Lying flat on my back beneath three giant aspen trees, I gazed upward. The autumn air was crisp as an apple and the yellowing leaves shimmered in the slight breeze, pairing perfectly with the strong, white trunks and a sky the color of a bluebird wing. I was mesmerized and thoughts fled as I…

Among the pro-level racers at the Logan to Jackson 200-mile race last week, four people made it a photo finish at 9 hours 2 minutes and 48 seconds. Cameron Hoffman of Smithfield, Utah beat out three other Utah guys for the win.

If you’ve wondered what 2020 was good for, the answer is fishing.

Interested in taking up hunting but don’t know where to begin? Or maybe it’s been a few years since you were out in search of wild game and you could use a little help in returning to the hunt.

A recent article in The Wildlife Society’s, The Wildlife Professional magazine caught my attention. The article describes research conducted to see if mowing lawns less often would yield benefits for wildlife, particularly native pollinators.

A week ago, I was showing a couple of talented college students how to rappel. Neither had ever done it despite being good climbers.

Grand Teton National Park has selected 70 teams of volunteer wildlife shooters and is ready to launch a mountain goat culling operation Monday.

In the valley, summer is still sizzling hot and full-on, but in the mountains, the signs of autumn are slowly revealing. Grasses have dried to a golden brown, and the leaves of some shrubs and trees are already draining of green chlorophyll, revealing the reds, yellows and oranges of autumn.

The recent chilly days are a reminder that summer is fading fast. There was even a car wreck on Teton Pass last week caused by snowy-icy roads.

David Wolfe has the ability to see the bright side of things and to stay calm despite trying circumstances.

For over an hour, the large campfire covered me in smoke, chasing me no matter where I moved as I tended the flames. Finally, as the fire burned to glowing embers, the smoke was gone. I set my grill above the coals, and when the metal was hot, tossed on the hamburgers that would be our dinne…

Some summer activities are just fun challenges meant to keep us in shape. Others are just crazy shenanigans that friends rope you into.

Idaho Fish and Game is offering in-person trapper and wolf trapper education classes starting in September for people interested in obtaining a trapper license.

The outlook is positive for eastern Idaho elk and deer hunters this fall.

Backpacking in Utah’s stunningly beautiful Uinta Mountains last week found us filtering water from the lake we were camped at. This should have been a pretty simple chore, but like dominoes falling, all three water filters we had brought failed in quick succession. With eight kids and three …

I sat in the doctor’s examination room more than a week ago waiting for the news.

Tyler Willis’ red puffy jacket had soaked through, and as he felt the glacial cold set in, he realized he was in real trouble.

Two Idaho fishing records were recently broken by anglers fishing central and eastern Idaho waters.

It wasn’t a long hike to the lookout tower in Island Park, but it was exciting just the same to be going to someplace new. At the tower, there were no interpretive signs (although we later learned that it was built in 1936), and the first 20 or so wooden steps and accompanying metal handrail…

Idaho Fish and Game has crunched the numbers and has some positive news for kokanee anglers at Ririe Reservoir.

We’ve entered that time of summer when as John Muir would put it: “The mountains are calling and I must go.”

The National Park Service is taking applications for “qualified” volunteers to help cull mountain goats from Grand Teton National Park starting in September.

The story is told of a young Native American, Little Gopher, who, in a vision quest while striving to become a man, was promised the ability to paint the vibrant colors of the sunset. Despite years of honing his skills, he could never find the colors he needed for the evening sky. One night …

The first few days of riding my bike across western Wyoming last week found my brother and I with nice temperatures. Then someone turned up the thermostat.

Jon Urban of Eagle set a new catch/release record for black crappie with a catch from Crane Creek Reservoir.

While far short of record return years, some Columbia River salmon runs are tweaking memories of the good ol’ days.

