Dinosaur: Four Seasons on the Green and Yampa Rivers (Desert Places) [Paperback]

Hal Crimmel (Author), Steve Gaffney (Photographer)

Book Description

Series: Desert Places | Publication Date: November 1, 2007

Over a hundred million years ago, the area that is now Dinosaur National Monument attracted the behemoth creatures of its namesake with its plentiful supply of food and water. Renowned for its world- famous fossil quarry, Dinosaur National Monument is also home to two of the West’s legendary whitewater rivers: the Yampa and the Green. In this new addition to the Desert Places series, river runner and author Hal Crimmel, along with photographer Steve Gaffney, invite readers to partake in the beauty of Dinosaur National Monument’s remote, rapids-filled canyons, and wonder at the unique ecological niches found in this high desert oasis. Gaffney’s reflective photographs emphasize the rough perfection of the landscape; Crimmel’s pensive meditations and his river expertise combine to create a rare point of view, one that ventures into places the guidebooks don’t go. But this narrative is more than tribute—it is a reminder of the fragile nature of desert places. Crimmel lyrically combines his descriptions with an examination of the complex issues relevant to managing public lands—invasive species, tourism, dams, endangered flora and fauna—to address the contradictions inherent in “managed wilderness.” Over four seasons and multiple trips, Crimmel and Gaffney have captured the rivers’ sense of place, creating a portrait of a dazzling high desert landscape that needs to be appreciated and protected.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book ventures where guidebooks don't go. It's a well written travel/journal meditation to a place. It's also a tribute to a fragile land." —Enchantment

About the Author

Hal Crimmel is a former river guide who currently teaches writing and literature at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. He is the editor of Teaching in the Field: Working with Students in the Outdoor Classroom.

Steve Gaffney is a Los Angeles–based freelance photographer whose work can be seen at www.stevegaffney.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: University of Arizona Press (November 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816524300
• ISBN-13: 978-0816524303
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,316,642 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An introduction to a remote, beautiful region, April 21, 2011

By 

Arthur Digbee (Indianapolis, IN, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Dinosaur: Four Seasons on the Green and Yampa Rivers (Desert Places) (Paperback)

This book shows off the backcountry of Dinosaur National Monument through the four seasons. Dinosaur is in a remote location on the Utah-Colorado border. Though created to protect a great dinosaur quarry, its most important resources are 200,000 acres of backcountry and one of the country's two remaining undammed rivers, the Yampa.

Crimmel and Gaffney begin the book with a winter camping trip, with temperatures below freezing but not yet really cold. After this, they raft down the Yampa and Green rivers during the spring high water and through the lower water of summer, returning to the park in autumn. The photographs by Steve Gaffney nicely convey the beauty of this landscape in all four seasons.

Along the way, they see wildlife, hike up canyons, see petroglyphs, and tell the stories of this land. Their visits are often characterized by a quest for solitude in the wilderness, though they conduct this search overwhelmingly from rafts. Most visitors in the backcountry use rafts, too, and the focus is understandable. Still, this focus meant that they run into other groups, and that they meet a lot of rangers who are eager to check their permits - - not exactly the solitary experience they say they wanted. It would also have been interesting to see more of the landscape away from the rivers and canyons, where there are few trails and a higher expectation of solitude.

If you've never been to Dinosaur, this short book will help convey the beauty of the land and its rivers, and make you thankful that environmentalists blocked two proposed dams in the 1950s. If you've only been there in one season, this book will make you want to check it out in different times of the year.