Monsoons come to Colombine-Hondo Wilderness Study Area, NM, USA https://journals.worldnomads.com/jimodonnell/ Sun, 26 Apr 2026 12:54:43 GMT World Nomads Adventures I’m a single father who lives most of the time with my daughter who asks questions like “Does a hollow object exert more outward pressure than a solid object?” And my son who asks questions like “Papa, when I was born did you have to sit on me for a few days to keep me warm?” I change my underwear and socks every day, love my children more than anything in the world, am horribly allergic to cats, horses and avocadoes and I love my mom. I was born and raised in Colorado but see myself one day sipping margaritas for breakfast in Central America. I once followed Paco de Lucia around Spain like a teenage groupie, walked 1500 miles across Finland, got pulled off a bus at gunpoint in Mexico, contracted an intestinal worm in Peru, swam into stinging jelly fish in the Red Sea, got into a vodka-induced arm-wrestling match with a Soviet sailor in Leningrad. I pay my rent by selling my services as a writer and wanna-be photographer. I used to make my living as an archaeologist. I can make my way along fairly well in French and Spanish and can comedic-ally stumble my way around Finnish and Swedish. I’m stubbornly idealistic, a bit absent-minded, passionately left-wing and a voracious reader. https://journals.worldnomads.com/jimodonnell/photos/50050/Italy/My-Scholarship-entry-Climate-Change-Comes-to-the-Tuscan-Vinyards Travel Italy jimodonnell https://journals.worldnomads.com/jimodonnell/photos/50050/Italy/My-Scholarship-entry-Climate-Change-Comes-to-the-Tuscan-Vinyards#comments https://journals.worldnomads.com/jimodonnell/photos/50050/Italy/My-Scholarship-entry-Climate-Change-Comes-to-the-Tuscan-Vinyards Tue, 4 Nov 2014 08:58:00 GMT 0 I am a 40-year old travel writer, amature photographer, conservation consultant and father of two based in Taos, New Mexico. As a passionate artist and dedicated naturalist my work is intended to awaken an almost spiritual appreciation in my audience for the beauty and diversity of the patterns in our world. You can see more of my work at: www.aroundtheworldineightyyears.com (please note this site is under construction) The photographs I've chosen for this contest tell the story of the July-August monsoon season in Northern New Mexico. As a location/subject to tell this story, I have chosen the Colombine-Hondo Wilderness Study Area. At 30,500-acres in size, this portion of the Carson National Forest is the largest intact roadless area in the southern Rockies - and harbors a vast array of wildlife. It is a both a critical wildlife cooridor and core conservation area. Elevations in the Colombine-Hondo range from 7,800ft to nearly 13,000ft. After a generally dry April-June the annual monsoonal patterns pull moist air up from Mexico where the peaks of the Colombine-Hondo scrape the water from the clouds. The moisture-laden thunder-heads bring the most dramatic cloud patterns and the downpours they produce convey an explosion of life - flowers, butterflies, berries, birds, mushrooms, rushing creeks - to the forest. My six-year old daughter literally eats her way up the hiking trail come early August. The creeks crest. Then, just as suddenly, the monsoons come to an end and another dry period sets in until winter snows arrive in late December. Despite some minor opposition the Colombine-Hondo is slated for permanent protection under the 1964 Wilderness Act. https://journals.worldnomads.com/jimodonnell/photos/23611/USA/My-Photo-scholarship-2010-entry Travel USA jimodonnell https://journals.worldnomads.com/jimodonnell/photos/23611/USA/My-Photo-scholarship-2010-entry#comments https://journals.worldnomads.com/jimodonnell/photos/23611/USA/My-Photo-scholarship-2010-entry Thu, 19 Aug 2010 03:24:00 GMT 0