscapes, whose small towns are often inhabited by eccentrics, individualists and wayward believers. The Great Basin describes a region of North America in many different ways.

It describes a geographic region of basin and range, a biological region of grass and scrub, and a historical region of related desert tribes. Follow me as I explore America's Great Basin, and nearby areas such as the Sierra Range in California and Nevada.

  • Lake County

    Avocets and Archaeology in Lake County

    Investigating the value of documenting travel during a pandemic. Includes an interview with Prehistoric Archaeologist Dennis Jenkins.
  • Lake Chewaucan

    Learning
    Lake Chewaucan

    Finding dragonflies and obsidian in Oregon's ancient Lake Chewaucan Lakebed.
  • Malheur Refuge

    Malheur and the
    Golden Age

    Observations from Oregon's Malheur National Wildlife Refuge after the Bundy occupation.
  • John Day River

    Road Notes from
    John Day River

    Tips on a minimalist road trip from the desert canyon roads of Oregon's interior.
  • Coal Pits Wash, Zion National Park

    The Good Lizard of
    Coalpits Wash

    Is travel during a global recession thoughtless? Is a dad who wanders aimlessly, a bad dad?
  • Glen Canyon, Utah

    Creatures
    Roam Glen Canyon

    This place contains creatures that exist nowhere else. What about the creatures that might?
  • Escalante Desert

    A Gulch in the
    Escalante Desert

    Notes on a road trip in the Escalante Desert, including a cast of characters along the way.
  • Loneliest Road in America

    the End of the
    Loneliest Road

    Notes on the ATVs, sand-dunes and biological diversity in the Nevada desert.
  • White Mountains, California

    The White
    Mountains

    Pondering the age of species among the ancient Bristlecone pines of the White Mountains.
  • Summer Lake, Oregon

    Magicians and
    Summer Lake

    Notes on the reasons why we write travel, from the magical desert outpost of Summer Lake.
  • Rachel, Nevada

    Rachel, Nevada
    and Area 51

    Notes from Rachel, Nevada, where UFOlogistcs converge to talk about their theories on Area 51.
  • Alvord Desert

    The Alvord
    Desert

    Exploring the Alvord Desert after finding native stone tools in the Owyhee Basin.
  • Mono Lake Ecology

    Mono Lake, an Economy of Ecology

    Notes on Mono Lake as an allegory for both economy and ecology.
  • Smith Rock, Oregon

    Smith Rock and the
    Oregon High Desert

    Notes on Central Oregon and the famed Monkey-Face on Smith Rock.
  • El Capitan Rock, Yosemite National Park

    Living Beneath El Capitan

    What is it like to live in Yosemite Valley? An interview with a local resident.
  • Tuolomne Meadows

    Tuolomne
    Meadows

    Notes from the Tuolomne Meadows in Yosemite National Park on travel writing and journalism.
  • Owyhee River

    The Owyhee
    River Puzzle

    What do you do when you find an undiscovered native site? I decide to find out.
  • Zion National Park, Virgin Narrows

    Zion Canyon and the Theology of Sin

    Zion Canyon, a perfect place to ponder Mormonism and the politics of sexuality.
  • Owens Valley, California

    The Mars Crew in Owens Valley

    Owen's Valley with the Mars Research crew during the search for extraterrestrial life.
Notes from the Road

A beacon of light on the darker roads of travel.

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