Some stories should never be forgotten. Other stories, once told, are always remembered. This one, a story I first heard as a youth, is both. On the night of Aug. 17, 1959, the visitors to the Rock Creek Campground several miles downstream from Montana’s Hebgen Dam were enjoying a peaceful, …

SPOKANE — The U.S. government announced Friday that four huge dams on the Snake River in Washington state will not be removed to help endangered salmon migrate to the ocean.

Some good friends from my distant past were visiting last weekend and, after an already long day, we decided at 10:30 p.m., on one more outing, to see the comet C/2020 F3, aka Comet NEOWISE. Actually seeing a comet is a rare event and seemed worth the effort.

It was a crowd of eastern Idaho rock climbers gathered in a far away land last weekend. About half of the group didn’t know the other half was coming. Oddly, we ended up reserving campsites next to each other.

Ashton is a great town and not just because it grows lots of spuds and grain to keep us all fat and happy.

Sitting at my desk, chair swiveled around toward the window, I watched as a salsify seed floated up and past the window. Where it would land would be anyone’s guess. With the slight breeze and warming temperatures creating thermals, it could travel hundreds of yards or even further before co…

MOSCOW — Running into friends during happy hour or at a barbeque can lead to memorable laughs and great stories. Running into folks in the woods while bow hunting for deer may not be as welcome.

New TV series follows fossil-hunting ranchers in Wyoming, Montana

It was a taste-off, kokanee salmon against rainbow trout cooked several different ways. I wasn’t optimistic about the chances hatchery-raised rainbow trout stood against salmon, but, judging by their size, these rainbows had been in Island Park Reservoir for several years, so I was reasonabl…

High on the second pitch of a fun rock climbing route in the Hostess Gully at Castle Rocks State Park on Friday (where many of the routes are named after Hostess sweet snacks — ours was named Zinger) our rope got stuck.

Congratulations to Brian Brooks of Boise on landing a new catch/release state record Arctic Grayling. Brian hiked high up into the Sawtooth Mountains to Alpine Creek Lake, where he landed and released the 16.2-inch Arctic Grayling, beating the previous record of 14 inches set by Lanson Stava…

When Michael Daus uploaded the video he shot of a grizzly bear attacking a bison during a brutal struggle in Yellowstone National Park, he had no idea the response would be so huge.

We spent a few mornings and afternoons last week watching the occupants of a fox den. When lulled into security by our unmoving presence, a few half-grown pups would emerge from the den to soak up the sunshine, wrestle with siblings or explore the neighborhood. These cubs will leave the den …

It’s like combining two great flavors — peanut butter and chocolate or pie and ice cream. Backcountry fishing melds the fun of hiking or exploring with the pursuit of fish. And summer is the prime time to do it.

A friend was obviously proud of his creation.

For Father’s Day, I received a book entitled “50 States, 5,000 Ideas” by National Geographic. It is a fascinating book that highlights just a few of the places to go in each state and even 10 Canadian provinces. I immediately turned to Idaho and read through the four or so pages highlighting…

Congratulations to Tom Weadick of Coeur d'Alene on a landing a new catch-and-release state record Westslope cutthroat trout.

My youngest son bought a bicycle.

A few years after the Yellowstone fire of 1988, I was driving into the park from West Yellowstone. The blackened landscape was still almost ubiquitous, but there among the charred remains of forests a tinge of green covered the forest floor — a carpet comprised of millions of one-foot tall e…

A small songbird popped out of the rushing waters at Big Springs in Island Park. It was rather plain with a slightly brown head, gray body and clownishly short tail. Each time it blinked I saw a flash from white eyelid feathers. I recognized it immediately, though, as it sat preening on a ro…

I recently bumped into an Idaho Falls friend (not literally, that would violate social distancing). He’s super big on triathlons and cycling races. He often places or wins his age category in many of them.

It isn’t every day that you get to see a living icon. But that is what we were headed for, although we didn’t know it. On May 18 we were first in line at the Wilson entrance to Grand Teton National Park for the limited opening of the park. At just a little before noon, a ranger waved us in a…