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Trail Option

A personal geography of landscape and place, art and geo-science.

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TrailOption

A personal geography of landscape and place, art and geo-science.

In search of place, pattern, and process

Stories are out there, keep going (trails optional, take the other).


NV High point Stories

Photography, geography, and stories from the mountains of Nevada (USA).

LightOpt Stories

The stories behind my landscape and wildlife imagery.

Optional Frontiers

The TrailOption travel journal, images and words from near and far.

Field Notes

The TrailOption Blog

Shapes in the gypsum sand of White Sands National Park, New Mexico, USA

Wandering White Sands

D. Craig Young
June 24, 2025

By bookending daytime research excursions with walks in the expansive white dunes, I had time to consider the setting, past and present, and its broader implications at a slower pace and without contention. And, sometimes, the light is so good.

Continue Reading Wandering White Sands

It’s What We Do – San Diego 100 Race Report

D. Craig Young
June 10, 2025

In June of 2012, I ran my first 100-mile trail race. Observing the 13th anniversary, I am republishing my ‘race report’ that appeared on an early version of the Trail Option blog (although the links don’t work, the original blog is here). It is rather long, but running 100 miles takes me a long time. In summary, I’m a 100-mile runner and that can’t be taken away; to finish is to win, and that motivates me to ‘keep going’ every day.

Continue Reading It’s What We Do – San Diego 100 Race Report

Images are experience, nothing artificial

Image Collections at LightOpt Photography.

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Patterned Ground

Video experience in geomorphology and geography; cartographic landform dictionary

Archaeologists ask questions about the technology and culture of people, past and present, to better understand changes in human adaptation and lifestyles across time and space. And yet, archaeological observations wrestle with geological problems. People leave traces of their passage on landforms shaped by natural processes–the dynamic landscape influences and alters people’s behavior and continues to alter and mask the materials and patterns left behind. We must understand these processes, along with the climatic and environmental conditions driving them, before we can find answers in the sample of artifacts and features we are fortunate to encounter and document.

About Patterned Ground
Jump to patterned Ground on YouTube

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