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- The Animal Dialogues
 - Uncommon Encounters in the Wild
This book is a collection of my own encounters, staring at animals for as long as they would stay. The stories range from the Arctic to Central America, from Arizona to Manhattan. From a praying mantis to a grizzly, jaguar to a hummingbird.
- House of Rain
 - Tracking a vanished civilization across the american southwest.
A mix of highly personal journeys and hard-boiled archaeology, this book explores the so-called disappearance of the Anasazi.
- The Way Out
 - A true story of ruin and survival
In a labyrinth of canyons in the American Southwest Childs and his friend Dirk undertake a journey to expose the root of their lives.
- Soul of Nowhere
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Deep wilderness journeys across the American Southwest, from the labyrinthine slot canyons of Utah to the deserted island beaches in the Sea of Cortes.
- The Secret Knowledge of Water
 - Discovering the essence of the American desert.
A desert, by definition, lacks it, but when water does come, it is magical, and sometimes in devastating abundance.
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November 16, 2009
Solitary toadness...
I become acutely aware of the piped in sound of chirping frogs.
Oracle in the Desert
A feature story from Orion Magazine
Anasazi field story
NPR piece produced by Adam Burke
These files require an audio player like WinAmp or iTunes.
Perfect Quiet
Miller-McCune Magazine (link)
Searching for refuge -- and, perhaps, health -- in a sickeningly loud world.
The Southwest's good ol' artifact boys
Los Angeles Times
You might have an imaginary picture of the pot hunters and collectors, a crew of dirty, well-armed black-market privateers roving the desert (in the case of many Western pot hunters, you'd be right)...
The Memory of Water
Wings [The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation] (pdf)
It is a hard and beautiful way to
live, counting on ephemeral water holes
like this. You have to be ready for long
periods of waiting, traveling at night to
preserve water in your body, sleeping
in daytime shade...
Rise of the Minotaur
High Country News (link)
Crowd-roar rains down as the man floats in the air, no part of his body touching the bull except for his face, which slams into the beast's reared-back forehead. A crack visibly arcs from the rider's spine to his boots.
Oracle in the Desert
Orion (pdf)
Dirk is my key, the one thing that keeps me safe in these bottomless places. If he falls I will spend the rest of my life hunting for his bones in the depths below.
Kissing the Angry River
Men's Journal (pdf)
We put in for a first descent at high water, not because Travis sounded heroic or even hopeful, but because he now believed something.
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Spring, 2009
Utah
I keep rehearsing in my head what it will feel like to walk straight to these cave-arches, congratulating the compass of my body, but poking down one bedrock draw after the next I see my compass is off...
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Winter, 2008
Colorado
How many more children could we have? The curiosity will never end. They are each like opening Pandora's box...
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Winter, 2008
Colorado
Late that night JT and I are running through the dark with torches outstretched, boots crashing through wind-hardened snow. We move fast, as if we had stolen this fire from the gods...
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Fall, 2006
New York
She leans back on her palms, bracing herself on years of dog piss and chewing gum. No one stops to see if she needs help. All it takes is a quick glance to see this woman needs help from no one...
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Fall, 2007
Chengdu, China
We moved in like lumberjacks, shouldering through Chinese men in white t-shirts. They regarded us with expressionless suspicion. Look what the Free World dragged in...
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Fall, 2007
Tibet
In the morning, sun angles through the canyon, opening holes in the fog and the last of the night's rain. A contingent from the village gathers on a balcony rock across the river...
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