Press - Downcanyon Downcanyon A Naturalist Explores the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon Ann Haymond Zwinger. Zwinger's skills as a naturalist are matched by her lush, poetic prose style. This extraordinary book places Zwinger squarely among the best of today's nature writers.
Every writer comes to the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon with a unique point of view.
In all seasons and all weathers, in almost every kind of craft that goes down the waves, she returned to the Grand Canyon again and again to explore, look, and listen. Zwinger's book begins with a bald eagle count at Nankoweap Creek in January and ends with a subzero, snowy walk out of the canyon at winter solstice. Between are the delights of spring in side canyons, the benediction of rain on a summer beach, and the chill that comes off limestone walls in November. Hiking in narrow canyons, she finds cliff dwellings and broken pottery of prehistoric Indians. Rounding a bend or running a rapid, she remembers the triumphs and tragedies of early explorers and pioneers.