The View from Wind River

December 30, 2012 -- Pictures from a perfect day along Washington's upper Wind River, where recreational access has returned to "normal" this season.

The View from Rainier

August 1, 2012 -- Pictures from Camp Muir and the summit of Washington's Mount Rainier via Disappointment Cleaver. There's a 2005 essay on RBM and family's last attempt at Rainier over at this dispatch.

The View from Ape Cave

December 28, 2011 -- The view from Washington's Ape Cave, a 2.4-mile basalt labyrinth tunneled by molten lava, which also helped to form nearby Mount St. Helens.

The View from Greyrock

Above: the swollen Cache La Poudre River, damage from mountain pine beetles in Roosevelt National Forest, and other pictures from a weekend ascent of Greyrock Mountain. For a panoramic view from Greyrock's 7,536-foot summit, check out the video below.

The View from Castle Valley

Above: Utah's high desert, where Mormon colonizer Brigham Young and his followers sought pastures for their cattle in the 1870s, despite warnings from Indian tribes. Rainfall is so rare, its arrival seems to bring miracles.

Mountain Climbers

Update: An essay by RBM about a father and son's attempt to climb Mount Rainier, the most heavily glaciated peak in the continental United States, was published this year in LandEscapes, a literary journal of the Washington State University English Department.