Writing Down the River: Into the Heart of the Grand Canyon - Hardcover

Sharman Apt Russell, author of When the Land Was Young: Reflections on American Archaeology, describes her initial peek: "My heart starts beating fast when I first see the Grand Canyon, looking down from the South Rim, the vertigo of too much space. My bones feel hollow, like a bird's bones." Annick Smith, editor of The Last Best Place: A Montana Anthology, writes about the roar of the rapids: "Then comes the fifth wave. We climb up and up, stroking hard, but we do not cut through. The wave grows. It's a demon curling above us. Its foaming dragon breath is distinct as a Japanese painting, alive. Now I am stroking air." Judith Freeman, author of A Desert of Pure Feeling, writes of the lingering aftereffects: "For many nights after I left the river I awoke in darkness with the feeling I was still in the canyon. I sat up suddenly in strange beds, in desert motels and distant cities, certain that I was still sleeping on a rock ledge or a spit of sand."

Ryan's photographs of rock, water, and sky round out this evocative portrait of a place unlike any in the world. Taken as a whole, Writing Down the River is a collection of personal reflections as well as a tribute to the unifying power of landscape.