<![CDATA[The Art of Exploration: Writing]]>https://www.artofexploration.com/s/writinghttps://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!qLb7!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6fed3680-a68c-4939-9b5f-73e9ca848e04_133x133.pngThe Art of Exploration: Writinghttps://www.artofexploration.com/s/writingSubstackMon, 24 Aug 2026 09:13:56 GMT<![CDATA[Lakeside Evening]]>https://www.artofexploration.com/p/lakeside-eveninghttps://www.artofexploration.com/p/lakeside-eveningFri, 15 Aug 2025 23:20:00 GMT

A late summer stillness settles in at Brainard Lake. The cool evening air pours into the valley. Everyone moves slowly, without urgency. There is a kindness that permeates the air. Smiles on faces, soft conversations, laughter. For the past few days, a parched static has pervaded the air—and with it a desperation for rain. Smoke from fires on the Western Slope seeped over the Divide on the highest wind currents and stained the clouds like spilt tea. But today the winds shifted, the skies cleared.

Families relax on the shore. They sit in camp chairs, share dinners from coolers, eat sandwiches and salads piled high on paper plates. Children in plump life jackets steer paddle boards in wide circles in the shallow water. Small flocks of juncos tumble from one bush to the next, chasing each other and chattering softly. Chipmunks inspect the perimeter for dropped goods: potato chips, bits of bread, clusters of sweet granola.

Brainard Lake was once home to the Ute and Arapaho Native American tribes. Later settled by Europeans in the late 1800s. With them came logging, mining, ranching. The area was part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Roosevelt’s New Deal of the 1930s brought the Civilian Conservation Corps to the area. They built recreational facilities, trails, picnic areas, campgrounds.

]]><![CDATA[A Prairie Inventory]]>https://www.artofexploration.com/p/prairie-walkshttps://www.artofexploration.com/p/prairie-walksSun, 20 Jul 2025 05:13:00 GMT

The midwestern summer air is muggy and sweltry. There’s a sense that everything on the prairie stings, bites, cuts, begets rash. Hikers flinch and swat at real and imagined attackers alike: mosquitos…

Read more

]]><![CDATA[The Cranes of the San Luis Valley]]>https://www.artofexploration.com/p/the-cranes-of-the-san-luis-valleyhttps://www.artofexploration.com/p/the-cranes-of-the-san-luis-valleySat, 29 Mar 2025 18:40:00 GMT

“Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins as in art with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language. The quality of cranes lies,…

Read more

]]><![CDATA[Roadside Geology]]>https://www.artofexploration.com/p/roadside-geologyhttps://www.artofexploration.com/p/roadside-geologySun, 11 Jun 2023 22:55:00 GMT
Clouds over the hogback near Livermore, Colorado

It’s early Sunday morning, and I’m driving north along US Highway 287. It’s been raining almost every day for three weeks now, and the landscape’s ragi…

Read more

]]><![CDATA[Alluvial Fan]]>https://www.artofexploration.com/p/alluvial-fanhttps://www.artofexploration.com/p/alluvial-fanSun, 04 Jun 2023 21:32:00 GMT

Notes from an hour spent observing nature at Alluvial Fan Trailhead, Endovalley, Rocky Mountain National Park.

8:03 a.m. Sheltering in my car. A heavy rain teems down. My mountain-girl grit eludes me.…

Read more

]]><![CDATA[A Visit to Chatfield Banding Station]]>https://www.artofexploration.com/p/a-visit-to-chatfield-banding-stationhttps://www.artofexploration.com/p/a-visit-to-chatfield-banding-stationMon, 29 May 2023 22:44:29 GMT
Bullock’s Oriole (Icterus bullockii)

I arrive at the Denver Audubon Nature Center in Chatfield State Park shortly after dawn and join a small group of birdwatchers gathering at the entrance. We're her…

Read more

]]><![CDATA[A Pocketful of Species]]>https://www.artofexploration.com/p/a-pocketful-of-specieshttps://www.artofexploration.com/p/a-pocketful-of-speciesSat, 24 Sep 2022 17:12:14 GMT
A Snakeweed Grasshopper perched atop a Curlycup Gumweed blossom.

Last summer, I started using iNaturalist to keep track of the species I encountered during my outdoor adventures, and this practice has…

Read more

]]><![CDATA[Excerpts From an Evening Chorus]]>https://www.artofexploration.com/p/excerpts-from-an-evening-chorushttps://www.artofexploration.com/p/excerpts-from-an-evening-chorusThu, 08 Sep 2022 15:01:05 GMT
A marshy meadow along Mitchell Creek near Brainard Lake, Colorado. This is one of the meadows where I recorded birdsong. By the way, there’s a moose in this photo. Can you spot him? Read about my mem…

Read more

]]><![CDATA[A New Look for Lake Haiyaha]]>https://www.artofexploration.com/p/a-new-look-for-lake-haiyahahttps://www.artofexploration.com/p/a-new-look-for-lake-haiyahaFri, 02 Sep 2022 07:03:48 GMT

Lake Haiyaha, after the rockfall. The scar from the rockfall is a smooth, light-grey patch of rock at the farthest reaches of the canyon (above and slightly left of center in the image). Photo: Augus…

Read more

]]><![CDATA[Mountain Time]]>https://www.artofexploration.com/p/mountain-timehttps://www.artofexploration.com/p/mountain-timeWed, 31 Aug 2022 13:22:00 GMT
The view of Fern Canyon and Gabletop Mountain from my campsite. Incidentally, that’s my neighbor’s tent in the foreground, not mine.

