by Don McGowan | Mar 25, 2020 | March 2020
In the lower stretches of the Oconaluftee River Valley, downstream from the confluence of Kephart Prong and Beech Flats Prong, and where all of the various branches – Kanati Fork, Bradley Fork, Straight Fork, and Raven Fork – have come together, there are...
by Don McGowan | Mar 20, 2020 | March 2020
There is a thin peninsula of a headland that juts into the great chasm of the Grand Canyon from the southern extremity of the North Rim’s Kaibab Plateau. Though technically part of the Kaibab, it has been given the separate name of the Walhalla Plateau. One day,...
by Don McGowan | Mar 14, 2020 | March 2020
One hundred and Seventy (170,000,000) million years ago, a vast inland sea covered what is now South-central Utah. Over time large deposits were laid down along the margins of that body of water. Eventually, those Jurassic deposits were exposed and weathered; one of...
by Don McGowan | Mar 7, 2020 | March 2020
When the sun sets in Chaco Canyon, it lights up the western flank of that sacred, Cretaceous sandstone remnant, Fajada Butte, a fairly spectacular sight all by itself. Nearly 180 degrees away from Fajada, on the day following the new moon, the Syzygy (new moon) for...
by Don McGowan | Feb 29, 2020 | March 2020
When the entourage of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado came to what is now Northern New Mexico in 1540, the inhabitants of the Village of Taos Pueblo had been living along that portion of the upper Rio Grande Valley for perhaps 250 years, maybe longer. By 1680, the...
