BLM Dispatch #34 - Gold Butte National Monument, Nevada
I think it’s safe to say Mason Voehl and I spent the entirety of last weekend repeating the same phrases, all of them orbiting shock, awe, and surprise.
We were camping and walking in Gold Butte National Monument, tucked into the far southeastern corner of Nevada.
I’m still processing everything I carried home from Gold Butte — the notes, thoughts, feelings, and photographs - so this week I’m keeping it simple and sharing a small selection of images from our time there…
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BLM Dispatch #33 - A Rock Called Snaggletooth
It was a new moon phase the first time I camped at a rock outcrop called Snaggletooth, named for the escarpment that rises from the Mojave floor like teeth, as if some sentient underground being were heaving its way toward the surface for a meal and then froze in time.
What’s left are jagged and jumbled striations, terra cotta colored with tiny islands of green scattered across the landscape by the likes of creosote, Mojave yucca, teddybear cholla…
This is prime desert tortoise country — the elusive reptile whose lineage reaches back millions of years, surviving heat and drought by sheltering in burrows and conserving water so effectively they can endure more than a year without a drink — a creature I’ve hoped to see in all my miles walking the Mojave but never have.
I arrived in winter, an hour before the sun fell out of sight, and immediately scampered up the one hundred and seventy foot climb from the desert floor to the top of Snaggletooth Rock for a good look around.
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BLM Dispatch #5 - BLM Campgrounds In the Eastern Sierra
One of the questions I hear most frequently from my Instagram community is whether there are actual campgrounds on BLM land.
It’s a great question because most people associate camping on BLM land with dispersed camping, the self-sufficient, rugged style usually done along roadside pullouts. Nearly all BLM land is open to this kind of camping, but I'll save those details for another newsletter.
But yes, there are hundreds of developed BLM campgrounds across the American West! And some of my absolute favorites are tucked in and along the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada, just a short detour off famed Highway 395.
So, let’s dive into my favorite Eastern Sierra BLM campgrounds — with images, links, descriptions, and a beautiful illustrated map from my book…
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