Mustang Makeover Days

Horsing Around

Big time equine fun in little western towns

Horse and human stories have been intertwined in the West for centuries, and while only a few people work with horses today,

Some Like it Cold

Some Like it Cold

How does a local ski hill prepare for an uncertain future?

I’m a third-generation Bridger Bowl skier. My grandparents taught my dad to ski here

A New Conservation Model

A New Conservation Model

How do we get outdoor enthusiasts to protect the places they play?

Several years ago, Sonoran Institute founder and long time conservationist Luther Propst was mountain biking on the Lunch Loops in Grand Junction

Evolving Wyoming Tourism

Evolving Wyoming Tourism

Can a tourist-driven economy fill the gap as energy revenue falters?

Tucked between Ladies Golf Night and Bible Camp on the July 2015 events calendar for Hulett, Wyoming, is an event called Ham N Jam.

Camper Culture

Camper Culture

Small, hand-built, and rugged RVs bring a new demographic into the fold

Mike Resch never expected to own a camper. He prided himself on his ability to live out of a backpack

e North Sand Hills, a dune complex outside Walden, Colorado, are home to the state’s rarest plant, the boat-shaped bugseed.

Boat-Shaped Bugseed

Sand Hills off-roaders co-exist with rare plant

The North Sand Hills rise out of Northern Colorado’s high plains like a scene from a science fiction movie.

e oil painting Wind River Country Wyoming by Albert Bierdstadt (circa 1860) was up for sale at the 2015 Jackson Hole Art Auction.

Stories Told in Paint

Discovering fine art in Jackson

On a hazy evening the streets of Jackson blur with summer tourists. Laughter and chitchat rises from outdoor patios like bubbles in a fizzy drink.

The Bone People

The Bone People

The booming business of antler hunting on public lands

Andy Hart thinks of antler hunting as a process of manufacturing luck.

Chimney Rock, in Nebraska, was an important landmark to pioneers traveling westward. Today it is protected as a national historic site.

What the Pioneers Saw

Protecting viewsheds on National Historic Trails

Less than 30 miles from the Nebraska-Wyoming border, an etched wagon wheel marks the grave of Rebecca Winters

Zebra mussel

Only YOU Can Prevent Zebra Mussels

Sloganeering in the age of invasive species

Everybody knows the catchphrase Only YOU Can Prevent Forest Fires. Lots of folks who spend time in the backcountry understand they should Leave No Trace.

The Forgotten River

The Forgotten River

A UW graduate student sees expedition potential in a neglected corner of the West

On May 31, 2015, a half dozen brightly colored rafts slipped past the Split Mountain take out at the bottom of Gates of Lodore

Editor

Editor’s Note (winter 2016)

Wandering down the spine of a ridge last summer in southern Wyoming’s Sierra Madre, I stumbled across a 100-year-old mining camp: pits surrounded by heaps of broken rock

A new kind of energy

A New Kind of Energy

A refinery town redefines itself as an outdoor playground

A flash of red bobs in the North Platte River at the Casper, Wyoming, city limits.

Terror in the Backcountry

Terror in the Backcountry

When wildlife comes face to face with winter sports enthusiasts

Imagine you’re out for a pleasant winter stroll and just about to bite into your turkey