In 1996, President Clinton set aside nearly 1.9 million acres of remote land in southern Utah, land so remote it was the last to be mapped in the country. In 2017, President Trump reduced those protections, cutting the size of the land set aside in half. But what is the story of Grand Staircase -…
Editor’s note: for those who think the national parks are just about majestic scenery, our resident parks expert Christian is here to disavow that with a look at one of a huge portion of park sites: national historical parks. For more of his amazing writing, click here to visit his index page. I live in…
Bright blue skies, the way it seems only Arizona can do bright blue skies, greet me as I begin my walk, the kind of sky that makes you feel so small and insignificant, like standing next to the Pacific Ocean. White puffy clouds break up the blue here and there. Having dropped their rain a…
I am forty years old - geez that sounds old - and I remember growing up that sushi was an exotic cuisine here in Los Angeles. Today, it seems sushi exists on every block in most metropolitan areas of the US, and even the entire world. What was once a cause for a shudder of…
Editor’s note: Thank you to Sam for another amazing story from his Utah home. For more tales of Sam’s travels, near and far, click here to visit his index page. The Great Salt Lake is the largest lake in the United States outside of the Great Lakes and it is from this lake that Utah’s…
What makes a culture impressive? What makes a building project awe-inspiring or an engineering feat worthy of praise? Questions like these spiral through my head as I gaze at the ruins of Casa Grande, a four story building constructed by the Ancestral Sonoran Desert People. The desert air here in central Arizona is dry and…
While living through the pandemic has had its challenges, it has also had some silver linings. One of these has been having the chance to take some really nice walks around my hometown, Glendale, California. I was born here, and consider myself somewhat an expert in the place, having spent maybe half my life total…
Even though the world is gradually starting to open up, I’m enjoying these date nights and am going to continue to do them, although I may not call them quarantine date nights once quarantine is completely done. Anyway, Madagascar. I’ll be honest, while I’ve always wanted to go, it’s been more for baobab trees and…
Editor’s note: I have been pressuring Sam for a while to write more about his home as a break from his amazing worldwide adventures. Today, he indulged me, and I’m so glad he did! To read more from this incredible writer - and person - click here to visit his index. For three years, I…
It’s been almost fourteen months since I returned from Spain, leaving that trip three weeks early because there were *gasp* more than 100 daily cases of this new coronavirus there. I figured I’d ride it out back in Los Angeles, returning to travel by summer at the latest. Little did I know I’d spend the…