Author - The Durango Herald

Buffalo Jones and bison that don’t belong at the Grand Canyon

As winter snows cover the Grand Canyon’s North Rim, there’s a herd of animals living there well adapted to the cold, but they do not belong in canyon country. In 1800, as many as 37 million ...

DATE: Jan 7, 2023 | CATEGORY: Gulliford's Travels

Balloons rise above red rocks: The Bluff, Utah, Balloon Festival

Every Western small town crows about its festivals, but only Bluff, Utah, has balloons that launch beneath red rock cliffs on cool January mornings. Balloons gracefully glide upward with a l...

DATE: Dec 10, 2022 | CATEGORY: Gulliford's Travels

Steens Mountain, Oregon: Buckaroos, Basques and glacial gorges

Way out west where ranchers’ mailboxes are 50-gallon drums set on their side, I drove northwest of Winnemucca on a straight-line course to Denio, Nevada. As I crossed into Oregon the only tr...

DATE: Nov 12, 2022 | CATEGORY: Gulliford's Travels

Touring the Grand Circle: A report from national parks in the Southwest

This fall, I have a sabbatical from teaching history at Fort Lewis College to research and write about public lands. Sixty years ago, Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall proposed a “Gra...

DATE: Oct 8, 2022 | CATEGORY: Gulliford's Travels

Driving the Loneliest Road in America

A trip across the vast expanse of the Great Basin

DATE: Sep 10, 2022 | CATEGORY: Gulliford's Travels

Willa Cather, Mesa Verde and Southwestern literature

Captivated by the Ancient Ones, novelist reshaped writing about the West

DATE: Aug 13, 2022 | CATEGORY: Gulliford's Travels

Becoming Colorado: 100 objects that illuminate the state’s vivid history and people

Imagine trying to define our state’s diverse history and culture by carefully choosing 100 objects selected from History Colorado’s 15 million documents, photographs and artifacts. Then, on...

DATE: Jul 9, 2022 | CATEGORY: Gulliford's Travels

Lake Powell’s future: As water recedes, new opportunities for recreation

Lake Powell, the blue-green gem of the Colorado River and one of the 20th century triumphs of the Bureau of Reclamation, is in trouble. Not a lake but a reservoir, its shrinking water level...

DATE: Jun 11, 2022 | CATEGORY: Gulliford's Travels

Stories in stone: Guide Rickey Hayes interprets the past at Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Park

One of our archaeological treasures in the Four Corners is Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Park. All visitors must be accompanied by an official Native guide and one of the best is Rickey Hayes, who...

DATE: May 14, 2022 | CATEGORY: Gulliford's Travels

Western Slope congressional leaders: Let history be the judge

Over the decades, we have had effective, powerful congressional leaders from Colorado’s Western Slope – educated leaders who sought collaboration and compromise, and who put their constituen...

DATE: Apr 9, 2022 | CATEGORY: Gulliford's Travels

Amache concentration camp commencement: Honoring internee Marion Konishi

In protest of racism in 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus. Twelve years earlier, Marion Konishi gave a speech. Who was Marion Konishi and why is...

DATE: Mar 12, 2022 | CATEGORY: Gulliford's Travels

The challenging task of changing place names on public lands

Last month, the Department of the Interior asked for nominations for a new Advisory Committee on Reconciliation in Place Names. The goal is to replace derogatory names on millions of acres a...

DATE: Feb 14, 2022 | CATEGORY: Gulliford's Travels