Over on my One-Car Town blog, a reader noted that while I asked what “UnSprawl” means, I never actually defined it. Fortunately, defining the term — which I coined when founding Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments nearly 15 years ago — isn’t too tricky. And yet “UnSprawl” can mean many different [...]

In July I had the honor and good fortune of accompanying 11 other writers, and about 100 scientists, to the Mount St. Helens Science Pulse, sponsored by the U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station and Oregon State University’s Spring Creek Project, to study and discuss the post-eruption landscape 30 years after its last major [...]

I just got back from the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment biennial conference in Victoria, British Columbia. It was a great conference in a stunning location! Below is a sampling of the 137 photos available in my site’s photo gallery. You may also wish to view the ASLE blog entries I posted [...]

I’ll be over at the Terrain.org Blog for the next week blogging my trip up to Victoria, British Columbia for the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment conference. Check out the first post at: http://terrainorg.blogspot.com/2009/06/asle-conference-review-day-0.html And follow all the entries at http://terrainorg.blogspot.com/. Hope to see you there!

Continuing our journey, after Aztec Ruins National Monument we spent the night in Flagstaff, Arizona. The next morning, we made the loop through the sister monuments of Sunset Crater Volcano and Wupatki Ruins, then on to the Grand Canyon. Photos from the third and final leg are now available. Below are ten of my favorites, [...]

Continuing our journey, after Great Sand Dunes we drove west through the lovely San Juan Valley into southwestern Colorado, where we visited Mesa Verde National Park. From there we drove south into New Mexico, and then — after Aztec Ruins National Monument — west to Arizona. Photos from the second leg are now available. Below [...]

Over spring break, my daughters and I took a road trip from Tucson to Denver and back, putting 2,700 miles on the Honda Fit and visiting seven national parks and monuments (and many great friends) along the way. Photos and narratives from the first leg of the trip — Tucson to Great Sand Dunes National [...]

For several years I had been itching to get over to the Guadalupe Mountains of west Texas and southern New Mexico. Known primarily for their geological features — the Guadalupes are the remnants of a large Permian reef that was part of a vast shallow sea that once covered the entire region — I was [...]

In late October I drove over to the Guadalupe Mountains of west Texas, about a hundred miles east of El Paso. Along the way there and back I stopped at the Franklin Mountains State Park, north (but officially within the city limits) of El Paso. I’ve just added 28 photos from that excusion to my [...]

Edit: I’ve written the first of two parts, over at Next American City, on these places: “Denver: America’s Great Urban Canvas, Part I.” Last week I had the good fortune to visit Denver, hosted by our friends the Doolings, and visit many Denver-area New Urban developments. The purpose for my visit, really, was to see [...]