Blog

What’s not to love about Utah

Read What’s to Love about Utah There is no doubt that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has benefited society, in general, and Utah, specifically. The crime rate is low and people are nice. But from UtahOutsider’s perspective, certain traits of this majority […]

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Species Parade, Week Seven

Back in the day, bird identification came with a gun, not a pair of binoculars. Of course, the explorers and scientists didn’t have a Peterson Guide on their desk. They quantified and qualified what would later make it into the Peterson Guide. Nearly two centuries […]

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We found great trail snacks

Here’s the thing with being outside and active: you get hungry. Read about getting out and cognitive decline. And the more you tune into your body, the pickier you become about what goes down the gullet. If you listen, your body will tell you what […]

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UtahOutsider braves Outdoor Retailer

Attending the Outdoor Retailer in Salt Lake City is a bit like heading to the mall on Christmas Eve: be prepared for nuttiness and overstimulation. Read about snacks we discovered at the OR. Read about last year’s OR visit. That said, the OR presents much […]

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Species Parade, Week Six

What can I say? I can be attracted to flash. So, it was quite fun to see the Western Tanager checking out the neighborhood as it did this time last summer. All bright orange and yellow, contrasted with black. But I also love the dull-colored […]

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Species Parade, Week Five

Babies have left the nest. You can hear and watch them still begging their parents for food, beaks open, wings shivering. They can be clumsy flyers, sometimes struggling to land right on branches. The ravens, in my observation, are the loudest and klutziest of newbies. […]

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The Case against Mindfulness

Like a once-favorite song, this trend of mindfulness is starting to vex me. Its popularity is what social media and connectivity felt like five or 10 years ago. But already, I just wish folks would get over it. Please delete Headspace, the meditation app, from […]

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Real live streaming

Never has getting outside been a more conscious, deliberate activity. But when you get out, where goes your brain? Assuming you’re alone, do you focus on emptying your mind and being ‘present?’ Or, do you let your mind flit restlessly from topic to topic, like […]

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Real live streaming

Never has getting outside been a more conscious, deliberate activity. But when you get out, where goes your brain? Assuming you’re alone, do you focus on emptying your mind and being ‘present?’ Or, do you let your mind flit restlessly from topic to topic, like […]

Read more

Species Parade, Week Four

In my twenties, I worked for two summers as a field researcher in Michigan and North Carolina. My job was studying Indigo Buntings, finding their nests, catching and banding the adults, as well as the young. Buntings like to nest in secondary growth – tall […]

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