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Jerod Foster, Salt Flat, TX (2026)

05/08/2026

I imagine a lot of folks consider the section of US 380 between Roswell and Riverside, New Mexico, a fairly liminal space. Hit it at the right time, though, and that semi-arid ranch country flanked to the west by the Capitan Mountains and to the east by the Llano Estacado cranks up the visual volume. It’s turning out to be an anamorphic summer travel season.

05/04/2026

Anamorphic visions of Matador Wildlife Management Area. Last week’s trip there was set to be a wet one, but the rain skirted the area and left us with gloomy conditions over the rolling plains and Indiangrass.

04/02/2026

Crossing the Llano Estacado twice a weeks has its visual perks. The flat plains west of Tatum, New Mexico, did their thing yesterday evening, not too long after Artemis II entered its initial orbit of Earth some 40,000-plus miles away. Perspective.

03/25/2026

GIVE TO THE TTU OUTDOOR & ADVENTURE MEDIA FUND!

The timing is great for this one! I just wrapped a week in the backcountry where I led the Texas Tech Adventure Media program in which participating students tackled production for several outdoor travel editorial pieces while bikepacking 106 miles through the Lincoln National Forest! This one-of-a-kind field program is one of several experiences I’m proud to be a part of in the College of Media & Communication, and it is a stellar example of how challenging outdoor activities in the college classroom transform students into more capable people, leaders, and community members!

Texas Tech’s Day of Giving is happening now, and the Outdoor & Adventure Media Fund is a featured campaign. I established this fund a few years ago to help do one thing and do it well: reduce the financial barrier of entry into these field programs for students. A product of them myself, I’m obsessed with all students having the opportunity to participate in these incredible experiential learning environments, and the surest way to provide that opportunity is to make sure cost is not an issue. The Outdoor & Adventure Media Fund defrays costs associated with specialty gear/equipment for backcountry experiences, vehicle rentals and travel/fuel, and food costs. I don’t want ANYTHING keeping a student from considering an educational experience that goes well beyond the academics by leveraging the power of the outdoor classroom!

During TTU’s Day of Giving, please consider contributing to this essential fund!

Doing so will ensure students are well supported in their professional endeavors, but more importantly, in feeling more and more capable as leaders and community members in our world!

Link to give is in my bio!

Thank you!

(images from the 2025 and 2026 Junction Maymester Field Photography, The Path Chooses Us, and Adventure Media programs)

03/15/2026

The Adventure Media program is in full swing, and last weekend saw the group on their annual shakedown trip to along the park’s trailway. Despite a bit of wind, a West Texas signature, the conditions were ripe for a 70-mile dirt adventure into som legendary landscapes.

The crew is off to New Mexico this next week for five days of bikepacking in and around and the Lincoln National Forest.

Stay tuned, stay hydrated.

12/31/2025

THE PATH CHOOSES US, 3/3 Part THREE: May I end 2025 whilst bragging on some very special students who worked their tails off, explored an incredible geography, explored who they were, and left nothing but found so much on the trail? That’s the Path Chooses Us group in a nutshell. I’m so honored to have been a part of their journey along the Guadalupe Ridge Trail this past fall, and proud to have trekked those miles with them.

Our second to last day on the GRT started with breakfast overlooking a deep McKittrick Canyon before a roller coaster elevation day, climbing and descending through exposed terrain, healthy forest, and along drainages that wanted to show some fall color once in a while. Given our challenging and visually dramatic day prior, and knowing we’d reach Pine Springs Campground later that afternoon, the group was all work, even though the fatigue of the past several days was starting to set in. We made it to the top of Tejas Trail, took a moment to ogle the descent to camp, and blasted forward, hitting the park’s main parking area just as the sun dropped below the surrounding mountains. To top off a tough day, though, were pizzas delivered by colleagues that weren’t able to make the journey with us!

