Review: The Emerald Mile by Kevin Fedarko
Today I am very excited to share what has become one of my new favorite books of all time, The Emerald Mile by Kevin Fedarko. The Emerald Mile is a New York Times bestseller and winner of the National Outdoor book Award.
The book opens at midnight, as three daring river guides slip a small wooden boat, the Emerald Mile, into the Colorado River amid the largest flood the river has ever seen since the construction of Glen Canyon dam.
From there the book skips back a few hundred years to one Spanish conquistador on horseback as he laid eyes on the Grand Canyon for the first time. As the author carries you, the reader, along through time in the Grand Canyon, you become immersed in stories of the people who settled and explored the river, and the wild and merciless torrents of the river itself that have torn apart boats, carved entirely new canyons, and purged ancient artifacts from the cliffs.
The heart of the book is the story of the 1983 flood that nearly broke Glen Canyon dam. The Bureau of Reclamation, National Park Service, and other federal agencies scrambled to control the catastrophe–retrieving drowned tourists, helicoptering people off of the water, constructing plywood barricades to keep Glen Canyon dam from overtopping, and literally praying that the spillways would not burst. Meanwhile, three rogue river guides, despite being banned from the river, decided to set the speed record through the canyon, and the last several chapters of the book follow their harrowing ride in the pitch black night through the largest rapids the Grand Canyon has ever seen. Their endeavor was certifiably insane, but fascinating and you can’t help but feel like you’re in the boat with them.
Not only is it a fascinating story, but it is some of the most beautiful writing I have ever come across. Kevin Fedarko truly is gifted and makes this story as real and vivid as if I had been living it.
Who Will Love This
- If you’re planning a trip to the Grand Canyon, you will love this because it will give you such a great history of the region and the culture around rafting excursions. You will be remiss to not read it.
- If you love the outdoors, you will be awed by the descriptions of the Canyon and inspired by the tales of river guides whose love of the outdoors rivals your own.
- If you like history, you’ll want to read this to hear about the way the Colorado river shaped the history of the West.
- If you love engineering, science or math, well, your hay day is in store. This book goes in depth about the mechanics of Glen Canyon dam, the hydraulics of the Colorado river, and the impact of the entire Colorado river watershed on the Lake Powell.
- If you like the West and the desert, you’ll love reading about what some would say is the most important landmark in the West.
By the end, you can’t help but feel a new appreciation for the Grand Canyon. You may also decide to never go rafting again. 🙂 But I’ll let you find out why.
This book will forever have a spot on the “top shelf” of my bookcase, as it was so powerful in the sophisticated writing, story line, and depth.
Tomorrow I will be giving a copy away, so stay tuned!
Photo credits for Grand Canyon shots: Prashant, @photogp2013
One Comment
Pingback: