GCI Books

Technical Slot Canyon Guide to the Colorado Plateau By Michael R. Kelsey Another Kelsey classic, this book covers the middle third of the Colorado River drainage for the technically inclined and experienced canyoneer. Almost all the canyons in this book are in Utah but with a few-some of the best, in Northern Arizona near the town of Page and the Navajo Nation. Good climbing skills, equipment, and judgment are needed to travel through these very technical slot canyons, most of which have never been described in a book before. These are remote, flood-prone, debris-filled slot canyons, difficult to nearly impossible to exit during an emergency, so beware. $13.50

Peaceful Canyon Golden River by David and Gudy Gaskill In June of 1949, authors David and Gudy Gaskill pushed off into the Colorado River above fabled Glen Canyon to experience for themselves a journey that Edward Abbey has called "the ultimate Homeric voyage." They found a mystical world of soaring sandstone cliffs, raging rapids, fern-decked alcoves, and haunting solitude. Before this national treasure disappeared beneath the waters of Lake Powell in 1963, the Gaskills, family, and friends made numerous trips down Glen Canyon, including its maze of narrow side canyons, recording on film their experiences. As a bonus, an included CD-ROM extends the record of The Glen's wonders with over 800 color photos, inspiring music, and sounds of the canyon. $14.95

On The Loose Terry and Renny Russell This is a most wondrous and unusual book. Its scattered text and stunning photographs convey a spirit of reverence and adventure that will cause readers to recall their own private epiphanies gained through contact with the natural world. Originally published by the Sierra Club in 1967, On the Loose sold more than a million copies before going out of print a decade ago; this gorgeous re-release is bound to find a new generation of readers. - Amazon.com $14.95

Let the Mountains Talk, Let the Rivers Run (Paperback) David Brower, with Steve Chapple Glen Canyon Institute Board Member David Brower, former executive director of the Sierra Club and founder of the League of Conservation Voters, Friends of the Earth, and Earth Island Institute, recalls his fifty controversial years of activism, outlines crucial contemporary battles, and passionately points the way to a green twenty-first century. $14.95

The Restoration of Glen Canyon See the restoration of Glen Canyon in this photo essay published by the Glen Canyon Institute. After forty years of being hidden under the waves of Lake Powell, witness areas like Dark Canyon, Cataract Canyon, Davis Gulch, Cathedral in the Desert, and Stephens Arch come back to life. Photography by James Kay, Bill Wolverton, Rob Holt, Harry Newell, Nick Beard, Elias Butler, Chris Peterson. $15.00

Glen Canyon Betrayed: A Sensuous Elegy By Katie Lee Katie Lee has masterfully updated 'All My Rivers Are Gone' with new pictures and an index allowing easy navigation to the many stories contained in the pages of this remarkable book. Additionally, she has written an entirely new Afterward -- looking back at Glen Canyon's past and forward to it's future. "Katie Lee is a joyful raconteur, a woman with grit, grace and humor. She is not afraid to laugh and tease, cajole and flirt, cuss, rant, howl, sing and cry. Katie Lee is the desert’s lover, her voice is a torch in the wilderness." - Terry Tempest Williams $16.95

Sandstone Seduction by Katie Lee In Sandstone Seduction, Katie Lee collects her most creative writing, written over her lifetime, telling us about the events that shaped her life, and her encounters with water and rock. As always, her writing is deeply personal, remarkably candid, and abundantly frank. Katie Lee speaks her mind; she does not hold back. She's been listening to the water and absorbing its lessons for more than fifty years; she knows well that we have a lot to learn from rivers about the flow of our lives. $17.50

Let the Mountains Talk, Let the Rivers Run (Hardback) David Brower, with Steve Chapple Glen Canyon Institute Board Member David Brower, former executive director of the Sierra Club and founder of the League of Conservation Voters, Friends of the Earth, and Earth Island Institute, recalls his fifty controversial years of activism, outlines crucial contemporary battles, and passionately points the way to a green twenty-first century. $20.00

Salt Dreams: Land and Water in Low-Down California (Paperback) William deBuys Photography by Joan Myers The Lower Colorado River, that portion between Hoover Dam and the Sea of Corts, lacks the scenic grandeur of the upper portions of the river. No single heroic figure like John Wesley Powell is associated with this stretch of the Colorado. There is no epic tragedy like Glen Canyon Dam. For what it lacks in grandeur, tragedy, and heroics, it makes up for in engineering errors, political intrigue, diplomatic blunders, and high levels of greed. $21.95

