Hollis

LATEST ARTICLES ( 441 )

• On the Road in Nebraska (geo-challenge Answers)

  

  Where on Google Earth (click on image to view).Lynn David met all three of the recent geo-challenges:"Obviously Nebraska.... cannot mistake that bend in the... Read more

  Posted on 15 April 2016 OUTDOORS

• On the Road Again … but Where? (geo-challenge)

  

  Where on Google Earth? (click on image to view)Here’s a special deal to celebrate the start of 2016 geo-tripping: three geo-challenges for the price of one! I... Read more

  Posted on 12 April 2016 OUTDOORS

• Juneberry Surrogates

  

  Tall, taller than we knowbur oaks to be out West, wherethey’re scrub-like orbigger and low-branching, butnever sixty, eighty,a hundred feet tall!No wonder I... Read more

  Posted on 09 April 2016 OUTDOORS

• Bad Water, Sweet Water, and Greasewood

  

  Healthy greasewood—dig here! (photo by Cory Maylett)While traveling up the Missouri River through today’s northeast Montana, the great American explorer... Read more

  Posted on 31 March 2016 OUTDOORS

• Of Woolsacks, Witches, Cheesewrings & Tors

  

  Baa baa black sheep,Have you any wool?Yes sir, yes sir,Three bags full.One for my master,One for the king,One for the GeologistWho likes such things! Read more

  Posted on 17 March 2016 OUTDOORS

• James and Jamesia—a Man and His Shrub

  

  Cliffbush, Jamesia americana. Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center; photo by Alan Cressler.“Cliffbush” and “Jamesia” … a plant could hardly be more appropriately... Read more

  Posted on 04 March 2016 OUTDOORS

• Where the Juneberries Grow

  

  I zipped up my jacket, put on my pack, pulled the camera out of the case … and was hit by that sinking feeling that still surfaces even though we humans left th... Read more

  Posted on 01 March 2016 OUTDOORS

• See the Wind?

  

  Stopping for dinner at the Antelope Truck Stop, near Burns, Wyoming.See the Wind?(inspired by Christina Rossetti)Who has seen the wind?Neither I nor you:But if... Read more

  Posted on 19 February 2016 OUTDOORS

• Geological Mementos

  

  Memento (n.): an object kept as a reminder of an event or person.My knick-knacks are dominated by rocks. But they're not just rocks. Read more

  Posted on 12 February 2016 OUTDOORS

• Old Friends (tree-following)

  

  My circle of close friends includes two trees. This may seem odd, but it’s impossible to follow a tree for a year without become friends! Read more

  Posted on 08 February 2016 OUTDOORS

• Seize the Fleeting Light (Exposure)

  

  Cameras have been around for so long—almost two centuries—and have become so common that we take them for granted. But how remarkable to capture light and creat... Read more

  Posted on 02 February 2016 OUTDOORS

• Escape to a Warmer Greener World

  

  Last week I left home all bundled up, walked through cold blowing snow, opened a door, and entered the warm verdant stillness of a forest of fig, lipstick and... Read more

  Posted on 26 January 2016 OUTDOORS

• Stillness

  

  The standing dead.I live in the Laramie Valley in the Rocky Mountains, at 7000 feet elevation, far from any ameliorating marine effects. Winters are cold and... Read more

  Posted on 19 January 2016 OUTDOORS

• "never Before Photographed"

  

  “… the Tetons, never before photographed, now became of the first importance, so far as I was concerned.” (William Henry Jackson 1872; USGS)In 1872, William... Read more

  Posted on 12 January 2016 OUTDOORS

• Juneberry Dreams

  

  Juneberry in its prime.It's time for tree-followers to pick a tree. For 2016, I want to follow a juneberry—a tree with a rich store of stories and yummy fruit.... Read more

  Posted on 04 January 2016 OUTDOORS

• River of Rock

  

  Strolling down a river ...Our fall was unprecedentedly mild—so much so that on December 9, I returned to the Pawnee Buttes in northeastern Colorado (see recent... Read more

  Posted on 28 December 2015 OUTDOORS

• Winter on the Laramie River—great Food, Wrong Trees

  

  Would you camp here for five months?On September 4, 1831, twenty-one fur trappers packed their mules, saddled their horses, and rode up the Laramie River from... Read more

  Posted on 16 December 2015 OUTDOORS

• Geo-challenge: Hiking on (not In) a River Valley

  

  Where on Google Earth are we?Some hints ... Arrows point to stream deposits from roughly 20 million years ago. Obsolete names date from the late 1800s. Read more

  Posted on 11 December 2015 OUTDOORS

• Willow Retrospective

  

  Limestone "pavement" above Willow Canyon, with windblown snow.It’s a cold windy December afternoon in the foothills of the Laramie Mountains—7200 feet elevation... Read more

  Posted on 07 December 2015 OUTDOORS

• Professor Rydberg Sends a Map

  

  "I have made a tracing of a map of the park … I have tried to copy his routes thereon as well as that of myself and Mr. Bessey"It’s such a treat to meet and... Read more

  Posted on 28 November 2015 OUTDOORS