From the foothills of Tucson, Arizona, a 4200 foot climb will bring you to the summit of Mt. Kimball. From the peak there are good views to the north and east of Cathedral Rock, looming over the Wilderness of Rocks, and further still, the steep south face of Mt. Lemmon. But look to the west,…

The world we think of as the earth is a very small fragment of its true extent. Vegetation and oceans sit at the top, a thin layer over a deep bed of solid rock that itself becomes molten and penetrates thousands of kilometers further down. Rarely do we get to experience this subterranean world, though…

It rains a lot in the Luquillo mountains – more than three meters each year. The earth’s gobal circulation means that clouds blow in from the east, are pushed again the mountains, rise up, cool down, and then lose the capacity to hold water vapor – causing precipitation. What that means is that a lot…

Not all the diversity of a forest is easy to see. Today I want to show you some of the smaller and more elusive creatures we’ve found over the last few weeks in El Yunque. First, here’s one of the forest’s more common but hard-to-see species. This is the coquí frog, Eleutherodactylus coqui. Its loud…