Reading John McPhee

I read my first John McPhee today: Basin and Range.  While flying over said region, in fact.

Now I feel like a fool for not having read his entire oeuvre already.

This book includes a sentence I had heard attributed to McPhee – the sort of breathtaking fact that sums up the magnificence of the story he’s telling:

If by some fiat I had to restrict all this writing to one sentence, this is the one I would choose:  The summit of Mt. Everest is marine limestone.

Think on that for a minute. Then read this short but thorough book and think about the wonders of nature in a new way. So much great information, so beautifully told.  His sense of awe comes through and fires mine up very nicely.
My wife hauled me out to Utah early in our relationship and in the process made an amateur geologist out of me. I stare in awe every time I fly over the Great Basin, and I treasure every mile I drive and walk when I’m down there in the Grand Staircase, the Escalante, the Grand Canyon; hiking out  to Lower Calf Creek Falls; crossing the San Rafael Swell on I-70 and looking back at the San Rafael Reef as I head for my friends’ house in Castle Valley. or soaking in a mountainside tub at Mystic Hot Springs. The Four Corners region wears the history of life on earth bare-chested in summer and winter; I’ll never grow tired of exploring its wonders, listening for its song, meeting its characters.