William Stanek's New Mexico & the Ancient Southwest
A Literary Field Guide to New Mexico & the Ancient Southwest National Parks & Scenic Sites

New Mexico carries several landscapes at once: desert, mountain, volcanic ground, river, basin, cave, ruin, living homeland, and immense sky. William Stanek's New Mexico & the Ancient Southwest is built around the relationships among those worlds-and around the responsibility required when beautiful landscapes are also places of enduring cultural meaning. This is not a tour of "ancient mysteries." It is a regional field guide to geology, elevation, long roads, desert weather, public landscapes, continuing communities, human history, and the difficult distinction between what a visitor can see and what a visitor is entitled to interpret. The journey moves through very different physical and cultural scales, making selection essential. For road travelers, walkers, families, couples, solo explorers, photographers, and readers drawn to the deeper American Southwest, this is a guide to traveling with curiosity while allowing some places to remain more than scenery.