03 Feb Fish Tales
To know a place Written by John Gifford My wife and I have this ongoing debate: Have you visited a place — a state, for example — if you’ve only spent a few hours in one of its airports? Or by driving through it on...
03 Feb Eating Water
I was looking out the window, watching the last bit of winter drip off the roof, creating a Morse code message of sorts: longer drips keyed in amongst tight, neat drops — all of them bursting with sunlight. If I’d known the code, I might...
23 Nov From the Editor: In Celebration of Snow
“Snow isn’t just pretty. It also cleanses our world and our senses…” — john burnside There’s nothing like waking up to a landscape covered in fresh snow. Even for those who loathe winter and the precipitation that comes with it, there’s no denying that a...
23 Nov Outside: Skinning Up
It’s 4:30 on a chilly morning in mid-February. The first floorboard in my bedroom is the loudest, and I carefully step over it, knowing that each creak and groan threatens to wake my dad and stepmom. At my mom’s house, I don’t have to worry...
28 Sep The Backyard Ultramarathon
I’d been running and hiking in complete darkness for a couple hours when I disturbed whatever it was in the trees on the ridge between Sheep Mountain and Mount Jumbo, the peaks around Missoula, Montana. Actually, I’d been moving along the trail by myself for...
07 Jun Birding the Big Sky
When my teenage son, Braden, and I climbed out of our minivan, temperatures hovered in the mid-20s and an ethereal layer of mist covered Freezeout Lake. We weren’t the first to arrive; a handful of pickups, Subarus, and other mud-splattered vehicles huddled in the tiny...
07 Jun The Covid Cure
When COVID-19 hit and shelter-in-place orders were established in early 2020, the very idea of losing my freedom to roam was nearly as unpalatable to me as catching the virus. For a few weeks, I found myself stumbling around, unsure of how to make use...
23 Nov Artist of the West: An Infatuation with Color
Marshall Noice’s richly chromatic paintings have a stained glass effect: Light seems to come through the colors, which are at once deeply saturated and enchantingly translucent. His landscapes inspire a renewed sense of delight in one of nature’s most ubiquitous and easily overlooked life forms....