Crested Butte, Big Life

Crested Butte, Big Life, Winter 2019

I could feel the buzz as soon as I boarded the bus linking Crested Butte to its ski resort. Roof-high piles of snow flanked every downtown doorway and parking lot, and storms had dumped 30 more inches on Colorado’s Elk Mountains earlier in the week. So I expected leftovers that morning, but the skier sitting…

Close Encounters, AFAR, Sept/Oct 2018

There’s always a reason to visit U.S. National Parks, but these four destinations, all within easy reach of big cities, are offering new ways to experience their treasures. 1. Arches National Park Start from: Salt Lake City (3.75 hours) or Denver (5.5 hours) What’s there: Red rock spires and more than 2,000 sandstone arches Why now: Expanded monthly…

Bahamas Boneyard, Field And Stream

Bahamas Boneyard, Field And Stream, March 2018

As the bonefish bulleted away with my line, my heartbeat seemed to lurch into fast-forward. Here in the Marls, a 300-square-mile expanse of tropical flats off the west coast of the Bahamas’ Great Abaco Island, the fish must’ve sensed that it could run forever. I let the reel whir until the line slackened slightly, then…

Best bars in Vail

Vice Royalty, Vail-Beaver Creek Magazine, Midwinter 2018

24 bars, pubs, nightclubs, and publicans that give our ski villages their distinctive flavors and buzz “Don’t bother with churches, government buildings, or city squares,” Ernest Hemingway, that most prolific of drinkers, once opined. “If you want to know about a culture, spend a night in its bars.” That sage advice applies equally to the…

Rocking the 'Boat, SKI Magazine

Rocking the ‘Boat, SKI Magazine, February 2018

Snoozy no more, Steamboat’s base area is rekindling its playful spirit with a new coaster and nightlife—plus big plans for the future. The afternoon sun droops toward the roofs surrounding Steamboat’s Gondola Square, where hundreds of skiers are milling around on the bricks. Some are churning to the blasts of brass and bass issued by…

Star Trek, San Francisco Chronicle

Star Trek, San Francisco Chronicle, October 1, 2017

“Star Trek” ran as a three-page feature story. Click here to see the online version with photos. Lack of light pollution has made Utah’s Canyonlands National Park among the best places on Planet Earth to witness the final frontier A shooting star flashes across the night sky, but I’m out of wishes. I’ve already ticked off…

Namibia Discovers Seafood, AFAR

Namibia Discovers Seafood, AFAR, March/April 2017

I’ve eaten bivalves in France, on the Chesapeake Bay, along Florida’s Gulf Coast, and in trendy Seattle oyster bars where I’ve blown my meager paychecks on the ephemeral pleasures of Washington Kumamotos and Quilcenes. During those moments, an oyster’s raw, creamy brine is the only sensation I know, and it’s bigger than mere food: It’s…

Travel Leisure chiles

Hot On The Trail, Travel + Leisure, January 2017

Chef Michael Beary heads to the Mexican state of Oaxaca to find–and revive–some of the world’s finest chiles. When Michael Beary opened Zocalito, his Oaxacan restaurant in Aspen, Colorado, more than 15 years ago, he quickly found that many of the ingredients he needed weren’t available in the United States. Even in Mexico, some heritage…

A Perfect Day in Aspen, Sunset, December 2016

A new art museum, farm-focused restaurants, and on-trend indie shops make this storied ski town about more than Gucci and Gulfstreams. Art-museum makeover A good deal of controversy still lingers over the incongruously huge, blocky building that Pritzker Prize–winning Japanese architect ShigeruBan had designed for the formerly diminutive Aspen Art Museum. But three things are…

Surftown Rising, AFAR

Surftown Rising, AFAR, Nov/Dec 2016

Mexico’s once-sleepy Puerto Escondido is poised for prime time—and a new highway promises to let everyone in on the secret. When it opens in 2018, the Oaxaca coastal highway will shrink the drive from Oaxaca City to Puerto Escondido from seven hours down to two. Go before that floodgate opens to savor a swath of Pacific…