Hope Springs Eternal at Balmorhea
This spring, I revisited this sparkling West Texas gem after its long closure—and I’m glad I did.
This spring, I revisited this sparkling West Texas gem after its long closure—and I’m glad I did.
The Lubbock native talks about his trippy, blood-flecked radio plays, the border wall, and working with Jo Harvey Allen.
The untouched vastness of the largest state park in Texas makes you feel like you’re exploring a whole other world.
Spoiler: The answer is yes.
Without a good shoeing, a horse can indeed be lost. Enter the farrier.
Cyclists take on the grueling Davis Mountains route to experience awesome views and thrilling descents.
The film debuts at the Dallas International Film Festival this weekend.
My cat was a fearless hunter who stalked the countryside—until she squared off with a rattlesnake.
A new study from two SMU scientists finds that oil and gas activity has made the ground unstable over a 4,000-square-mile swath of West Texas.
These mountain hikes will take you to new heights—and new extremes.
What to do, where to eat, and more if you’re heading to Fort Davis, Marfa, Marathon, and/or Big Bend this season.
Despite its rich Texas history, sotol is a little-known spirit. The men behind new Driftwood distillery Desert Door want to change that.
Over three installments, we follow a film team as they—by bike, horse, and canoe—document how a physical wall would affect the area, water, and its people.
Can a 1960s novel with a cult following finally become the blockbuster film its fans believe it should be?
Marfa Public Radio reports on the down side of the boom.
We found fast cars, big skies, and a whole bunch of daredevils at this annual high-speed race weekend out west.
Looking back on last year's best stories to plan this year's wanderings.
The skies of West Texas are so grand that it’s easy to forget how much is going on under our feet.
Selections from my personal wanderlist.
My grandfather’s work as a paleontologist took him to West Texas over and over again. Fifty years later, I found myself retracing his steps.
An Insta-dispatch from the flourishing West Texas frontier town.
The risks a West Texan will take for a quick dip.
West Texas’s claim on this fizzy, lemony cocktail is unprovable? We’ll drink to that.
For a few months every year, life in West Texas is defined by the wind.
What's changed and what hasn't.
The only thing that’s smaller about six-man football is the field.
As the oil industry tries to make inroads in far West Texas, it’s learning that Alpine is no Midland.
A taxonomy of West Texas waves.
This year’s heavy rains have brought countless blessings to West Texas—and one very nasty weed.
A small high school in Crane, Texas, just confirmed that 20 of its 300 students have been diagnosed with Chlamydia, spurring a revisitation of the district’s abstinence-only sex education curriculum.
In drought-ravaged West Texas, cotton farmers find good omens in unlikely places.
Or a 9MM or a Ruger deer rifle. No, this is not a fake ad.
A funny thing happened on the way to the San Angelo fracking sand transloading facility.
Growing up in the Permian Basin, I thought I had a sense of what it was like working the oilfields. Turns out I didn’t know a damn thing.
The competition at the Big Bend Livestock Show is fierce. But treat your animal right and you might get to be number four with a pullet.
It’s the favorable acreage-to-other-humans ratio that draws most visitors, who come for the space that this Chihuahuan Desert outpost has in spades.
Stunning vistas, snorting buffalo, and dashed hopes at Cibolo Creek Ranch.
The photographer from Big Bend known for stunning landscapes gets out of his comfort zone. Here, a first look at several images from his latest collection.
The family provided documentation proving that keeping his hair long was part of their religion. But should they have had to?
When you live in the desert, waiting for rain requires almost irrational optimism. And maybe a curse word or two.
How one feline (and then a couple more, and then another) conquered both our hearts and our mice.
A new start-up in the impoverished city only needs $20 million to complete a study to find out.
The McDonald Observatory, celebrating its seventy-fifth anniversary this year, forges ahead with groundbreaking research and crusades to keep the night skies of West Texas pristine and unadulterated.
My life with horses.
When Playboy Enterprises—yes, that Playboy Enterprises—erected a forty-foot-tall sculpture near Marfa, it was convinced the town would appreciate its take on the local art scene. Instead it started a revealing debate.
How do a husband and wife resolve backyard barbecuing duties? Illustration by Jack UnruhQ: My wife has recently taken a keen interest in my backyard barbecuing duties. In fact, last weekend she asked me if I wanted her to start cooking the beans from now
Beyoncé swung through Marfa in early July and just posted pictures from her trip on her Tumblr.
The oil industry cheered news Wednesday that the tiny lizard will not be added to the endangered species list.
Bad as the current drought is, it has yet to match the most arid spell in Texas history. Nearly two dozen survivors of the fifties drought remember the time it never rained.
The Lower Pecos River rock paintings were created four thousand years ago by a long-forgotten people. But their apparent message may be as useful today as it was then: Follow the water.