Author: Michael Engelhard
Book Review by: Steve Dudrow
Available for preorder in Kindle format and paperback now and coming soon to your local bookstores.
Engelhard weaves the reader through many familiar places around the Colorado Plateau stepping past mere eyesight to bring life to the human and geographic story. His descriptions warn of seasonal fluctuations of cold, heat, floods, lightning, and the many critters, some of which can bite, sting, and cause human pain. Of course, as you read his descriptions, you learn that the effort for us current-day explorers is paid back in spectacular scenic eye candy, incomprehensible adventures, and breathing the same air as those who strode these lands before us.
Life’s highlights come infrequently, even for those like Engelhard who does his best to tread on land not accustomed to the footfalls of humans. We learn of his discovery of an Archaic pictograph panel heretofore never mentioned in documentation. Was it a depiction of a nightmare or a myth? Engelhard laments “Leave no trace” which also means removing the GPS location from photo metadata. He spends some time discussing the many hours volunteers, such as myself, spend cleaning and camouflaging graffiti inflicted on these treasures.
He discusses the relations between rock art and celestial events, with examples of ancient calendric features that had been carefully researched and created over years of observations.
As my youthful hiking abilities are on the wane, I enjoy that Engelhard explores the growing need for Ibuprofen to maintain critical knees and hips. Also, a tip on how to stand while wearing shorts abused from sandpaper rocks is greatly appreciated.
He steps up to take his place among the great storytellers of the literary west; with humorous, serious, and concentrated prose. For me, I am always happy to find the road to Toroweap remains iffy at times. “No Walk in the Park” will find its way into my backpack this summer.
Bottom line, and I quote Engelhard, “our parents sacrificed too much beauty of what they mistook as progress.”
