Cataract Canyon
A Human and Environmental History of the Rivers in Canyonlands

Robert H. Webb, Jayne Belnap, and John S. Weisheit

8˝ x 10, 268 pp.
125 illustrations, 2 maps
Paper $26.95
978-0-87480-782-0
Natural History

This ambitious book will enthrall armchair naturalists and river runners alike, offering a stunning tour through the natural, environmental, and human history of Cataract Canyon, a seventeen-mile run of free-flowing river above Lake Powell in the canyonlands of southern Utah. Setting the stage with preliminary chapters on geology, hydrology, prehistory,geography, biology, and river-running history the authors take the reader on a “downriver journey,” narrating an exploration of the river that is breathtaking in scope. From the plants and animals that live along its banks to the humans who seek out its rapids, from the wind and water that continue to shape the landscape to the government agencies that seek to control it, all of these become stories woven into the larger fabric of a beautiful, fragile, complex ecosystem where change—good or bad—is inevitable.

Robert H. Webb is a research advisor with the U.S. Geological Survey in Tucson, Arizona.
Jayne Belnap is a biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Moab, Utah.
John Weishiet is a senior river guide and co-founder of Colorado Plateau River Guides, which publishes the journal The Confluence.

Praises and Reviews
“Cataract Canyon is a book of scientific and emotional integrity. Consider it a passport for anyone entering this particular stretch of the Colorado River with their eyes wide open for a joyous pilgrimage.”
—Terry Tempest Williams, author of Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert