Category Archive

Texas is a big state. It’s so doggone big that it has a broad variety of landscapes and geographic regions, and these regions themselves are sizeable. One of them is the Llano Estacado. It covers a vast amount of the western part of the state, from the Canadian River near Amarillo in the north down to the Midland/Odessa area in … Read More

If you had to name two of the “nicest” nations on the planet, you might think of Canada and Denmark. They just don’t cause a lot of trouble in the world, and the last thing you’d expect is a border dispute between the two. Well, of course not, right? They’re nowhere near each other! Ah, but as a matter of … Read More

We generally think of mountains as tall, broad ridges–a sort of wall of stone. Rocky structures aren’t often found as distinct entities, with a small base and a narrow, steep-sided body. Occasionally, such promontories stick up above the surrounding lands, like Devil’s Tower or the sandstone pinnacles of Monument Valley, but these are solitary, or few in number, and catch … Read More

Island life is generally thought of as desirable, being distant, scenic, and peacefully isolated. Throw in a tropical location, and the notion becomes dreamlike. Unfortunately for a lot of unlucky individuals over the course of about a hundred years, such a location was a living nightmare. In 1852, the government of French Emperor Napoleon III needed a place to send … Read More

There are some lakes, like Tahoe, that can be crystal clear. Even those rare bodies are increasingly plagued by incursions of pollution or sediment that mar the clarity to some extent. And most lakes don’t come close to that kind of visibility, especially in summer when warmer water is so conducive to the growth of algae. Green, then, is a … Read More

There are a thousand and one places to go on this planet, and each dictates its own set of preparations for a successful trip. Even so, terrestrial destinations all have some similarity when compared to leaving this planet entirely and heading for another. That kind of excursion will require a good bit of time cooped up in a tin can … Read More

Snorkelers can see a lot of great stuff, because the water over coral reefs often isn’t that deep. But to really get down into what the undersea has to offer, it’s going to take some scuba gear and the know-how to utilize it properly and safely. If you’re just in it for recreation, 130 feet is about the limit. Technical … Read More

If you live on the coast, the air is thick. It doesn’t feel like that, but at sea level you’re at the bottom of a sea of air. The gases of the atmosphere there are under the weight of the maximum column of overlying air. Thus they are pressed together more densely than at higher elevation. This barometric pressure is … Read More

There must have been something in the minds of all early peoples. You just know they sat around the campfire, trading stories and plotting, scheming, and planning on how to create sizeable stone displays that would drive their distant progeny nuts trying to figure out just exactly what the heck they were up to. The Easter Island moai, the pyramids, … Read More

The Maldive Islands are a string of tropical beauty southwest of India, stretching for over 500 miles. The ridge that forms the base of the country’s 22 atolls was built up from the ocean floor in much the same way as were the Hawaiian Islands. A hotspot that now rests far away under Reunion Island, east of Madagascar, fed enough … Read More