Lost in My Own Backyard, Tim Cahill
Lost in My Own Backyard, Tim Cahill
4 Rating(s)
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Lost in My Own Backyard
A Walk in Yellowstone National Park

Author: Tim Cahill

Narrator: Michael Prichard

Unabridged: 2 hr 53 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/05/2004


Synopsis

“Let’s get lost together . . . ”

Lost in My Own Backyard brings acclaimed author Tim Cahill together with one of his—and America’s—favorite destinations: Yellowstone, the world’s first national park. Cahill has been “puttering around in the park” for a quarter of a century, slowly covering its vast scope and exploring its remote backwoods. So does this mean that he knows what he’s doing? Hardly. “I live fifty miles from the park,” says Cahill, “but proximity does not guarantee competence. I’ve spent entire afternoons not knowing exactly where I was, which is to say, I was lost in my own backyard.”

Cahill stumbles from glacier to geyser, encounters wildlife (some of it, like bisons, weighing in the neighborhood of a ton), muses on the microbiology of thermal pools, gets spooked in the mysterious Hoodoos, sees moonbows arcing across waterfalls at midnight, and generally has a fine old time walking several hundred miles while contemplating the concept and value of wilderness. Mostly, Cahill says, “I have resisted the urge to commit philosophy. This is difficult to do when you’re alone, twenty miles from the nearest road, and you’ve just found a grizzly bear track the size of a pizza.”

Divided into three parts—“The Trails,” which offers a variety of favorite day hikes; “In the Backcountry,” which explores three great backcountry trails very much off the beaten track; and “A Selected Yellowstone Bookshelf,” an annotated bibliography of his favorite books on the park—this is a hilarious, informative, and perfect guide for Yellowstone veterans and first-timers alike. Lost in My Own Backyard is adventure writing at its very best.

About The Author

Tim Cahill is the author of nine books, including A Wolverine Is Eating My Leg, Jaguars Ripped My Flesh, and Pass the Butterworms. He is an editor at large for Outside magazine, and his work appears in National Geographic Adventure, The New York Times Book Review, and other national publications. He lives in Montana.Michael Prichard has played several thousand characters during his career. While he has been seen performing over a hundred of them in theater and film, SmartMoney magazine named him one of the Top Ten Golden Voices.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Will on February 10, 2021

Crown journeys is a series of fourteen books that match well known writers with places they know a little something about. The authors have to do their sightseeing on foot, but I presume they can do their writing any way they please. Cahill is a successful travel writer who lives in a small town jus......more

Goodreads review by Scott on February 13, 2011

If Yellowstone were a movie, this book would be the trailer. Cahill provides trail anecdotes, wildlife anecdotes, historical context and natural history. Refreshingly, he focuses upon areas where the average tourist would not go to or would not have time to go and visit. But its kind of short. Its t......more

Goodreads review by Vanessa on June 13, 2016

Short travelogue-type book that was fun to read in preparation for a weeklong camping trip in Yellowstone National Park.......more

Goodreads review by Kenneth on May 25, 2024

This book is an informative and entertaining primer for anyone who is preparing a journey into Yellowstone. The Park has been called "America's Backyard" and in a sense, it is Cahill's back yard since he only lives 50 miles away in Montana. He is a founding editor of Outside magazine and currently se......more

Goodreads review by Scott on February 18, 2020

Brought back some memories of my visit to Yellowstone. want to visit it again......more