Travels in the Greater Yellowstone (Hardcover)

by Jack Turner (Author)
Key Phrases: modern wolves, alpine tundra, snow lodge, Greater Yellowstone, Jackson Hole, Old Faithful (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"There have been legendary Indians, mountain men and mystics, but the West has never been loved by a greater poet warrior than Jack Turner. In Travels in the Greater Yellowstone, he reveals treasures and threats to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem while taking us on the most intimate and informative tour of America's wildest lands." --John Passacantando, Executive Director of Greenpeace USA

Product Description

Award-winning nature writer Jack Turner directs his attention to one of America’s greatest natural treasures: the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Comprised of two national parks, three national wildlife refuges, parts of six national forests, and eleven wilderness areas, Greater Yellowstone is a vast array of differing environments and geographies.
In a series of essays, Turner explores this wonderland, venturing on twelve separate trips in all seasons using various modes of travel: hiking, climbing, skiing, canoeing lakes, floating rivers, and driving his way across the landscape. He treks down the Teton Range, picks up the Oregon Trail in the Red Desert, and floats the South Fork of the Snake River. Along the way he encounters a variety of wildlife: moose, elk, trout, and wolves. From the treacherous mountains in the dead of winter, to lush river valleys in the height of fishing season, his words and steps trace one of the most American of experiences---exploring the West.
Turner, who has lived in Grand Teton for three decades, designates Greater Yellowstone as ground zero for the country’s conflict between preservation and development. At a time when the battle to preserve a wild and natural environment is relentless, his accounts of the areas conflicts with alien species, logging, real estate, oil, and gas development are alarming.
A mixture of adventure, nostalgia, and Americana, Turner’s rare experiences and evocative writing transform the sights and sounds of Greater Yellowstone into an intimate narrative of travel through America’s most beloved lands. 

Praise for Teewinot:

"Bursting with a sense of place...a rewarding reading experience replete with ravishing observations of nature."
- Publishers Weekly

"...a measured luxuriance in the landscape, a love song to the natural history of a place...Turner's writing is muscular, never swaggering, and almost lyrical, summoning a Teton Range in its rightful, sublime austerity."
- Kirkus Reviews

"Teewinot is a rare book. The wonderful accounts of mountaineering serve as armature not only for Turner's meditative reverence for the Grand Tetons and his often evocative prose but also for an uncommon density of knowledge of place..."
- Peter Matthiessen, author of Tigers in the Snow

"This is, simply stated, a wonderful and utterly engaging book."
- Jim Harrison, author of Dalva and The Road Home

"Each place must find its muse. The Tetons have found theirs and his name is Jack Turner."
- Terry Tempest Williams, author of Coyote's Canyon

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; Revised edition (April 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312266723
• ISBN-13: 978-0312266721
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #334,158 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mixed Bag, May 26, 2008

By	jd103 - See all my reviews

I'll begin by saying that Turner's The Abstract Wild is one of the very best books I have ever read. Based on this book's subject and my own interests, I expected this one to fall far short of that and it did while remaining an enjoyable enough read.

This book consists of essays about Turner's experiences doing exactly what the title suggests. It occasionally gets repetitive, but there are some excellent moments. I believe Turner is at his best when exploring ideas and values, rather then writing travelogues, and my favorite essays here reflect that preference.

The piece on wolves is one of the best I've read on the subject, predicting the slaughter now underway since control was returned from the federal government to states like Wyoming. Along with history, ecology, wolf-haters and wolf-watchers, Turner explores our relationship with the wild and the ethics of reintroducing a species to an area and then encouraging the killing of the animals. Though more of a hike description, some of the same issues are touched on in the essay on grizzlies. The concluding essay on spending Christmas at Old Faithful is another highlight, raising many questions and paradoxes.

On the down side for me, three essays on fishing are three more than I needed even though they also raise ecological issues. Turner's rants against energy development destroying the area also got a little old. I'm against it too but that's why I'm not driving a truck all over the area for recreation like Turner is. Accusing Wyoming of wanting to have its cake and eat it too seems similar to what Turner's doing here with his choices. Maybe he thinks it would be OK to develop Alaska or someone else's favorite coastline to support his driving as long as it's not the area he considers more important.

A pleasant casual read, especially if you're familiar with the area I imagine, but another reading of The Abstract Wild would probably be a better use of your time.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Judgemental, Elitist, October 13, 2008

By	M. Gluntz (Cincinnati, OH) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is the first Jack Turner book I've read--though I knew from reading reviews that his views about the wilderness were confrontational, provocative, progressive. His descriptions of wilderness are indeed riveting and articulate, and his pitch for why true wild country must be protected can't be refuted. But what put me off was his judgemental attitudes about others. OK, so he detests the hoards that descend on Yellowstone NP every year--who doesn't? Does he have to make snide comments about how they dress? He repeatedly stoops to comment on the attire of people he encounters camping in the back country. . . "a lovely young woman . . .on the top of the pass, sitting on a rock, in shorts, running shoes, a fanny pack, and a skimpy sports bra," a tourist at the Snow Lodge at Christmas, "a lovely woman clad in fashionably cut wool slacks and a black silk blouse reading through diamond-studded glasses," or on a trail he's tackling with ease, "four portly, suffering easterners on a fishing expedition." He even enjoys a good hearty laugh when he comes upon evidence of a hiker who'd had to use pepper spray on a bear. Ho ho ho.

I get his point, I really do--the sheer numbers of people visiting are destroying the very places national lands strive to protect. But I don't think his tone will win him many allies. Jack Turner admits that he drives many miles to purchase coffee from Colombia, chocolate from Switzerland, water from France. He lets his dog run free in the backcountry, and breaks any other rules he considers silly. Heck, he even lives within Grand Teton National Park. The fact is that if everyone used the wilderness the way he does, it couldn't be sustained--and yet he never examines that inconsistency. A book that did that would really contribute to the discussion of how wilderness should be preserved.

Turner, apparently, thinks the poor schmucks who drive all the trucks to bring him his French water and fresh vegetables or who manufacture his nifty camping equipment should not be afforded the same freedoms and opportunities he enjoys. They should just go to Disneyland, where their base appetites for comfort can be fed, leaving him in the world's beautiful places to identify gneiss and debate tarns. In short, he thinks his own stuff (supply your own colorful expression here) doesn't stink.

I felt very angry and judged after I read this book. I may be someone Turner'd sneer at, but I never let my dog off the leash when we visit Yellowstone, or take it on any back country trails, because that's verboten. Jack Turner would comment on how I dress when I visit. This book did nothing to solve the challenges wild lands face in the coming years, it just widened the chasm between two classes of people: those who want to keep the wilderness for those they deem worthy, and those who are just lucky if they ever get to see it.

5.0 out of 5 stars No Run-Of-The-Mill Travel Book Here, April 19, 2009

By	Earl Ripley "Rip van Wrinkle" (West Coast) - See all my reviews

Turner writes with passion, conviction and insight too rarely encountered in the modern world. A lifelong adventurer-philosopher whose words deserve a wider audience and serious consideration by every thinking person.