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Path of Light: A Walk Through Colliding Legacies of Glen Canyon
Explorer Morgan Sjogren retraces the 1920s Bernheimer expeditions into the heart of Glen Canyon and Bears Ears National Monument to learn from and defend these uniquely wild places.
Path of Light treks back through time as author and explorer Morgan Sjogren retraces the 1920s expeditions led by Charles L. Bernheimer into the heart of Glen Canyon and Bears Ears National Monument. Using journals and photographs from the expeditions to recreate these historic routes, Sjogren encounters powerful perspectives and stories about land management and human rights issues that carry forth into the present. Mindful of the pervasive effects of colonization and motivated by a deeply personal care for the land, Sjogren asks what it means to be an explorer while learning from the people who have loved the land for millennia and moments.
Path of Light walks towards an illuminated understanding of the landscape and its history in an effort to help preserve it for the future.
Path of Light treks back through time as author and explorer Morgan Sjogren retraces the 1920s expeditions led by Charles L. Bernheimer into the heart of Glen Canyon and Bears Ears National Monument. Using journals and photographs from the expeditions to recreate these historic routes, Sjogren encounters powerful perspectives and stories about land management and human rights issues that carry forth into the present. Mindful of the pervasive effects of colonization and motivated by a deeply personal care for the land, Sjogren asks what it means to be an explorer while learning from the people who have loved the land for millennia and moments.
Path of Light walks towards an illuminated understanding of the landscape and its history in an effort to help preserve it for the future.
- GenresOutdoorsNonfiction
329 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 25, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 6, 2023
Are you beguiled by Bears Ears? Are you desperate for time in the desert? Are you enraptured by hiking and camping in extreme conditions, eager to hike with 25 pounds of water strapped to your back so you don’t die of thirst?
If so, you live in a great spot here in southwest Colorado because you have all the variety of activities available in Cortez and surrounding communities and in just a few hours’ drive you can ramble down a remote Utah canyon and disappear for days, grappling with any harsh condition you want to conjure.
If you’re desert curious or canyon fascinated, but not so interested in sweat and toil, you could do a lot worse than grab a copy of Path of Light: A Walk Through Colliding Legacies of Glen Canyon by Morgan Sjogren (Torrey House Press) and settle into your favorite comfy recliner for an armchair tour.
Sjogren, a self-described nomad who is known to live out of her truck on the Colorado Plateau, is a longtime writer, explorer, and long-distance runner. Path of Light is shaped by an interesting premise—to retrace the 1929 expedition led by Charles L. Bernheimer into the heart of Glen Canyon and Bears Ears National Monument (when water in the canyon ran unencumbered by manmade dams and when there was no federal protection via the “monument” designation). The route encompassed over 300 miles.
Interweaving history with her travelogues and observations, Sjogren writes with passion about her sojourns, ever aware of all those who preceded her footsteps and explorations. The phrase “path of light” is from Wolfkiller: Wisdom from a Nineteenth-Century Navajo Shepherd, by a Diné elder. “The path of light is always running beside us on either side, but we cannot see it for the darkness in our hearts. Now we have decided to have some ceremonies and pray for our minds to turn into the path of light … You must always think that the next year of your life will be more happy and peaceful than the year before, and must try to make it come true.”
Well, Sjogren knows what she wants—and that is maximum time in the desert, whether alone or with the occasional romantic partner, historian, experienced archaeologist, or fellow desert rat. Winter or summer, it’s hard to imagine anyone more eager to scale steep remote mesas or simply absorb the infinite number of desert nooks and crannies.
She is never far from thoughts about her role and all those who have come before, often skeptical about her rationale.
“I question our motives to climb No Name Mesa. It was satisfying to confirm the presence of human marks here, but we are not archaeologists trained to use that information. In the big picture, seeing the top has no more benefit to the world than climbing a remote peak. We climbed, we left our footprints, and we left. Why have I been so obsessed with doing this all year? What do we gain and do we do with this experience? How does it benefit anyone else or the land itself? I suppose contemplating the purpose of our presence is a piece of the puzzle.”
Sjogren takes great pains to honor all the centuries of Indigenous people who came before European settlers. She contemplates the legacy of Lake Powell. She ruminates on the pros and cons of social media enticing hordes to key spots. Sjogren celebrates that Bears Ears National Monument “is now leading the way for integrating Indigenous values and leadership into federal land management and the protection of cultural sites.” She scours potholes for fresh water, shimmies through tight holes in the rock, and makes it clear that the number of outback canyons devoid of humanity far outnumber the stunning arches and rock formations that draw the crowds.
