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Summary: Required reading for everyone!
Review: This book should be required reading for everyone. By far, this is one of my favorite books. There's alot to learn from this book. Abbey's insights into Industrial Tourism are great. His descriptions of locales stir the imagination. His radical propositon of new park rules make perfect sense. This is a book the folks in charge of our National Parks should be forced to read.
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Summary: Perfect
Review: Abbey perceives the west and wild places in a way people overlook, by getting the word accross (In a crude Abbey humor way) that there Isn't a need for paved roads and parking lots in beautiful secluded places. He also tells about his adventures in serene senic places before Industrialism or "Industrial tourism" arrived. This book put me in a different place, a place I cannot put into words, from a view other than the car window. Read it.
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Summary: With Abbey, you've got to look a little closer
Review: When reading DESERT SOLITAIRE, it's easy (and judging from many of the reviews on this page, rather common) to wander off into the side canyon of one's personal perception of Ed Abbey's personality, and before long, find yourself keeled over from the heat. Not a very pretty way to go, especially if it means you've ultimately missed the point and real beauty of this eloquant love letter to Utah's Canyonlands. Abbey captures the true splendor of the desert here, while at the same time speaking with both frankness and conviction of what he saw as the coming flash flood of the land's misuse. His chapter 'Down the River' illustrates this dual purpose of the book perhaps better than any other. Not only does it disarmingly woo the reader, bringing out one's deepest, most romantic feelings of wanderlust, but at the same time slaps the reader awake with the fact that the story's perfect setting is now lost to all men for all times. I was lucky enough to have (sort of) know Ed Abbey nearly 20 years ago. He taught a class in short-story writing I took at the University of Arizona. And while I didn't see eye to eye with him on all his political views or agree with him on his assesment of my papers, I can tell you the man got a lot of pleasure from just living his life and a big chuckle from getting at people's goat. Judging from the varied opinions below, DESERT SOLITAIRE seems to have pulled them both off.
Rating: 
Summary: Pompous and preachy
Review: Abbey thinks the only way to appreciate nature is his way, which is awfully shortsighted. He gets that point across in the first two chapters, and the rest are just more instances of him ranting against all the things he can't stand about the rest of the human race, and then doing some of those very things himself. Very hypocritical. When he isn't preaching and is telling stories of his adventures instead, the book is excellent.
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Summary: My Favorite Place, Too
Review: Southeastern Utah is perhaps my favorite place in the US, if not the world. I love the remoteness of the Canyonlands, the beauty of Arches, and the challenge of Cataract Canyon. Most people who know me well recommended that I read this book, and it is easy to see why. Abbey's descriptions are so accurate, that reading this book makes me "homesick" for the desert rock. Although not as entertaining as _The Monkey Wrench Gang_, Abbey's biting social commentary is on full display throughout. This edition of the book is beautifully done, with unique illustrations throughout.
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Summary: A classic despite the contradictions
Review: I give this book 5 stars for Abbey's beautiful and vivid depiction of the Southwest landscape, and his ability to evoke a powerful sense of what's already been lost and what's at stake. This should be a must-read for anyone who loves the Southwest and cares about its future. At the same time, I have to say I agree with some of the comments by other reviewers about how he sometimes seems to be much more aware of how others impact the pristine wilderness areas than of how he does so himself. After reading his biting observations in the "Down the River" chapter about campers who left an old shoe in a spring and a dirty sock hanging from a bush, I was a little taken aback when he started the next chapter with the following story: "On the way we stopped off briefly to roll an old tire into the Grand Canyon. While watching the tire bounce over tall pine trees, tear hell out of a mule train and disappear with a final grand leap into the inner gorge..." Then on to the next adventure, with no further mention of the poor mule train or of the tire which will probably be there for hundreds of years longer than will the old shoe and sock. What makes that attitude even harder to understand is his obvious deep love for the natural beauty and wildness of the region. At times his lyrical reflections almost pass into the realm of the mystical and sublime, such as during his journey through the doomed Glen Canyon. Despite the occasional contradictions, this book is a classic, and I would strongly recommend it to anyone with an interest in the Southwest.
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Summary: Love this guy
Review: If you ever wanted to know why some of us love the desert, you may get an impression if you can step into this book. Bring plenty of water.
Rating: 
Summary: Some parts are great, others leave you scratching your head.
Review: While in the main I loved this book, Abbey's hypocritical nature had me fuming at times. He makes fun of tourists for scratching their names in sandstone (rightfully), but then goes ahead and carves his name in trees. He makes fun of tourists for littering (rightfully), and a few chapters later describes rolling a tire into the Grand Canyon (nearly missing a mule train!). The book is riddled with other such examples. The thing is: I'm not sure he even recognized these glaring contridictions. But aside from not really liking HIM, I loved the BOOK... the last chapter left me weeping...
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Summary: Enjoyable but do not follow his example
Review: This is a totally enjoyable and recommended book. My only problem is that the author as a National Park System ranger does so many dangerous things that cannot be condoned. Please do not follow his example. It is very dangerous to do the following, as he did. 1. Hike through the desert without a supply of water. 2. Climb a 13,000 foot peak alone with no one to go for help if needed. 3. Sliding down a 2,000 foot snow slide without proper equipment. 4. Rafting down the Colorado River without a life vest. 5. Descending alone down a canyon for a short cut and getting stuck in a deadly position, with no way to get help. 6. Hiking many places off of established trails all alone. 7. Hiking so far that it requires a more dangerous return in the dark of night. 8. Starting wild fires due to carelessness with pipe smoking. 9. Trying to capture a wild horse all alone and getting run over. This was done while all alone with no possibility of getting help if injured. 10. Drinking water from any available creek, pond or seep. Western water is now dangerous to drink in all western national parks. Treatment is necessary. 11. Eating five eggs and half a pound of bacon for breakfast. Is this the reason he died so young? Many tourists may read this book and follow his bad examples. I wish that he had given more words of caution. Follow the advice of more knowledgeable park rangers. Enjoy this wonderful book but be careful.
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Summary: An Ironic Icon
Review: Abbey's "Desert Solitaire" is a classic, and I can hardly add to the adoring comments others have already made. However, I can point out the irony the book itself represents. The people who hold the book up as an icon of the wilderness movement are often the very people Abbey would have deplored. For example, the mountain bikers who treat the Arches National Mounument as their own personal playground--who throw beer bottles around, play loud music, and leave bycicle skid marks on the slick rock--love Abbey's book and think of him as a "righteous dude," but their cavalier treatment of this natural wonder represents the very thing that Abbey condemns in "Desert Solitaire." I shed a tear everytime I reread "Desert Solitaire," for Arches has become worse than Abbey's greatest fears.
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