12. House of Rain

Craig Childs. 2007.

​ In 1996, I explored the Green River from Moab, Utah, to its confluence with the Colorado River in a canoe with my soon to be husband for 16 days.  This was before cell phones and we were completely off the grid.  Our camera and water filters broke, which caused us to get sick, but it was still just an absolutely fabulous trip.  After a few days, we didn't need the guidebook to find the ruins, petroglyphs, or water springs.  We felt connected to the earth and the people who used to live there in exactly the way that you hope to on a wilderness adventure like that.  I would have loved to have been reading this book on that trip.  I think the author took a similar trip in which he imaged what it must have been like to live in Chaco, Mesa Vera, or the Canyonlands where we were.  The difference is that while we spent two weeks reading the guidebooks and exploring on our own for days, he spent years doing it and gaining access to experts and to locations that are generally not accessible to the public.  I am not sure how I feel about that, though.  There was something that felt off about how he was doing his research and exploring that made me question our experience and whether I was appropriately reverent of those locations at the time.  There was so much information in this book, woven in with his personal travel stories and narratives about how he was able to find and access human remains, artifacts, and sacred locations. Some of the time, I related to his quest, having had that amazing trip myself, but there were points when it felt to me that he crossed a line.  Not being trained in anthropology and not being indigenous, I don't know where that feeling comes from and I wasn't able to find an analysis online that resonated with this sense that I got.  If you are doing a trip to these locations, I think it would be an interesting book to read while there since I have long thought that when in Rome, you should read about Rome, but otherwise, I would skip it. 
Not recommended

---