The book also touches on tragedy. A collision of two aircraft once closed the area Butchart wanted to explore for about one year. He also lost a friend, Boyd Moore, to drowning in the Colorado River when their stunt of trying to cross the water on flimsy air mattresses (without wearing life preservers and during high spring runoff season) turned deadly. His body was never found, and Butchart temporarily abandoned the canyon and air mattresses as a result. That story alone is worth the price of the book.

Butchart's wife, Roma, and her many nights and days of being alone during her husband's long and frequent treks are also explored in detail. Anyone who has left a spouse behind for some intense hobby can relate to that aspect of this book.

It was also somewhat amusing that Butchart would bury his empty soup cans in the canyon, though more environmentally aware friends would sometimes dig them up and properly dispose of them.

Some of his and his wife's ashes were spread in the inner canyon. Others were buried atop Wotan's Throne, a mesa. Butchart Fault is one part of the Grand Canyon officially named in his honor.

Having my own lesser grand obsession with the Grand Canyon, Butchart was a man I wish I could have met. By proxy, this book is the next best avenue to knowing him now.

By no means sedentary authors, the book's two writers (both Flagstaff residents) also personally trekked into the Grand Canyon and used some of Butchart's guide books to relive some of his adventures. They wove some of that into their book. Their firsthand knowledge of Butchart's roaming grounds adds insight and flavor to the book.

Of all the Grand Canyon books out there, this one stands alone as a classic work showcasing man and nature at their best.

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E-mail: lynn@desnews.com