In 1957 writer and naturalist Edward Abbey spent a summer as a ranger in what is now Arches National Park. At the time, few people know about the place and even fewer visited, so Abby had long days to explore the stark emptiness of the desert. He turned that experience into his most famous book, Desert Solitare. These days, he wouldn’t find any solitare in any of Utah’s National Parks, Arches included. The deserts in between are another story. Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument For early explorers, south central Utah was a vast unknown. It was the last part of the continental United States to be mapped, and it contains the last river systems to be discovered. Roads were not built in most of this area until the 1930s, and some were
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