Hollis

LATEST ARTICLES ( 468 )

• Tree-following: Bark

  

  tree-following (noun): informal The practice of observing a tree over the course of a year, and reporting on it monthly, usually online. Read more

  Posted on 07 December 2014 OUTDOORS

• Death, Destruction & Douglas Fir

  

  “The plant world exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.”(historian Will Durant, adpated by botanist Arthur Kruckeberg)I love Douglas fi... Read more

  Posted on 01 December 2014 OUTDOORS

• A Random Hike on a Reef

  

  Behind the San Rafael Reef – the answer to geo-challenge 2.Wild Horse Canyon – one of those beautiful Utah slot canyons – has been calling me for years. On a... Read more

  Posted on 23 November 2014 OUTDOORS

• Life of a Goblin

  

  Rock goblins in the prime of life.On Halloween I posted a day-appropriate geo-challenge. The answer is ... Goblin Valley State Park in southeast Utah. Here... Read more

  Posted on 16 November 2014 OUTDOORS

• A Visit to the First Ice Art of the Season Exhibition

  

  As you may have heard, the jet stream curved far north around a ridge of good weather and then curved south, followed by the infamous polar vortex ... or... Read more

  Posted on 13 November 2014 OUTDOORS

• Cottonwood Houses, Cottonwood Stars

  

  Many years ago, in the heat of summer, little girls sat in the shade of cottonwood trees and made tipis from the leaves.These they made in numbers and placed... Read more

  Posted on 09 November 2014 OUTDOORS

• Cottonwood Encounters

  

  Cottonwood leaf in mud.Cottonwoods are common in the American West, even in the drier parts (they often mean water's close by). I was pleased to meet three on m... Read more

  Posted on 05 November 2014 OUTDOORS

• On the Road: Final Geo-challenge

  

  Where am I? what's all that weird orange rock?! maybe I was out too long.Plants and Rocks is back from vacation, with one more geo-challenge to share. But I... Read more

  Posted on 31 October 2014 OUTDOORS

• On the Road: Geo-challenge 2

  

  Where are we now? View is from behind, as the sun sets.Plants Rocks is still on on the road and finding it hard to blog, so here’s another quick geo-challenge. Read more

  Posted on 27 October 2014 OUTDOORS

• On the Road: Geo-challenge 1

  

  Where are we? Plants Rocks is on vacation. First destination was an east-west mountain range often described as an anomaly because contemporaneous ranges... Read more

  Posted on 22 October 2014 OUTDOORS

• Walking the Devil’s Backbone

  

  Driving home from Rocky Mountain National Park we stopped just a few miles west of Loveland, Colorado, to examine the Devil’s Backbone. How could we not?! Read more

  Posted on 12 October 2014 OUTDOORS

• Tree-following: That First Question

  

  Do you remember that first question ... back in February when the cottonwoods were leafless, the ground in snow, and the river under ice? “Is this a single... Read more

  Posted on 07 October 2014 OUTDOORS

• Urban Tumbleweeds -- Free & Hardly Lonely

  

  Tumbleweeds are integral to our beloved American West -- a land of wide open spaces where tumbleweeds, cowboys and other free spirits can go wherever the wind... Read more

  Posted on 30 September 2014 OUTDOORS

• Shear Beauty Along the Highway

  

  Crenulated beds (chevron folds) with alpine phlox.Wyoming Highway 130 crosses the Medicine Bow Mountains west of Laramie. Immediately beyond the turnoff to... Read more

  Posted on 27 September 2014 OUTDOORS

• Fall Flower Selfies

  

  Sunflower selfie (Helianthus annuus).“Selfie” was the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year in 2013: selfie noun, informal (also selfy; plural selfies): a... Read more

  Posted on 22 September 2014 OUTDOORS

• Ypsilon Mountain, Handiwork of a Master Sculptor

  

  Ypsilon Mountain above blue hat, part of the Mummy Range in northern Colorado.Abbott and Cook say “Ice is Earth’s master sculptor, and in Colorado, Rocky... Read more

  Posted on 14 September 2014 OUTDOORS

• Tree-following: Pilgrims from the East

  

  Being a dedicated Tree-follower, each month I report on my tree, a lance-leaf cottonwood along the Laramie River in southeast Wyoming, USA. Read more

  Posted on 07 September 2014 OUTDOORS

• Gray Day in Yellowstone

  

  Yellowstone National Park -- land of wonders both natural and unnatural.No matter how carefully one plans a vacation, sometimes things just don’t work out. Read more

  Posted on 31 August 2014 OUTDOORS

• Sweetwater River at the Devil’s Gate

  

  Devil's Gate in 2014.In the mid-1800s, hundreds of thousands of gold-seekers, pioneers, pilgrims and other dreamers took the Oregon Trail west. Read more

  Posted on 27 August 2014 OUTDOORS

• The Most Mysterious Mountains in Wyoming

  

  This is the final post in a series about a recent trip through the “Heartland of Laramide Tectonics” in south central Wyoming. By definition, this a folded land. Read more

  Posted on 17 August 2014 OUTDOORS