Cirios plants, also known as boojum trees, provide fascinating roadside entertainment in Baja’s Valle de los Cirios protected area. Legend has it they inspired some of Dr. Seuss’ comical characters. Editor’s note: This article was originally published in Overland Journal’s Winter 2020 Issue. “ Do you feel safe down there?” It’s the question we hear…
Classic Kit | The Pelican Case
Dear Meriwether, Here are a few things I’d like for you to do while you’re out West: Explore the Missouri River, map it, take a look at its southern tributaries, find a Northwest Passage, establish friendly relations with the natives, study the soil, the animals, the geology, the climate, the plant life. Oh, and find…
Retracing the Butterfield Route Across Oklahoma
If I could travel through time, I’d go back 160 years to Indian Territory in days antebellum. There, concrete and steel would dissolve into wagon ruts and stone, hewn logs and flowing springs, a landscape familiar in its essence but alien in its rawness. Though I lack a time machine in the H.G. Wells sense,…
Deep Ozarks
White caps, like the peaks on my great-grandmother’s meringue, fill the road ahead. The waters are high and raging at a usually benign stream crossing deep in the Ozarks. It is late April and a wet and stormy spring in Arkansas. We had another downpour last night, the rain is still falling, and we’re in…
And they Said it Couldn’t be Done
Exploring the vestiges of New Mexico’s frontier past.