Mark Sundeen

Who's Really to Blame for the Monolith Shitshow

In the spell of a week, a mysterious monolith appeared in the Utah desert and was subsequently removed by some slackline bros. The saga has raised more questions than answers.

The Terrible, Horrible, Maybe Good Tourist Problem in Utah

As red-rock meccas like Moab, Zion, and Arches become overrun with visitors, our writer wonders if Utah's celebrated Mighty Five ad campaign worked too well—and who gets to decide when a destination is "at capacity."

I Was Flying to Montana to Bury My Son

On a plane ride over the Mountain West, a grieving father retraces his adventurous youth and searches for solace in the rugged landscapes that molded him

The Green Green Grass of Utah

Golf courses! Water parks! Man-made lakes! If Utah has its way, the retiree oasis of St. George will explode with growth, turning red rock to bluegrass and slaking its thirst with a new billion-dollar pipeline from the Colorado River.

The Mutts Saving Our Veterans' Lives

A swanky night out with the mutts saving our veterans' lives

The Tiny-House Revolution Goes Huge

Nowhere is the quest for simplicity and freedom more pronounced than in the tiny-house movement, which has grown from hipster alternative to mainstream phenomenon faster than an Amish barn raising. Mark Sundeen joins the believers to ask: Has the dream gotten too big?

The Last Days at Standing Rock

The decision by the Army Corps of Engineers to block the Dakota Access Pipeline arrived just as internal tensions threatened to fracture Standing Rock's Oceti Sakowin camp

Racism and White Privilege at the North Dakota Pipeline Protests

Two impassioned mass protests: one led by white people with guns, the other by nonviolent Native Americans. Taken together, they shed light on the centuries-old myth of the valiant cowboy and savage Indian—and on white privilege and institutional racism in America.

Lakota Sioux Are Standing Up to the Next Keystone XL

Two of our country's biggest issues, racism and climate change, have collided on a North Dakota reservation. This week, I loaded up my station wagon with water and supplies and drove down for a look at a historic demonstration that could shape the national dialogue going forward.

Cheryl Strayed's memoir of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, Wild, offers a refreshing take on outdoor writing by reminding us that a journey through the wilderness can help in overcoming the most wretched of conditions

Why Noah Went to the Woods

He was a proud Marine who survived three ­brutal tours in Iraq and had plans to redeploy with the ­national guard. But when 30-year-old Noah ­Pippin ­vanished inside Montana’s remote Bob ­Marshall ­Wilderness, he left behind a trail of haunting secrets—and a mystery that may never be solved.

Their fathers were titans. Their family defined conservation in the West. Now, with two Senate seats up for grabs, cousins Mark and Tom Udall have the chance to bring green leadership to Washington when it's needed most. Can the boys man up the way their dads did a generation ago?

Fall in Yakutat, Alaska, means camouflage, salmon, and the sweetest swells on the far north shore

With "the death of environmentalism" being debated across the land—and with the mainstream movement under siege from without and within—it's time to meet the winning side in America's new green wars. Here they come, ready or not: the 20 most powerful voices leading the environmental counterrevolution.

Eruptus Interruptus

Step right up, ladies and gentlemen! Thar she... might blow! When Mount St. Helens, America's very own all-natural weapon of mass destruction, threatened to go postal again, 24 years after her last tantrum, disaster groupies rushed to the crater—and hoped for the worst.