Zen of the plains
Subtitle: experiencing wild Western places
By: Tyra A. Olstad
Series: Number 2 in the Southwestern nature writing series
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Denton, Texas
Language: eng
Number of pages: 269
ISBN-13: 9781574415520; 9781574415629
Copyright date: 2014
Subjects: Wilderness areas; Philosophy; Pictorial works; Plains; Grasslands; Natural history; Zen Buddhism
Description: Book explores the spiritual and aesthetic values of places such as Painted Desert, the Red Desert of Wyoming, and Kansas grasslands. Author also discusses Alaska, the Badlands, Petrified Forest, Arizona, etc.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 255-266) and index.
Table of contents: title: Prologue: Flyover country; Scottsbluff, NE; title: Shortgrass - semi-desert shrub-steppe. Terra incognita: Petrified Forest National Park, AZ; title: Can't get lost: Painted Desert Wilderness Area, AZ; title: Blank: Painted Desert; title: Wilderness Area, AZ; title: Interim: Highway 36; Northwestern KS; title: Slow down!; Petrified Forest National Park, AZ; title: Rhythms, cycles, spirals; Petrified Forest National Park, AZ. Part I: Sun-Sitting ; Part II: A Day; title: Interim: Sense of place; The Red Desert, WY; title: The quest; Pilot Rock, Painted Desert Wilderness Area, AZ; title: Interim: Dream of place; Laramie, Wyoming and the Painted Desert, AZ; title: Beauty and desire, beauty and despair; Petrified Forest National Park, AZ; title: Mixedgrass. Wonderlands; Badlands National Park, SD; title: National Grasslands; Buffalo Gap and Comanche Nat'l Grasslands, SD and CO; title: Animal encounters; Badlands National Park, SD. Part I: The theory of birds ; Part II: Rewilding; title: Interim: Medora to Marmarth (with some dinosaur statues in between); SD, ND, MT, and WY; title: Interpretation and inspiration; Badlands National Park, SD; title: Tallgrass. Experiment and experience, Or, How I tried to like a prairie; Konza Prairie Preserve, KS; title: Interim: In which I discover an island and fall in love with a forest; Tongass Nat'l Forest, AK; title: Conversations with Konza; Konza Prairie Preserve, KS; title: Shortgrass / Semi-desert shrub-steppe. The return to the plains; Fossil Butte National Monument, WY; title: Interim: The mapmaker's discipline; Fossil Butte, WY and Petrified Forest, AZ; title: Winter; Fossil Butte National Monument, WY; title: Conclusion: A brief meditation on expectations and emptiness.