“...you can't see anything from a car; you've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk, better yet crawl, on hands and knees, over the sandstone and through the thornbush and cactus.  When traces of blood begin to mark your trail you'll see something maybe.  Probably not.  In the second place most of what i write about in this book is already gone or going under fast.  This is not a travel guide but an elegy. A memorial.  You're holding a tombstone in your hands.  A bloody rock.  Don't drop it on your foot--throw it at something big and glassy.  What do you have to lose?"”

Written by the pioneer of environmental protection and wilderness advocacy Edward Abbey.  Hail to this wonderful book!

Desert Solitaire is a collection of vignettes about life in the wilderness and the nature of the desert itself by park ranger and conservationist, Edward Abbey. The book details the unique adventures and conflicts the author faces, from dealing with the damage caused by development of the land or excessive tourism, to discovering a dead body. However Desert Solitaire is not just a collection of one man’s stories, the book is also a philosophical memoir, full of Abbey’s reflections on the desert as a paradox, at once beautiful and liberating, but also isolating and cruel. Often compared to Thoreau’s Walden, Desert Solitaire is a powerful discussion of life’s mysteries set against the stirring backdrop of the American southwestern wilderness.

Used book.  Certainly read.  Shows wear.  May be a library copy with markings.

Ballantine Books. Paperback. 1980.

Written by Edward Abbey.