Desert Solitaire

Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey

We've been to the desert in the past, and without any horse, except the couple of hundred under the hood. And their name was emblazoned on the grill and tail of our conveyance every time.

We won't be in serious desert this year as we travel the United States at all, but heartily expect to be enjoying the northern New Mexico and Arizona deserts next Spring to see them as they bloom.  Yes, we are still planning to camp in your front yard, O'Rourkes!

But I pulled this book out of my stash on board FROG a couple of weeks ago because we were still considering a swing down to Taos  before heading east.  That ended when the refrigerator blew. But the choice of book has been wonderful. Though we will NOT be experiencing his desert quite as Abbey did in the mid 1950's.

The tale is of his first summer as a young ranger in the then very remote Arches National Park.  No paved roads; few roads at all, and peace. Desert peace. The campers had to dry camp for there just was no other way. And he wished the pit toilets had been left out of the park plan anyway.  I felt if he were alive today (Abbey died in 1989) he would say something like, "Let the tourists dig their own shitters!".  Yeah, well, that's the way he talks throughout the book so I took a liberty.

Its a fast, sometimes offensive (even today) read. Yes, I took a couple of weeks to finish it and Mona reads several books a week, but I have to clean the pounds of dead bugs off the coach windscreens and nose, dump the tanks and refill the water, write the blogs AND... well, something else.  I'll think of it later.

This book really takes you into the canyons and onto the mesas with Edward and friends. Dated? not at all.  The arguments he makes for keeping the parks for the serious wilderness folk are still being made today, as they were when Teddy Roosevelt began kicking National Park building into gear over 100 years ago.

But for me reading of the beauty, grandeur, joy of living a summer in a place no one else lived near was wonderful. And the way Abbey describes each scene and tells each story brings humor, concern, danger, and even a tragedy into focus as very few could.

Enjoy this book!  ***** 5 stars.
-Ken