The Grand Canyon National Park has been called many things, but home
isn't often one of them. Yet after years of traveling the globe,
Nathaniel Brodie found his home there.
Steel on Stone is Brodie's account of living in the canyon during
the eight years he worked on a National Park Service trail crew,
navigating a vast and unforgiving land. Embedded alongside Brodie and
his crew, readers experience precipitous climbs to build trails,
dangerous search-and-rescue missions, rockslides, spelunking
expeditions, and rafting trips through the canyon on the Colorado River.
From Brodie's chronicles of tracking cougars and dodging rampaging pack
mules to adjusting to seasons spanning triple-digit heat and
inaccessibility during the winter, we learn about the life cycle of this
iconic park, whose complex ecosystems coexist with humans, each one
seeking a deeply personal experience, and the subcultures and
hierarchies that form deep within the canyon.
Following in the steps of naturalists like John Wesley Powell and Edward
Abbey, Brodie deftly weaves histories and tales from canyon aficionados
into his own story. Over time he comes to realize that home is not
always a place on a map but instead is deeply defined by the people we
encounter, including those who finally call us to move on.
Steel on Stone is a love letter to the Grand Canyon and those who
have given years of their lives to work its trails so that we may
understand and enjoy it today as the transformative landscape we seek.