Our final day was an eight-mile out-and-back from camp to the highest point in Texas, Guadalupe Peak. This program intentionally ends on a high note, if you will, and the group was looking forward to lightening their load and “bagging” the peak. Knowing their abilities, but not underestimating the elevation gain, the crew took their time on the trail, visiting with other folks on this popular day-hike, and reflecting on the days that led to this moment. Once at the top—a rare, windless summit—I pointed out the high points from our two previous trips, Sierra Blanca and Mount Livermore, before making a group photo at its famous stainless steel plinth.

The rest, as they say, was all down hill. A restful evening, story swaps into the night, and dreams of our first meal off-trail followed.

Because Instagram has a post word limit, I’m including notes of gratitude for several folks/organizations in the comments below. In short, thank you, all!

12/11/2025

THE PATH CHOOSES US, 3/3 Part TWO: This is one of the best hikes in Texas. The third day of our Guadalupe Ridge Trail run was our first day spent completely in Guadalupe Mountains National Park. It was also our most dynamic day, with 3,000+ feet of descent from Wilderness Ridge into McKittrick Canyon and 3,000+ feet of gain out of said canyon to McKittrick Ridge Wilderness Campground some 12.5 miles away from our start.

Descending the Permian Reef Trail, with all its exposure, desert life, and ancient, fossilized sea life specimens on display in the rock you’re traversing is like being transported back in time—deep time—to a place that is hard to imagine. After settling in to the dramatic drop from the ridge above, you’re able to better visualize the reef you’re climbing down and the undulating landscape of the desert floor that ancient waters formed on their way elsewhere.

McKittrick Canyon, well-known for its incredible fall color, was well appreciated for its wide gravel path from the visitor center to the Grotto. We were too early for full-on color, but yellows and reds popped here and there, indicating a foliage change was on its way.

The climb out of the canyon is one of my favorite in the southwest, and we made quick work getting to a notch that separated contrasting views of the canyon. Once through, the dramatic canyon below you turned into something wholly different in the mind’s eye. Everyone in the group took respite here, if for anything just to stand in awe of the expanse, size, and quietness of the area. Small birds flickered in ever-warming light, our signal to get moving.

We reached a narrow ridge just as the sun was setting, still about two miles from camp. We waited to slinky everyone up at this point, turn on headlamps, and trek forward into the dark, ascending our final escarpment before entering a quiet forest. We made it to camp, one of the park’s more remote locations, and nursed sore feet, ankles, and minds from a solid day spent on trail.

12/01/2025

THE PATH CHOOSES US, 3/3 Part ONE: The culminating experience for the Path program took place in the middle of October on the Guadalupe Ridge Trail, a roughly 100-mile-long thru-hike that starts in the Carlsbad Caverns National Park backcountry and ends atop Guadalupe Peak in nearby Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Since the Carlsbad portion of the route is inaccessible, we essentially chopped it in half and completed the 50 miles from Dark Canyon to the peak in five days.

The first two days were spent almost entirely in the southernmost portion of New Mexico’s Lincoln National Forest before crossing into Texas and the national park. Navigating logistics in this country is time-consuming, but we were on the trail a couple hours after shuttling our crew from Pine Springs campground at sunrise. Our mileage the first day was just over six. We weren’t in a hurry to get to the first night’s camp, but everyone was eager to knock them out since we’d be returning on this portion of the route before continuing toward the park.

Our destination was the area surrounding Dark Canyon Lookout Tower, which sits on a ridge overlooking a beautiful, wild canyon with at least one mountain lion and several cavern entrances. The two-track on the way to camp isn’t a comfortable one to backpack (nor drive), and it’s the least scenic portion of the trail. But, the tower vicinity is an excellent area to acclimate to the route before heading pushing onward.

A nap in a cavern entrance and a warm meal put a cap on our first (and easiest) trail day.

We were up well before sunrise the next morning to capture golden hour and prepare for a day balanced with two-track and proper trail. We aimed ourselves at Wilderness Ridge, and the last third of the day was spent ogling the dramatic drop into McKittrick Canyon to our south. Guadalupe Mountains National Park was a major shift from the forest, and it beckoned the coming adventure! Although nighttime was guaranteed to be windy, we made dinner on the ridge before crawling into our tents tucked back among the pines. The Chihuahuan Desert floor below us glowed pink as we packed it in and the cool winds started to raise overhead.

