Where the Arctic Slips South
The road was little more than a narrow strip of gravel cut through an impossibly flat, glacial landscape. Snow covered everything: fields, ditches, fence lines until the horizon dissolved into blowing white. It was the last hour of daylight, that blue-gray window when contrast disappears and depth becomes hard to judge. Drifts of snow slid […]
How to See Monarch Butterflies in Mexico
Every autumn, millions of monarch butterflies leave their breeding grounds in the United States and Canada and begin an extraordinary journey south. Traveling as far as 3,000 miles, they cross mountains, grasslands, and deserts before arriving in a small region of high-elevation forest in central Mexico. Here, among the oyamel firs of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic […]
What’s the Deal with Colorado’s Tarantulas?
Every September, the same story hits the news: “The tarantulas are migrating again!” You’ll see it on social media, hear it on the radio, and occasionally catch a podcast chatting about it. It feels like every year, Colorado catches what I like to call “tarantula fever.” But despite the hype that draws adoring fans from […]
Field Notes: Monarchs on the Prairie
I wasn’t expecting monarch butterflies to be the highlight of our recent Southeast Colorado Wildlife Weekend. I can’t remember seeing a single monarch butterfly on past trips. We were there to explore the shortgrass prairie and the conservation work happening across three Audubon-certified ranches and Southern Plains Land Trust. In a landscape like this, birds […]
Nature Tip: Keep Your Eyes on the Sky for Visible Migration
Most birds migrate at night to take advantage of calmer skies, cooler temperatures, and fewer predators. As a result, much of bird migration occurs without our ability to observe it directly. Luckily for us, some birds migrate during the day. Diurnal migrants include hawks and other soaring birds that ride thermals (rising warm air), swallows […]
Field Notes: An Unbelievable Day on the Water
Some days in the field surpass every expectation. During our recent trip to Kodiak, Alaska, we had one full day set aside to explore the archipelago by boat. Normally, the boat tour is scheduled for our first full day. Set the tone and all. But our go-to captain, one of the most experienced on the […]
Where to Buy Authentic Boruca Masks in Costa Rica: Rey Curre
For almost 10 years, I’ve thought about the mask that got away. I was guiding a student group for a week in southern Costa Rica, and one of the highlights was a visit to the Boruca community east of Palmar Sur. We spent the morning painting masks and sharing a home-cooked meal with a local […]
Puma Tracking in Chile: Inside Torres del Paine National Park
I co-guided back-to-back trips to Chile in December 2024, the first time we’d offered Patagonia as a scheduled group departure for Reefs to Rockies. The first trip sold out fast enough that we added a second one right behind it, then a third the following January. A big part of my job as co-founder of […]
The Wild Idea That Began in Yellowstone
The first thing Carly Crow remembers is the cold. She was thirteen years old, far from her home in southern Georgia, sleeping in a tent beneath the vast Wyoming sky. The trip was part of a Girl Scouts adventure called Wyoming Wildlife Wonders, a journey that included time in two of the country’s most iconic […]
Field Notes: Magic in Minnesota
Photo by Jody Mills As a guide, I define a successful trip by whether we encounter what I call “magic.” Magic, frankly, is hard to define. It’s that moment when we are lucky enough to witness something precious, powerful, or undeniably beautiful in nature. I’ve felt it while watching thousands of cranes fly into roost, […]