Sjogren doesn’t see herself as a “solitary vagabond” and often teams up with others to complete various sections of the overall trek. Boyfriends come and go. Sjogren provides scant details on access points and locations. Recreating Bernheimer’s trek goes in and out of focus—and that’s okay.
The writing ranges from straightforward to flat-out gorgeous:
“The monotonous horizon line is punctuated by cairns, rusty metal scraps, and mining equipment strewn intermittently along the slick rock. This isn’t trash—It’s the Gretchen Bar Trail, once a mining thoroughfare during the Glen Canyon gold rush. The trail’s destination, a gravel beach, once offered a welcome respite for prospectors, complete with a stone house, fruit trees, and a piped spring. Today the only traffic is a grey-colored curlew strutting around on live stilts and using its long thin beak like chopsticks to pick snacks up off the ground.”
Read Path of Light and open yourself to a trek through a landscape that requires “immense self-reliance.”
If so, you live in a great spot here in southwest Colorado because you have all the variety of activities available in Cortez and surrounding communities and in just a few hours’ drive you can ramble down a remote Utah canyon and disappear for days, grappling with any harsh condition you want to conjure.
If you’re desert curious or canyon fascinated, but not so interested in sweat and toil, you could do a lot worse than grab a copy of Path of Light: A Walk Through Colliding Legacies of Glen Canyon by Morgan Sjogren (Torrey House Press) and settle into your favorite comfy recliner for an armchair tour.
Sjogren, a self-described nomad who is known to live out of her truck on the Colorado Plateau, is a longtime writer, explorer, and long-distance runner. Path of Light is shaped by an interesting premise—to retrace the 1929 expedition led by Charles L. Bernheimer into the heart of Glen Canyon and Bears Ears National Monument (when water in the canyon ran unencumbered by manmade dams and when there was no federal protection via the “monument” designation). The route encompassed over 300 miles.
Interweaving history with her travelogues and observations, Sjogren writes with passion about her sojourns, ever aware of all those who preceded her footsteps and explorations. The phrase “path of light” is from Wolfkiller: Wisdom from a Nineteenth-Century Navajo Shepherd, by a Diné elder. “The path of light is always running beside us on either side, but we cannot see it for the darkness in our hearts. Now we have decided to have some ceremonies and pray for our minds to turn into the path of light … You must always think that the next year of your life will be more happy and peaceful than the year before, and must try to make it come true.”
Well, Sjogren knows what she wants—and that is maximum time in the desert, whether alone or with the occasional romantic partner, historian, experienced archaeologist, or fellow desert rat. Winter or summer, it’s hard to imagine anyone more eager to scale steep remote mesas or simply absorb the infinite number of desert nooks and crannies.
She is never far from thoughts about her role and all those who have come before, often skeptical about her rationale.
“I question our motives to climb No Name Mesa. It was satisfying to confirm the presence of human marks here, but we are not archaeologists trained to use that information. In the big picture, seeing the top has no more benefit to the world than climbing a remote peak. We climbed, we left our footprints, and we left. Why have I been so obsessed with doing this all year? What do we gain and do we do with this experience? How does it benefit anyone else or the land itself? I suppose contemplating the purpose of our presence is a piece of the puzzle.”
Sjogren takes great pains to honor all the centuries of Indigenous people who came before European settlers. She contemplates the legacy of Lake Powell. She ruminates on the pros and cons of social media enticing hordes to key spots. Sjogren celebrates that Bears Ears National Monument “is now leading the way for integrating Indigenous values and leadership into federal land management and the protection of cultural sites.” She scours potholes for fresh water, shimmies through tight holes in the rock, and makes it clear that the number of outback canyons devoid of humanity far outnumber the stunning arches and rock formations that draw the crowds.
Sjogren doesn’t see herself as a “solitary vagabond” and often teams up with others to complete various sections of the overall trek. Boyfriends come and go. Sjogren provides scant details on access points and locations. Recreating Bernheimer’s trek goes in and out of focus—and that’s okay.
The writing ranges from straightforward to flat-out gorgeous:
“The monotonous horizon line is punctuated by cairns, rusty metal scraps, and mining equipment strewn intermittently along the slick rock. This isn’t trash—It’s the Gretchen Bar Trail, once a mining thoroughfare during the Glen Canyon gold rush. The trail’s destination, a gravel beach, once offered a welcome respite for prospectors, complete with a stone house, fruit trees, and a piped spring. Today the only traffic is a grey-colored curlew strutting around on live stilts and using its long thin beak like chopsticks to pick snacks up off the ground.”