11/17/2025

THE PATH CHOOSES US, 2/3: The Davis Mountains was where the sky island concept first sank in for me. When I traveled there years ago for the and stood atop Baldy Peak for the first time, surveying the semi-arid and arid plains from 8,378 feet, I FELT like I was perched up on an island. I’ve returned to that perch many times.

The Path Chooses Us program’s second trip took place in early October, and as if to reward us for toughing out the rains in Ruidoso, the weather favored us in Fort Davis. After visiting the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute, we made our way to the Davis Mountains Preserve, an incredible 30,000+ acres of conservation land below the range’s highest point, Mount Livermore. We warmed up in the juniper-heavy lower elevations before heading out on the Livermore Summit Trail and returned the next day. We were still preparing for a larger trip, and the preserve’s trails would help us out immensely.

After climbing to Dave’s Shelter, our old forest road of a trail welcomingly turned to proper single track at Limpia Chute, and the Ponderosa pines enveloped us all the way to the base of Baldy Peak. We scrambled to the top for golden hour, and in rare, windless conditions, we took in the incredible 360-degree view. Prominent geological features gave way to flat plains that stretched southward to Marfa and the Chinatis, and northward to the Permian Basin.

We woke up early as the cool night transitioned to a mild day of descending back the way we came to Dave’s shelter, followed by some new-to-me ridge walking. We dropped into a fairly healthy Madera Canyon; monsoon season had treated these mountains well this year—a welcome sight after a severely parched summer.

The students were starting to harden to the trail, and our group had a better way to perceive what was headed their way for our third trip. We were starting to look ready.

*Special thanks to , who especially you , Kaylee, and Greg, for their continued support for these programs! Without their resource, field programming in the would look quite different, and quite possibly be less impactful. Thank you.

11/05/2025

THE PATH CHOOSES US, 1/3: In parts of the Southwest, backpacking season is still well underway, fall colors are peaking, and trail water is plentiful after a strong monsoon period. It’s the perfect time to keep a pack loaded and ready to go for a weekend-plus adventure.

Over the past month and a half, Bryan Giemza and I organized and led a group of curious, keen, and especially gritty students on three backcountry excursions into several important sky island ecosystems near the Llano Estacado. Their assignment? To craft interactive Storymaps of the regions we visited, developing ways to learn more about and taking folks on a journey through them.

Our first trip of the season saw us completing a shakedown along the Crest Trail in the White Mountain Wilderness near my home in Ruidoso, New Mexico. This area is perfect for first-time backpackers on mountain trails—the type of folks largely comprising our student group. The plan was to trek eight miles from the trailhead near Monjeau Lookout to Lookout Mountain the first day, and then roughly 12 miles the second day to Argentina Canyon trailhead along Bonito Creek, not quite the full length of the Crest, but a perfect route for our trail-fresh cohort.

Late monsoon season rains hit the first day. We bypassed a few miles of the beginning to dodge weather in case folks didn’t come as prepared as we wanted them, and although we couldn’t avoid hiking past Ski Apache without rain, our ascent into the clouds was nothing short of captivating.

Nor was next morning’s sunrise, where we found ourselves above puffy patches of clouds, listening to bull elk bugling for attention. Our damp, cloudy climb the day before was rewarded with a long, descending ridge walk under incredible conditions, and although feet, hips, and shoulders were sore, spirits stayed high! We followed the sounds of elk and coyotes past sublime vistas and flower blooms the entire way to our terminus. A great first outing for the class in a beautiful environment was in the books. The weather accelerated our group’s trail-hardening, but it would pay dividends for us later.

Want more info about the Crest? Send me a DM and stay tuned!

Jerod Foster

05/08/2026

05/04/2026

04/02/2026

03/25/2026

03/15/2026

12/31/2025

12/11/2025

12/01/2025

11/17/2025

11/05/2025

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