Lost in My Own Backyard: A Walk in Yellowstone National Park (Crown Journeys) (Hardcover)

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Product Description

“Let’s get lost together . . . ”

Lost in My Own Backyard brings acclaimed author Tim Cahill together with one of his—and America’s—favorite destinations: Yellowstone, the world’s first national park. Cahill has been “puttering around in the park” for a quarter of a century, slowly covering its vast scope and exploring its remote backwoods. So does this mean that he knows what he’s doing? Hardly. “I live fifty miles from the park,” says Cahill, “but proximity does not guarantee competence. I’ve spent entire afternoons not knowing exactly where I was, which is to say, I was lost in my own backyard.”

Cahill stumbles from glacier to geyser, encounters wildlife (some of it, like bisons, weighing in the neighborhood of a ton), muses on the microbiology of thermal pools, gets spooked in the mysterious Hoodoos, sees moonbows arcing across waterfalls at midnight, and generally has a fine old time walking several hundred miles while contemplating the concept and value of wilderness. Mostly, Cahill says, “I have resisted the urge to commit philosophy. This is difficult to do when you’re alone, twenty miles from the nearest road, and you’ve just found a grizzly bear track the size of a pizza.”

Divided into three parts—“The Trails,” which offers a variety of favorite day hikes; “In the Backcountry,” which explores three great backcountry trails very much off the beaten track; and “A Selected Yellowstone Bookshelf,” an annotated bibliography of his favorite books on the park—this is a hilarious, informative, and perfect guide for Yellowstone veterans and first-timers alike. Lost in My Own Backyard is adventure writing at its very best.

About the Author

TIM CAHILL is the author of eight books, including Road Fever, Jaguars Ripped My Flesh, and A Wolverine Is Eating My Leg. He is a founding editor of Outside magazine and writes frequently for National Geographic Adventure and other national publications. He lives in Montana.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Crown (June 8, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 140004622X
• ISBN-13: 978-1400046225
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #528,034 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Lost, but not begotten. . .", June 9, 2004

By	T. White (Bigfork, MT) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Lost in My Own Backyard: A Walk in Yellowstone National Park (Crown Journeys Series (Random House Audio).) (Audio CD)

Lost in My Own Backyard amalgamates renowned and perpetually witty author Tim Cahill with one of his favorite haunts: Yellowstone National Park. "Part of the joy of walking in Yellowstone is that it is still, for the most part, a wilderness, which means that it is untamed, which in turn means that it is not impossible to get hurt, even if you follow all the rules. Thus the wilderness that is Yellowstone Park affirms our mortality. That is why walking its trails makes us feel so damn alive" (16).

Cahill, in Lost in My Own Backyard, cleverly and humbly connects with the reader by admitting that he is neither a biologist nor a geologist. Instead, he confesses, "I am more interested in suggesting ways to think about the park and its significance. I'm especially interested in the exhilaration anyone with a heart feels while walking Yellowstone Park" (138). He encounters wiki-ups, "deliciously creepy nights" in the Goblin Labyrinth, bugling elk, lovelorn bull moose attempting to "shag" the frigid females, two-minute-old grizzly tracks, among other adventures.

The book is written in three parts-"The Trails: Day Hikes," which are fun, informative, and often hilarious; "In the Backcountry: Three Good Backcountry Trails," where Cahill admits to his "hopeless sense of direction." He is hired by National Geographic Adventure magazine along with his longtime friend, Tom Murphy, to write up backcountry trips; finally, Cahill conspicuously chides The Guide to Yellowstone Waterfalls and Their Discovery, listed in the last part of the book, "A Selected Yellowstone Bookshelf," where he lists a selection of books that he uses and some that he's clearly not particularly fond of: One in particular presents Cahill with "certain philosophical problems" (128).

Lost in My Own Backyard is written from a madcap adventurers perspective. Cahill unleashes yet another humdinger of a book.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Whimsical Yellowstone, September 26, 2005

By	Casey Dawes "Wise Woman Shining" (California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Lost in My Own Backyard enhanced my brief stay in Yellowstone. It informed without being heavy-handed and gave me an idea of some of the areas within the park that I know I'll never get to. The realities are expressed with humor, ("Whenever a creature makes an appearance near the road...there will be a traffic jam of hopeless proportions"). Cahill points out some of the sites that are off the beaten track, such as the petrified tree, that can be fun to see. His description of the Artist's Paintpots, however, failed to inspire in real life.
Lost in My Own Backyard doesn't pretend to be a guidebook. It's rather like sitting down with a whimsical uncle and looking at his photo album of Yellowstone National Park.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A heartfelt teaser on Yellowstone, March 6, 2005

By	Craig Wood (Menlo Park, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Tim Cahill's "Lost in My Own Backyard" is more serious than his previous books, but is nonetheless both light-hearted and enjoyable. Cahill takes a breather from his normal globe-trotting ways to focus on a slice of the great outdoors, Yellowstone Park. The world's first national park is just 50 miles from Cahill's home in Montana, so it's no surprise that this 2.2 million-acre park is the subject of a classic Cahill travel book.

Whether you've been to Yellowstone or not, you'll appreciate the author's perspective. He takes a stab at describing the natural wonders of the park - geysers, basins, wildlife - while also including some history and philosophical musings about previous explorers.

"Lost in My Own Backyard" is light reading, and I mean really light reading. Some of the shorter essays (3 to 4 pages long) hardly do justice to the day hike or back-country adventure that Cahill purports to share. And when you reach the end of this book an hour or two after you've started reading it, you'll feel like the book hasn't even begun yet. But I suppose that's the sign of a great writer covering a great subject. The material draws you in and the author's style is a pleasure to read on any subject.