Read Path of Light and open yourself to a trek through a landscape that requires “immense self-reliance.”
June 6, 2023
This book was the best entry point for me in beginning to read and understand and explore the desert southwest. Sjogren's attention to both the exciting developments in archaeology in the Glen Canyon area as well as the violence caused to indigenous peoples in the name of colonialist exploration is an invitation to further study and reading that I really appreciated.
May 8, 2023
This book is filled with people I know and places I love. It’s clear in Morgan’s writing that our desert southwest is a sacred place worth protecting.
November 26, 2023
A great read about the Bears Ears Area from someone who truly loves it. Including the specific history of one of its early explorers, general history from the same time period, current political situation, as well as the role of native Americans.
Two main complaints. The book was a bit repetitive. The layout of the chapters caused this, as it was chronological by her life over a few years, rather than necessarily by subject. The same basic premises were repeated when necessary in several chapters, even if they ended at different points.
The second was it was less about hiking than the back blurb seemed (to me) to advertise. It was more a reflection of history, nature and our place in it. Which is fine, just be aware of that if you pick up this book up. Since the blurb at the back that starts with describing how its about her re-tracing the steps of an early explorer, as if the book were a long dairy about just a single hike. When that was only a few chapters of the book. There was other hiking in the book, but not in the detailed lengthy way you might assume from that statement. Its more about the end part of the back blurb.
Though I feel I have to mention that while I agree with most of her points on conservation, the role of social media is defended a lot at one point. I cannot agree that geo-tagging of specific locations is alright in almost any circumstances. Or that instagram hasn't had a negative affect on wilderness by increasing visitation. The main problem with these platforms is the same as the main problem with physical ease of access. As the author points out herself in two places in the book - studies have shows that if you can get to a cultural site/natural site easily by motor boat or by road/OAV then it directly correlates to increased looting (for cultural sites) and other damage. The same is true of the planning ease of access that is true of physical ease of access. When instagram has many gorgeous pictures geotagged of exact locations, then you add in AllTrails and GPX tracks directly pointing you to that location you want to see and get your own photo of - you have ease of planning access. That decreases appreciation for nature and respect for nature and therefore causes damage/looting/littering. If you have to take time figure out where a location you saw a photo of is in a general area, to read a guidebook route description, and plot a route by map - then you have spent more mental planning effort and will respect that place more. Just like the longer you have to hike somewhere the more you respect that place. The more time spent planning leads to the same increased respect. Instagram by itself isn't necessarily the problem, its it in combination with AllTrails and other crowd sourced GPX data bases (which the author doesn't mention).
Though again, I agree with almost all of what she said about conservation, and that we should use instagram and other social media outlets to educate people instead of shaming etc. As well that guidebooks help areas, by increasing respectful visitation. That we need more land management resources/funds for these large National Monuments, and that NPS pushing excess visitors towards these areas were there are few public resources/regulations is problematic. In the end its always true that the more you love a place the more you respect it and want to preserve it, so the more people learn about these places and their history the better.
I'm so very grateful the author is out there writing letters, educating people, following legal cases, writing guidebooks, and fighting the good fight in other ways to protect these areas. We need more people out there doing this. The wilderness tithe idea is fantastic. I'm going to donate to at least one of these causes now.
Two main complaints. The book was a bit repetitive. The layout of the chapters caused this, as it was chronological by her life over a few years, rather than necessarily by subject. The same basic premises were repeated when necessary in several chapters, even if they ended at different points.
The second was it was less about hiking than the back blurb seemed (to me) to advertise. It was more a reflection of history, nature and our place in it. Which is fine, just be aware of that if you pick up this book up. Since the blurb at the back that starts with describing how its about her re-tracing the steps of an early explorer, as if the book were a long dairy about just a single hike. When that was only a few chapters of the book. There was other hiking in the book, but not in the detailed lengthy way you might assume from that statement. Its more about the end part of the back blurb.
Though I feel I have to mention that while I agree with most of her points on conservation, the role of social media is defended a lot at one point. I cannot agree that geo-tagging of specific locations is alright in almost any circumstances. Or that instagram hasn't had a negative affect on wilderness by increasing visitation. The main problem with these platforms is the same as the main problem with physical ease of access. As the author points out herself in two places in the book - studies have shows that if you can get to a cultural site/natural site easily by motor boat or by road/OAV then it directly correlates to increased looting (for cultural sites) and other damage. The same is true of the planning ease of access that is true of physical ease of access. When instagram has many gorgeous pictures geotagged of exact locations, then you add in AllTrails and GPX tracks directly pointing you to that location you want to see and get your own photo of - you have ease of planning access. That decreases appreciation for nature and respect for nature and therefore causes damage/looting/littering. If you have to take time figure out where a location you saw a photo of is in a general area, to read a guidebook route description, and plot a route by map - then you have spent more mental planning effort and will respect that place more. Just like the longer you have to hike somewhere the more you respect that place. The more time spent planning leads to the same increased respect. Instagram by itself isn't necessarily the problem, its it in combination with AllTrails and other crowd sourced GPX data bases (which the author doesn't mention).
