Walking the Unknown River and Other Travels in Escalante Country

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Summary: A special book about a special place by a special writer
Review: Every now and again a book comes along that captures the essence of a special place in a most extraordinary way. It doesn't happen very often but when it does it is a sight to behold. This is such a book.
Ann Walka resides in Flagstaff, AZ., and for the past 35 years has explored the Colorado Plateau in general and most especially the Escalante Country which she describes as the hidden heart of the Plateau. It is an area upstream from Lake Powell and Glen Canyon Dam and despite some two million visitors a year to the tourist destination recreation area is largely uninhabited and little-known. It is the area that captivated, and captured, Everett Ruess "...where I feel that I belong and am one with the world around me" and is the home of the Escalante River that was the last river to be mapped in the contiguous 48 states. It was called the Unknown River by John Wesley Powell's survey crew and to this day remains, like the area through which it traverses, remote, wild, unforgiving, beautiful and inspiring. It is an area still described by those most intimate with it's terrain and landscape as "back of beyond" country.
What makes this book so special is that in just over 100 pages, using written accounts from contemporary as well as historical sources and a judicious blend of unforgettable poetry, the reader is introduced to this hidden speal heart of the Colorado Plateau. The prose and poetry is succinct, lyrical, original,and highly readable. About what you would expect from the likes of Katie Lee, Barry Lopez, Navajo Elers and Walka herself. To walk this Unknown River Country is to visit a place that "...is traveled but not penetrated, studied but not deciphered, mapped but not squared." It is to lament Glen Canyon "...and all things that can never be again." It is to attempt to comprehend the wonder of Navajo Mountain and to consider Dance Hall Rock and the Mormons accomplishing the unthinkable and moving to the Bluff, UT., area through Hole-In-The-Rock to the Colorado River. The date was January 26, 1880, and the description of this hidden heart will still suffice for those that have not stood on the rim and marveled at the 1800 feet down a vertical cliff to the Colorado: "You want us to tell you what kind of country this is but I don't know how. It's the roughest country you or anybody else ever seen; it's nothing in the world but rocks and holes, hill and hollows. The mountains are just one solid rock as smooth as an apple." This from a yound woman that spent six weeks waiting for the men to blast a road to the river.
This is a very special book about a very special place that has buried itself inside the heart of a gifted writer. While there have been many attempts to describe this special place, and no doubt will be many more to come, this book will set the standard by which all others will be judged.