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313 reviews for:
The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon
Kevin Fedarko
4.34 AVERAGE
313 reviews for:
The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon
Kevin Fedarko
4.34 AVERAGE
A fascinating and compelling read, I couldn't put this book down. Kind of a cross between "Cadillac Desert" and "The Boys in the Boat".
Wow, this one was better than I expected. Such an interesting story, wrapped up in fascinating history about the Colorado river, Grand Canyon, Glen Canyon Dam, and more. Now I really want to go on a river trip.
Wonderful book. Great combination of Colorado river history, both exploration and exploitation, and drama centered around the 1983 run-off and associated attempt at a speed record for descent. Some of the descriptions of the complications of hydraulics, fluid dynamics, and chaotic turbulence is some of the best I've ever read.
adventurous
informative
slow-paced
An exhaustively researched, obsessively refined, hugely sprawling account of truly everything related to the Grand Canyon, from its geologic baby steps to the mapping of it by the Puebla people to the first documentation of it by a European in the 1500s, then the first run of it by an American, then the taming of it by the Glen Canyon dam (as well as the insane history of environmentalism and dams in the US in general) and then finally, the almost unbelievable story of the Emerald Mile and the three boatman who made it happen. This story makes you give such a shit about things you never thought you would care about- Vishnu schist on the bottom layer of the Grand Canyon, John Wesley Powell, the Colorado, the endless fight (and endless losses) to try to protect natural spaces in the US from damming, and even the way that the Southwest simply couldn’t exist without dams. This book examines the cruelty of Western expansion and capitalism without ever saying those two words on the page, which is, in essence, exactly what the Colorado River (and the Grand Canyon, for that extent) does: stands in opposition of many of the things America stands for by sheer existence alone. 4/5 stars only because this book was so impossibly dense that it took forever to get through, however, I don’t think I’ve ever read a more impressive or obsessive piece of writing about a single thing, and the massive bulk of history and precedent that exists around it.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
adventurous
emotional
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
This was alright. Some parts would have been better to skim over as it got pretty technical.