Plus, Texas’ wild frontier; hunting for shark teeth
| SEEKING SOLACE ON A 72-HOUR TRAIN RIDE | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY JULIA KNOP, LAIF/REDUX | | It’s a 72-hour ride from New York to San Francisco by train. There’s no WiFi, barely any cellphone service, and not a ton to do on the journey, which crosses Illinois and Iowa, Nebraska and the Rockies, and the Utah and Nevada deserts, along the way.
After a second strange pandemic year of ebbs and flows, Nat Geo’s Jordan Salama was anxious, tired, and looking to slow things down. He wanted to do something for himself, so he headed west alone aboard an Amtrak train across the country.
On the journey, he says he discovered vast deserts, scorched forests, and fascinating fellow passengers.
Read his report and see more images here.
(Pictured above, Amtrak recently brought back “traditional dining” on some long-distance trains, with white linen tablecloths, silverware, and china. Below, the California Zephyr passes through the plains of Nebraska.) | | | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBERT HAIDINGER, LAIF/REDUX | | Do you get this newsletter daily? If not, sign up here or forward this to a friend. And please, support our storytelling by subscribing to our magazine and unlimited digital offerings for just $2.99 a month.
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| | Natural wonder: This unique geological upheaval, the Cono de Arita, sits near the southern border of Argentina’s Salar de Arizaro. Composed of volcanic rocks and salt, the stark onyx cone formation was too weak to erupt, rising 650 feet over a giant salt flat in lonely isolation. See more photos of the secluded and rugged northwest region of Argentina. | | | |
 | PHOTOGRAPHS BY BRYAN SCHUTMAAT
| | | Wild, wild, West Texas: Remote and rugged, Big Bend National Park is home to an entire mountain range, fossils dating back 500 million years, and unusually rich biodiversity. Sharing a 118-mile border with Mexico, the park is so remote that it’s one of the country’s least visited. For travelers in the know, however, it’s a haven for eccentric escapism. (Molly Ferguson Rodriguez, above left, who lives in Ojinaga, Mexico, drives across the border into Texas for her job as band director at Alpine High School. Right: Cowboy Lane Shaw takes a break at the 110-year-old Kokernot o6 Ranch near Alpine.) | | | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY JAMES EDWARD MILLS OF THE JOY TRIP PROJECT | | Closing the (adventure) gap: The first Black climber summited Mount Everest in 2003, but it wasn’t until this year that a full team of Black and Sherpa climbers reached the roof of the world. People of color historically have shied away from mountaineering. Journalist James Edward Mills documented Full Circle Everest’s (pictured above, the group at Everest Base Camp) expedition. Now that the team has made it into the history books, Mills and climber Dom Mullins tell Overheard that the expedition inspires others to believe the outdoors is for them too.
View from the top: See 360-degree panoramas of Mount Everest’s summit
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 | | I don’t have any role models who look like me or have overlapping identities with me. I want to be that for other girls who have a similar cultural background. | | | | Munazza Alam | | Astronomer and Nat Geo Explorer who studies planets outside of the solar system | | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY JAKE ESHELMAN | | Shining lights: The observatory at Harvard holds 550,000 glass plates, a photographic negative format from the 19th century. On these plates are arrows, circles, and equations scribbled by the hundreds of “women computers” Harvard hired to interpret astronomical data from telescopes. The women’s work faced erasure, until artist Erika Blumenfeld stepped in to create art that would honor and preserve their contributions. (Pictured above, gold gilds the marks of the “women computers.”)
Related video: She studied the stars and changed the face of astronomy
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| This newsletter has been curated and edited by Monica Williams, Jen Tse, Heather Kim, and David Beard. We’d love to hear from you. Write to us. | | | |
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