Is tonight a clear summer moonless sky? Yes? Then if you’re in Seattle, stand outside at night and look directly above you. If you’re in the dark skies of one of Washington’s three national parks, do the same but just at sunset. This will make...
Almost all of us have picked up enough facts about how our world turns through space just by existing. Most of us forget our observations–for example, we see the Sun every day, so we never pay enough attention to know where it will be in...
The catalyst Picture this: You’re at the front desk of the Port Angeles Visitor Center a day after hearing that one of your favorite coworkers, Ashley, is leaving in two weeks to go back to school. You feel it then, the impending doom of summer is ending....
Growing up in the PNW means growing up with huckleberries. The small stretch of woods behind my house in Snoqualmie had a path which led to a bog, and along that path grew those tiny, sour, red huckleberries all August long. I never walked the...
A blazing sun hidden behind partially cloudy skies, a light breeze enough to blow away flying pests, but not enough to raise the ocean waves, and endless amounts of wildlife no matter where you look. That's what one of the best days at Biscayne National...
We slept like dogs by the fireside and awoke to the fog, as it was all around us. As the morning glow shudders across the bitter breath of Lake Superior, the cry of loons can be heard from the base of the channel. The...
In the southwestern corner of South Dakota lies Wind Cave National Park, the first cave to be selected as a national park anywhere in the world. At 150 miles in length, Wind Cave is one of the longest and most intricate caves in the world....
This season I’ll be in charge of radon monitoring in the caves. Monitoring occurs year-round on a weekly basis, mainly on tour routes. The purpose of radon monitoring is less for the protection of visitors and more for tour guides and cavers who log thousands...
If you didn’t already know, Mammoth Cave is part of the longest cave system in the world. Together with the caves of Flint Ridge and a few more systems, the passages are well over 400 miles and counting. Additionally there are 400 minor caves within...
The focus for this week’s blog is something special. I recently accompanied the fisheries crew for an electrofishing survey! Before we drove out to the site, I got to pick out a pair of waders for the trip and this was my first time...