Utah Books

Polly Schaafsma is the expert on Southwestern Rock art. This book is based on a lifetime devoted to the scientific study of Rock art. It is grounded in science but easily readable.

Hmm. Surprised no one has reviewed this guide. Continuing in his series of Desert Rock guides, #4 is a gem in it covers many areas overlooked by the first 3. Having known Eric while living in Moab in the late 90's, I know from personal experience how much effort and pride he puts into these books. I would see him on a weekly basis as he dined at Pasta J's (probably still does) regularly. Being a jeep/ruins/gem guide in the area, he was/is familiar with nooks and crannies of the canyons it would take one dozens of years to accumulate-- which is what he has done. He would give us beta on towers, huge crack faces and more that had never been touched. We'd go out and put up first accents. Many were memorable and are in this book and in #3. Some, not so memorable, but always good memories!
Eric strives for the most accurate info he could get. He'd rely on the climbers themselves for route beta, updating the guides meticulously as he went along.
Great work.
You're in for real climbing adventure of your own with this series.
~jr

It has finally arrived. The bible that everyone in the Salt Lake valley has been waiting for. No, it's not another religious doctrine. It is the guide to the diverse canyons of the Wasatch Range surrounding Salt Lake City, Utah. It's bigger and a whole lot better than the Ruckman's old guide. The guidebook covers all of the canyons that were in the previous guide, plus it covers new developments such as City Creek and Neffs Canyon. The Ruckmans follow the same format they used in their old guide, so don't expect many changes in that department. However, to say that this is only a revised edition is an understatement.

The guide is twice as thick as previous editions and covers almost twice as many routes. It is a little bit more expensive, but it is worth it if you want to find the areas like the Shore Line Crag, Broads Fork and a plethora of new routes throughout the Wasatch. The only shortcoming of the guide is its short mention of the bouldering areas. The guide des! cribes the locations of the bouldering areas but it does not describe any of the routes. This was probably done in order to save space and money but it would be nice for the Ruckmans to pass on some bouldering beta. Overall impression, the guide is an excellent investment and a good excuse to replace your old torn up guide.

Rock Climbing Utah offers the most comprehensive guide to climbing the best rock Utah has to offer. Utah boasts some of the most diverse, beautiful, and bizarre rock formations imaginable. From the granite canyons of the Wasatch, to the lunar-like sandstone of Canyonlands Rock Climbing Utah will introduce you to the most unbelievable experiences in your climbing career. It is difficult to cover such a wide spectrum of climbing routes, ecosystem changes, and skill levels but this guide does a wonderful job. For a broad overview of underrated climbing that often rivals Yosemite, this guide is difficult to match.

Author Peter T. Furst, whose lifelong encounter with the intellectual culture and society of the Huichol native people of Mexico's Sierra Madre Occidental first begin in the 1960s, presents Rock Crystals & Peyote Dreams: Explorations In The Huichol Universe, an updated collection of numerous articles about Huichol life that Furst has previously published over the years. A common thread of personal reminiscence and background explanations permeates the writings, which often feature stories quoted from Huichol myth and legend. Smoothly blended into an unbroken narrative flow, Rock Crystals & Peyote Dreams is an unforgettable exploration of the Huichol physical and spiritual way of life.

The outer journey parallels the inner as soul is recovered through a relationship with the landscape. Beautiful photos and drawings. The personal becomes universal. No commercialism, nothing packaged or taken for granted. Eloquent writing; spare but descriptive. The reader sees what the author writes because the author is a visual artist as well as a seasoned river guide.

This book, laboriously and lovingly researched, written, and self-published by the author, will never have a large audience. I ordered a copy because I'm working on a biography of someone who spent some time at Camp Floyd during the so-called Mormon War of 1857-8. But anyone who has no immediate interest in Utah history or frontier life of the U.S. military in the mid-nineteenth century isn't likely to be interested in Nielson's book.

But the book itself is noteworthy for two reasons. The first is that it really is excellently researched. The "old Camp Floyd" of the title was a temporary one in which General Sidney Johnston and his army sojourned for a few months in 1858 before moving on to the permanent site of Camp Floyd, some 40 miles south of Salt Lake City. Nielson has dug up as much information about the old camp and its inhabitants as a human possibly can: muster lists of the infantry and dragoon regiments and light and heavy artillery batteries as well as information about individual members of each. He also managed to find a bit of information about the hundreds of civilian teamsters, subcontracted by the famous Russell and Waddell Freighting Company (founders of the Pony Express), who worked for the army. All in all, pretty darn impressive.

The second noteworthy feature of the book is that it's a wonderful example of what "amateur" scholars can achieve. Dilettantes, lovers of history, philosophy, art, etc. who dig deeply but not "professionally" into their subjects, were once not only respected but recognized for making great contributions. One has only to remember the amateur British naturalists of the 18th and 19th centuries, many of whom were clergymen, to appreciate this point. In our age of academic professionalism, dilettantism has become a term of reproach. People like author and historian Roger Nielson remind us that it's anything but. Books like his should be celebrated.

