Downcanyon: A Naturalist Explores the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon [Hardcover]

Ann Haymond Zwinger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1995

Every writer comes to the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon with a unique point of view. Ann Zwinger's is that of a naturalist, an "observer at the river's brim." Teamed with scientists and other volunteer naturalists, Zwinger was part of an ongoing study of change along the Colorado. In all seasons and all weathers, in almost every kind of craft that goes down the waves, she returned to the Grand Canyon again and again to explore, look, and listen. From the thrill of running the rapids to the wonder in a grain of sand, her words take the reader down 280 miles of the "ever-flowing, energetic, whooping and hollering, galloping" river. Zwinger's book begins with a bald eagle count at Nankoweap Creek in January and ends with a subzero, snowy walk out of the canyon at winter solstice. Between are the delights of spring in side canyons, the benediction of rain on a summer beach, and the chill that comes off limestone walls in November. Her eye for detail catches the enchantment of small things played against the immensity of the river: the gatling-gun love song of tree frogs; the fragile beauty of an evening primrose; ravens "always in close attendance, like lugubrious, sharp-eyed, nineteenth-century undertakers"; and a golden eagle chasing a trout "with wings akimbo like a cleaning lady after a cockroach." As she travels downstream, Zwinger follows others in history who have risked—and occasionally lost—their lives on the Colorado. Hiking in narrow canyons, she finds cliff dwellings and broken pottery of prehistoric Indians. Rounding a bend or running a rapid, she remembers the triumphs and tragedies of early explorers and pioneers. She describes the changes that have come with putting a big dam on a big river and how the dam has affected the riverine flora and fauna as well as the rapids and their future. Science in the hands of a poet, this captivating book is for armchair travelers who may never see the grandiose Colorado and for those who have run it wisely and well. Like the author, readers will find themselves bewitched by the color and flow of the river, and enticed by what's around the next bend. With her, they will find its rhythms still in the mind, long after the splash and spray and pound are gone.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

It is no wonder that some of the most beautiful writing comes out of the Southwest. With its stark contrasts of pastel skies and vivid geology, it can be difficult to capture the essence of this region, but a few accomplished writers have been able to do justice to this wondrous place. Hidden beneath the innocuous title, Downcanyon (just another raft trip down the Colorado?), is Zwinger's narrative, one reminiscent of the elegant writing of E.O. Wilson. Part of a team of volunteer naturalists and scientists studying environmental impact along the Colorado River, Zwinger (Run, River, Run) was involved in counting and observing Bald Eagles in the canyon. Returning time after time, she describes the changes of the seasons and man-made additions like a huge dam. She creates an intensely rich experience from the weaving of a spider web, and her recollection of summer in the canyon is a scalding, shimmering sensation. "In summer, passing close to these sepulchral walls is like skirting the flank of a dragon. Rock made of seething, molten magma still pulses heat out more than a millennia later when its flat faces tilt to the sun like solar collectors." Downcanyon is a perfect blend of history, natural history and outdoor writing, nicely embellished by the author's sharp sketches. Readers will find Zwinger's account as educational as any text on the subject and as engrossing as a novel.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Zwinger states in her preface that she has written about "what catches my eye and piques my interest, the delightful details of a rich river world." She has done an excellent job of sharing with her readers "the joys thereof." Over four seasons, Zwinger accomplished several trips on Colorado River as it flows through Grand Canyon, from mile 0 at Lees Ferry to mile 278.5 at the Grand Wash Fault. Her colorful and vivid language and occasional gentle humor, as she details tiny ants, spider webs, ancient Anasazi culture, or enormous basalt cliffs, is outstanding. Zwinger has the ability to involve, teach, and share with her reader. Her own observations are intertwined with descriptions from extensive research, making this work a delightfully guised natural/cultural history lesson of the area. Heartily recommended for public and academic libraries. [This was a winner of a 1995 Western States Book Award.?Ed.]?Nancy Moeckel, Miami Univ. Libs., Oxford, Ohi.
-?Nancy Moeckel, Miami Univ. Libs., Oxford, Ohio
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 318 pages
• Publisher: University of Arizona Press; 1St Edition edition (August 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816511632
• ISBN-13: 978-0816511631
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #968,613 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Seductive prose, incisive observations from the bottom., August 31, 1999

By 

Robert C.A. Goff, M.D. ([e-mail]) (Blacksburg, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Downcanyon: A Naturalist Explores the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon (Hardcover)

Ann Haymond Zwinger has contributed her scientific expertise to subsidized, multi-week inner-canyon environmental impact expeditions, has run each of the Canyon's rapids countless times (in nearly each month of the year), in every sort of water craft. What her scientific eye takes in, her pen transmutes into its own river of irresistible prose, carrying the reader, willing or not, from one chapter to the next. As a hiker, I expected the vision of a "boat person" to suffer from its constricted horizons. A bottom-up myopia. Instead, we find ourselves soaring with eagles. We climb cliffs, clawing our way through a darkness of thorns and pain. We crawl along brushy beaver tunnels. We ponder the local history and lore...and the primeval past. Our journey evokes visions of thousand foot-high lava dams filling the entire Canyon with water, as well as today's horror of a rapid at Lava Falls. While some of her snippets of local human history are rarely mentioned in other books about the Canyon, Zwinger's forte is in the natural sciences. In that arena, she has no peer among Grand Canyon authors. Since this is not a trail manual, it is not easy to restrict one's reading to a single, specific Canyon location. Rather, the chapters are organized by seasons of the year. No matter. If you start at the beginning, its 220 or so pages of narrative will sweep you into their main current and, well... I'll see you below the rapids.

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, August 25, 2010

By 

Stephen J. Stackwick "Whoville" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Downcanyon: A Naturalist Explores the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon (Paperback)

You'll learn everything you ever wanted to know about the insect life on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, and I mean that in a good way. She's a lovely writer, too, with an easy-to-read but eloquent style. If you've never been, you'll want to go; if you have, you'll want to go back.

2 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars wonderful direct engagement with water, January 21, 2004

By 

Robert L. France (cambridge, ma United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Downcanyon: A Naturalist Explores the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon (Hardcover)

As was written by the copy editor to introduce the foreword by Ms. Zwinger to my recently published book "Deep Immersion: Thoreau's Engagement with Water" (Green Frigate Books): "Few have ever been so 'haunted by waters' - to use Norman Maclean's wonderful phrase - as has naturalist and 'water logged' nature writer Ann Haymond Zwinger." This particlar book, like all of her works, very much offers a deep well for thirsty minds.