Stone Canyons of the Colorado Plateau

by Charles; photographs by Jack Dykinga; foreword by Robert Redford Bowden (Text)

The red-rock, high-desert country of the south-west of the United States is among the most stark and beautiful natural wildernesses remaining in North America. For this book, Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Jack W. Dykinga and author Charles Bowden travelled to the Escalente River system and Paria Canyon on the borders of Utah and Arizona to reveal a land endowed with historic and natural gifts, and yet relatively unknown. Hiking through precipitous and parched slick-rock canyons, Dykinga captured brief, brilliant springtime flowerings, rich autumn colour changes, simmering midsummer heat pulsing off variegated canyon walls, and the extraordinary contrasts of early winter snow on deep, red rock. Bowden's narrative recalls wading through icy streams that seasonally slice through narrow clefts, and nights under the stars watching bats wheel overhead. He writes of long-ago Spanish mission fathers, and of Mormon settlers who struggled through the treacherous "hole in the rock" en route to new homesteads south of the Great Salt Lake.

Genres: Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published April 1, 1996

Reviews

[Linda Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

The text included a lot of history about the Mormons attempting to move through the stone canyons as they headed west in the late 1800s. I purchased the book at a sale because of the wonderful photos of the stone canyons without realizing that most of the text had to do with the Mormons westward movement. I did anticipate that some of the text would have to with what I would call a plea to leave the stone canyons as wild places rather than attempting (probably unsuccessfully) to alter them for the profit of mankind. An interesting read with amazing pictures.

[Sissy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The photographs are beautiful but much of the writing is awful.

[Artie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning photos beautifully reproduced and the text is quite good.

[Xarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I never read the text of this book, the photographs are beautiful, mesmerizing, and wonderful. There are such beautiful places on earth - yet I'm stuck in my chair.