Colorado Parks & Wildlife Research Library

25 illustrations in full color from a 14th century manuscript

The Cruise of the Snark (1911) is a work of travel literature by American writer Jack London. In 1906, after achieving early success as an author of novels and short stories, London began dreaming of the adventures of his youth. Inspired, he spent a fortune to build a 45-foot yacht complete with two sails and a 70-horsepower engine, powerful enough to carry him across the Pacific. Envisioning a seven-year journey, London and his wife Charmian set...

This sweeping biography is the story of early America--its ideals, its promise, its romance, and its destiny. Novelist Morgan transforms a mythic American hero--a legend in his own time--into a flesh-and-blood man, the man who was the largest spirit of his time. Hunter, explorer, settler, visionary, he was a trailblazer and a revolutionary--an American icon for more than two hundred years. Born in 1734, Boone served in the Virginia legislature, participated...

"Oceanographer and marine biologist Robert D. Ballard looks back on a long and storied life that includes accomplishments ranging from discovering new life-forms to finding the wreck of the Titanic"--

"Now in a handsome and newly revised hardcover edition: the extraordinary travelogue that has enthralled readers for more than seven centuries. Marco Polo's vivid descriptions of the splendid cities and people he encountered on his journey along the Silk Road through the Middle East, South Asia, and China opened a window for his Western readers onto the fascinations of the East and continued to grow in popularity over the succeeding centuries. To...

"In a series of adventures that takes the reader from Bolivia to the Alps, from Colorado to Spain, Simpson explores the enchantment of rock and ice and the forces that drive him to climb in the face of extreme risk. An attempt on the hooded, mile-high north face of the Eiger is meant to cap his career, but this final adventure would itself be touched by tragedy..."--p. [4] of cover.

Kim Stanley Robinson first ventured into the Sierra Nevada mountains during the summer of 1973. He returned from that encounter a changed man, awed by a landscape that made him feel as if he were simultaneously strolling through an art museum and scrambling on a jungle gym like an energized child. He has returned to the mountains throughout his life—more than a hundred trips—and has gathered a vast store of knowledge about them. The High Sierra...

A memoir from one of only a handful of women to have completed both the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod. In 2009, after a crippling divorce that left her heartbroken and directionless, Kristin decided to accept an offer to live at a friend's cabin outside of Denali National Park in Alaska for a few months. In exchange for housing, she would take care of her friend's eight sled dogs. That winter, she learned that she was tougher than she ever knew. She...

"From prominent outdoorsman and nature writer Mark Kenyon comes an engrossing reflection on the past and future battles over our most revered landscapes--America's public lands. Every American is a public-land owner, inheritor to the largest public-land trust in the world. These vast expanses provide a home to wildlife populations, a vital source of clean air and water, and a haven for recreation. Since its inception, however, America's public land...

Featuring inspiring tales from his many adventures around the world, the author shares the hard-earned lessons he has learned from some of the harshest environments on earth.