About this book
John Muir's *Steep Trails* captures the visionary naturalist's most thrilling wilderness adventures across the American West, collected in this posthumous volume of essays and travel writing. Originally published in 1918, these previously unpublished pieces span nearly three decades of Muir's explorations, from his harrowing night atop Mount Shasta's snow-covered summit to his observations of vanishing Nevada ghost towns and Native American pine nut harvests. Written as letters and dispatches from the field, Muir's prose preserves the raw immediacy of his first encounters with California's Sierra Nevada, the Utah and Nevada territories, the Columbia River gorge, and the Grand Canyon.
This collection represents a vanishing world—the "boundless forest wildernesses" that fire, axe, and development would soon consume. Muir writes with scientific precision and poetic reverence, documenting landscapes and ecosystems that exist now primarily through his descriptions. His essays on wild wool, mountaineering, and Western settlement reveal a passionate advocate for wilderness preservation ahead of his time.
*Steep Trails* is essential listening for nature lovers, environmental history enthusiasts, and anyone captivated by classic travel narratives and personal essays. Muir's lyrical voice and urgent message about protecting America's natural heritage resonate powerfully today, making this memoir a timeless invitation to experience the majesty of the untamed West through one of history's greatest nature writers.