Ann Zwinger is a peerless writer. Each paragraph, sentence, and word is like a drop of sunlit dew; sparkling and yet sublime. You need a dictionary sometimes, but her great use of the King's English raises your consciousness without being tiring or boring. Each sentence invites a tour to the next, just as Zwinger's favorite river, the Green River in Wyoming and Utah, always seems to have just one more tantalizing view around the next bend.

Mrs. Zwinger combines notes from several trips on the Green into a single, seamless narrative traversing the river from its source to its meeting with the Colorado. The only areas left out are the Fontanelle and Flaming Gorge reservoirs, which are but temporary vandalizations by the Bureau of Reclamation.

The book visits the river both from a naturalist's and a historian's viewpoint, with plenty of metaphors and visualization of an an almost lyrical nature included. It is never-ending delight to read Mrs. Zwinger's loving prose about one of the few still partially wild places in our country. You can close your eyes every paragraph or two, and be magically transported to the scenes and events she unfolds. The book also has a gently humorous quality, as when Mrs. Zwinger describes clouds of mosquitoes, and losing a Dutch oven in the murky water.

Mrs Zwinger's knowledge of geography is absolutely correct when she points out that the Green River is the true master stream of the Colorado watershed, and that only a historical accident has resulted in the former "Grand" river being renamed as the "Colorado".

I should note that the author is also a gifted artist and cartographer. Her maps at each chapter's start are excellent guides, and her numerous charcoal sketches of plants, birds, tools such as the old Green River knife, and the like, more than make up for lack of photographs in the book. Indeed, such would only be distractive.

Mrs. Zwinger's last sentence in the book, penned as the Green River meets the Colorado at the foot of Stillwater Canyon, reads "I do not want to hear the river ending." This is an apt sentiment as applied to her book as well.

This was one of the first books I ever read on the West. Since then, I hunt up and read everything she writes. I have never been disappointed. You may wish to read ""Wind in the Rock" and "The Mysterious Lands", among others. I close by simply stating that any library that doesn't have this fabulous book on the West, the river, and the human spirit, is incomplete.

No one really knows what was in the minds of the people who made the prolific, and mysterious rock art of the southwest. Therefore most reputable books on rock art simply describe in dry archeological detail the design elements and locations of the various panels. Leslie Kelen is more of an oral-historian than a scientist. He simply recorded the words and stories the modern Native Americans tell about the art in their area. He combined this with a fine, scientifically accurate introductory essay on ancient cultures, and spectacular photography. The result is a real experience of Canyon Country Rock Art. The book captures the beautiful inscrutability of the rock art and some of the best stories commonly told about it. Many of the local Native Americans are both steeped in their native heritage, and well aware of the scientific community's analysis. This is not a book for scientists. It is a book for people fascinated with the southwest and who wish to add new colors and possibilities to their ruminations on rock art. This is a book for visitors to the southwest who want to see more deeply into the landscape they are traveling through. I have been a guide in the southwest canyon country since 1996, and this is the number one rock art book I recommend to clients.

Sacred Land Sacred View was written to help honor, record and preserve navajo beliefs and heritage about the Four Corners areas, more than to present a scholarly work on changes in Navajo belief and thought. In the beginning, the author quotes Joseph Campbell's four criteria for a belief system to be a viable force in a person's life. They are (1)mystical function, enabling person to live with awe and gratitude toward the supernatural forces of the universe, (2) attunement with the knowledge and science of the times, giving adequate explanation of how things occur that does not conflict with the understanding of the physical world, (3) validation of the teachings and practices of the morally acceptable in cultural context, and (4) It is a guide to spiritual harmony and strength in a useful life (paraphrased, page 5). Sacred Land Sacred View attempts to reconstruct legends, prehistory, tales of the Navajo that contribute to the criteria above for peoples of the Four Corners. Black and White Photos of scenes and formations help clarify the legends and Navajo histories associated with specific sacred sites. A tone of reverence sets the scene. There are also important views of the Navajo's perspectives on earlier cultures such as the Anasazi. The recurring theme, however is the resolution of cultural dissonance by the Navajo, and, perhaps by implication, all western culture. "Returning to the metaphor given earlier, the new generations of the Dine can 'sleep' through the teachings of their elders or they can be like the student, who said, regarding the holy beings, 'If I were awake, they would say I am their child.' The choice is an individual expression that every Navajo person will make. Whatever each decides, may it take him or her on a path of beauty over a landscape that has meaning and the power to teach and protect (pp.130-131.)" Sacred Land Sacred View is a quietly moving book, designed to appeal and to inform. Brigham Young University/Chas. Redd Center for Western Studies/

Nancy Lorraine, Reviewer