Travels with the Blonde Coyote

I’ve been writing a lot for Eos magazine and last fall, I talked my editors into starting a new feature column called Living in Geologic Time, “a series of personal accounts that highlight the past, present, and future of famous landmarks on geologic timescales.”

The first installment, on the past, present and future of the Grand Canyon: Will Earth’s Grandest Canyon Keep Getting Grander? was published in November. The story was based on my experience on a 20-day rafting trip on the Colorado that I took in September and October, as well as discussions with USGS geologists about the future of the Grand Canyon.

The second installment—Climbing the Occasionally Cataclysmic Cascades—is out today:

So far, I’ve stood on top of about half of the major high points of the Cascades, and I intend to keep climbing. This spring I’m aiming to ski Mount Shasta! After all, there’s no telling how long the Cascade volcanoes will be gracious hosts. “The eight volcanoes that are considered to be the highest threat have all erupted in the [past] 7,000 years, and we would expect them all to erupt again within that kind of time frame,” says Cascades Volcano Observatory researcher Seth Moran.

Stay tuned for the next installment in April! Any guesses where it might be? Any requests for future columns?

Miss EARTH magazine? Me too! RIP. I’ve been writing for Eos since EARTH shuttered last winter. Here are link to some of my recent Eos stories on the Fluid Pressure Changes Grease Cascadia’s Slow Aseismic Earthquakes and Tracking the Grand Canyon’s Mysterious Springs. You can also search for Mary Caperton Morton at Eos.org to see all my stories from 2019 to the present. Thanks for reading!

For the past three years I’ve been traveling spring, summer and fall in a 1990 Toyota camper truck named Jerry Odyssey Americano. This whole time, with a few weekend camping trip exceptions, my beloved Teardrop trailer “The Rattler” has been hanging out in a storage unit in Bozeman, Montana.

I’m happy to tell you, the Teardrop is free of the storage unit and once again outside, where it belongs, basking in sunshine and starlight. But it’s currently more of a lawn ornament than an adventure rig and that just doesn’t sit right with me.

I’ve always said I’ll never sell the Teadrop and part of me wants to keep it in the yard just so I can keep falling in love with it every time I look at it. But adventure rigs should go on adventures and if I’m being completely honest with myself, I just really don’t want to tow anymore. I much prefer the Toyota, which can go much deeper into the landscape than the Rattler.

It’s been a long, emotional road getting to this point. After I bought the Teardrop for my 30th birthday I lived and worked in it for three years and saw a lot of North America while getting to sleep in my own bed every night. I towed the Rattler all the way to Alaska and back with a Subaru Impreza and all over the mountain west with a Land Rover Discovery and then a Honda Element. And beyond. In fact, the Rattler has been to over 30 states. It’s actually a dream to tow, as far as towing goes. I just like to explore rough forest roads too much.

As much as I love having it as a lawn ornament, it’s a rolling work of Art, and it’s most beautiful in motion, in the rearview of somebody with dreams to see more of the World. The time has come to hand the Rattler off to somebody else.

The Rattler is a one of kind, homemade Teardrop trailer made by a master craftsman from his own design and specifications. It is used but loved. I’ve made a series of upgrades and repairs to it over the years, the nuts and bolts of which I’m happy to discuss. It just recently journeyed 1,000 miles from Montana to California and is road worthy. You’ll need a new deep cycle battery for the solar power system, a new memory foam mattress and a car with at least a 1,000 pound towing capacity (It weighs well under that probably 600-700 pounds empty but I haven’t weighed it since I put the solar panel on or the upgraded springs).

The Rattler is 5 feet wide and 13 feet long. With the top open you have 69 inches of standing room, with it closed 58 inches. The bed is 75 inches long and 55 inches wide. I lived in it very comfortably with two large dogs. I have shared it with another person and it’s doable but cozy for two.

I’ve fielded a lot of emails over the years from people interested in the Rattler. Here’s your chance! Who wants it? Make me an offer! It’s not free… it has been appraised in the low five digits… but I want it to go to the right person, not necessarily the highest bidder.

If you’re interested, send me an email at theblondecoyote@gmail.com and tell me what the Rattler is worth to you and how you plan to use it. I’ve added a bunch of hot links here to posts with background on the Rattler and our story. Please do some research and soul searching before you email me. I’m not in a rush. I’m not selling it first come, first served. This is a rolling work of art that deserves to go to the best possible home!

In a landscape littered with bizarre sandstone formations, the Wave on the border between Utah and Arizona stands out as downright psychedelic. Here colorful petrified sand dunes have been sculpted into undulating waves, photographs of which are so coveted that the park service has imposed a unique permit lottery system to keep the delicate site from being overrun with snap-happy tourists.

My book Aerial Geology:A High Altitude Tour of North America’s Spectacular Volcanoes, Canyons, Glaciers, Lakes, Craters and Peaks highlights 100 geologic features across Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. As of this spring, I had visited 89 out of 100 but after my lucky lotto ball came up on Memorial Day weekend, I’ve now been to 90!

