David Williams spent nine years in Moab, working as a ranger at Arches and teaching for the Canyonlands Field Institute, and this is the field guide that came out of it, illustrated in line drawings by Gloria Brown. It covers the northern Colorado Plateau, eastern Utah and western Colorado with pieces of Arizona and New Mexico, an area holding nine national parks and monuments. More than 270 plants and animals are keyed out, from prickly pear against claret cup to striped against spotted skunk tracks, along with the birds, reptiles, insects, and the cryptobiotic crust underfoot. A geology section runs alongside, explaining how uplift and erosion cut the fins at Arches and the spires in the Needles. It is sized to carry, and it was published with the Canyonlands Natural History Association.