Dawn. Cool air from the sparse alpine land above fills the valley.…

Read more

]]><![CDATA[Solar Eclipse Flashback]]>https://www.artofexploration.com/p/solar-eclipse-flashbackhttps://www.artofexploration.com/p/solar-eclipse-flashbackMon, 22 Aug 2022 04:51:00 GMT
The photos I snapped during the solar eclipse might be the technically worst photos I’ve taken in a long time, and yet they capture the moment wonderfully.

On August 21, 2017, a total eclipse of the s…

Read more

]]><![CDATA[Birdsong Essentials]]>https://www.artofexploration.com/p/birdsong-essentialshttps://www.artofexploration.com/p/birdsong-essentialsMon, 18 Jul 2022 17:00:07 GMT
A juvenile bobolink that I photographed while birdwatching at a nature reserve in northern Illinois many years ago.

As a graduate student in the early 1990s, I attended the School of Public and Enviro…

Read more

]]><![CDATA[Teatime With a Moose]]>https://www.artofexploration.com/p/teatime-with-a-moosehttps://www.artofexploration.com/p/teatime-with-a-mooseSun, 10 Jul 2022 00:04:41 GMT
A handsome bull moose enjoys an early evening snack. The subspecies of moose that inhabits the Rocky Mountains is called the Shiras moose, one of four moose subspecies native to North America.

INDIAN …

Read more

]]><![CDATA[Pronghorn Watching]]>https://www.artofexploration.com/p/pronghorn-watchinghttps://www.artofexploration.com/p/pronghorn-watchingMon, 14 Mar 2022 18:51:09 GMT
There were once 35 million pronghorn in North America. Today there are estimated to be between 750,000 and 1 million individuals.

In this post, I share a handful of photographs and a few brief field n…

Read more

]]><![CDATA[Journey of the Hummingbirds]]>https://www.artofexploration.com/p/journey-of-the-hummingbirdshttps://www.artofexploration.com/p/journey-of-the-hummingbirdsThu, 19 Aug 2021 22:03:00 GMTThe broad-tailed hummingbirds dart and dive outside my motel room window. I pause to listen to them through the screen. As they maneuver, their wingbeats cut the air with a metallic quaver that cresc…

Read more

]]><![CDATA[Building a Writing Practice]]>https://www.artofexploration.com/p/building-a-writing-practicehttps://www.artofexploration.com/p/building-a-writing-practiceSat, 06 Feb 2021 20:12:00 GMT

I have been thinking about my writing habits lately, mostly because I don’t seem to know any that work well for me. My shelves (real and virtual) are full of books about how to write. Therefore, I’m …

Read more

]]><![CDATA[Winter Walk]]>https://www.artofexploration.com/p/winter-walkhttps://www.artofexploration.com/p/winter-walkSun, 10 Jan 2021 22:47:00 GMT

A late start this morning after a restless night’s sleep. I set about my morning routine. I empty the dishwasher, brew a pot of coffee, and make myself a bowl of oatmeal with a drizzle of maple syrup…

Read more

]]><![CDATA[Square Top Lake]]>https://www.artofexploration.com/p/square-top-lakehttps://www.artofexploration.com/p/square-top-lakeMon, 21 Sep 2020 22:47:00 GMT

The autumn colors are peaking in various places around Colorado, and I am eager to get out and enjoy the season before it’s over. Fortunately, my car is back from the repair shop, and with a new ther…

Read more

]]><![CDATA[Tree Spotting ]]>https://www.artofexploration.com/p/tree-spottinghttps://www.artofexploration.com/p/tree-spottingFri, 18 Sep 2020 22:20:00 GMT
Englemann Spruce (Picea engelmannii) - close-up of needles

Friday afternoon—I’m at Brainard Lake in Indian Peaks Wilderness. It’s the end of a long work week, and I hope that the thin mountain air wil…

Read more

]]><![CDATA[Golden Grasslands]]>https://www.artofexploration.com/p/golden-grasslandshttps://www.artofexploration.com/p/golden-grasslandsSun, 13 Sep 2020 00:00:52 GMT

The brown season is here: grasses are brittle, sun-parched, crisp as cornstalks. It’s the time of year when, in preparation for winter, farmers and municipalities raze fields flush with the dirt. But…

Read more

]]>