Above Timberline: A Rocky Mountain Journal

by Dwight R. Smith

This is the fourth volume in The New Explorer Series, a project initiated by Alan Landsburg Productions of Los Angeles. The idea of the to immerse a biologist in a natural environment for an extended period, alone, far from any laboratory or highway. Each biologist was asked to observe his environment and the organisms sharing it with him, and to record those observations on tape at the end of each day. The goal of the to understand not only the creatures and rhythms of that natural place, but also the ties between those creatures and rhythms and the human life of the biologist himself. This fourth volume relates the experiences of Dr. Dwight Smith, a wildlife biologist at Colorado State University, who spend four and a half months just below the Continental Divide in Colorado's Rocky Mountains, living in an 85-year-old cabin that had been the center of a gold-mining operation. There he studied, ate, and kept his primitive house, alone except for occasional visitors. He came to know not only the hardy plants and animals of this region but also what it is like to live in such a high, cold, and windy place.

264 pages, Paperback

First published February 12, 1981

Reviews

[Kylene Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book though not entirely what I expected. It is his journal of several months of living in the cabin but there is a lot of outside contact and many times he leaves to go into Buena Vista and other small towns in the valley. He was up there to track weahter, animals and plants in that climate. He did lots of video and photography and also much soul searching. It was a slow read but worth reading.

[Fboughner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting to read about conservation and environmental thoughts from 1980. Wished it was more gripping, however. Still, a good read for someone who either enjoys the area around Salida, or is interested in environmental history.

[Lee Belbin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful!