Autumn Glimmer: Photographers descend on the craggy Eastern Sierra, hoping for magic light and stunning fall scenery - Standing in the golden corridor of Lundy Lake Road, a tunnel of crooked aspens with dancing yellow leaves leads me toward the lake. Dark mountains skirted with fall color are reflected in the polished surface and a hint of woodsmoke is further proof that it is indeed fall.  More...

The Haunted Desert - October has arrived once again along with spooky stories, unexplained mysteries and other desert lore. It is no wonder that so many ghosts haunt the lonely trails, mountains, and landmarks of the forbidding desert. The desert can be so unforgiving and, at the same time, unbelievably generous. Many travelers, prospectors and adventures have gone into the desert, never to return.  More...

Bird Watching Basics - Be forewarned.  Drawn by the adventure of bird watching, you may sit for hours on your back porch waiting for a Bullock's Oriole to sip nectar, like fine wine, from the blooms of your trumpet vine. You may hike for miles through southeastern Arizona's forested Chiricahua Mountains in search of the Elegant Trogon. You may sit in the pre-dawn darkness beside a high desert wetland on an icy winter morning to watch migratory water birds rise from the water's surface on the first rays of the sun.  More...

The Mojave Road - Perhaps the best treasure in eastern California's Mojave National Preserve is a pair of tracks that cross the middle of it. This famous trail is the Mojave Road. For most of this 138 mile stretch it is in much the same condition as the pioneers would have found it, and a lot of the trail passes through country that is virtually unchanged since prehistoric times. More...

Magic in the Mountains - When people think of spectacular fall colors, they usually visualize unbroken vistas of the Smokies or the striking scenes of New England. Rarely the West. Never the desert. But one of the most colorful displays of autumn color in the nation occurs in the Guadalupe Mountains, which rise out of the Chihuahuan Desert, on the Texas-New Mexico border. More...