The lay of the land
Wheat hills, a sagebrush basin, a canyon road, a fire lookout, a grain elevator seen from ten miles out — the country itself, and the towns, parks and highways inside it.
The Cattle Guard Where the Blacktop Ends
In Wyoming's upper Green River valley, a row of steel rails holds the line between the county pavement and the open range.
The Grain Elevator at Broken Bow
The concrete tower is the first thing that tells a traveler the Nebraska town is there.
Crossing the Columbia River bar at Astoria
At Astoria, the Columbia River and the Pacific meet across a shifting bar of sand that every ship bound for Portland must cross.
One March Day on the Platte
A March day on the Platte in Nebraska runs from before first light to full dark, when the sandhill cranes come into the river by the hundreds of thousands.
The River That Bends Around Big Bend
In far West Texas, the Rio Grande swings around the Chisos Mountains and makes the border, the canyons and the silence.
The Post Rock Fence Post of Russell County
In Russell County, a fence post of Greenhorn limestone leans slightly east, holding two strands of barbed wire.
Denali's Park Road, One Bus at a Time
On the gravel road into Denali, shuttle buses meet a mountain that makes its own weather, revealing itself only when it chooses.
The River Bluffs at Effigy Mounds
Above the Mississippi in northeastern Iowa, old earthen animals keep watch over the river and the ridgeline.
The North Rim's Long Winter
For half the year the Grand Canyon's far rim is locked behind a gate and buried in snow — a landscape kept in reserve, waiting for the thaw.
The Wheat Hills of the Palouse
In the southeast corner of Washington, wind-built hills carry wheat in waves, and the small towns measure time by harvest.
The Fog That Defines Point Reyes
For much of the year, the fog at Point Reyes is not weather; it is the place itself.
The Creek That Runs Across the Great Sand Dunes
In spring, Medano Creek runs across the Great Sand Dunes, where snowmelt from the Sangre de Cristo shapes the tallest dunes in North America.
The Pronghorn's Road Across the Red Desert
One of the last great land migrations in the lower forty-eight still crosses Wyoming's Red Desert, a place whose water answers to no ocean.
The Sugar Beet Pile at Hillsboro
In the Red River Valley of North Dakota, the October sugar beet harvest never stops — the piling ground outside Hillsboro works through frost, fog, and dark.
The Road into the Absarokas
Cody sits where the Shoshone River leaves the mountains, and the road west follows it through the Wapiti Valley into the Absarokas.
Whittier, the town that lives under one roof
Most of Whittier, Alaska, lives in one fourteen-story building at the water's edge, with the rain and the wild Sound right outside.
The Fire Lookout on Packsaddle Mountain
A timber cab on the bare peak of a Selkirk mountain keeps watch through the short fall before the snow takes the tower over.
The Green River Melon Fields
Where the Utah desert meets the Green River, irrigated fields grow a crop the red country has no right to permit.
The Grass That Holds the Sandhills
The Nebraska Sandhills are the hemisphere's largest dune field, and a root-knotted web of grass is all that pins them to the ground.
The Range and the River
Ansel Adams's 1942 photograph of the Snake River bend sets the Teton Range against a heavy sky, leaving the valley floor empty.
Granite, Grass and Bison in the Wichita Mountains
In southwestern Oklahoma, worn granite rises out of the prairie and a bison herd moves through the grass as it always has.
Where the Mississippi Starts Small Enough to Step Across
At the top of the Mississippi, in the pine country of northern Minnesota, the great river begins as a wadeable creek one long step across.
Up 395 Along the Sierra's East Side
US 395 runs the dry flank of the Sierra Nevada, past Mount Whitney, Manzanar, and the high country above Mono Lake.
The Cairn on the Slickrock
On the bare rock of the Delicate Arch trail, a small stack of sandstone is the only sign of the way.