A Naturalist's Guide to Canyon Country

by David Williams, Gloria Brown (Illustrations)

Published in cooperation with Canyonlands Natural History Association, this comprehensive and beautifully illustrated trailside reference describes more than 270 plants and animals plus geology of an area that includes nine national parks and monuments in the Southwest. A Naturalist's Guide to Canyon Country is the essential tool for exploring the northern Colorado Plateau, that vast province that encompasses eastern Utah, far western Colorado, and sections of northern Arizona and New Mexico. With this fully updated and revised guide in hand, you will gain a sympathetic understanding of the desert ecosystems that make up the region.

Genres: Nature, Nonfiction, Reference, Field Guides, History, Science, Guidebook

240 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2000

About the author

David Williams is an Emmy winning songwriter (for his work with PBS), cartoonist, writer, multi-instrumentalist, and professor. Williams has worked for years to bring the Sciences and Arts together. His new book, THE TRICKSTER BRAIN: Neuroscience, Evolution, and Narrative is in part a call to bring scientific paradigms into the study of literature.

David has worked for years as an Artist-in-the-Schools as a writer, composer, playwright, and musician to bring alive scientific ideas for children through art. An Emmy winner for his work writing songs about nature for PBS, videos of David’s songs have had over 30 million hits on youtube and can be seen here under the link “CHILDREN’S MUSIC VIDEOS FROM PBS.” In addition, David has worked for years with Wild Bear Mountain Nature Center, writing songs about the flora and fauna of the Colorado Rockies, traveled to China to sing songs about animals to kids (below), and visited hundreds of schools throughout the US. David is also a children’s author with Random House (Walking to the Creek, Grandma Essie’s Covered Wagon, and the latter is used in McGraw-Hill’s 5th grade reader, so millions of kids have read this story as part of their education into American history).

Reviews

[Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've had this book for years and love bringing it along with me in canyon country. It makes all my hikes longer because I'm stopping for everything. 😂 Photographs would make identification a little easier, but even still, I find this invaluable. I wish I had a version of this for every single region I visit.

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book so the kids could identify lizards and whatnot. It is a great one volume overview to some of the common plants and animals. I learned that horned lizard's have big stomachs to store all the ants they have to eat.

The kids enjoyed knowing that they had seen a Great Basin Toad at Zion.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a handy and informative guide for anyone out and about in Canyon County. The illustrations and pictures are very user friendly and can be used by anybody whether you have previous knowledge or not.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gives just a smattering of lots of various areas...birds, plants, rocks, etc, even cryptobiotic soil and desert varnish. Would be better if had pics not just drawings, but quite well-rounded.

[Ryan Mishap · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good companion for those visiting the titular location in any capacity.