The Wave is located within the Coyote Buttes area of Pariah Canyon– Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness, near the bottom of the Grand Staircase that descends through canyon country from Brian Head down to the Grand Canyon. Hidden in the backcountry several miles from the nearest rough dirt road, the Wave was virtually unknown until the 1990’s when it was featured in German travel brochures of the American Southwest and in the 1996 German nature documentary, Fascination Natur. Popularity among Europeans soared and the site soon became one of the most sought-after photos for foreign travelers visiting the U.S.

To visit the Wave, you must win the lottery. Only 20 people per day are allowed to visit the site. Ten permits are awarded through an online lottery, months ahead of time and ten permits are given out the day prior at the Grand Staircase-Escalante Visitor Center in Kanab, Utah. During the summer, over a hundred people a day vie for these ten permits.

We happened through Kanab, Utah on Memorial Day weekend and played the Wave permit lottery two days in a row. The first day about 150 people were vying for the 10 permits. The first lottery ball pulled was for a group of 6 and the second went to a group of 4 and it was all over in two minutes. On day two, we arrived at 8:58 local time, just in time to submit a permit application. When Ranger Ron read off everybody’s lottery ball number, he called “Morton number 47” and I knew I was going to the Wave… 47 is one of my luckiest numbers! Sure enough, the third ball he pulled was #47!

That night we camped down House Rock Road and set off before dawn the next morning for the Wave. The park service provides a photo map of the route to the formation; the trail is not marked and much of it flows over slickrock that doesn’t save footprints. I was surprised by the highly difficult routefinding! Dan and I are very experienced off-trail desert hikers and even we got a little sidetracked on our way to the Wave. In the photo below, we are almost there; the Wave is tucked behind the cones of rock in the middle ground.

We were the first to arrive and had the place to ourselves for about an hour. Then we left to scramble up the rocks behind the Wave to overlook the formation. As I say in my book: Geology is best appreciated from above! The Wave appears just above the tips of my boots in the photo below.

From Aerial Geology: During the Jurassic period, when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, this part of Arizona was buried under a massive sand dune field. Periodic changes in the direction of the prevailing winds led to cross bedding of the layers of sand as the dunes migrated across the landscape. Over time, these layers were lithified into bright orange Navajo sandstone more than 1,200 feet thick.

The thin ridges and ripples preserved at the Wave are evidence of millions of years of shifting wind patterns. Technically called wind ripple laminae, these lines are part of what make the Wave so photogenic. From the air, these lines highlight the now frozen movement of these ancient dunes. The nearby checkerboard patterns are created by freeze and thaw weathering of the petrified dunes, resulting in crosshatching of the sandstone. Dinosaur footprints have also been identified in the rocks near the Wave, relics from ancient travels across the dunes.

As amazing as the Wave itself is, the surrounding sandstone wonderland of North Coyote Buttes calls me back. Within a 1-mile radius of the Wave we found a field of Moki Marbles: tiny iron balls that form when iron-rich sandstone is leeched by groundwater over geologic time. The iron balls are very heavy and tend to roll downhill and collect in pockets.

…As well as several sandy coves that have been carved out of the rock by swirling wind and flying grit….

…Arches and Windows…

….And a slickrock slot canyon!

May the Southwest wonders never cease!

Heading north from the Wave via Cottonwood Road through Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

To See More of the World, including the Wave and 99 other geologic formations, you can order a signed copy of Aerial Geology direct from me for $34.99 plus $5.00 shipping via Paypal:

Living and skiing in Big Sky, Montana, we often see a bumper sticker that says “Never Bridger”, a cheeky dig at Bridger Bowl ski area north of Bozeman. Bridger is less than a two-hour drive from Big Sky, but it’s amazing how many Big Sky skiers have stubbornly never skied Bridger. In fairness, it’s pretty hard to drive away from Lone Peak and many of us don’t leave our mountain town bubble for weeks or months at a time in the winter. When you have the “Biggest Skiing in America” in your backyard, topped off with world-class backcountry skiing in Beehive Basin, why go anywhere else?

As much as I love our mountain home, I make a point to leave Big Sky at least a few times a winter to explore other ski mountains. Earlier this winter we skied Lost Trail Powder Mountain south of Missoula and a few weeks ago we made the trek up to Whitefish Mountain Resort, outside of Glacier National Park. This winter, I really wanted to make it to Bridger because our friend and former roommate Al joined the ski patrol squad there this winter and he was offering to show us the classics, including the Bridger Ridge: a 2.5 mile long ridgeline hike across the top of the Bridger Mountain Range. I also wanted to put an end to my partner Dan’s 8-year “Never Bridger” streak.

Yesterday after a warmup lap on the “Fingers”, we followed Al onto the Bridger lift and then strapped our skis to our backpacks and bootpacked straight up about 500 feet onto the ridge. From there we hiked north along the windy, corniced ridge to an area called the Apron, where we clicked into our skis and dropped into Hidden Gully, a steep, narrow and snowy chute on the east side of the ridge. And then we did it again. Never Say Never Bridger Mission Accomplished!

We have about three weeks left of skiing in Big Sky before the lifts stop spinning April 22. Then we’ll be taking our skis to Iceland! In the meantime, Aerial Geology is back in stock! Signed copies direct from me are $30 plus $5 shipping. Read more about my book here.