Book Club - Desert Solitaire

Jimmie Perkins

Adventurist
Edit: see posts from about 6 years back, but one of my COVID-time reads so rebooting.

I’m way late to the game but, just finished reading “Desert Solitaire” by Edward Abbey. Hits all the right nerves. For those who haven’t read it a quick review - this is a collection of essays written by Edward Abbey while serving as a NPS ranger at Arches National Monument (now National Park) in SE Utah during the spring and summers of 1956 and 1957. It’s considered a classic of nature writing, and a recommend read for any adventurer. His essays contain vivid descriptions of the flora and fauna of the Four Corners region, accounts of the rich geology and unique natural wonders he experienced adventuring on foot, by 4x4 or by raft, through places wild and some now lost to time or man. He also captures the humans on the edge of this wilderness, both the characters and their impression, or their failures to impress, on the environment.

Having grown up and lived all over the western states (CA, NV, UT, AZ) I’ve seen the impact of the progress Abbey warned about 60 some years ago. His conservation message rings true today. I think he nails the allure of the desert and the sky islands. Going to have to plan a trip to Canyonlands. Arches, and the La Sal Mountains now. I can smell the pinyon already.

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One of my all time favorite reads, and a must for anyone who loves the southwest. Now you have to go read the Monkey Wrench Gang. A little edgy (especially in today's highly charged "activist" climate) but well worth the read as he pens his way through some alter ego characters and their fictional preventive response to the raping of the land and "Disneyfication" of the deserts he loved.
 
One of my all time favorite reads, and a must for anyone who loves the southwest. Now you have to go read the Monkey Wrench Gang. A little edgy (especially in today's highly charged "activist" climate) but well worth the read as he pens his way through some alter ego characters and their fictional preventive response to the raping of the land and "Disneyfication" of the deserts he loved.

The adventure to The Maze in the Land Rover brought back my memories from the 1970s of backcountry exploring with my dad in the old family K5 Blazer. No winch or recovery gear. Just someone walking ahead to guide or roll rocks out of the way on narrow switchbacks. The rafting through Glen Canyon...I’ve boated through Lake Powell, hard to look at it the same now.
 
It's amazing how much change has occurred since his writings and I'm sorry I never got to see it before all the encroachment and development. I think I've got all of his writings; the last one I reread was The Fool's Progress.
 
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