A River No More: The Colorado River and the West Philip L. Fradkin A good natural and political history of the entire Colorado River drainage from the headwaters to the delta. Pulitzer Prize winning author's passion for the beauty of the river is combined with a profound understanding of the arid lands of the desert southwest, where man's need for water is a matter of life and death. $24.95

The Very Hard Way Bert Loper and the Colorado River Tough as boot leather, stubborn and indomitable, Bert Loper was a drifting, uneducated, hard-rock miner, laborer and boatman who came to know and love the rivers of the Southwest like no-one else before or since. This splendid biography, which also tells the definitive history of river-running in the Southwest, takes us down into the canyons and whitewater and shows how they brought grace and meaning to the very hard life of a very hard man. - Richard Grant (American Nomads) $25.00

Watershed: The Undamming of America (Hardback) Elizabeth Grossman In this whirlwind tour of dams across America, Grossman, a journalist based in Portland, Ore., persuasively illustrates why it's time for many of the 75,000 dams in the U.S. to come down. According to Grossman, dams were born of a driving need to manage the American landscape. More troubling, most were designed and built without a full understanding of how rivers function and without considering each dam's impact on its river system. As a result, rivers across the country are dying from our hydropower, irrigation and recreation needs. Dams affect a river's ecosystem from headwater to delta, throwing off the balance that fosters plant, insect and fish life along the way. Grossman gives a national perspective to the current movement toward river reclamation by visiting about a dozen sites across the country; she reports on the conflicting perspectives that drive or resist reclamation, and she lays out the complex political and economic pressures. By considering each river as a continuous linked entity, Grossman offers a compelling update on a movement that could reshape the face of America. - Publishers Weekly $26.00

Resurrection Glen Canyon and a New Vision for the American West This stunning new book, published by Mountaineers Books, was written by Backpacker magazine’s Southwest Editor, Annette McGivney, and features images by the celebrated landscape photographer, James Kay. Renowned environmentalist, Bill McKibben, wrote the forward. These gifted conservation advocates have been longtime supporters of GCI’s work, and we urge anyone who loves Glen Canyon to get this beautiful book! $29.95

Watershed: The Undamming of America (Signed Hardback) Elizabeth Grossman In this whirlwind tour of dams across America, Grossman, a journalist based in Portland, Ore., persuasively illustrates why it's time for many of the 75,000 dams in the U.S. to come down. According to Grossman, dams were born of a driving need to manage the American landscape. More troubling, most were designed and built without a full understanding of how rivers function and without considering each dam's impact on its river system. As a result, rivers across the country are dying from our hydropower, irrigation and recreation needs. Dams affect a river's ecosystem from headwater to delta, throwing off the balance that fosters plant, insect and fish life along the way. Grossman gives a national perspective to the current movement toward river reclamation by visiting about a dozen sites across the country; she reports on the conflicting perspectives that drive or resist reclamation, and she lays out the complex political and economic pressures. By considering each river as a continuous linked entity, Grossman offers a compelling update on a movement that could reshape the face of America. - Publishers Weekly $35.00

Restoring Colorado River Ecosystems: A Troubled Sense of Immensity By Robert Adler Restoring Colorado River Ecosystems explores the many questions and challenges surrounding the issue of large-scale restoration of the Colorado River basin, and of large-scale restoration in general. Robert W. Adler evaluates the relationships among the laws, policies, and institutions governing use and management of the Colorado River for human benefit and those designed to protect and restore the river and its environment. He examines and critiques the often challenging interactions among law, science, economics, and politics within which restoration efforts must operate. Ultimately, he suggests that a broad concept of “restoration” is needed to navigate those uncertain waters, and to strike an appropriate balance between human and environmental needs. $35.00

Rock Me On The Water A Life On The Loose "Renny Russell’s Rock Me on the Water is at its heart courageous. To return to the same power of nature that took his brother thirty years previous—to be with it, to confront it, to take solace in it, and to be inspired and healed by it—is remarkable in itself. His book is, as well, a testament to the evocative rhythms of the wilds. In this complicated dance, this profoundly personal journey, Renny Russell also gives us an amazingly spirited tour of one of the truly great landscapes of the American West and a keen understanding of its power to shape a life." -Robert Redford $36.00

Salt Dreams: Land and Water in Low-Down California (Hardback) William deBuys Photography by Joan Myers The Lower Colorado River, that portion between Hoover Dam and the Sea of Corts, lacks the scenic grandeur of the upper portions of the river. No single heroic figure like John Wesley Powell is associated with this stretch of the Colorado. There is no epic tragedy like Glen Canyon Dam. For what it lacks in grandeur, tragedy, and heroics, it makes up for in engineering errors, political intrigue, diplomatic blunders, and high levels of greed. $39.95

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