Hawks Rest

"Among the many pleasures of re–reading Gary Ferguson's Hawks Rest, is finding the prose even more accomplished than remembered, the wit more agile, the observations more revelatory, its stance in the world proved once again so precisely wise. Hawks Rest is a book I will return to again and again."
— MARK SPRAGG, author of Where Rivers Change Direction and An Unfinished Life


"Gary Ferguson is one of the preeminent historians of the American West, and of the place and value of wilderness within that history. Hawk's Rest is an intense journal of the politics and ecology of one of America's wildest cores, in Yellowstone National Park. In many ways, this book is an important portrait of one of the foundations of our country's democracy, and of the struggles to hold on to that idea."
— RICK BASS, author of All the Land to Hold Us

" Hawks Rest is a long step toward a user's guide to wilderness, and a reverential and beautifully said hymn to the wild."
— TIM CAHILL, author of Hold the Enlightenment and Jaguars Ripped My Flesh


"A lyrical and often tough–minded evocation of a summer spent in the Yellowstone backcountry, a place that is, unexpectedly, full of larger-than-life characters, some of whom are admirable and some of whom are not.”
— WILLIAM KITTREDGE, author of Hole in the Sky and The Nature of Generosity

"Dazzling…an Edward Abbey–esque book, full of snappy vignettes and chiseled writing."
— SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

"A sharp and ironic sense of what it's like to live in the American outback, twenty–first–century style."
— NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE


"A well-written work…if you love Yellowstone, a great treat."
— DESERET NEWS


"Ferguson evoke(s) feelings of solitude, timelessness and aching beauty in the smallest details…"
— THE OREGONIAN


"Mournful and defiant as a wolf howl…an eloquent tribute to a threatened place and its lone protectors."
— LOS ANGELES TIMES


Hawks Rest brings the wonder, politics, and wildness of one of America’s most vast and popular national parks to readers everywhere. With a new introduction by the author, this edition offers fresh insight into the condition of parks nationwide, while reintroducing readers to Ferguson's timeless tales and unique wisdom.


Gary Ferguson is the author of twenty–two books including Through the Woods and, most recently, The Carry Home. He lives with his wife, Mary, in Montana's Beartooth Mountains, and in Portland, Oregon.