Mighty Colorado River: From the Glaciers to the Gulf

Here is your chance to take a trip down one of the world’s great rivers from its first trickle to its broad delta. Remarkable photographs show the West’s natural wonders, tracing the Colorado River and its major tributary, the Green River, from beginning to end. The rivers flow through many habitats from treeless tundra to coastal desert, encompassing millions of years of geological history. On their way to the sea, the Colorado and the Green bend through more than a dozen national parks, monuments, wildlife refuges, and recreation areas, and nourish wildlife from majestic moose to fifty-pound trout to tiny lizards. Enjoy descriptions of river communities and some of the best fishing holes and recreation areas along the way, as well as facts about glaciers, dinosaurs, miners, and mountain men. Ride along (staying dry all the way) through the vast Colorado River Basin, which covers more land area than Spain and Portugal combined, and of course through the unforgettable colors and vistas of the grandest canyon on earth.

Arizona Historical Society’s beloved historian, Jim Turner, has worked with more than seventy local history museums. He co-authored the 4th-grade textbook The Arizona Story, and his pictorial history, Arizona: Celebration of the Grand Canyon State, was a 2012 Southwest Books of the Year selection. Turner moved to Tucson in 1951, earned an MA in U.S. history in 1999, and has been teaching Arizona history for 47 years. His numerous books include: The Mighty Colorado from the Glaciers to the Gulf (2016), Four Corners USA: Wonders of the American Southwest (2018), and Arizona: A History of the Grand Canyon State (2021).