Though again, I agree with almost all of what she said about conservation, and that we should use instagram and other social media outlets to educate people instead of shaming etc. As well that guidebooks help areas, by increasing respectful visitation. That we need more land management resources/funds for these large National Monuments, and that NPS pushing excess visitors towards these areas were there are few public resources/regulations is problematic. In the end its always true that the more you love a place the more you respect it and want to preserve it, so the more people learn about these places and their history the better.
I'm so very grateful the author is out there writing letters, educating people, following legal cases, writing guidebooks, and fighting the good fight in other ways to protect these areas. We need more people out there doing this. The wilderness tithe idea is fantastic. I'm going to donate to at least one of these causes now.
June 23, 2023
Mo’s book is a love letter to the desert, to Rainbow Bridge, Navajo Mountain, and Bears Ears. To Charles Bernheimer and friends, past and present. To herself and all her readers. To land and air and water. To life.
In her struggles to follow parts of Bernheimer’s expeditions of 100 years ago, she thrives in the hardships that add value to her experiences. And she uses this struggle to work through the bureaucratic issues facing the protection and preservation of the wild lands she treasures as well as the personal issues facing her own preservation.
It is an intense journey. It is an informative, introspective, and important piece of work given the issues facing our environment, our culture, our values, and our survival. We all need a home and this one planet of soul dust is the only one we have. We need to love it and to save it from ourselves. The Path of Light can be the way.
In her struggles to follow parts of Bernheimer’s expeditions of 100 years ago, she thrives in the hardships that add value to her experiences. And she uses this struggle to work through the bureaucratic issues facing the protection and preservation of the wild lands she treasures as well as the personal issues facing her own preservation.
It is an intense journey. It is an informative, introspective, and important piece of work given the issues facing our environment, our culture, our values, and our survival. We all need a home and this one planet of soul dust is the only one we have. We need to love it and to save it from ourselves. The Path of Light can be the way.
June 30, 2023
Morgan Sjogren's PATH OF LIGHT is an exploration of the past, present, and future of Glen Canyon and Bears Ears by someone who intimately knows the desert's beauties and dangers. The story follows Sjogren as she retraces the steps of the 1920s Bernheimer expeditions, seeking a deeper of understanding of how to live ethically in this place. She weaves together thoughtful threads about colonialism, water, the myths and pitfalls in the idea of wilderness, and the ethical questions raised by social media. But the book's heart is an adventure story and what it means to find the place where one's soul needs to be.
February 15, 2025
Sjogren made me feel like I was in the various NPS lands of Southern Utah. I need to spend more time in this part of the country. This book was written pre- second Trump presidency. It makes me sad to see some of the optimism never fulfilled. But it also inspires me to help fight for these public lands. This book is like a modern day Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey. But less toxic masculinity, less white supremacy themes, and tackling the “untamed wilderness” myth of the west, really making sure to acknowledge Native Americans and their contributions to Western History. One of the best book I’ve read so far this year
October 25, 2025
I love how the author conveys her love for the desert. There are some nice nuggets of wisdom in this book about how we all can live a more harmonious life with more connection to nature. Overall I enjoyed it.
However I think it was more like a collection of essays than a novel with a well developed plot. Still enjoyable reading, as long as you aren’t seeking a more structured story. The book wanders through the desert, just as the author does 🙂.
However I think it was more like a collection of essays than a novel with a well developed plot. Still enjoyable reading, as long as you aren’t seeking a more structured story. The book wanders through the desert, just as the author does 🙂.
November 11, 2023
A beautiful balance of history, self reflection, consideration of how to respectfully move through and honor the landscape and the legacy of the southwest, adventure. It isn’t often that I put a book down at the end of the night with only one chapter left because I don’t want it to end.
September 5, 2025
A journey of healing and discovery that Sjogren risks her life to complete. Her courage and insights are especially appreciated given her commitment to the land, recognizing historical wrongs, and forgoing comfort for a powerful personal transformation.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews